The third Hippodrome Festival of Silent Cinema - which opened with contemporary crowd-pleaser The Artist on Wednesday, kicked off a weekend of classics last night with a gala performance of Gloria Swanson's 1925 romantic comedy Stage Struck.
While Swanson is probably most familiar to modern audiences as the bitter and washed-up star of Billie Wilder's Sunset Blvd, which is currently touring the UK courtesy of a restored Park Circus print, Stage Struck sees her at the other end of the spectrum - as put-upon waitress Jenny, who longs to become an actress in the hopes of impressing her would-be sweetheart, diner wheat-cake flipper Orme (Lawrence Gray).
The film is a feel-good mix of charm and sight gags, with early scenes in the crowded diner giving Swanson a chance to shine at slapstick, while the opening sequence - shot in two-strip technicolor - sees her mercilessly sending up her career as a screen goddess, as Jenny imagines what stardom and adoration must feel like. Silent film pianist Neil Brand was on hand to provide excellent live music as well as his usual informative and enthusiastic introduction.
The Hippodrome was packed for the occasion, with plenty of those in attendance gladly adopting the 'glad rags' dress code. Festival producer Shona Thompson and director Alison Strauss introduced the film and its accompanying short Letta's High Class Entertainers, Portobello (which you can view here, although without Forrester Pyke's excellent accompaniment).
Introducing the film, Strauss borrowed a line from Stage Struck's intertitles, dedicating the film to Hippodrome audiences "who add glamour to being".
The weekend is packed with excellent and rare films, including electronic ensemble Minima, who will perform their distinctive score for Japanese avant-garde classic Jujiro, a film that featured in the inaugural season of the Edinburgh Film Guild back in May 1931 and was one of the first Japanese films to be shown in the West.
The strong femme-centric theme of the weekend also continues, with screenings today (Saturday 16) of Ernst Lubitsch's saucy comedy The Oyster Princess, while tomorrow (Sunday 17), there's a chance to see Clarence Brown's rarely screened silent drama The Goose Woman, with the world premiere of a music commission by Jane Gardener. For full programme details and to book tickets, visit the official site.
