The Lost Films of the Loew’s Theatre

With the inaugural Toronto Silent Film Festival currently underway, it’s safe to say that a healthy silent film renaissance is underway in Toronto the Good. The last year has been rife with various celebrations of silent celluloid: Nuit Blanche, Luminato, the Danforth Music Hall’s 90th anniversary, outdoor screenings during TIFF, the Cinematheque’s various offerings — not to mention the semi-monthly Silent Sundays retrospective I run at the Revue Cinema — have all contributed to an amazing revival of the genre. For the TSFF, whose programming varies from Buster Keaton’s Seven Chances (accompanied by Clark Wilson on Casa Loma’s roaring Wurlitzer!) to … Continue reading The Lost Films of the Loew’s Theatre

Classics From The Vault presents Joan Crawford in “Rain”

by Eric Veillette In its continuing efforts to offer specialty programming, Toronto’s Revue Cinema, NOW Magazine’s favourite rep cinema, presents Classics From The Vault, a new series featuring little-seen classics from the 1930s and 1940s. Screening Wednesday, Nov. 18 (7 p.m.) is director Lewis Milestone’s Rain (1932). Set in the South Pacific, it features rising star Joan Crawford as Sadie Thompson, a tough-talking, hard-drinking prostitute who spells certain destruction for a missionary (Walter Huston) seeking to redeem her soul. This was the second film adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s short story, the first being Sadie Thompson (1928), a silent starring … Continue reading Classics From The Vault presents Joan Crawford in “Rain”