DENNIS JAMES BRINGS SILENT MOVIE
DOUBLE FEATURE TO COLEMAN THEATRE
MIAMI, Okla. – Dennis James will bring the “Mighty Wurlitzer” pipe organ to life for a double-feature silent movie presentation March 7 and 8 at the Coleman Theatre Beautiful in downtown Miami.
James will present a pair of one-hour silent movies from 1915 – “The Cheat” and “A Fool There Was” – that were considered scandalous, sex-themed features in their day, but are quite tame by modern standards. Both films will be shown at each performance.
Show times are 7:30 p.m. March 7 and 2:30 p.m. March 8.
Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for seniors and $10 for students and children.
“The Cheat” is an American silent drama film directed by Cecil B. DeMille starring Fannie Ward, Sessue Hayakawa and Jack Dean, Ward’s real-life husband. The silent melodrama was a key film in the early career of Cecil B. DeMille — one that helped establish his reputation as a top-echelon director.
According to DeMille biographer Anne Edwards, the film “set standards of acting, decor, frame composition and lighting which were not surpassed for years.”
“The New York Times called the film ‘sensational trash’ and ‘an old-fashioned melodrama’,” James said.
“The Cheat” also had a profound influence on the early development of filmmaking, especially in its innovative camera techniques and “sexually charged content,” according to James. The movie was named to the National Film Registry in 1993.
“A Fool There Was” is an American silent film drama produced by William Fox and starring Theda Bara. The film was long considered controversial for such risqué intertitle cards as “Kiss me, my fool!” It is also one of the few movies with Bara that still exist today.
This film represents the origin of the term “vamp” (short for vampire), according to James, referring to a femme fatale who causes the moral loss of those she seduced and about how a vampire fascinates then exhausts its victims.
“The full-bosomed Bara became an overnight sensation after her appearance in this melodrama,” James said. “She was a Hollywood creation who mixed ruthlessness and dark erotic sexiness into her numerous roles — she would often appear in risqué transparent costumes in her more than 40 films created from 1914 to 1919.”
In “A Fool There Was,” Bara was dubbed the “Vamp,” and became the screen’s first femme fatale (the first dangerous female in the movies) and first movie sex goddess or sex symbol. Bara delivered her most famous film lines in this film, shown in two title cards, as she draped her arms over her victim and said: “You have ruined me, you devil, and now you discard me!” and “Kiss me, my Fool!”
To purchase tickets or for more information, call the Coleman Theatre at 918-540-2425 or stop by the box office window at 103 North Main in Miami. Mastercard, Visa, Discover and American Express are accepted.
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