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Monday, March 04, 2019

Fay Wray + Robert Riskin Series Opens Friday at UCLA

A new series celebrating the careers of actress Fay Wray and her husband, Oscar-winning screenwriter Robert Riskin, opens this Friday evening, March 8th, at UCLA.

The series, Fay Wray + Robert Riskin, will take place at UCLA's Billy Wilder Theater in Westwood over the course of five evenings this month.

Victoria Riskin, author of an excellent new book about her parents, will be at UCLA in person on March 8th and 9th. She'll be available to sign her book before each evening's screenings.

My review of the book may be found here. I very highly recommend it.

The series opens on March 8th with Wray's most famous role, starring in KING KONG (1933), paired with the first of Riskin's many collaborations with director Frank Capra, THE MIRACLE WOMAN (1931). Barbara Stanwyck plays the title role in the latter film.

I hope to attend on Saturday, March 9th, when Riskin and Capra's MEET JOHN DOE (1941) is shown along with the very "pre-Code" adventure film THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME (1932) starring Wray and Joel McCrea. I've never seen either film in a theater so that would be a quite a treat.

On Saturday, March 16th Wray stars with Wallace Beery and Leo Carrillo in VIVA VILLA! (1934). That's shown with VIRTUE (1932), a film written by Riskin and starring Carole Lombard and Pat O'Brien. My 2015 review of VIRTUE may be found here.

Two marvelous romantic comedies will be shown on Friday, March 22nd: IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934), the classic Capra comedy which netted Riskin his Oscar for Best Screenplay, and THE RICHEST GIRL IN THE WORLD (1934), in which Wray costarred with Joel McCrea, Miriam Hopkins, and Reginald Denny, seen at left with Wray. I've seen both these films multiple times -- click each title link for the review -- and I hope to see them again this month!

The series concludes on Saturday, March 30th, with THE WEDDING MARCH (1928), in which Wray stars with Erich von Stroheim, and another Capra-Riskin film, AMERICAN MADNESS (1932), starring Pat O'Brien.

Updates: Here are my reviews of MEET JOHN DOE (1941) and THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME (1932), and here's a report on revisiting IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934) and THE RICHEST GIRL IN THE WORLD (1934).
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3 comments:

  1. Caftan Woman8:42 AM

    Wish I could be there on the 30th. The Wedding March must be glorious on the big screen. I know American Madness is, from a viewing here in Toronto many years ago, but would love to see it in such a venue again.

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  2. Stefano1:11 PM

    Caftan Woman, "The Wedding March" is glorious on the big screen. Plenty pungent, as you would expect from this director, but with a lyricism not found in any of his other films; add the beautiful 2-strip Technicolor photography, and the theatrical experience is intoxicating. When I saw it at the Hollywood Egyptian Theatre some years ago, an elderly audience member stood up after the show and said he had seen the "Wedding" sequel, "The Honeymoon", and anyone could ask him for more details since this film is now considered lost ( the last known print burned in 1959).

    Laura, as you have attended more silent movie screenings lately I hope you will consider this one: one of the peaks of the art form.

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  3. Laura1:28 PM

    Caftan Woman and Stefano, thank you for your thoughts on THE WEDDING MARCH and AMERICAN MADNESS. Victoria writes of movingly on seeing THE WEDDING MARCH in the book.

    The Noir City Film Festival will be underway on the 30th so unless that happens to be a night on the schedule which isn't of interest, I'll be at the Egyptian rather than UCLA. We have so many great big screen opportunities here! I'm definitely going to be on the lookout for a WEDDING MARCH screening in the future, though!

    Thank you both!

    Best wishes,
    Laura

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