Tonight's Movies: Lorna Doone (1922) and The Magnificent Matador (1955) at the UCLA Festival of Preservation

We had a really wonderful day yesterday seeing four films at the 2026 UCLA Festival of Preservation.

The festival was held at UCLA's Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum in Westwood, where I have seen scores of films over the years. It began Friday evening, May 29th, running through Sunday night.

We chose to attend most of the day Saturday due to both our schedules and our interest in the day's movies. Two of yesterday's films were new to us and two were repeat watches, combining for a perfect day of viewing.

We also saw a quartet of restored Fleischer and Terry Toons cartoons which were introduced by animation historian Jerry Beck. I especially enjoyed THE MOUSE OF TOMORROW (1942), the very first Mighty Mouse cartoon. I was also delighted to receive a cute Mighty Mouse button as we entered the theater.

Following the first two cartoons we saw ADVENTURES OF CASANOVA (1948), starring Arturo de Cordova, Lucille Bremer, and Turhan Bey.

I first saw ADVENTURES OF CASANOVA at UCLA a dozen years ago as part of a tribute to de Cordova. I remembered liking it and that it was screened in a rather murky 16mm print, but not much more.

I'm happy to report that I absolutely loved revisiting the movie and it looked terrific, thanks to a restoration from the 35mm nitrate original picture negative, a nitrate fine grain, a nitrate track negative, and a 16mm print.

ADVENTURES OF CASANOVA is grand fun, somewhat akin to THE MARK OF ZORRO (1940), and I hope that this print will make its way to the greater viewing public via film festivals, TCM, and/or Blu-ray. It would be perfect for a Flicker Alley release!

Next up was a silent version of LORNA DOONE (1922), directed by Maurice Tourneur, father of Jacques Tourneur.

While the movie plot at times differed significantly from R.D. Blackmore's classic novel, which I have read and reread over the years, taken on its own terms this is an enjoyable and visually beautiful film.

Madge Bellamy (THE IRON HORSE) plays the title character, an innocent young girl living amongst the violent Doone clan in a remote valley.

She is ultimately rescued by the kind, sturdy young farmer John Ridd (John Bowers), though there are multiple complications before John and Lorna arrive at their Happily Ever After.

The movie has some striking California location work -- I've been unable to find out exactly where -- which adds to the movie's strong visuals, photographed by Henry Sharp. The performances are on the melodramatic side, but overall it's quite an entertaining 70 minutes.

We were fortunate to see LORNA DOONE with live music by Cliff Retallick, who always does a marvelous job.

Adding to the fun: Packages of Lorna Doone cookies were handed out as we exited the theater!

After a lunch break at The Apple Pan, the third film of the day was MERRILY WE LIVE (1938). This is one of my all-time favorite screwball comedies, which I think I've come to appreciate more on each successive viewing, and it was my first time to see it theatrically.

What a great experience seeing it with an appreciative audience! I laughed throughout, especially at the final ever-escalating series of kitchen pratfalls (seen here). I particuarly marveled at Clarence Kolb's physicality, given he did his own stunts and was roughly 63 at the time of filming.

After MERRILY WE LIVE I had the pleasure of viewing film historian Dick Bann's "keybook" containing every still shot for the movie. I could have spent much longer with it than time permitted, but I especially lingered over the set shots of the movie's amazing kitchen, including studying the countertop milkshake makers!

Finally we saw THE MAGNIFICENT MATADOR (1955), a 94-minute film directed by Budd Boetticher.

It was a CinemaScope film shot in Mexico by Lucien Ballard; the very vivid Eastmancolor rather reminded me of the Technicolor hues of SLIGHTLY SCARLET (1956), which I revisited earlier this month at the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival.

I'm sure I must have read about the film at some point, given the director and leading lady Maureen O'Hara, but the title was completely unfamiliar to me. I was very much seeing it "cold."

It's the story of Luis Santos (Anthony Quinn), a great Mexican matador who abruptly pulls out of a bullfight, to the dismay of his many admirers.

Wealthy Karen Harrison (O'Hara), who owns an estate in Mexico, is fascinated by Santos and literally chases after his Rolls-Royce in her little convertible sports car. She also intrudes on him as he prays in church.

Despite her aggressiveness, Luis and Karen slowly bond after she invites him to take refuge at her home. Her (apparently alcoholic) admirer Mark Russell (Richard Denning), who wants to marry her, is angry, but there's nothing he can do to stop the growing attraction between Luis and Karen.

But why did Luis avoid the bullfight, and what is his connection to young Rafael Reyes (Manuel Rojas)?

For the first half or so of the film, I kept thinking "This is a very strange movie," between the title song, O'Hara's playgirl "stalker" character, Denning's perpetually soused jerk, and constant abrupt fade-outs from scenes; that said, it increasingly grew on me as it went along and I would enjoy seeing it again in the future.

Quinn is charismatic as the bullfighter and has good chemistry with the perpetually feisty O'Hara. I especially liked the film's conclusion, which provided a better ending than I had expected.

Young Manuel Rojas, who plays up-and-coming matador Rafael, was the last husband of actress Martha Vickers (THE BIG SLEEP). He also appeared in Boetticher's BUCHANAN RIDES ALONE (1958). In the '80s he was married to actress Pamela Sue Martin (NANCY DREW, DYNASTY) who was nearly 23 years his junior.

The film has a nice supporting cast which also includes Thomas Gomez, Anthony Caruso, Eduardo Noriega, Lola Albright, and William Ching.

It was a marvelous day in every way; my husband even won a UCLA tote bag after correctly answering a trivia question. We all owe the UCLA Film & Television Archive a great debt for their work preserving cinema history.

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