The Kennington Bioscope is a regular cinema event that takes place at the Cinema Museum.

The main feature is Women’s Wares (1927), a very rare film starring Evelyn Brent and directed by Arthur Gregor (courtesy of the Cinema Museum). It will be accompanied on the piano by Costos Fotopoulos http://www.costasfotopoulos.com/.

The plot of Women’s Wares makes a story by A. A. Milne, written for his six-year-old son, sound like a dissertation on the universe by one of the early German philosophers—so simple is it. Concerning a beautiful model (cloak), it apparently seeks its reason of being from one of its own subheads, “Romance that just happens beats the kind you go out looking for.”

Dolly Morton is the model, at first satisfied by being taken out for a dollar dinner by one Jimmy Hayes. Later we see Jimmy no more, and in his stead there is an apartment, and a close-up of a meal check for $22. Erank Stanton, who is married, comes into Dolly’s life, as does Robert Crane. Both men fade into the night when Jimmy, tired and a little pale, returns to claim his own. Add to this the fact that Dolly and Jimmy find love (so it is assumed) on a park bench in the middle of a movie rainstorm, and you have it all.

Of the characters, Bert Lytell, as Robert Crane, is the best portrayal—so much so that his failure to win the elusive lady seems a shame. Larry Kent, as Jimmy, gives the appearance of a bright but weak soul lifted to the heights through the power of “romance that just happens,” which may, as a matter of fact, explain why Robert didn’t do better. Evelyn Brent, Dolly the model, is nice to look upon, even though you feel all along that her gold-digging tendencies will change for the moral uplift of every one concerned. Maizie Duncan (Gertrude Short) is there for contrast.

(From the New York Times 1927 review)

Before the main feature and intermission there will be a selection of short films.

Anyone interested in silent film should visit the website for more info and to request an invitation using the email kenbioscope@gmail.com.

Tickets & Pricing

£3 (£2 of which goes to the Cinema Museum).