The Kennington Bioscope is a regular cinema event featuring live accompaniment to silent films that takes place at the Cinema Museum.
The Love Expert (1920) USA. Directed by David Kirkland. 35mm BFI print. Starring Constance Talmadge, John Halliday, Natalie Talmadge, Arnold Lucy and written by John Emerson and Anita Loos. The film’s production company was Constance Talmadge Film Co.; a John Emerson-Anita Loos Production.
In this comedy, Constance Talmadge plays Babs, a girl who is thrown out of boarding school because she’s more interested in studying romance than she is in studying books. The object of her affections is Jim Winthrop, but before they can wed, he has to find suitable mates for his two plain sisters, Dorcas and Matilda – and Winthrop’s elderly aunt, too. To speed things up, Babs takes it upon herself to find them all men.
An item in the 16 January 1920 Wid’s Daily (later Film Daily) announced that married screenwriting duo Anita Loos and John Emerson were headed to Palm Beach, FL, to supervise the filming of The Love Expert. Loos made an appearance as a background actor in some of the scenes shot there, along with lead actress Constance Talmadge’s mother and sisters, Norma and Natalie, according to the 6 March 1920 Moving Picture World. All were said to be disguised. The 24 January 1920 Motion Picture News stated that The Love Expert was based on an original story by Anita Loos and John Emerson, the 30 April 1920 Variety review claimed that the picture was based on a Mary Roberts Rinehart “Bab: A Sub-Deb” story that originally appeared in Saturday Evening Post. AFI Catalogue
Her friend Anita Loos, who wrote many screenplays for her, appreciated her “humour and her irresponsible way of life”. Over the course of her career, Talmadge appeared in more than 80 films, often in comedies such as A Pair of Silk Stockings (1918), Happiness à la Mode (1919), Romance and Arabella (1919), Wedding Bells (1921), and The Primitive Lover (1922). Talmadge, along with her sisters, was heavily billed during her early career. According to her 1923 Blue Book of the Screen biography, she was “5’5″ tall, 120 lbs, with blonde hair and brown eyes … an outdoor girl who loved activities.” When Talmadge was asked by a writer for Green Book magazine what sort of stories she wanted to do in 1920, she said: “Although no less than sixty manuscripts are submitted to me every week, it is exceedingly difficult to get exactly the kind of comedy I especially want. I want comedies of manners, comedies that are funny because they delight one’s sense of what is ridiculously human in the way of little everyday commonplace foibles and frailties – subtle comedies, not comedies of the slap stick variety.”
One of the shorts to be shown on 16mm from the Chris Bird collection will be the Norma Talmage film A Helpful Sisterhood (1914) made for Vitagraph by Van Dyke Brooke. Poverty, college, sororities, shoplifting are the main subject of this Norma Talmadge short film. Norma’s a poor but well-connected student who can’t keep up with the lavish spending of her sisters.
The second half of the programme will begin with a 35mm print from the BFI entitled Homecoming Celebrations of Constance Talmadge returning to her husband’s family home in Inverness. The film includes a shot of Constance behind a 35mm camera. The final part of this short cuts to a home movie, probably filmed by Constance herself, on a Hollywood set.
Michelle Facey will introduce the programme. Piano accompaniment for The Love Expert will be performed by Colin Sell, and John Sweeney will be playing during the first half of the programme.
Silent film with intertitles which may be suitable for the deaf and hard of hearing.
We are happy to announce we will be partnering with The Electric Elephant Café from this Bioscope event onwards, to offer patrons the opportunity to purchase their homemade baked goods at our shows, including quiche, pasties and lots of cake! All their products are vegetarian and vegan, with some gluten free options as well. The café, based at 186 Crampton Street, Walworth SE17 3AE, was opened by Louisa in 2008 “so that people from all walks of life can enjoy going to this charming space to drink good coffee, eat delicious food all made from scratch in a friendly atmosphere.” Louisa’s tasty home-baked wares will be on sale alongside the usual Cinema Museum café’s hot beverages, soft drinks and snacks, plus the licensed bar, staffed by volunteers, with part of the proceeds donated to the Museum’s fundraising campaign.
Tickets & Pricing
£7. Seats are limited, so please arrive early or request an invitation using the email kenbioscope@gmail.com.
