My Talk at UNKNOWN HOLLYWOOD, 2/8/15

As mentioned last week, I gave a talk about the history of pre-Code Hollywood at a screening of Night Nurse outside Sendagaya on February 8th. The screening is run by a group of Tokyo cinephiles hoping to expand knowledge of Hollywood cinema inside the country past the usual suspects– you know, Ford, Welles, etc.

In Japan, films earlier than the 1940s are public domain, so Murderous Ink meticulously created subtitles for Night Nurse in Japanese and presented it to the audience, along with an old newsreel, the trailer for Blonde Crazy, and the Betty Boop short “Minnie the Moocher”. (The last was my suggestion, and a good one, since it was fun to see a number of people in the audiences nodding along to Cab Calloway’s 80-year-old beats.)

Here’s the presentation:

 The video above is edited from my talk– the original 90-minute version alternated between me talking and Murderous translating every one of my rambling phrases. If you want to watch the video with the original Japanese translations, please go to Ryo’s site here.

The group will be meeting again in the next month or two to watch and discuss the 1951 film, The Sniper, sans a lecture from me. If you’re in Tokyo and you like old movies, check it out.

And if you have any questions about the presentation, leave me a comment below! Cheers!