April 12 – 20, 2024

 

Cinema Speaks

Blackmail

Alfred Hitchcock
84’ / 1929
U.K.

LEMESOS
Monday 23.04 @ 18:00
NICOSIA
Tuesday 24.04 @ 18:00

Alice White is the daughter of a shopkeeper in 1920’s London. Her boyfriend, Frank Webber is a Scotland Yard detective who seems more interested in police work than in her. Frank takes Alice out one night, but she has secretly arranged to meet another man. Later that night Alice agrees to go back to his flat to see his studio. The man has other ideas and as he tries to rape Alice, she defends herself and kills him with a bread knife. When the body is discovered, Frank is assigned to the case, he quickly determines that Alice is the killer, but so has someone else and blackmail is threatened.

The Unholy Three

Jack Conway

72’ / 1930
U.S.A.

LEMESOS
Tuesday 24.04 @ 18:00
NICOSIA
Monday  23.04 @ 18:00

This sound remake of the 1925 version of The Unholy Three is virtually identical to the silent version with only few exceptions. In his last film – and only Talkie – Lon Chaney recreates one of his famed Silent roles: the scheming ventriloquist Prof. Echo. Disguised as Grandma O’Grady, Echo heads a robbery ring that includes a feeble-minded strongman and a cigar-chomping little person, the latter masquerading as Grandma’s grandbaby. Known as the Man of a Thousand Faces, Chaney here displays a different kind of virtuosity as well, creating five different voices to portray Echo, Grandma, a parrot, a girl and Echo’s dummy. A big hit directed by Jack Conway, The Unholy Three promised to launch Chaney as a major Sound Era star. He was slated to play the title role in Tod Browning’s Dracula, but it was not to be. Chaney died only weeks after The Unholy Three premiered.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/embed/SZy6H4u1r18

Modern Times

Charles Chaplin

87’ / 1936
U.S.A.

LEMESOS
Saturday 21.04 @ 16:00
NICOSIA
Tuesday  26.04 @ 18:00

This episodic satire of the “Machine Age” is considered Charles Chaplin’s last “silent” film, although Chaplin uses sound, vocal, and musical effects throughout. Chaplin stars as an assembly-line worker driven insane by the monotony of his job. After a long spell in an asylum, he searches for work, only to be mistakenly arrested as a communist. Released after foiling a prison break, Chaplin makes the acquaintance of orphaned gamine (Paulette Goddard) and becomes her friend and protector. He takes on several new jobs for her benefit, but every job ends with a quick dismissal and yet another jail term. During one of his incarcerations, she is hired to dance at a nightclub and arranges for him to be hired there as a singing waiter. He proves an enormous success, but they are both forced to flee their jobs when the orphanage officials show up to claim the girl. In addition to producing, directing, writing, and starring in Modern Times, Chaplin also composed its theme song, Smile, which would later be adopted as Jerry Lewis’ signature tune.