I was with a friend of the family from Romania showing her around Stanford — one of the Colleges she wants to go to when she finishes High School. Well, I left too late from Palo Alto — 7 pm — with traffic backing up (it didn’t use to slow down after 7 pm on 101), I didn’t get seated for the Opening Night film, “Seventh Heaven”, until 8:30. The film was just starting, but I missed the opening presentation.
“Seventh Heaven” (1927) was well acted by the leads, Janet Gaynor as “Diane” and Charles Farrell as “Chico”. Janet Gaynor got the Oscar for Best Actress for this role. The story is enjoyable and optimistic with plausible main characters. But common to optimistic Hollywood films, the story doesn’t make complete sense. To not give anything away, I’ll stop here.
Afterwards Wurlitzer players met at the front of the stage and talked about their craft.
The Castro Grand Wurlitzer was masterfully performed by Clark Wilson (above image). He talked to me a bit about the challenge of performing for a dark film like “Pandora’s Box” which he’ll be playing for Saturday at 8 pm.
Then we went home on a clear, beautiful night feeling bouyed up with “Seventh Heaven”‘s optimism. The Castro Marquee announced tomorrow’s Silent Film Festival movies.