Oddball Films presents The Cine-Circus is Coming to Town! Step Right Up, Step Right Up to the Oddest Show
in town; a program of vintage gems and oddities about The Big-Top. Behold Blonde Bombshell Mae West ride elephants and shoot
at tigers in excerpts from I’m No Angel (1933). Witness the amazing feats of the underwater Submarine Circus (1940s), complete with aquatic hot-dog stands. Bend your ears to crooner Rudy
Vallee pining for Lydia the Tattooed Lady (1939). Marvel at the
childlike wonder instilled in artist Alexander Calder as he plays with his
kinetic sculptures in Calder’s Circus (1963). Shiver in fear at the
overpowering creepiness of clowns in Clowns are for Laughing (1972) and Bicycle Clown (1958). W.C. Fields stars as a crooked carnival owner in Circus Slicker, a condensed version of You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1933). Go on the road with Australia's Circus Nomads (1975). With original theatrical trailers for Fellini's The Clowns and Nick Nolte and Jodie Foster in Carny, a vintage circus Pre-show and more! So come on down to the
Oddball Big Top and get ready for your senses to feast on this Carnival of Wonderment!
Date: Thursday, April 25th, 2013 at 8:00pm
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to programming@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117
Highlights Include:
I’m No Angel (B+W,
1933) Mae West shines with all her
sass and showmanship in this condensed version of I’m No Angel, in which
she plays a sideshow beauty that hits it big and finds fame as Tira: The
Incomparable, a Circus Performer that rides elephants and tames lions with a
whip and a gun. Always saucy, Mae West truly is “incomparable”, and to prove
it, she even wrote the film.
Clowns are for Laughing (Color, 1972)
A wishful fantasy about a father and son and their encounter with a magical clown who turns them into hobo clowns!
Circus Slicker (B+W, 1939)"Excerpts from the Photoplay 'You Can't Cheat an Honest Man." The Whipsnade circus rolls into town, followed by bill collectors and the law. Fields plays “Larsen E. Whipsnade,” the owner of a shady carnival that is constantly on the run from the law. One comical excerpt contains Fields taking a shower that consists of a circus elephant hosing him down with water.
Circus Nomads (Color, 1975)
Australian documentarian Ivan Gaal goes on the road with an out-of-the-ordinary family of performers. He captures dancers atop horses, elephant stunts, clowns farting fire, and trapeze artists, but also some of the ordinary moments between routines.
Woody Woodpecker in Dizzy Acrobat (Color, 1947, Walter Lantz)
Woody is at the circus and gets himself into a lot of trouble with the security guard but gets himself out by defeating the man with tricks and traps.
Calder’s Circus (Color,
1963)
Before his rise to fame as
the artist to popularize the mobile, kinetic sculptor Alexander Calder created
a miniature moving circus out of wire, wood and cloth. In 1963, filmmaker
Carlos Vilardebo filmed the icon performing his circus. As Calder exhibits the
piece, we watch as Calder blurs the line between presentation and play. This
remarkable circus comes to life, sometimes on it’s own, sometimes in
conjunction with other elements and always in an astonishing manner.
Lydia (B+W, 1939)
Crooner Rudy Vallee stars as a carnival hawker,
singing that famous little ditty to Lydia, the Tattooed Lady.
Curator’s Biography
Kat Shuchter is a graduate
of UC Berkeley in Film Studies. She
is a filmmaker, artist and esoteric media hoarder. She has helped program shows
at the PFA, The Nuart and Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theater and was
crowned “Found Footage Queen” of Los Angeles, 2009.