Riviera Revels Travelaugh No 9: Cold Feats (Original). 1927. France/USA. Directed by Harry Lachman. With Michael Powell. 4K DCP courtesy BFI National Archive. US Premiere. Silent. 8 min.
After serving an apprenticeship with the American director Rex Ingram at his studio in Nice, a very young Michael Powell stepped out on his own with a series of silent shorts, shot in and around the Cote d’Azur. Directed by Harry Lachman (who himself would become a feature director of some standing), the “Travelaughs” featured a group of English tourists on a tour of the region’s natural wonders, punctuated by comic bits from the most eccentric member of the group, a befuddled birdwatcher named Cicero Simp (played with aplomb by Powell himself). The Red Shoes these are not, but they each illustrate Powell’s fascination with the cinema and his nearly fantastic dedication to it—as demonstrated by the mad stunts he undertakes without the evident aid of a double. The BFI has restored several films from the series, which will be shown with Powell’s early “quota quickie” features.
His Lordship. 1932. Great Britain. Directed by Michael Powell. Screenplay by Ralph Smart, based on the novel The Right Honorable by Oliver Madox Hueffer. With Jerry Verno, Janet McGrew, Ben Welden. 4K DCP courtesy BFI National Archive. US Premiere. 79 min.
“A fascinating oddity: a satirical musical that upends the usual snobberies by having Verno play a plumber who discovers to his horror that he is, in fact, a hereditary Lord. Damned by contemporaries as an example of the supposed damage the quota system was doing to British cinema, it’s now highly enjoyable, with a quintessentially British humour and endearingly memorable songs” (BFI).