Dancing Mothers. 1926. Directed by Herbert Brenon The Pill Pounder. 1923. Directed by Gregory la Cava

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Held on Sat, Aug 3, 2024, 7:00 p.m.

With an introduction from author David Stenn, and piano accompaniment from Donald Sosin

MoMA, Floor T2/T1, Theater 1

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1

Dancing Mothers. 1926. USA. Directed by Herbert Brenon. Courtesy of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.

Dancing Mothers. 1926. USA. Directed by Herbert Brenon. Screenplay by Edmund Goulding, Forrest Halsey, Edgar Selwyn. With Conway Tearle, Alice Joyce, Clara Bow. Digital restoration courtesy San Francisco Silent Film Festival. New York restoration premiere. 64 min.

Clara Bow was on the brink of stardom when she replaced Betty Bronson as the “juvenile lead” in Dancing Mothers, a generational melodrama directed by Herbert Brenon from a script largely by Edmund Goulding. The spoiled daughter of a womanizing financier (Norman Trevor) and a former Broadway star (Alice Joyce), Clara is drifting into an affair with a notorious society womanizer (Conway Tearle). Hoping to rescue her daughter, Joyce transforms herself into a mystery woman and sets out to seduce Tearle, only to fall for him herself. This new restoration from the San Francisco Silent Film Festival is based on a pair of 16mm prints.

The Pill Pounder. 1923. USA. Directed by Gregory la Cava. With Charles Murray, Clara Bow. Digital restoration courtesy San Francisco Silent Film Festival. 14 min. New York restoration premiere. 14 min.

Film collector Gary Higgins made headlines when a short film he purchased for $20 in an Omaha bankruptcy sale turned out to be the only surviving element from The Pill Pounder, a forgotten 1923 short that contained an early comedy turn by Clara Bow. Restored under the patronage of Bow biographer David Stenn, the film reveals the untrained Bow as an immediately magnetic screen presence.

This film accompanies Silent Movie Week 2024.

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