The Wild Party - Free for Upstate Films Members!

Free for Upstate Films Members!

Inspired by Hitchcock’s transitional Blackmail (April 18, Orpheum) we continue a 1929 series with some of the earliest talkies. Dorothy Arzner’s raucous pre-Code comedy stars “It Girl” Clara Bow in her—and Paramount’s first talkie.’ It skyrocketed Arzner’s career – she was the first out lesbian director to work in Hollywood. Clara Bow was 24 and was the biggest female star in America. The Wild Party is about a flirty co-ed attending a college where no one ever studies, and her romantic conquest of a stuffy anthropology professor, played by Frederic March. It is groundbreaking in its theme of female friendship –Bow’s spares a friend’s reputation by taking the blame for a transgression herself. (dir. Dorothy Arzner, U.S., 1929, 77 min.)

“The remarkably sensual and loyal relationships among the female students are among the most memorable elements of the film. With arms around each other while intensely gazing into each other’s eyes, their moments in the dorm room are practically romantic.” — Senses of Cinema

The Revival House series is presented by Ruge’s Auto Group.
It is also generously underwritten by Kevin Cornish, Sabine Hrechdakian, Bryanne Hamill, Dal Lamagna, Sarah Drew, Diane Archer, Allen Coulter, Sven Huseby, and Wendy Ettinger.

Upstate Films programs are made possible by Arts Mid Hudson, Dutchess Tourism and by Dutchess County Community Grants Fund of the Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley