In collaboration with the Department of Cinema Studies, Tisch School of the Arts/NYU, and with the invaluable assistance of Karen Everson and Bill Simon, the Film Society of Lincoln Center honors the late Bill Everson, cinéaste non pareil, with a program showcasing some of his favorite movies, accompanied by his inimitable program notes--excerpts from which are quoted here. After Everson's recent death, Leonard Maltin wrote eloquently about his friend in an essay entitled A Long, Good Run: "I lost a great friend last week; so did the world of film. In fact, William K. Everson was possibly the best friend that movies ever had. He was a teacher, an author, a lecturer, but all that sounds rather dry. What he really was, was a missionary--a movie missionary. He traveled around the globe, sharing his knowledge and his exceptional film collection with grateful audiences from Berkeley, California, to Pordenone, Italy....He constantly turned up unknown and unsung films of the past that deserved to be seen. And he put them in their proper context, through his educated and amusing introductions, and copious program notes.... For Everson, finding these films was only part of the fun. What really mattered was showing them...spreading the word. He did this, first, at the Theodore Huff Memorial Film Society, which he formed with some like-minded friends in the 1950s and then ran on his own for decades to come. Here, week after week, dozens of New York's most avid (and oddball) film fanatics gathered, sitting on uncomfortable chairs, often in stifling heat, to savor the latest "finds" Everson brought forth....I attended my first Huff showing when I was 14 years old, and witnessed many wondrous sights and sounds.... Bill died [in April 1996] with grace and dignity, at home...[after telling a friend] "It's been a good run." It has indeed, but somehow, it wasn't long enough--not for all of us who looked to William K. Everson as a teacher, mentor and guide. He opened doors for so many students, scholars, writers, and buffs; he gave new life to old films, and derived great satisfaction in the process. He was that rarity in life, a giver. To say he will be missed is a sorry understatement. He will never be replaced." -- reprinted by permission, Leonard Maltin and Cinemania Online

William K. Everson

favorite movies and times Descriptive quotes are edited from William K. Everson's own program notes: AIR MAIL John Ford, Universal, 1932; 83 minutes This saga of pioneering airmail pilots "marked John Ford's first association with ex-Naval officer Frank Wead, one of the most prolific writers of aviation and service scenarios in the 30s, and himself the subject of the later John Ford-John Wayne film Wings of Eagles. In many ways one of [Ford's] most entertaining films, [with] punchy, snappy dialogue, uniformly good performances (Pat O'Brien, Ralph Bellamy, Slim Summerville, et al.), really quite fine camerawork (Karl Freund) and manipulation of exceptionally realistic miniatures. One sometimes wonders why these pioneering aerodromes were always constructed in locations that boasted a plethora of mountain peaks, electric pylons, and constant fogs...." Wednesday, September 25: 6 pm ZOO IN BUDAPEST Rowland V. Lee, Fox, 1933; 85 minutes "What a pleasure to confirm that this long-lost 'classic' [about two lovers hiding in a zoo] is in fact just that.... Like Broken Blossoms, it is a very fragile film, a kind of fairy-story that can really exist only in the now faraway Europe of the early 30s. Like Shangri-La, one has to want to believe in it....The camera-work by Lee Garmes has a mystical quality, while many individual shots look for all the world like illustrations from children's books.... It is Lee's finest film...adept at imitating the style of others, he wrought most of his films in the image of Lubitsch, Pommer or Whale.... Here, he has nobody to imitate.... The climax is good, vivid, spectacular stuff...but I can't help wishing for a final 'And they all lived happily ever after' farewell title." (With Gene Raymond, Loretta Young, and Paul Fix) Wed, Sept 25: 8:15 pm HOT SATURDAY William Seiter, Paramount, 1932; 72 minutes "What impresses most about Hot Saturday is its relaxed sophistication. It's a film full of assured playing and excellent dialogue, so naturalistically welded that many pungent lines are almost lost because of their off-hand delivery. A pre-Code movie, it makes no bones about sex in a couple of sequences, but it never strives for shock.... Undated by period in the sense that its characters and attitudes are still valid...we can all of us recognize in it something of our own years of growing up. Its overall cheerfulness is enhanced by liberal pillaging of the Rodgers and Hart and Strauss melodies owned by Paramount, and by the satisfying playing by Cary Grant and Randolph Scott, and most especially by the utterly winning elfin personality of lovely Nancy Carroll." Thurs, Sept 26: 6 pm IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY Robert Hamer, Ealing Studios-Rank, GB, 1947; 92 minutes In this film about entwined lives in London's dreary East End, "the lower-class Brief Encounter parallel might well be construed as near-tragic, but not by the British, who love conformity, security and the dullness that goes along with it, and distrust passion....It is full of fine character performances. Googie Withers, almost the definitive Ealing heroine, is particularly good in the lead....almost the definitive post-war British film, it's an incredibly faithful adaptation of a rather dull book, but so cinematic that it suggests that the book may in fact be much better than it is! And it is excellently photographed, particularly in its tense and underplayed sidestreet and railroad yard chase climax." (With Alfie Bass and Hermione Baddeley) Thurs, Sept 26: 8 pm STRAIGHT SHOOTING John Ford, Universal, 1917; 75 minutes (silent, with live piano accompaniment by Stuart Oderman) In this early Shane, the incomparable Harry Carey is a gunfighter who changes sides after first being hired by cattlemen to rout homesteaders. Straight Shooting is Ford's first feature....by a man with literally only about six months' directorial experience behind him. The William S. Hart influence can be seen in the general austerity, and in the characters themselves--good and bad intermingled among both the good guys and the bad guys .... All of the cabin interiors are shot on an outdoor stage, with just a flat or two, but ingenious lighting, stressing the darkness 'inside' and the sunlight through the framing of doors and windows, make them work beautifully....Harry Carey and Hoot Gibson make a good and off-beat team ....Gibson at one point takes an obviously unplanned horse-fall in the middle of a stream, gets up, remounts, and races past the camera with a broad grin!" (With selected silent comedy shorts.) Fri, Sept 27: 6 pm TWO 'B' WESTERNS "To far too many people, 'B' Westerns, like cartoons, are all tarred by the same brush....Actually, there is as much distinction between the work of one star and another, one company and another, one director and another, as there is in any other area of film--perhaps more so, since in the 'B' Western, with limited budgets and brief shooting schedules, genuine talent gets far more of a chance to shine." THE END OF THE TRAIL D. Ross Lederman, Columbia, 1932; 72 minutes "...a pocket Broken Arrow, and a very sincere preachment on the exploitation of the American Indian.... [this Tim McCoy vehicle] is moving, often poignant, and surprisingly spectacular in its action scenes." with OVERLAND STAGE RAIDERS George Sherman, Republic, 1938; 55 minutes "...Louise Brooks made her movie swansong in Overland Stage Raiders... looking youthful and attractive but with a Veronica Lake hairdo rendering her virtually unrecognizable! It's full of fast action, exciting music, good stunts." With John Wayne, Ray "Crash" Corri-gan, and Max Terhune as "The 3 Mesquiteers," flying a plane and saving shipments of gold from bad guys. Fri, Sept 27: 8:30 pm