A Sparkling, Sad ‘Sally’ at Silent Movie

Edmund Goulding’s 1925 “Sally, Irene and Mary” (at the Silent Movie today and Saturday at 8 p.m.)--with Constance Bennett, Joan Crawford and Sally O’Neil in the title roles, respectively, as Broadway chorus girls--is at once sparkling and sad, capturing the precarious, whirlwind existence of pretty young women who attract men like moths to flames.

Bennett’s elegant Sally is not nearly as assured as she seems, Crawford’s hoydenish Irene, not so levelheaded, and O’Neil’s pert newcomer Mary, not so naive after all. The film has an authentic Roaring ‘20s atmosphere, and as a pre-Code movie, candidly acknowledges that Sally lives in Art Nouveau splendor, courtesy of a sugar daddy (Henry Kolker) with an unapologetic roving eye. William Haines is Mary’s plumber boyfriend who wants her out of show biz--immediately.

Information: (213) 653-2389.

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Tribute to Raymonds: The American Cinematheque and the International Documentary Assn.’s “Documentary Saturdays in March” continues Saturday at Paramount Pictures’ studio theater with a tribute to Alan and Susan Raymond, who achieved renown with “An American Family,” the much-discussed 1973 PBS series that focused on the affluent Louds of Santa Barbara.

That series will be represented by a segment (at 1 p.m.) in which Pat Loud visits New York to be confronted with her son Lance’s gay lifestyle; accompanied by “An American Family Revisited” (1983) in which the Louds discuss how their lives were--and were not--transformed by media celebrity. Lance Loud will appear.

The Raymonds are gutsy in-your-face documentarians, but they’re also non-judgmental and compassionate. Their skill and tenacity shines in their 1978 “The Police Tapes” (6:15 p.m.), an eye-popping account of the harrowing existence of the men of South Bronx’s 44th Precinct, coping with amazing patience with people whose lives of poverty and desperation have finally driven them over the edge.

Among the other Raymond documentaries screening is their 1987 “Elvis ‘56,” a tender half-hour evocation through stills, film and audio clips--but no talking heads--in which a polite, handsome 21-year-old Elvis Presley copes with overnight fame.

For full schedule: (213) 466-FILM.