‘Ring’ Shows Hitchcock’s Early Mastery

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1927 “The Ring” (Silent Movie, Wednesday at 8 p.m.) reveals that Hitchcock began to be a master of his craft early on, already adept at manipulating his audience’s emotions and in creating suspense.

From the start he was clearly fascinated with exploring the resources of the camera.

This is especially evident in this, his sixth feature, which has the simplest of eternal triangle plots, involving a naive up-and-coming young boxer (Carl Brisson), whose flirtatious wife (Lillian Hall-Davies) incites his jealousy with her attentiveness to a devil-may-care Australian champ (Ian Hunter).

What sets this film apart from many superficially similar pictures is Hitchcock’s deep concern for the psychology of his characters--he wrote the story himself and his wife Alma Reville adapted it--and the imaginative ways in which he expresses the torment of the fighter.

There are very few intertitles--but then Hitchcock had been working at UFA while F.W. Murnau was making “The Last Laugh” without any whatsoever.

Information: (213) 653-2389.

*

Giggling Bard: Surely, William Shakespeare had a good enough sense of humor that he’d get a laugh out of “Tromeo and Juliet” (opening Friday for one week at the Grande 4-Plex as part of its American Independent series).

As you might well imagine, Troma Films’ Lloyd Kaufman gives it his company’s trademark schlocky, gross-out, bare-bosomed, sex-crazed comic book treatment. Yet there’s some actual tenderness between its most appealing lovers (Jane Jensen, Will Keenan), a couple of contemporary New York kids, that plays well against the high-energy mayhem.

There’s a hellbent-for-leather surreal quality to “Tromeo and Juliet” that brings to mind Russ Meyer. “Tromeo and Juliet” is a natural for the midnight movie circuit, where it just might become a staple.

Information: (213) 617-0268.

*

In the Flesh: Speaking of Meyer, he will be appearing in person Wednesday night at the New Beverly Cinema between the 7:30 screening of “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” (1966) and the 9:30 (approximately) screening of “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” (1970).

Information: (213) 938-4038.

*

First, Last: The American Cinematheque’s New York Shorts, screening Saturday at 8 p.m. at Raleigh Studios, offers an uneven collection of seven films set in the Big Apple and environs. Shrewdly, the program starts with one of the best and leaves the other for last.

In “Number One Local,” running just shy of eight minutes, Bianca Bob Miller introduces us to subway conductor Harry Nugent, whose witty quipping over his train’s loudspeaker brings cheer to his passengers while giving this self-described failed abstract painter a chance to express himself.

“I see myself as a New Yorker cartoon,” Nugent says.

The evening concludes with Carrie Blank’s zesty, imaginative “Trouble,” in which Tovah Feldshuh offers her hilarious take on the Jewish mother as a flashy, dominating type, quick to shift into total denial in dealing with her brilliant young daughter (Cole Plakias, who has no trouble holding her own with the formidable Feldshuh), who escapes into a world of science fiction with potentially disturbing consequences.

The five films in between add up to a decidedly mixed bag. The best of this lot is Nanette Burstein’s promising “Ann’s Portrait,” a wry, well-wrought romantic comedy that is above all a commentary on the plight of the children of celebrities.

Julia Bradnan stars as a beautiful, talented portrait artist, the daughter of an Italian film director so celebrated that she can never know whether people befriend her for herself or to get the chance to meet her father.

A struggling actor (Eric Scott) starts falling for her, not knowing who her father is, but finds himself paralyzed when he finds out, convinced that she can’t help but think he’s just using her. Burstein brings a polished, feature film feel to this intricate vignette. Robert Chemtob’s “Meat & Jesus” has an inspired twist at its finish as it tells of a frustrated, deeply unhappy butcher (Gregory Simmons) who, much to his surprise, finds the seeming spirituality of his new assistant (Robert Jimenez) having an impact upon him.

There’s something of a student film quality to “Meat & Jesus,” a feeling more pronounced in the three other films, Ari Vena’s “Myth,” Jeffrey Janger’s “Bagels & Lox” and Catherine McCarthy’s “Fruits and Nuts.”

Information: (213) 466-FILM.