Greatness on a silent screen

By Susan King

Feb. 22, 2007 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

ONE of the biggest stars of the 1920s was Douglas Fairbanks, whose feats of derring-do on the silver screen enthralled audiences around the world. Fairbanks’ charm and athletic prowess are still a kick to watch, and one of his most inspired swashbucklers, 1926’s “The Black Pirate,” sails into the Silent Movie Theatre this evening.

Only the third feature to be shot in an early Technicolor process, the adventure finds Fairbanks playing the son of a nobleman who sets out to avenge the death of his father, who was murdered by pirates.

Scheduled for Sunday is Oscar Micheaux’s 1925 drama “Body and Soul,” which marked the film debut of legendary African American scholar, athlete, singer, actor and political activist Paul Robeson. He plays an escaped prisoner in Georgia who takes on the guise of a reverend and proceeds to captivate and corrupt a small town. Robeson also plays the role of the reverend’s poor but honest twin brother.

Looks are deceiving

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art wraps up its “Through the Looking Glass (and Down the Rabbit Hole ... )” festival of surreal cinema this weekend.

Screening Friday is “Don’t Look Now,” Nicolas Roeg’s erotic, mesmerizing 1973 adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s story. Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie play grieving parents who just lost their young daughter in a drowning accident. Sutherland’s architect has been hired by a firm in Venice, Italy, to restore an old church. Shortly after arriving there, Christie’s character begins to see glimpses of someone she believes is their dead daughter wearing a red raincoat.

Rounding out Friday’s double bill is Ingmar Bergman’s transcendent 1967 film, “Persona,” which he made shortly after recovering from a serious illness. Liv Ullmann and Bibi Andersson star.

Set for Saturday is Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 masterwork “Vertigo,” starring Jimmy Stewart as a San Francisco police detective, forced to retire because of his vertigo, who becomes obsessed with a beautiful but enigmatic woman (Kim Novak) he is hired to follow.

Early Woody

A young Woody Allen is on view at the New Beverly Cinema Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in 1965’s loopy comedy “What’s New Pussycat?,” as well as the 1967 comedic version of “Casino Royale.”

Allen made his feature film debut in “Pussycat,” which he also wrote, as the nebbish friend of Peter O’Toole’s womanizing Parisian fashion editor. Burt Bacharach and Hal David penned the Oscar-nominated title tune.

The songwriting team also received an Oscar nod for its song “The Look of Love,” from the misguided “Casino Royale,” which credits five directors -- Val Guest, Joseph McGrath, Ken Hughes, John Huston and Robert Parrish. The spoof finds David Niven playing a retired James Bond who gets back into the spy game. Allen is featured as Jimmy Bond, 007’s nephew, who is really the head of the international crime organization SMERSH.

Texas epic

“AFI’s 100 Years ... 100 Movies” screening series at the ArcLight Theatre continues Wednesday with 1956’s “Giant,” starring Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean, in his last film role. Director George Stevens won an Academy Award for his work on this lengthy, sprawling epic based on the Edna Ferber novel.

Sirk tribute

Beginning next Thursday, the American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre shines the spotlight on director Douglas Sirk, especially the heightened melodramas he made at Universal in the 1950s.

Sirk, who worked with producer Ross Hunter on these films, influenced an entire generation of filmmakers. In fact, Todd Haynes’ acclaimed 2002 movie, “Far From Heaven,” was inspired by the work of Sirk.

First up is “Imitation of Life,” a 1959 drama based on the book by Fannie Hurst that examines two mother-and-daughter relationships -- one white (Lana Turner and Sandra Dee) and one black (Juanita Moore and Susan Kohner). Kohner and Moore received Oscar nominations. An added plus is the sublime cinematography of Russell Metty.

Rounding out the opening-night bill is the 1953 potboiler “All I Desire,” starring Barbara Stanwyck whose character, after failing as an actress, returns to her small hometown after a decade to visit her estranged husband (Richard Carlson) and children (Lori Nelson, Marcia Henderson, Billy Gray).

Set for March 2 is 1955’s “All That Heaven Allows,” a delicious suds-fest that stars Jane Wyman as a suburban widow with two grown -- and obnoxious -- children who falls in love with her much younger gardener (Rock Hudson). The second feature is 1951’s rarely seen “The First Legion,” starring Charles Boyer as a Jesuit priest.

Scheduled for March 3 is 1954’s “Magnificent Obsession,” a mega-weepie starring Wyman in an Oscar-nominated performance as a widow who is blinded in a boating accident by a careless playboy (Hudson).

Also screening is one of Sirk’s comedies, 1951’s “Weekend With Father,” starring Van Heflin and Patricia Neal as single parents who meet at a station while dropping off their kids for camp.

susan.king@latimes.com

Screenings

Silent Movie Theatre

* “The Black Pirate”: 8 tonight

* “Body and Soul”: 5 p.m. Sunday

Where: 611 N. Fairfax Ave., L.A.

Info: (323) 655-2520, www.silentmovietheatre.com

‘Through the Looking Glass’

* “Don’t Look Now” and “Persona”: 7:30 p.m. Friday

* “Vertigo”: 7:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A.

Info: (323) 857-6010, www.lacma.org