The Gangsters and the Girl (Kay-Bee/New York Motion Picture Corp., US 1914) The Professor’s Romance (Vitagraph, US 1914) Manhattan Madness (Triangle Film Corp., US 1916)

The Detective Film and Stylists in Comedy
Originally screened in the Dryden in May 1951.
The program includes the following titles with live accompaniment by Philip C. Carli. (35mm, 95 min.)

THE GANGSTERS AND THE GIRL (Kay-Bee/New York Motion Picture Corp., US 1914).
According to Card’s introduction in 1951,“In The Gangsters and the Girl, we have the forerunner of the gangster pictures which became so popular when the talkies first came out. All devices are here: the undercover man, the rescue and the automobile getaway, the use of a wounded policeman as a shield — everything except tommy guns are crowded into two reels.”

THE PROFESSOR’S ROMANCE (Vitagraph, US 1914) “Among the first comedians to sense the increasing sophistication of filmgoers was Sidney Drew. Drew, a veteran of the theatre and a member of the mighty Drew-Barrymore dynasty, wrote, directed and starred in the comedies which he and his wife made for the Vitagraph company throughout 1914.” — J.C.

MANHATTAN MADNESS (Triangle Film Corp., US 1916) Douglas Fairbanks “gallops off with” this film about which Card wrote: “Doug’s influence on the American film was so great that historians may some day use his coming as a turning point and discuss the American film before and after Fairbanks.”