Hey kids, let’s put the show on right here! KB TV, Kennington Bioscope Online

When the going gets tough the tough go online… now into the fourth month of lockdown and it’s a strange world of small-scale pleasures and home-based working where time seems to slip more quickly away. However did we find time to commute, to go to theatres, pubs and football grounds? Where is our cinema time?

It was Dame Pamela of Walthamstow who once described the Kennington Bioscope as London’s Silent Speakeasy, an exclusive yet inclusive, almost mythical club of the committed and persistently  passionate silent cinephiles who gather under shadowy circumstances once every three weeks or so… no questions asked, just slip Amran or Tony a fiver on the door of the Cinema Museum and you’re in for a treat! Something old, often borrowed and occasionally blue… When the door of the Museum had to temporarily close, these intrepid individuals just stayed calm and carried on, shifting to digital and, with casual ease, bloomin’ well going global!

KB TV has been running throughout the lockdown on YouTube and tonight was the fourth episode with four films shown with the live or pre-recorded accompaniment that makes for the full silent experience. We also had a comments feed indicating the attendance of silent film friends from Brazil (hiya Paula!), the USA (the legendary Donna!), the EU and far beyond the usual collection from the Capital.

The KB’s own Blonde Bombshell or should that be Bomb-chelle?

Cyrus Gabrysch’s film of the Cinema Museum set the feel of place and then Michelle Facey, who’s lockdown presence has been felt online through one glorious floral display after another, provided the introductions and context that held the show together. MC Facey, as she should now be called, welcomed us with all the sass and assurance of Marlene on the stage at Der blaue Engel, as she talked us through the evening’s exploration. The films were supplied by the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam including some from their Jean Desmet Collection.

Oh, You Ragtime! (1912) with Costas Fotopoulos

Muriel Ostriche joins in the dance

This high-energy short was from the French Éclair studio who had set up production in the USA and set about re-working French vaudeville for the new market. Directed by Étienne Arnaud the film features a classical pianist (Guy Oliver) who, on moving to his new apartment, tests out his piano by playing Alexander's Ragtime Band. This has the effect of forcing everyone who hears to start dancing and before long his removal men and most of the building are dancing.

Muriel Ostriche plays a typist caught up in the moves and she’s someone I’ve read about but never seen. She was only 15 at the time of this film but became a big star for a while in the 1910s, coming second to Alice Joyce in a Motion Picture Story Magazine poll to find the favourite movie stars in 1913. Michelle quoted from Q. David Bowers fascinating biography on the Princess of Silent Films -who he met in 1986 – and it’s good to see her star quality on screen.

The film ends with Muriel and the rest exhausted and slumped all over the pianist’s room which works well enough but Michelle read out the dénouement in which the pianist revives them with a gallop. Music to move you.

All of this was an absolute gift for Costas who had me tapping my feet along throughout.

The Lie (1915) with John Sweeney

Ship mates?

To the sea for the next film, a tense tail of two seafaring men competing for the love of one woman. William Hinckley plays our hero David and his wife Joan is Adoni Fovieri who is greatly admired by his friend Caleb (Joseph Singleton). Joan has not told her husband that she is expecting their child and then tragedy strikes as the men are seemingly lost at sea in a vicious storm. Caleb is rescued though and returns to tell Joan that David and the rest of the crew all drowned… as the years pass, Joan still keeps on hoping and Caleb still keeps on trying to force her hand in marriage…

You can probably guess how this one’s gong to end but it’s well done and Mr Sweeney was in robust form, an all-weather player he always plays the rolling sea with such thunderous glee and gave this emotional play that extra lift it needed.

Cutey Plays Detective (1913) with Costas Fotopoulos

Wally Van's Cutey keeps and eye on the competition

Now for some cross-dressed wooing as our hero Cutey (Wally Van) takes on the role of house maid in order to get close to his love, Alys (Zena Keefe). Mother (Louise Beaudet) does not approve of Cutey/Wally and prefers the attentions of dastardly Lord Goodbluff (Courtenay Foote) for her daughter. Luckily, she is very impressed by her new maid’s skills and, well, she gets a lot more than she bargained for…

Directed by Laurence Trimble, this was a hoot with engaging leads and a very bad Goodbluff! Costa’s added classy flavouring to another mad dance!

 The Mystery of the Tea Dansant (1915) with Cyrus Gabrysch

Ruth takes charge... as the Piano-Cam shows Cyrus' keys

This three-reeler was the fourth episode of seven in The Girl Detective series from Kalem and starring the rousingly resourceful Ruth Roland as the titular ‘tec, a woman of agency as Michelle described her and definitely the Sherlock to her assistant, Harry’s Dr Watson. Michelle quoted from Kalton C. Lahue who in Continued Next Week, A History of the Moving Picture Serial, points out that in these films, the woman rescued the man as much as he rescued her if not more often… so, reflecting life as it is more accurately than the myths of melodrama might suggest.

Not that this film lacks a damsel in distress but there are plenty of men in need of help and the impressive Ruth is there to put things right. Thomas G. Lingham is Marmaduke, the meanspirited manager of the Tea Dansant which is a cover for his criminal operation and also an excuse to show us lots of rug being cut. It’s strictly come kidnapping though as Marmaduke abducts heiress Marguerite Wheeler (Cleo Ridgely) and starts demanding payments from her distraught mother (Anna Lingham – mother of Thomas?).

Thomas G. Lingham worried whiskers

Ruth finds the weak spot in the operation by arresting Darby (Knute Rahm) who the cunning club runner is blackmailing into assisting him and with the aid of trusty sidekick Harry (R. Henry Grey) and the cops, she sets about solving the case. I love the way Ruth is in command and more than a match for the master criminal.

Cyrus accompanied live with dramatic dash and flourish and it felt very much like being back in the comforts of curious Kennington. I’ve missed these folk and their endless fascination with film – something that burns as brightly in lockdown as ever before. So, keep it coming KB and thank you for continuing to unite us all around cinema.

You can catch up on all the episodes on the KB's youTube channel right here.

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