The Roberto Pallme
Collection
Jazzmania
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JAZZMANIA (1923)
Dir.: Robert Z. Leonard; (casting and
other data see: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0014164/fullcredits#writers),
George Eastman House (Roberto Pallme Collection).
The 1923 film Jazzmania,
has recently been restored by the Motion Picture Department at George Eastman
House. Unseen for over 85 years and
considered lost, a sole surviving nitrate print was discovered in Italy in the
collection of Roberto Pallme in the late 1990s.
Mae Murray, best known today for her “bee stung
lips”, was at the peak of her career when she made Jazzmania,
directed by her third and then husband Robert Z. Leonard. Murray started her career as the
quintessential dancing chorus girl but by 1906 had made her Broadway
debut. In 1921, she and Leonard formed
Tiffany Productions, which produced six films (including Jazzmania)
before they both went under contract with MGM in 1924. Murray’s first film, The Merry Widow,
directed by Erich von Stroheim, would be her most popular. After walking out of her MGM contract in
1926, she was blacklisted by Louis B. Mayer.
Murray attempted a comeback in the early 1930s, but after starring in
three unsuccessful talking pictures, her film career was over.
Today only half of the films that Mae Murray made
are known to survive. Because Jazzmania survived in an Italian release print, new English
titles needed to be created and search was made to locate a script, but nothing
turned up. Luck did smile upon us when a
Selznick School graduate, Daniela Currò, doing
research in the National Film Museum in Italy, came across a title list from
the 1920s, which had all the English titles and their Italian counterparts, so
we were able to make new titles using the original text. The color tinting in the restoration was
based on the tinting of the
Now audiences can once more enjoy this popular
1920s actress at the peak of her career as the charming Queen of the fictitious
Balkan country, Jazzmania -- a queen who would
rather dance than rule.
In addition to acting, producing and screenwriting,
Leonard directed nearly 100 films between 1914 and 1957. He and vaudeville star, Mae Murray, married,
co-founded Tiffany Pictures and made 24 films together. Jazzmania, starring
Murray, Rod La Rocque and Robert Frazer, is one of
his few surviving silent-era films.
Leonard was a highly successful contract director for MGM for 30 years,
directing films such as: Peacock Alley (1922), The Divorcee (1930), The Great
Ziegfeld (1936), Pride and Prejudice (1940) with Laurence Olivier, and In the
Good Old Summertime (1949). He won
Academy Awards for directing for The Divorcee and The Great Ziegfeld and has a
star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
JAZZMANIA (1923)
Dir.: Robert Z. Leonard; (casting and
other data see: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0014164/fullcredits#writers),
George Eastman House (Roberto Pallme Collection).
Testo in italiano non disponibile.
(Sorce/Fonte: http://film360365.com/festival/event?org=10657&event=33900;
)