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Preservation funded by The Packard Humanities Institute
Double Door
U.S., 1934
Inspired by a New York legend, this grand guignol melodrama showcases Broadway actress Mary Morris in her only film role as the demented matriarch of the fabulously wealthy Van Brett family. Victoria will stop at nothing, not even murder, to maintain authority and promote her avarice. Morris convincingly plays a personality decades beyond her physical age of 39, and an evil older than time.
35mm, b&w, 75 min. Director: Charles Vidor. Screenwriters: Gladys Lehman, Jack Cunningham. With: Evelyn Venable, Mary Morris, Anne Revere.
Preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive in conjunction with Universal Pictures from the 35mm nitrate studio composite answer print. Laboratory services by The Stanford Theatre Film Laboratory, Audio Mechanics, DJ Audio, Simon Daniel Sound. Special thanks to Bob O’Neil.
Supernatural
U.S, 1933
In the Halperin brothers’ artful follow-up to White Zombie, Carole Lombard plays a grieving young heiress preyed upon by spiritualists and spirits. During a phony séance, the genuine ghost of an executed murderess takes possession of her body, the better to reach the man who betrayed her, the fake medium. Perhaps the most unusual aspect of Supernatural is its depiction of characters who laugh in the face of death, a risus sardonicus that occurs three times in the course of the story before its apotheosis at the climax.
35mm, b&w, 65 min. Director: Victor Halperin. Screenwriters: Harvey Thew, Brian Marlow. Based on a story by Garnett Weston. With: Carole Lombard, Allan Dinehart, Vivienne Osborne.
Preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive in conjunction with Universal Pictures from a 35mm composite nitrate print and 35mm acetate fine grain master. Laboratory services by The Stanford Theatre Film Laboratory, Audio Mechanics, DJ Audio, Simon Daniel Sound. Special thanks to Bob O’Neil.
