Capital Celluloid 2013 - Day 66: Thu Mar 7

Dollmania: A Morton Barlett inspired night of films
The Horse Hospital, Colonnade, Bloomsbury 7.30pm

Along with Henry Darger, Morton Bartlett is one of the most celebrated 'outsider artists'. The Chamber of Pop Culture at the Horse Hospital has an exhibition (from March 2 to 30) of Bartlett's photographs of his beautifully intricately carved, life-like, plaster dolls he made between 1926 and 1963. To coincide witht the exhibition here is an evening of films inspired by the artist.

Family Found (2002):

This 16mm short documentary directed by Emil Harris, filmed in Boston Massachusetts in 2002, covers the life and work of the renowned self-taught artist Morton Bartlett. The film has since been screened in several museums internationally including the American Folk Art Museum in New York, The Contemporary Art Museum in California, The Intuit Art Gallery in Chicago and The Brighton and Hove Museum in England. The film contains an original music score by the highly acclaimed composer John Zorn.

Dolls We Love (1982) from the Center for Home Movies in Baltimore, Marlyland:

A documentary by amateur filmmaker and Pacific Telephone Company telephone repairman, Arthur Smith, about the dolls that Blanche Smith collected while they lived in the Trail’s End Trailer Park in Big Bear Lake, California.

The Hitchcock Hour: Where the Woodbine Twineth (1965) (Poor Quality):

Orphaned Eva has come to live with her uncle, Mississippi riverboat Captain King Snyder and his old maid sister Nell and constantly talks to imaginary friends whom she believes are real. Captain gives Eva a doll named Numa. Eva warns that if Nell takes Numa away, Eva will trade places with Numa and go to the idyllic place “where the woodbine twineth.” A timeless Southern Gothic tale with a score by Hitchcock’s long-time collaborator Bernard Hermann.

Mister E (1960) from the Chicago Film Archives:

A domestic black comedy, made by Margaret Conneely, an award winning and prolific amateur filmmaker. Expresses some of the edgier mischief and discontent that women of the 1950s could rarely express openly. This short film narrates the revenge acted out by a young wife, left at home while her husband is at a card game; by staging a rendezvous with a mannequin, this woman provokes an eruption of jealousy and violence before bringing about the desired marital tenderness. .

The Twilight Zone episode Living Doll (1963):

Telly Savalas as Erich Streator, who is threatened by a toy doll. Erich does not like the Talky Tina his wife has bought for Christie, his step-daughter. However the doll, voiced by the great June Foray (the voice of Rocky J. Squirrel), tells Erich she hates him too. A gripping episode since Talky Tina never talks when anybody else is around. Poor Erich, but like most of the inhabitants of the Twilight Zone he gets what he has coming to him.

Here is the trailer.