Manhandled

Preceded by: Should Men Walk Home

USA 1927, director: LeoMcCarey, cast: Mabel Normand, Creighton Hale, 35mm print, 20 minutes, English titles

Instead of going to the movies, one evening a young salesgirl finds herself at a high society party. She becomes a star with artists and fashion designers at her feet. Gloria Swanson is once again at her comic best, combining the hard-working, snotty-nosed, gum-chewing city girl with the diva, the tragically melodramatic with anarchic humor. She is almost crushed by the masses in the underground and mauled by predatory customers in the department store. What applies to Stage Struck, Swanson’s following comedy, also applies to Manhandled: “A bomb of a role for Swanson. (...) One great idea follows the other, sometimes the comedy becomes grotesque (...). One must always admire the genius of the great Gloria. She is really not beautiful with her pointed nose, but she enchants with her versatility”, noted a Berlin critic (Film-Kurier, 25 Sep 1926).

The short film with Mabel Normand asks the crucial question: Should Men Walk Home (1927).

Accompanied by David Schwarz (grand piano). David Schwarz studied jazz piano in Munich, Weimar and Jerusalem and film music at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf. He is a multi-instrumentalist, arranger and composer and has worked as a theater musician, actor and composer on productions at Schauspiel Frankfurt, Schauspielhaus Graz and Theater Oberhausen, among others.

The program is introduced (in German) by Kristina Jaspers, curator at the Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum für Film und Fernsehen, Berlin. She is the editor and author of numerous publications on film and culture and has recently curated the exhibition Kino der Moderne. Film in the Weimar Republic.