This afternoon I went to the Revue Cinema on Roncesvalles Street, which is celebrating its centenary. It's a miracle that these repertory screens are still around today! When I lived in Toronto thirty years ago I came to think of the Dundas West station as the station near the Revue. (I also identified Bathurst with the Bloor, College with the Carleton, Bay with the Cumberland, Royal York with the Kingsway...)
I saw the first presentation of the new season of silent movies at the Revue, with live piano accompaniment by William O'Meara! (The only thing that beats a live piano accompanying a silent movie is a live orchestra, which is how I saw Murnau's SUNRISE at London's Royal Festival Hall back in 1995.) First they showed two shorts: DW Griffiths' EDGAR ALLEN POE, and the second chapter of the serial A WOMAN IN GREY, which ended with Arlene Pretty about to be knifed...
The main feature was John Barrymore's 1920 version of RL Stevenson's DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. It was a bit elliptical about the evil things Hyde did. I've never read the book but I ought to someday. (Stevenson got the idea from the real-life story of an eighteenth-century minister who moonlighted as a highwayman.) Freud must have had a field day with it!
Wednesday night the Revue is showing an early Vincent Price horror movie THE MAD MAGICIAN. I definitely want to see that one too!
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