A film festival celebrating the career of director Clarence Brown begins this evening, Wednesday, Aug. 16, and runs through Sunday, Aug. 20, in Knoxville, Tenn.

Hosted by the Knox County Public Library, the Clarence Brown Film Festival will feature film screenings and presentations from speakers including Brown’s biographer Gwenda Young, film critic and historian Farran Nehme, actor Claude Jarman, Jr., and more. Information on the festival, including a full list of screenings and speakers, can be found here.

With a career spanning from 1920 to 1952, Brown is sometimes not as recognized as his contemporaries.

“In an interview with (historian) Kevin Brownlow, (director) Jean Renoir observed ‘I think more of Brown than Brown thinks of himself,’” Young said in an email with Comet Over Hollywood. “Renoir’s comment reveals, I think, just how highly regarded Brown was by his peers but also alludes to Brown’s reticence in seeking out acclaim. There’s no doubt Brown was viewed as an important and innovative filmmaker during his long career, but it’s also true to say that he has been overlooked in many film histories…”

Brown worked with some of Hollywood’s top stars, such as Rudolph Valentino, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, and Mickey Rooney. Free film screenings during the Clarence Brown Film Festival include Anna Karenina (1935), National Velvet (1944), The Yearling (1946), The Eagle (1925), Intruder in the Dust (1949), and a rare screening of The Signal Tower (1924).

“I think because Brown worked at MGM, the richest studio in Hollywood, he is associated with what Manny Farber called “white elephant art” — the perception being that he made high-budgeted films that self-consciously set out to become masterpieces,” Nehme said. “Some of the films can perhaps be classed that way, although I’d argue that even then, Brown’s work has a visual elegance and also a humanistic warmth that sets them apart.”

Tennessee native
Brown moved with his family to Knoxville, Tenn. in 1902 and graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1910 with a mechanical and electrical engineering degree, according to the University of Tennessee. Starting in 1973, Brown donated his personal papers, photographs and memorabilia to the university, and his estate left a $12 million endowment. He also contributed funds for the development and construction of the Clarence Brown Theatre.

The first Clarence Brown Film Festival was held by the university in 1973, and this year marks the 50th anniversary of that event, according to Eric Dawson, Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection Manager for the Knox County Public Library.

“It seemed like a good time to show some of his films and remind, or even introduce, locals who may know the name from the Clarence Brown Theatre but aren’t as aware of his film career,” Dawson said. “At the height of his career, he was an A-list studio director known as ‘the star-maker,’ but his films don’t seem to have the second life as those of directors, such as Hitchcock, Ford or Hawks, to name a few.”

While the Tennessee Theatre is the main venue, the film schedule begins on Thursday with a screening at Central Cinema in Clarence Brown’s childhood neighborhood of Happy Holler, according to Dawson.

The film The Signal Tower (1924) will be presented on 35mm and was recently restored by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, Dawson said.

“The Tennessee Theatre is currently the only venue in Knoxville that can project 35mm film, so we are very excited to be able to do that,” he said. “We are now in an era where some younger moviegoers have never seen an actual film projected, just digital files, and the opportunity to see film is more and more rare.”

Bringing out star qualities
A famous Tennessean in attendance is former child actor, Claude Jarman, Jr., who starred in two Brown feature films that will be presented at the festival: The Yearling and Intruder in the Dust. While looking for an unknown child actor to appear in The Yearling, Brown was scouting in Nashville, Tenn., where he spotted Jarman in his classroom. Brown was responsible for Jarman’s film career, which Jarman details in his memoir. Jarman will be present for discussions on The Yearling and Intruders in the Dust.

In addition to Jarman, Brown was Greta Garbo’s favorite director and brought out the “star quality” in Crawford, Gable and Taylor, Nehme said.

Throughout his long career, from silent to sound films, Brown’s techniques are inventive. For the silent era, Young points to notable examples like The Goose Woman, Smouldering Fires, Butterfly, The Signal Tower, Flesh and the Devil and The Eagle.

“His contributions to the art of silent cinema … are immense,” Young said. “Those films not only capture some of the mores of their age, especially in terms of offering bold and often daring representations of women, but they also showcase the very best of lush and visually arresting cinematography and dynamic editing.”

Young said that his sound-era films could be classified as “Americana,” noting films like The Signal Tower, Ah Wilderness! Of Human Hearts, The Human Comedy and The Yearling.

“These tales of ‘ordinary’ folk, in small towns or rural America, have a quiet power, and great delicacy and sensitivity in their treatment of their themes and the depiction of the lives, the emotions, the dreams of their human (and animal!) characters,” Young said. “Brown’s work captures a sense of American history and even folk culture in such films.”

You can view the full schedule of speakers and films for the Clarence Brown Film Festival (Aug. 16 – Aug. 20) here: https://www.knoxcountylibrary.org/clarence-brown-film-festival. Of note, all film screenings are free.

Comet Over Hollywood will be in attendance for the Saturday and Sunday portion of the film festival. As a personal aside, Clarence Brown is one of my favorite directors, and “The Human Comedy” and “Intruder on the Dust” are two of my favorite films.

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