SIFF Blog:
Eighty-one years ago this week, Tod Browning’s gangster film The Big City, starring Lon Chaney, James Murray and Marceline Day, neared the end of a week-long run at the brand-spanking new Seattle Theatre. A quick review of films screened at the beaux-arts palace on Pine Street in the nine short months before sound was introduced reveals an astonishing 17 of 39 titles, which survive today.