The Yellow Ticket

press release:

USA | 1931 | 35mm | 88 min.

Director: Raoul Walsh

Cast: Elissa Landi, Laurence Olivier, Lionel Barrymore

A Jewish woman (Landi) is forced to accept a passport identifying her as a prostitute, in order to travel within pre-revolutionary Russia. The fourth film version (and first talkie version) of British dramatist Michael Morton’s play also features great cinematography by James Wong Howe and a supporting cast that includes Barrymore as a corrupt Czarist official, Olivier making his American movie debut as Landi’s love interest, and Boris Karloff as an orderly.

Fox Restorations from MoMA: In our first series tribute to the magnificent archival library and preservation efforts of the Department of Film at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, we proudly present seven hard-to-see cinematic gems from Fox Films. These lovely entertainments, produced in the first years of the talkies before Fox merged with 20th Century Films, include pre-code comedies and thrillers, a musical, and a Western. Our lineup includes work by pantheon auteurs like John Ford and Raoul Walsh, but also directors who deserve to be better known like William K. Howard and William Dieterle. The series begins on Feb. 4 with an in-person appearance by the noted film critic Dave Kehr, who now serves as Adjunct Curator in MoMA’s Department of Film.

All Cinematheque screenings are free and open to the public.