Jon Mirsalis on Piano "Do you know what the tropics can do to a white woman?" Such intertitles notwithstanding, this completely unknown Paramount silent from 1928 is nearer to a masterpiece than any film in this series. That such quality has gone unnoted by film history may only have been due to the film's unavailability, but it also indicates the level of craftsmanship studio style was reaching routinely, before having to relearn all its tricks when sound took over the following year. In The Showdown, precursor to the Red Dust/Rain variety of tropical desires, a group of oil wildcatters are isolated in the oppressive heat of a Central American jungle. George Bancroft, Fred Kohler and Evelyn Brent are reunited from von Sternberg's Underworld, Bancroft the independent prospector, Kohler a company man, their longstanding rivalry not nearly as "buddy-film" good-natured as one expects and only heightened by the arrival of dark, elegant Evelyn Brent and her weak husband. Burly George Bancroft is extraordinary in his subtle pantomine, balanced between annoyance and amusement at the other men's frustrated maneuvering. Indeed, The Showdown-with its claustrophobic tensions expressed through gesture-seems crafted to give full play to what silent filmmaking does best. Not that director Victor Schertzinger doesn't break free with some spectacularly mobile camera work in a down-river cantina. Redeeming melodrama from unintentional comedy, this film makes quite a capper to the battles of the sexes that seem to have been the theme of our silents this week. Unknown though it is, The Showdown should not disappoint. Preceding the feature will be Allan Dwan's very strange and atmospheric Western drama, Maiden and Men. Scott Simmon