The
Wednesday Evening Film Series
Winter 2010
The Historic Elsinore Theatre and
Chemeketa Community College
Our Classic program
of seven acclaimed sound-era films—Intrigue and Romance—begins
January 6th with Casablanca.
Last September marked the 70th
anniversary of the beginning of World War II in Europe, in the
fall of 1939. Before Pearl Harbor, America tended to be
isolationist and was officially neutral regarding Hitler’s
threat to Europe. But by 1940, Hollywood appeared to be
neither. The Hollywood moguls were Eastern European Jewish
immigrants and their studios were populated with newly arrived
European film artists and technicians who had fled the
escalating danger.
The alarm had already begun
to be raised in such films as Hitchcock’s The Lady
Vanishes, made in England in 1938. It was the beginning
of a fascinating period of cinema––when so much was at stake in
the world––producing imaginative and impassioned movies that
addressed the German aggression and rising turmoil. Story ideas
were pulled from the headlines, and émigré masters of movie
entertainment such as Hitchcock, Fritz Lang, Ernst Lubitsch, and
Michael Curtiz deftly orchestrated political intrigue, images of
a very real menace, a dash of propaganda, and memorable romance
(and often a good deal of sharp wit) with such skill that their
movies from this period have become cinema landmarks:
Casablanca, Foreign Correspondent,
Man Hunt, To Be Or Not To Be. These were
thrillers, romances, and comedies that harbored an anti-Fascist
punch. American Howard Hawks joined in with To Have and
Have Not in 1944, his variation on Casablanca.
The series concludes with Carol Reed’s powerful British
masterpiece of post-War intrigue and mystery, The Third
Man.
The themes in these movies
reflect the passions and moral dilemmas of the times:
isolationism vs. involvement, cynicism vs. commitment, and
integrity vs. collaboration. The settings are studio-crafted
foreign capitals and ports of call around the globe. These
WWII-era American and British stories of intrigue and romance
sought to align domestic audiences with exotic cities in
distress and with the plight and courage of peoples of the
world. Program notes offering commentary will be provided for
this Classic program.
Parallel to the Classic
program is our Silent program of four movie evenings,
which begins January 27th. This program celebrates
the mastery of pioneering silent screen directors and stars.
The silent film presentations will feature digitally restored
films from archival prints and live accompaniment by Rick Parks
at the “Mighty Wurlitzer Organ.”
Tickets are $5 each and can
be purchased at the Historic Elsinore Theatre, and at all
Tickets West locations. Phone 503.375.3574 for information.
Box office and doors open at 6:00 pm, movies start at 7:00 pm.
Classic Series Coordinator:
Robert Bibler.
Silent Series Coordinator: Rick Parks.
Technical Sponsor:
Allied Video
Productions
March 10
7:00 pm To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks,
1944, USA)
Humphrey Bogart plays an
American charter boat captain on the WWII Caribbean island of
Martinique. Nazi-collaborationist Vichy thugs threaten his
livelihood, while pleading Free French resistance fighters try
to weaken his fierce isolationism. But it is the arrival of
gorgeous bad-girl Marie (19-year-old Lauren Bacall) that gets
his attention. In Pauline Kael’s words, this “beautiful big cat
of a girl slouched across the screen for the first time.” Great
scenes and snappy, funny dialogue were written especially for
the sexually charged pairing of Bogart and Bacall, who fell in
love during the production––and it shows. Bacall sings,
accompanied by the great Hoagy Carmichael, who also performs a
couple of numbers. Sensational. Not to be missed. With Walter
Brennan, Dolores Moran, Marcel Dalio (Grand Illusion),
Dan Seymour. 100 minutes
“An unassuming
masterpiece.” —Time Out
“Legendary love scenes…
but there are also solid performances, taut action… Super
dialogue by William Faulkner and Jules Furthman.”
—Leonard Maltin’s Movie and Video Guide
“Thoroughly enjoyable…
The refreshingly, daringly sexy Bacall burst through the
conventions of the era.” —The New
Yorker
March 17
7:00 The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl
Dreyer, France, 1928)
Conveying the final
twenty-four hours of Saint Joan’s life—the conclusion of her
trial, her conviction, and her death at the stake—The
Passion of Joan of Arc is a monumental cinema landmark,
famous especially for Renée Jean Falconetti’s performance as
Joan. Dreyer’s groundbreaking direction is noted for its
poignant, detailed close-ups and unusual camera angles. 114
minutes.
“Dreyer’s most
universally acclaimed masterpiece remains one of the most
staggeringly intense films ever made… It’s hard to imagine a
performer evincing physical anguish and spiritual exaltation
more palpably [than Falconetti]… The entire film is less
moulded in light than carved in stone: it’s magisterial cinema,
and almost unbearably moving.” ––Time
Out
“HHHH.
Based on [the] transcript of the historical trial.
Masterfully directed.” ––Leonard Maltin
“One of the greatest of
all movies… Falconetti’s Joan may be the finest performance
ever recorded on film.” The New
Yorker
March 24
7:00 pm The Third Man (Carol Reed, Great
Britain, 1949)
American novelist, Holly
Martin (Joseph Cotton), arrives in post-War Vienna to take a job
offered by an old friend, Harry Lime. But could it be that his
friend Harry is a criminal, a war profiteer and, perhaps…dead?
Now Martin’s own life is in danger. Martin’s American innocence
is contrasted with a jaded British intelligence officer (Trevor
Howard), and a worldly, beautiful woman (Alida Valli). The
truth is as murky and labyrinthine as the Vienna sewer system,
where director Reed stages a famous climactic chase. Powerfully
expressionist Academy Award winning cinematography. Script by
Graham Greene from his novel. With Orson Welles. 104 minutes.
“Irresistible romantic
thriller. Stylish from the first to the last, with inimitable
backgrounds of zither music and war-torn buildings…”
—Halliwell’s Film Guide
“HHHH.
A bona fide classic.” ––Leonard Maltin
The Historic Elsinore Theatre and
Chemeketa Community College
Present
The
Wednesday Evening Film Series
Spring & Summer 2010
Our Classic program
of ten acclaimed sound-era films—Bigger Than Life: Stories
for the Big Screen—begins April 7th with
The Music Man. All selections except one (Roman
Holiday, based on an anonymous story by blacklisted
screenwriter Dalton Trumbo) are adaptations of––or are modeled
on––an enduring work of theater or literature.
Our Silent program of
four movie evenings–– celebrating the visual storytelling art of
pioneering screen directors and stars––begins April 21st.
The films are digitally restored from archival prints and
presented with live accompaniment by Rick Parks at the “Mighty
Wurlitzer Organ.”
Tickets are $5 each and can
be purchased at the Historic Elsinore Theatre, and at all
Tickets West locations. Phone 503.375.3574 for information.
Box office and doors open at 6:00 pm, movies start at 7:00 pm.
Classic Series Coordinator:
Robert Bibler.
Silent Series Coordinator: Rick Parks.
Technical Sponsor:
Allied Video
Productions
Series
Sponsor: Reed Opera House & Allesandro's Ristorante
April 7
7:00 pm The Music Man
(Morton Da Costa, USA, 1962)
The film version of the Broadway hit––one of the
finest American musicals ever––has been restored in high
definition to its original color and widescreen glory. Enduring
songs are seamlessly integrated with a clever, funny story of a
salesman con artist hoodwinking a small Iowa town into buying
musical instruments they cannot play. Robert Preston, Shirley
Jones, Buddy Hackett, Hermione Gingold, Ronny Howard. Color.
151 minutes.
“Faithful [film] of Meredith Wilson’s
affectionate slice of Americana… Peerless Preston reprises his
Broadway performance…” ––Leonard
Maltin’s Movie Guide
“Zestily performed and choreographed, beautifully
shot by Robert Burks, full of standards like ’76 Trombones’ and
‘Till there Was You,’ and endowed with a warming nostalgia…”
––Time Out Film Guide
April 14
7:00 pm Roman Holiday
(William Wyler, USA, 1953)
Audrey Hepburn made her film debut (and won an
Oscar) playing a bored princess in Italy, who escapes her
handlers and meets up with an American journalist (Gregory
Peck). Director Wyler shot the film on location in Rome. 119
minutes.
“Utterly charming.”
––Leonard Maltin
“Wonderfully enjoyable… The movie remains a great
tonic.” ––Time Out
“Charming… Wyler builds [Hepburn’s] character
until she has the audience in thrall, and when she smiles we’re
all goners.” ––Pauline Kael, The New
Yorker
April 21
7:00 pm The Black Pirate
(Albert Parker, USA, 1926)
A buccaneer (Douglas Fairbanks Sr.) searches for
the pirates who pillaged and destroyed his ship and killed his
father. Peerless athleticism and grand adventure, with romance
involving a captured, beautiful, young princess (Billie Dove).
94 minutes.
“Perfectly captures [Fairbank’s] relaxed,
exuberant optimism… The daring stunts are breathtakingly
stylish…, while scenes are shot through with poetic beauty… An
added bonus is that the film was shot with two-strip
Technicolor, a lovely pastel process that defies description.”
––Time Out
April 28
7:00 pm Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa, Japan,
1961)
A gang war terrorizes a small town until a
wandering, unemployed samurai (Toshiro Mifune) offers his
services as a yojimbo (bodyguard)––not to the
town, but to both gangs at once. Kurosawa’s action-packed
black-comedy masterpiece (derived from Dashiell Hammett’s Red
Harvest) was remade as A Fistful of Dollars,
but this is the real deal. Restored in high definition to its
widescreen splendor. 110 minutes.
“HHHH.
Superb tongue-in-cheek samurai
picture. Mifune is perfection… Beautiful on all counts.”
––Leonard Maltin
“Boisterous, exhuberant comedy-satire… Kurosawa,
in a triumph of bravura technique, makes [the violence]
explosively comic and exhilarating. One of the rare Japanese
films that is both great and funny to American audiences.”
––Pauline Kael
May 5
7:00 pm The Kid Brother (Ted Wilde and J.A.
Howe, USA, 1927)
Harold Lloyd plays Harold
Hickory, a meek, slight country boy. Harold’s intimidating
father, the town’s tough sheriff, deputizes Harold, demanding
that he close down a traveling medicine show. But Harold is
smitten by the show’s attractive dancer (Jobyna Ralston).
84
minutes.
“HHHH.
Delightfully winning, beautifully filmed comedy with Lloyd as
Cinderella-type kid brother in a robust all-male family, who
gets to prove his mettle in [an] exciting finale… One of Lloyd’s
all-time best.” ––Leonard Maltin
May 12
7:00 pm The Women
(George Cukor, USA, 1939)
A circle of female friends navigate romance and
divorce, while discussing their lives, marriages, and men in
this lively, witty adaptation of the 1936 Claire Booth Luce
play. Directed by George Cukor (Stage Door,
The Philadelphia Story), the extraordinary cast
includes Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, Rosalind Russell, Mary
Boland, Paulette Goddard, Joan Fontaine, Lucile Watson, Marjorie
Main, Ruth Hussey, Butterfly McQueen. 132 minutes.
“All star (and all female) cast shines in this
hilarious adaptation…” ––Leonard
Maltin
“A real treat…a joyous, unsentimental celebration
of womanhood. And the performances are wonderful.”
––Time Out
“An over-generous slice of real theatre,
skillfully adapted, with rich sets, plenty of laughs,
and…memorable scenes.” ––Halliwell’s
Film Guide
May 26
7:00 pm Forbidden Planet
(Fred McLeod Wilcox, USA, 1956)
A year 2200 expedition of space travelers is sent
to learn what has happened to the colonists of Altair-4 in this
sci-fi classic, filmed in color and CinemaScope. Based on
Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Walter Pigeon, Anne Francis,
Leslie Nielson, James Drury, Jack Kelly, Earl Holliman, and
Robby the robot. 98 minutes.
“One of the most ambitious and intelligent films
of its genre… Great effects, eerie electronic score. Lavish use
of widescreen…” ––Leonard Maltin
“Classic ‘50s sci-fi… An ingenious script,
excellent special effects and photography, and superior acting…
make it an endearing winner.” ––Time
Out
“The best of the sci-fi interstellar productions
of the 50s…” ––Pauline Kael.
June 2
7:00 pm Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton, USA,
1924)
Among Those Present (Fred C. Newmeyer, USA, 1924)
Falling asleep on the job as
a projectionist, Buster Keaton begins to dream and imagines
himself stepping into the movie that is on screen.
Dreaming he is the movie’s hero, Sherlock Holmes, searching for
stolen pearls, Buster’s unconscious mind is on a quest for the
solution to troubling events in his waking life. With special
effects remarkable even today, it’s a great comedy on the
confluence of dreams, movies, and reality. In Among Those
Present, Harold Lloyd is an ambitious coat-room checker
persuaded to impersonate an English nobleman. Without having
any prior experience, he leads a fox hunt. 79 minutes.
“HHHH.
Sublime. Keaton reached his pinnacle with this brilliant and
hilarious story…” ––Leonard Maltin
“Keaton’s third feature is an incredible
technical accomplishment… Great chase sequence, a veritable
cascade of unbelievably complex gags…”
––Time Out
June 16
7:00 pm Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming,
USA, 1939)
Vivian Leigh plays the headstrong Scarlet O’Hara,
a young lady in a wealthy Southern plantation family, who is
determined to control her own destiny despite social rules, war,
and the decline of a life of privilege. Based on Margaret
Mitchell’s historical novel, this spectacular epic romance won 9
Academy Awards and several more nominations. Clark Gable plays
Rhett Butler; with Olivia de Havilland (as Melanie Hamilton),
Leslie Howard (Ashley Wilkes), Hattie McDaniel, Evelyn Keyes,
Butterfly McQueen, Thomas Mitchell. Recently restored in high
definition. Technicolor. 238 minutes.
“HHHH.
If not the greatest movie ever made,
certainly one of the greatest examples of storytelling on film…”
––Leonard Maltin
June 23
7:00 pm The Love of Jeanne Ney (Georg
Wilhelm Pabst, Germany, 1928)
In the Crimea after WWI, young Jeanne (Edith
Jehanne) discovers her lover is a Bolshevik implicated in the
death of her visiting diplomat father. She retreats to Paris to
work for her uncle’s detective agency, where mysteries and plots
accumulate involving her lover, a scheming Russian expatriate
(Fritz Rasp), and a stolen diamond. With Brigitte Helm (Metropolis).
100 minutes.
“Director [Pabst] planned every shot with great
particularity, composing the film on the principle of constant
motion––of the actors and the action, but also the camera, which
nervously seeks out visible clues to the characters' inner
states.” ––Richard T. Jameson
June 30
7:00 pm How Green Was My Valley (John Ford,
USA, 1941)
Eclipsing Citizen Kane at the
Academy Awards in 1941, this film won five well-deserved
Oscars: Best Picture, Direction, Cinematography, Art Direction,
Supporting Actor. Director John Ford (The Grapes of Wrath)
poetically depicts––with indelible, beautiful images––a tale of
unrequited love, as social strife and economic decline takes its
toll on a coal mining family and their 19th century
Welsh village. The mining industry both sustains their village
life and buries it in waste. Warm, eloquent, and
environmentally prescient, the film’s period recreation is
lovely, yet its message couldn’t be more timely. Donald Crisp,
Maureen O’Hara, Walter Pigeon, Roddy McDowall. 118 minutes.
“HHHH.
Beautifully filmed, lovingly
directed…Moving drama from Richard Llewellyn’s story…”
––Leonard Maltin
July 7
7:00 pm Red River
(Howard Hawks, USA, 1948)
Famous for its pairing of Montgomery Clift and
John Wayne, Red River is also one of the most
beautiful westerns ever photographed. Thomas Dunson (Wayne) has
ruthlessly acquired a cattle empire, but his hard manner and
obsession to drive the herd to Abilene causes conflict with his
adopted son (Clift). With Walter Brennan, Joanne Dru, John
Ireland. 133 minutes.
“HHHH.
One of the greatest American adventures
is really a western Mutiny on the Bounty… Spellbinding
photography, a rousing Dimitri Tiomkin score; an absolute
must.” ––Leonard Maltin
“A sheer delight… perfectly performed by a host
of Hawks regulars, and shot through with dark comedy, it’s
probably the finest western of the ‘40s.”
––Time Out
“A magnificent horse opera. [The] photography
makes the rolling plains the true hero; the setting has epic
grandeur…” ––Pauline Kael
July 14
7:00 pm The Miracle Worker (Arthur Penn,
USA, 1962)
A determined Irish governess, Annie Sullivan (Ann
Bancroft) is hired to teach the young Helen Keller (Patty
Duke). Born blind and deaf, Helen had been heretofore mostly
left to her own devices. With Annie’s arrival, a ferocious
battle of wills ensues. Penn also directed the hit Broadway
play, which starred Bancroft and Duke, who then won Oscars for
their powerful screen performances. 107 minutes.
“Remarkable screen version of William Gibson’s
play… It’s a stunningly impressive piece of work… deriving much
of its power from the performances… [Bancroft and Duke] spark
off each other with a violence and emotional honesty rarely seen
in cinema, lighting up each other’s loneliness, vulnerability,
and plain fear.” ––Time Out
“Austerely beautiful treatment of [the] play…
There is absolutely no sentiment, which increases the emotional
power of the piece.” ––Leonard Maltin
“Extraordinary.” ––Pauline Kael
July 21
7:00 pm A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Max
Reinhardt & William Dieterle, USA, 1935)
In the magical Athenian
forest, two pairs of lovers sort through their difficulties with
assistance from spirits and fairies in Shakespeare’s comedy.
After the legendary German stage director Max Reinhardt’s
production of the play enchanted audiences across Europe, on
Broadway, and then to sold-out crowds at the Hollywood Bowl,
Warner Bros. invited him to direct this Oscar-winning
production. James Cagney, Dick Powell, Olivia De Havilland, Joe
E. Brown, Jean Muir, Ian Hunter, and Mickey Rooney. 117
minutes.
“Perhaps not the most
faithful of screen adaptations of Shakespeare, but certainly one
of the most charming. The performances are surprisingly
superb––notably Cagney as Bottom and young Rooney as Puck––while
visually the movie is a triumph of art direction and
photography… the scenes of the fairies wafting through the
forest are beautiful enough to bring tears to the eyes.”
––Time Out
“Shakespeare’s play is treated with remarkable
respect in this super-glamorous Hollywood adaptation of the
Broadway production by Max Reinhardt. Much of it comes off, and
visually it’s a treat.” ––Halliwell’s
Film Guide
The Film Studies Program
at Chemeketa Community College offers courses in film
appreciation—The Cinema of Alfred Hitchcock this winter. See the
College catalog or the quarterly Schedule of Classes or contact
Steve Slemenda at 503.399.6237 for further information.
Historic Elsinore
Theatre 170 High St SE, Salem OR 97301 503.375.3574
All films at the Historic
Elsinore Theatre. Box office and doors open at 6 pm, movies
begin at 7 pm.
Films subject to change.
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