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
February 10
7:00 pm To Be or Not to Be (Ernst
Lubitsch, USA, 1942)
Inspired by stories of
resistance fighters in Europe, Ernst Lubitsch (The Shop
Around the Corner, Ninotchka) began
filming this backstage comedy-drama before America entered World
War II. Jack Benny and the incomparable “queen of screwball,”
Carole Lombard, star as ham actors in a little theater company
in Warsaw, closed up by the Nazi occupation of Poland. Choosing
a larger “stage” upon which to perform, the scene-stealing
players decide to join the underground Resistance. The
complicated espionage plot they hatch to foil the Nazis requires
all of their acting skills and theatrical nerve. With drama,
satire, and black humor, the film ridicules self-important
actors and Nazi cruelty. Lombard’s final performance. Just
after the film’s completion, she was killed in a plane crash.
With Robert Stack, Felix Bressart, Lionel Atwill. 99 minutes.
“One of the most
audacious and perfectly structured screen comedies… the wit is
constantly underlaced with danger… It was criticized at the time
for alleged bad taste, but Benny, Lombard, and script are all
hilarious; It’s certainly one of the finest comedies to ever
come out of Paramount…” —Time Out
“Superb black comedy…
Benny has the role of a lifetime…”
—Leonard Maltin
“Based on an
indiscretion, but undoubtedly a work of art.”
—James Agee
“Marvelous
entertainment…Outstanding example of Hollywood moonshine, kept
alight by sheer talent and expertise.” —Halliwell’s Film
Guide
February 17
7:00 pm Our Hospitality (Buster Keaton, USA,
1923)
Set in the Old South of
1831, Our Hospitality beautifully evokes an early
American period rarely depicted on screen. Buster must travel
by a hilariously primitive railway to claim an inheritance from
his relatives who are engaged in a long-standing feud with
another family. A pretty young woman from this violent, rival
clan catches Buster’s innocent and careless eye. 74
minutes.
“HHHH.
Sublime silent comedy, one of Buster’s best, with a genuinely
hair-raising finale.” ––Leonard Maltin
“[Keaton’s] first
full-length masterpiece. The period setting is made integral to
the action, and all of the laughs spring directly from the
narrative and the characters. Buster’s climactic rescue of his
sweetheart from a waterfall is one of his most daringly
acrobatic (and most celebrated) gags.”
—Time Out
February 24
7:00 pm Man Hunt
(Fritz Lang, USA,
1941)
A wealthy big-game hunter,
British adventurer Alan Thorndike (Walter Pidgeon), hides in the
Bavarian woods and captures Hitler in the crosshairs of his
riflescope, just for “sport.” The SS capture and torture
Thorndike, in earnest. But the deadly “game” Thorndike started
is not over. Fritz Lang (Metropolis, Spies,
M, The Woman in the Window)
experienced the rising Nazi menace first-hand, and fled
Germany. Made months before America declared war, Lang’s
Man Hunt is a deliriously paranoid noir thriller,
a brilliant allegory of pre-War German-British political
cat-and-mouse, and a moral argument for American involvement.
With Joan Bennett, George Sanders, John Carradine. 102 minutes.
“Definitely a superior
thriller…gripping, complex, and nightmarish.”
—Time Out
March 3
7:00 pm Now or Never (Hal Roach & Fred Newmeyer,
USA, 1921)
The Adventurer (Charles Chaplin,
USA, 1917)
The Playhouse (Keaton & Eddie Cline, USA, 1921)
Liberty (Leo McCarey, USA, 1929)
Tonight, we present a
sampling of the pioneering masters of silent comedy. In
Now or Never, Harold Lloyd plays a man unaccustomed to
children who must accompany a precocious little girl on a train,
while attempting to dodge the conductor because he has no
ticket. Charlie Chaplin plays a prison escapee in The
Adventurer. Invited into the home of two wealthy
women––a good hideout, he thinks––he creates havoc at their
society party. In The Playhouse, Buster Keaton
brilliantly blends his own childhood experiences on the
vaudeville stage with his adult mastery of the magic of movies.
The result is a small masterpiece of special effects in which
Buster, by the use of precisely controlled multiple exposures,
plays all the parts and roles of a theatrical
production! Laurel and Hardy star in Liberty,
playing escaped convicts who somehow end up wearing each other’s
pants on the girders of a skyscraper under construction. 99
minutes.
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 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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