SATURDAY MORNING CLASSICS, Cinema 21
SATURDAY MORNING CLASSICS
Programmed Exclusively for Cinema 21 by Elliot Lavine
NOW PLAYING: 4 X HITCHCOCK!
Yes, the Master of Suspense returns to Saturday Morning Classics with a quartet of his most illustrious films from the 1950s, all on the BIGGEST SCREEN at CINEMA 21!
JANUARY 25 "NORTH BY NORTHWEST" (1959)
The ultimate comic Hitchcock thriller; a virtual compendium of what makes his films so vastly entertaining. A Madison Avenue ad-man is mistaken for a double-agent and chased cross-country by a pair of actual spies while also being hunted as an assassin by the police! Almost every trope and technique the director is known for is gleefully on display in this once-in-a-lifetime motion picture experience! Starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Leo G. Carroll, Martin Landau, Jessie Royce Landis. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. In COLOR. 136 mins.
---------------
COMING IN FEBRUARY: The 50s!
A QUARTET OF CLASSICS FROM HOLLYWOOD’S MOST CURIOUS DECADE!
February 1 "SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN" (1952)
One of Hollywood’s most beloved musical comedies, it’s also one of its most creatively innovative ones, a mad mix of acrobatic choreography and a pitch-perfect take on Hollywood history, when movies were just beginning to talk (and sing), making it one of Tinseltown’s most riotous portraits of itself. The songs include Make Em Laugh, Fit As A Fiddle, Moses Supposes, All I Do Is Dream of You, and of course, the title tune. Starring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor, Jean Hagen. Screenplay of Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Cinematography by Harold Rosson, in Technicolor. Directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen. 102 mins.
February 8 "REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE" (1955)
Come celebrate what would have been James Dean’s ninety-fourth birthday (Feb 8, 1931) with a screening of the late actor’s signature film, an achingly emotional scream in the night, a troubling picture of wayward teenage youth—not in the slums of the inner city, but in the privileged, shuttered homes in suburbia. This film appeared at the dawn of the rock and roll era and was released to theaters just days after the tragic car wreck that took the young actor’s life, placing him squarely and permanently in the pantheon of Hollywood legends. See it in all its radiant splendor on the giant Cinema 21 screen. Starring James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus, Dennis Hopper. Screenplay by Stewart Stern. Cinematography by Ernest Haller, in CinemaScope and WarnerColor. Directed by Nicholas Ray. 111 mins.
February 15 "NIGHT OF THE HUNTER" (1955)
Hollywood’s great Gothic Noir, and one of the decade’s most thematically and visually stimulating films, it continues to fascinate new generations of film-goers, falling prey to its hypnotic spell, inhabiting their dreams for years to come. An unrepentant serial killer, posing as a man of the cloth, relentlessly pursues a pair of homeless orphans in his delirious quest for the fortune in stolen money they possess. Starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, James Gleason, Evelyn Varden. Screenplay by James Agee, from the novel by Davis Grubb. Cinematography by Stanley Cortez, in Black & White. The first and only film directed by the great actor, Charles Laughton. 92 mins.
February 22 "SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS" (1957)
A megalomaniac New York gossip columnist, with the help of a desperate press agent, viciously manipulates the lives of those around him to satisfy his craven desires for stature and influence. Misunderstood by many at the time, this film has secured a place for itself as one of the 1950s most pungent film noir dramas, a piercing exploration of the effects of misplaced power in the explosive world of big city media. Starring Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, Martin Milner. Screenplay by Clifford Odets, from the short story by Ernest Lehman. Cinematography by the legendary James
Wong Howe, in Black & White. Directed by Alexander Mackendrick. 96 mins.
---------------
COMING IN MARCH: The 30s!