Schedule
Showings are scheduled through the end of January.
Reservations at the theater are strongly encouraged.
This Month’s Series and Themes
The screenings on the Packard Campus of the NAVCC are often presented with a certain theme or topic in mind. Sometimes this will be a series of films presented during the month, and at other times a reoccurring theme that is presented throughout the year. Here are this month’s series and themes:
You Must Remember This… A look back at a few of the stars that passed away in 2008. This series is a tip of the hat to some of the actors we lost in the past year with an example of their work.
Movie Milestones. Periodically we take a look at some of our favorite movies or stars, highlighting an important event in their history. This month we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ann Sothern and Dana Andrews.
$5 per Carload: The Best & Worst of Drive-In Movies. When someone thought of combining America’s love for the movies with their love for cars, the drive-in theater was created and low budget B-movies (long subjected to the bottom of double bills) became the #1 attraction.
Culturally, Historically or Aesthetically Significant: Films from the National Film Registry. As with the Mt. Pony theater’s inaugural screenings, we will continue to show those films determined to be the best America has to offer. For a complete list of films on the Nation Film Registry go to: www.loc.gov/film/filmnfr.html.
Book of the Month Club. From the written page to the silver screen, this is an ongoing look at how Hollywood has treated some of our literary classics.
Saturday Silents. At least once a month we will present films made before the talkies with live musical accompaniment. Occasionally we will run a silent film on another day, such as on Sunday, February 15 when we will present A Cottage on Dartmoor (1929) featuring Stephen Horne on the piano.
Friday, January 2 (7:30 p.m.)
You Must Remember This… A look back at some of the stars that passed away in 2008.
Paul Newman in
COOL HAND LUKE (Warner Bros., 1967)
A free-spirited convict refuses to conform to chain-gang life.
Luke Jackson (Paul Newman) is sentenced to a stretch on a southern chain gang after he's arrested for drunkenly decapitating parking meters. While the avowed ambition of the captain (Strother Martin) is for each prisoner to "get their mind right," it soon becomes obvious that Luke is not about to kowtow to anybody. When challenged to a fistfight by fellow inmate Dragline (George Kennedy), Luke simply refuses to give up, even though he's brutally beaten. Luke figures out a way for the men to get their work done in half the usual time, giving them the afternoon off. Finally, when Luke finds out his mother has died, he plots his escape; when he's caught, he simply escapes again. Soon, Luke becomes a symbol of hope and resilience to the other men in the prison camp -- and a symbol of rebelliousness that must be stamped out to the guards and the captain. --- Mark Deming, allmovie.com
Directed by Stuart Rosenberg; Producer: Gordon Carroll; Screenwriters: Donn Pearce & Frank Pierson; Cinematographer: Conrad L. Hall; Composer (Music Score): Lalo Schifrin.
With Paul Newman (Luke Jackson), George Kennedy (Dragline), J.D. Cannon (Society Red), Lou Antonio (Koko), Robert Drivas (Loudmouth Steve), Strother Martin (Captain).
35mm, color, 126 minutes. Print gift from Warner Bros.
Saturday, January 3 (2:00 pm.)
You Must Remember This... A look back at some of the stars that passed away in 2008.
Heath Ledger in
10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU (Touchstone Pictures, 1999)
A remake of the "The Taming of the Shrew" set in a modern day high school.
Bianca Stratford (Larisa Oleynik) is a tenth grader who has never gone on a date, as her parents have a little rule where Bianca isn't allowed to go out with boys until her older sister gets a boyfriend. The problem is, while her older sister Kat (Julia Stiles) is attractive and intelligent, she's also a mean-spirited misanthrope who rubs nearly everyone the wrong way -- especially boys. But Bianca and the guy she has her eye on, Joey Donner (Andrew Keegan), are eager to get their romance on the road, so Joey fixes Kat up with Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger), a new kid in town who may be just bitter and mysterious enough to suit her. --- Mark Deming, allmovie.com
Directed by Gil Junger; Producer: Andrew Lazah; Photography: Mark Irwin; Music : Richard Gibbs; Based on "Taming of the Shrew" by William Shakespeare.
With Heath Ledger (Patrick Verona), Julia Stiles (Kat Stratford), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Cameron James), Larisa Oleynik (Bianca Stratford), Larry Miller (Mr. Stratford).
35mm, color, 97 minutes. Copyright deposit print.
Tuesday, January 6 (7:00 pm.)
You Must Remember This… A look back at some of the stars that passed away in 2008.
Richard Widmark in
PICK UP ON SOUTH STREET (20th Century-Fox, 1953)
A petty thief accidentally steals a communist spy’s purse.
Barely out of prison, loner and pickpocket Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) quietly helps himself to the contents of a woman's purse. His beautiful victim, Candy (Jean Peters), turns out to be an unwitting courier for the communist underground; McCoy's booty is actually microfilmed U.S. government secrets, formerly en route to Moscow. Both the FBI and Candy's employers are desperate to retrieve the film. The apolitical and arrogant McCoy has a plan to play both ends against the middle and come up ahead. However, dealing with the authorities may mean life in the clink, and the sadistic communists would rather kill McCoy than pay him off. He quickly becomes embroiled with Candy, who will risk everything to right her wrongs, and eventually even more to save her new man. When McCoy loses a cohort and Candy is almost killed, the cocksure pickpocket finds a stronger motivation than personal gain. --- Aubry Anne D'Arminio, allmovie.com
Directed and written by Sam Fuller; Producer: Jules Schermer; Photography: Joe MacDonald; Composer (Musical score): Leigh Harliner.
With Richard Widmark (Skip McCoy), Jean Peters (Candy), Thelma Ritter (Moe), Murvyn Vye (Capt. Dan Tiger), Richard Kiley (Joey).
35 mm, black & white, 80 minutes. Copyright deposit print.
Friday, January 9 (7:30 pm.)
You Must Remember This… A look back at some of the stars that passed away in 2008.
Roy Scheider in
ALL THAT JAZZ (Columbia Pictures Corporation, 1979)
Director/choreographer Bob Fosse tells his own life story as he details the sordid life of Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider), a womanizing, drug-using dancer.
Joe Gideon is the ultimate work (and pleasure)-aholic, as he knocks back a daily dose of amphetamines to juggle a new Broadway production while editing his new movie, not to mention ex-wife Audrey (Leland Palmer), steady girlfriend Kate (Ann Reinking), a young daughter, and various conquests. Joe cannot, however, avoid intimations of mortality from white-clad vision Angelique (Jessica Lange) that lead him to look back at his life as he heads for a near-inevitable coronary and his departure from this mortal coil with the appropriate razzle-dazzle. Taking his cue from Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 (1963), Fosse moves from realistic dance numbers to extravagant flights of cinematic fancy, as Joe meditates on his life, his women, and his death. --- tcm.com
Directed by Bob Fosse; Producer: Robert Alan Aurthur; Screenplay by Robert Alan Aurthur & Bob Fosse; Photography: Giuseppe Rontunno; Composer (Musical score): Ralph Burns.
With Roy Scheider (Joe Gideon), Jessica Lange (Angelique), Leland Palmer (Audrey Paris), Ann Reinking (Kate Jagger), Cliff Gorman (Davis Newman), Ben Vereen (O'Connor Flood).
35 mm, color, 123 minutes. Print gift from Columbia Pictures.
Saturday, January 10 (2:00 pm.)
You Must Remember This… A look back at some of the stars that passed away in 2008.
Suzanne Pleshette in
THE ADVENTURES OF BULLWHIP GRIFFIN (Walt Disney Productions, 1967)
An orphaned 14 boy and the family butler from Boston stow away aboard a ship bound for the California Gold Rush.
Fourteen-year-old Jack Flagg (Bryan Russell) heads for California and the Gold Rush after the death of his grandfather in Boston in 1847. The grandfather's death has left orphan Jack and his sister, Arabella (Suzanne Pleshette), penniless, so he plans to hit it big out west. He's followed by Griffin (Roddy McDowall), the prim and proper family butler. Along the way, they get involved with an impoverished actor, a treasure map, and a villainous judge (Karl Malden), while a lucky punch by Griffin knocks out a huge bouncer, earning him the nickname "Bullwhip." The film features plenty of enjoyable action, a couple of catchy musical numbers from Pleshette, and a delightful portrait of California during the frenzied days of the Gold Rush. --- tvguide.com
Directed by James Neilson; Producer: Walt Disney; Screenplay by Lowell S. Hawley; Music: George Bruns.
With Roddy McDowall (Bullwhip Griffin), Suzanne Pleshette (Arabella Flagg), Karl Malden (Judge Higgins), Harry Guardino (Sam Trimble), Richard Haydn (Quentin Bartlett), Hermione Baddeley (Miss Irene Chesney), Bryan Russell (Jack Flagg).
35 mm, color, 110 minutes. Copyright deposit print.
Tuesday, January 13 (7:00 pm.)
You Must Remember This… A look back at some of the stars that passed away in 2008.
Charlton Heston in
PLANET OF THE APES (20th Century-Fox, 1968)
Three astronauts land on a mysterious planet which is ruled by intelligent apes and are taken prisoner. Soon, they find out they have travelled in a time warp to the Earth, but in its far future.
Charlton Heston is George Taylor, one of several astronauts on a long, long space mission whose spaceship crash-lands on a remote planet, seemingly devoid of intelligent life. Soon the astronaut learns that this planet is ruled by a race of talking, thinking, reasoning apes that hold court over a complex, multilayered civilization. In this topsy-turvy society, the human beings are grunting, inarticulate primates, penned-up like animals. When ape leader Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans) discovers that the captive Taylor has the power of speech, he reacts in horror and insists that the astronaut be killed. But sympathetic ape scientists Cornelius (Roddy McDowell) and Dr. Zira (Kim Hunter) risk their lives to protect Taylor -- and to discover the secret of their planet's history that Dr. Zaius and his minions guard so jealously. In the end, it is Taylor who stumbles on the truth about the Planet of the Apes: "Damn you! Damn you! Goddamn you all to hell!" ---Hal Erickson, allmovie.com
Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner; Produced by Arthur P. Jacobs; Screenplay by Michael Wilson&Leon Shamroy; Photography: Leon Shamroy. Based on the novel by Pierre Boulle.
With Charlton Heston (Taylor), Roddy McDowall (Cornelius), (Kim Hunter) Zira, Maurice Evans (Zaius), James Whitmore (President of the Assembly).
35 mm, color, 112 minutes. Print gift from 20th Century Fox.
Friday, January 16 (7:30 p.m.)
You Must Remember This… A look back at some of the stars that passed away in 2008.
Cyd Charisse in
THE BAND WAGON (MGM, 1953)
A pretentiously artistic director is hired for a new Broadway musical and changes it beyond recognition.
Fred Astaire stars in this MGM musical as Tony Hunter, a movie star whose career is in a downturn. Looking for a boost, Tony decides to try starring in a Broadway musical. His friends Lester and Lily Marton (Oscar Levant and Nanette Fabray) have written a show they feel would be just right for Tony, and the three team up with Jeffrey Cordova (Jack Buchanan), a self-styled "genius" director, who gets the idea to turn the play into a revised version of Faust. Cordova's more pretentious ideas don't always sit well with the Martons, and Tony isn't too happy with his leggy co-star, Gaby Gerard (Cyd Charisse), whom he's convinced is too tall (then again, she thinks he's too old). But when the show proves a disaster in out-of-town tryouts, everyone realizes they have to put aside their differences if they want a show that will be on Broadway for longer than four hours. --- Mark Deming, allmovie.com
Directed by Vincente Minnelli; Producer: Arthur Freed; Screenwriters: Betty Comden&Adolph Green; Cinematographer: Harry Jackson; Composers (Music Score) / Songwriters: Howard Dietz&Arthur Schwartz.
With Fred Astaire (Tony Hunter), Cyd Charisse (Gaby Gerard), Oscar Levant (Lester Marton), Nanette Fabray (Lily Marton), Jack Buchanan (Jeffrey Cordova).
35 mm, Technicolor, 111 minutes. Copyright deposit print.
Saturday, January 17 (2:00 pm.)
You Must Remember This… A look back at some of the stars that passed away in 2008.
Paul Newman in
BUTCH CASSIDY & THE SUNDANCE KID (20th Century-Fox, 1969)
Two free-spirited bank robbers flee railroad detectives and head for Bolivia.
Opening with a silent "movie" of Butch Cassidy's Hole in the Wall Gang, George Roy Hill's comically elegiac Western chronicles the mostly true tale of the outlaws' last months. Witty pals Butch (Paul Newman) and Sundance (Robert Redford) join the Gang in successfully robbing yet another train with their trademark non-lethal style. After the pair rests at the home of Sundance's schoolmarm girlfriend, Etta (Katharine Ross), the Gang robs the same train, but this time, the railroad boss has hired the best trackers in the business to foil the crime. After being tailed over rocks and a river gorge by guys that they can barely identify save for a white hat, Butch and Sundance decide that maybe it's time to try their luck in Bolivia. Taking Etta with them, they live high on ill-gotten Bolivian gains, but Etta leaves after their white-hatted nemesis portentously arrives. Their luck running out, Butch and Sundance are soon holed up in a barn surrounded by scores of Bolivian soldiers who are waiting for the pair to make one last run for it. --- Lucia Bozzola, allmovie.com
Directed by George Roy Hill; Producer: John C. Foreman; Screenwriter: William Goldman; Cinematographer: Conrad L. Hall; Composer (Music Score) / Conductor: Burt Bacharach, Songwriter: Hal David.
With Paul Newman (Butch Cassidy), Robert Redford (The Sundance Kid), Katharine Ross (Etta Place), Strother Martin (Percy Garris).
35mm, color, 110 minutes. Print gift from 20th Century-Fox.
Tuesday, January 20 (7:00 pm.)
Ann Sothern Centenary Double Feature
LET’S FALL IN LOVE (Columbia, 1933)
An ambitious film director transforms a Brooklyn-born actress into a Swedish temptress.
A genial lampoon of the Greta Garbo craze, Let's Fall in Love stars Ann Sothern as Jean, a Brooklyn-born aspiring actress. It so happens that Ken (Edmund Lowe), an ambitious movie director, is searching for a Swedish actress to replace his temperamental star Forsell (Tala Birrell). In desperation, Ken decides to transform Jean into a Scandinavian film sensation, spending six weeks coaching her in the proper accent and "I vant to be alone" demeanor. The ruse is successful until Ken's jealous ex-fiancee Gerry (Miriam Jordan) exposes Jean as a phony, but by this time the inevitability of a happy ending is never in doubt. --- Hal Erickson, allmovie.com
Directed by David Burton; Screenwriter: Herbert Fields; Cinematographer: Ben Kline; Musical Direction/Supervision: Constantin Bakaleinikoff.
With Ann Sothern (Jean), Edmund Lowe (Ken), Miriam Jordan (Gerry), Gregory Ratoff (Max).
35 mm, black & white, 68 minutes. Print preserved by the Library of Congress.
SMARTEST GIRL IN TOWN (RKO, 1936)
A girl in search of a rich husband mistakes a millionaire for a male model.
Ann Sothern is a magazine model looking for a rich husband. Wealthy Gene Raymond attends a photo shoot; Sothern mistakes him for a male model and resists his advances. Eventually she falls for Raymond and decides to cease her search for quick wealth. The story resolves itself in a fast-moving hotel lobby climax, with misunderstandings piling up like dirty laundry. --- Hal Erickson, allmovie.com
Directed by Joseph Santley; Producer: Edward Kaufman; Screen Story: H.S. Kraft; Screenwriter: Viola Brothers Shore; Cinematographer: Roy Hunt.
With Ann Sothern (Francis Cooke), Gene Raymond (Dick Smith), Helen Broderick (Gwen), Eric Blore (Philbean), Erik Rhodes (Torine).
35 mm, black & white, 58 minutes. Print preserved by the Library of Congress.
Friday, January 23 (7:30 p.m.)
$5 per Carload: The Best & Worst of Drive-In Movies
FASTER PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL! (Eve Productions, 1965)
Three go-go dancers resort to murder in search of a family’s hidden treasure.
Exploitation maven Russ Meyer created a cult classic with this turbo-charged action film. Three curvaceous go-go dancers in a cool sports car go on a desert crime spree, led by Varla (the amazing Tura Satana), a busty, nasty woman dressed entirely in black. Varla's lesbian moll, Rosie (Haji) -- who has an extremely overwrought accent -- and reluctant bimbo Billie (Lori Williams) are along for the ride. When they meet a naïve young couple, Tommy and Linda (Ray Barlow and Sue Bernard), Varla challenges the man to a race then kills him by breaking his back. They take Linda hostage and drive to a house owned by a crippled old lecher (Stuart Lancaster) and his muscular but retarded son, Vegetable (Dennis Busch). Varla discovers that the old man has money hidden on the property, so the girls try to find it. Meanwhile, Vegetable's perverted father tries to trick him into assaulting one of the girls as he watches, but his other son (Paul Trinka) finally shows up to save the day. A great deal of bloodshed, campy cat fighting, and funny dialogue fills the bulk of this fast-paced comic book of a movie. --- Robert Firsching, allmovie.com
Producer, Directed and Edited by Russ Meyer.
With Tura Satana (Varla), Haji (Rosie), Lori Williams (Billie), Sue Bernard (Linda).
35 mm, black & white, 83 minutes. Copyright deposit print.
Saturday, January 24 (2:00 pm.)
Culturally, Historically or Aesthetically Significant: Films from the National Film Registry
GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 (Warner Bros., 1933)
Millionaire turned composer Dick Powell rescues unemployed Broadway people with a new play.
Showgirls Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler and Aline McMahon attempt to find financial backing for the new show planned by producer Ned Sparks. Songwriter Dick Powell, an incognito man of wealth, offers to put up the money, a fact that brings down the wrath of his older brother Warren William, who despises show folk. Attempting to buy off the three girls, William is placed in a compromising position by the crafty Blondell and is compelled to bankroll the musical himself. The oddest aspect of Gold Diggers of 1933 is the fact that the mood of the songs is wildly at variance with the plot. The film begins with dozens of chorus girls (led by Ginger Rogers) happily chirping "We're In the Money", a rehearsal number interrupted when the finance men burst in to claim the sets and props from the impoverished troupe. At the end, when everyone is genuinely in the money, the troupe stages a downbeat "Brother Can You Spare A Dime"-style production number, "Remember My Forgotten Man"--and it is on this doleful indictment of the Depression that the film fades out! --- Hal Erickson, allmovie.com
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy; Producers: Robert Lord & Jack L. Warner; Screenwriters: David Boehm, Erwin S. Gelsey, Ben Markson & James Seymour; Cinematographer: Sol Polito; Choreographer: Busby Berkeley .Based on the play "The Golddiggers of Broadway" by Avery Hopwood.
With Warren William (J. Lawrence Bradford), Joan Blondell (Carol King), Aline MacMahon (Trixie Lorraine), Ruby Keeler (Polly Parker), Guy Kibbee (Thaniel H. Peabody), Ned Sparks (Barney Hopkins), Ginger Rogers (Fay Fortune).
35 mm, black & white, 96 minutes. Preserved by the Library of Congress from original camera and track negatives.
Tuesday, January 27 (7:00 pm.)
Book of the Month Club
A TALE OF TWO CITIES (MGM, 1935)
Charles Dickens' classic story of two men in love with the same woman during the French Revolution.
Easily the best film version of Charles Dickens's classic novel (out of at least seven), A Tale of Two Cities follows the turmoil and aftermath of the French Revolution. Sydney Carton (Colman) is a world-weary London barrister in love with Lucie Manette (Allan). She thinks of him only as a friend, however, and marries Charles Darnay (Woods), a descendant of a noble Frenchman who is also Carton's look-alike. Darnay's uncle, the Marquis St. Evremonde (Rathbone), is a heartless tyrant who is killed at the Revolution's onset. As the nephew of the hated Marquis, Darnay is arrested in Paris and sentenced to death. Lucie is frantic with worry over her husband, and Carton, devoted to Lucie but seeing no hope of happiness, goes to Paris, where he frees Darnay and takes his place in prison. His last words as he ascends the scaffold have become so identified with Colman that they are almost impossible to say without slipping into his distinctive accent: "It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known." --- tvguide.com
Directed by Jack Conway; Producer: David O. Selznick; Screenwriters: S.N. Behrmann & W.P. Lipscomb; Cinematographer: Oliver Marsh; Composer (Music Score): Herbert Stothart. Based on the novel by Charles Dickens.
With Ronald Colman (Sidney Carton), Elizabeth Allan (Lucie Manette), Edna May Oliver (Miss Pross), Reginald Owen (Striver), Basil Rathbone (Marquis St. Evremonde).
35 mm, black & white, 128 minutes. Print deposited with colorized version 1992.
Friday, January 30 (7:30 p.m.)
Dana Andrews Centenary
LAURA (20th Century-Fox, 1944)
A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he's investigating.
At the outset of the film, it is established that the title character, Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney), has been murdered. Tough New York detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) investigates the killing, methodically questioning the chief suspects: Waspish columnist Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb), wastrel socialite Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price), and Carpenter's wealthy "patroness" Ann Treadwell (Judith Anderson). The deeper he gets into the case, the more fascinated he becomes by the enigmatic Laura, literally falling in love with the girl's painted portrait. As he sits in Laura's apartment, ruminating over the case and his own obsessions, the door opens, the lights switch on, and in walks Laura Hunt, very much alive! To tell any more would rob the reader of the sheer enjoyment of watching this stylish film noir unfold on screen. --- Hal Erickson, allmovie.com
Directed & Produced by Otto Preminger; Screenwriters: Jerry Cady, Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein, Ring Lardner, Jr., Elizabeth Reinhardt; Cinematographer: Joseph La Shelle; Composer (Music Score): David Raksin. Based on the play by Vera Caspary.
With Dana Andrews (Mark McPherson), Gene Tierney (Laura Hunt), Clifton Webb (Waldo Lydecker), Vincent Price (Shelby Carpenter), Judith Anderson (Ann Treadwell).
35 mm, black & white, 88 minutes. Print gift from 20th Century-Fox.
Saturday, January 31 (2:00 pm.)
Saturday Silents (Warm Up)
THE GOLDEN AGE OF COMEDY (Distributors Corp. of America , 1957)
A compilation of clips from the great comedians of the silent era.
The first of documentary producer Robert Youngson's feature-length silent comedy compilations, The Golden Age of Comedy began life as a short subject, consisting of vintage clips from the Mack Sennett vaults. When Youngson struck a deal with the Hal Roach studios, he was able to expand the film's running time with pristine-quality vignettes from the Roach catalogue. While many past greats are highlighted in Golden Age, the compilation's true "stars" are Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, shown at their very best. The rest of the film offers choice comic bits from the likes of Ben Turpin, Billy Bevan, Will Rogers, Charley Chase, Harry Langdon, and even Carole Lombard. --- Hal Erickson, allmovie.com
Directed, produced and written by Robert Youngson; Music Composition and Conducting: George Steiner; Editors: Albert Helmes & Alfred Dahlem; Narrator: Ward Wilson.
With Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Harry Langdon, Jean Harlow, Will Rogers, Jr., Ben Turpin, The Keystone Kops, Carole Lombard, Harry "Snub" Pollard.
35 mm, black & white, 79 minutes. Print from the AFI/Hal Roach Collection of the Library of Congress.
Short subjects will be presented before select programs.Film notes by for January screenings compiled and edited by Jenny Paxson.
Projectionists: Amy Gallick, Dave March and Richard Hincha.
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Last Updated: 12/22/2008