Schedule
Showings are scheduled through the end of January.
Reservations at the theater are strongly encouraged. In the event of inclement weather, call the reservation line for information on closings.
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:
Celebrating Black History Month
Oater & Epics: Westerns on the big (and little) screen
Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial
The Wonderful World of Disney
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.
Tuesday, January 27 (7:00 pm.) SHOWING CANCELLED DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER will be rescheduled
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.
Tuesday, February 3 (7:00 p.m.)
GROUND HOG DAY (Columbia, 1993) Rated PG for some thematic elements.
A weatherman gets stuck in time, forced to live the same day over and over.
Teamed with a relentlessly cheery producer and a smart-aleck cameraman, TV weatherman Phil Connors is sent to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to cover the annual Groundhog Day festivities. But on his way out of town, Phil is caught in a giant blizzard, which he failed to predict, and finds himself in small town hell. Just when things couldn't get worse, Phil wakes up the next morning to find it's Groundhog Day all over again... and again... and again. --- from TCM.com
Produced and Directed by Harold Ramis, Screenwriters: Danny Rubin & Harold Ramis; Cinematographer: John Bailey; Original Music: George Fenton.
With Bill Murray (Phil Connors), Andie MacDowell (Rita), Chris Elliott (Larry), Stephen Tobolowsky (Ned Ryerson),Brian Doyle-Murray (Buster Green)
35mm, Color, 101 minutes. Copyright deposit print.
Friday, February 6 (7:30 pm.)
Celebrating Black History Month
THE EMPEROR JONES (United Artists, 1933)
When his subjects revolt, a Caribbean dictator looks back on the path that led to his downfall.
Adapted by DuBose Heyward from a Eugene O'Neill play, Emperor Jones is one of Paul Robeson's earliest and most powerful leading roles. Railroad porter Brutus Jones (Robeson) leaves his girlfriend Dolly (Ruby Elzy) in favor of Undine (Fredi Washington), but he soon leaves her too. Brutus is a master manipulator, liar, and swindler who murders his friend Jeff (Frank Wilson) over a crap game. He ends up on a chain gang, but escapes to Haiti where the white trader Smithers (Dudley Digges) buys his freedom. He then scams his way into a business partnership with Smithers and becomes rich. He plays tricks on the natives with a gun, proclaiming that only a silver bullet can kill him. The natives believe he is immortal and he declares himself emperor, holding a tyrannical rule over the people. They naturally revolt, and he is forced to escape into the jungle. Brutus disappears into the woods where he hears voices and sees visions, eventually leading up to his suicide. --- by Andrea LeVasseur for allmovie.com
Directed by Dudley Murphy; Producers: Gifford Cochran, William C. DeMille & John Krimsky; Screenwriter: DuBose Heyward; Play Author: Eugene O'Neill; Cinematographer: Ernest Haller; Composer (Music Score): Rosamond Johnson
With Paul Robeson, Jr. (Brutus Jones), Dudley Digges (Smithers), Frank Wilson (Jeff), Fredi Washington (Undine), Ruby Elzy (Dolly)
35mm black & white, 76 minutes. Print restoration by Library of Congress film lab.
Saturday, February 7 (2:00 pm.)
Oater & Epics: Westerns on the big (and little) screen – Double Feature
SADDLES AND SAGEBRUSH (Columbia, 1943)
Lightning In The Saddle! Dynamite In Each Fist!
Krag Sabine (William Wright) has aroused the wrath of all the ranchers by stealing their land with the aid of his henchmen, led by Ace Barco (Wheeler Oakman); when Lafe Martin (Frank LaRue) objects, the outlaws shoot him down. Lucky Randall (Russell Hayden) promises Ann Martin (Ann Savage) he will avenge her wounded father. He sets up headquarters on the Martin ranch and sends for Bob Merritt (Bob Wills) and his men, the Texas Playboys (Jesse Ashlock, Leon McAuliffe, Cotton Thompson, Junior Barnard and Luke Wills). Krag organizes his remaining men for an attack on the ranch. Lucky's men get the upper hand but Krag escapes with Ann as his hostage. -- by Les Adams for imdb.com
Directed by William Berke; Producer: Leon Barsha; Screenplay: Ed Earl Repp.
With Russell Hayden (Lucky Randall), Dub Taylor (Cannonball), Ann Savage (Ann Parker), Bob Wills (Bob Merritt [Texas Playboys Band Leader]), The Texas Playboys (Musicians, cowhands)
35 mm, black & white, 54 minutes. Print made by Library of Congress Film Lab.
CYCLONE ON HORSEBACK (RKO, 1941)
A young contractor fights off outlaws out to sabotage the telephone line he's building.
Stan Bradford and his ranch hands Whopper and Smokey are delivering a herd of pack horses to telegraph lineman Jeff Corbin when intercepted by smooth-talking Cobb Wayne, who is in a deadly competition with Corbin. There is a deadline to connect Valley City with Red Rock, and Mary, Jeff's sister, cons Stan and his men into helping when Jeff is wounded by one of Wayne's thugs. -- by Hans J. Wollstein for allmovie.com
Directed by Edward Killy; Producer: Bert Gilray; Screenplay: Norton S. Parker
With Tim Holt (Stan Bradford), Marjorie Reynolds (Mary Corbin), Ray Whitley (Smokey), Lee "Lasses" White (Whopper), Harry Worth (Cobb Wayne), Dennis Moore (Jeff Corbin).
35 mm, black & white, 60 minutes. Print made by Library of Congress Film Lab.
Tuesday, February 10 (7:00 pm.)
MR. BLANDINGS BUILDS HIS DREAMHOUSE (RKO, 1948)
In this domestic comedy, a New York businessman's dream of a country home is shattered when he buys a tumbledown rural shack.
Fed up with crowded big-city living, advertising executive Mr. Blandings decides to seek out a big, roomy house in the country for his wife and two daughters. Armed with more enthusiasm than common sense, Blandings causes many a headache for his lawyer/business manager Melvyn Douglas, who tries to keep the costs within a reasonable amount. Alas, Blandings bulls ahead on his own, first purchasing an estate on the verge of collapse, then opting to build his dream house from scratch. The construction of the new Blandings digs is slowed down to a walk by doors and windows that don't fit, plumbing that fails to function, doorknobs that break upon contact with human flesh, temperamental workmen, and various and sundry other homeowners' nightmares. --- by Hal Erickson, allmovie.com
Directed by H.C. Potter; Producers/Screenwriters: Melvin Frank & Norman Panama; Cinematographer: James Wong Howe; Composer (Music Score): Leigh Harline
With Cary Grant (Jim Blandings), Myrna Loy (Muriel Blandings), Melvyn Douglas (Bill Cole), Reginald Denny (Henry Simms), Louise Beavers (Gussie), Jason Robards, Sr. (John Retch)
35 mm, black & white, 94 minutes. Print deposited with colorized version received as copyright deposit.
Thursday, February 12 (7:00 pm.)
Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial – Special Thursday Screening.
ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS (RKO, 1948)
An exploration into the domestic and political life of the 16th president.
Raymond Massey plays Abe Lincoln in this moving adaptation of Robert Sherwood's Pulitzer Prize-winning play. The film traces Lincoln's progress from his days of scrambling for a living as a woodsman, to his courtship of the tragic Ann Rutledge and then the mercurial Mary Todd, to the formative years of his law practice, to his debates with Stephen Douglas, and finally to his election as President of the soon-to-be-divided United States in 1860. -- by Hal Erickson for allmovie.com
Directed by John Cromwell; Producer: Max Gordon; Screenwriters: Grover Jones & Robert E. Sherwood; Cinematographer: James Wong Howe; Composer (Music Score): Roy Webb
With Raymond Massey (Abraham Lincoln), Ruth Gordon (Mary Todd Lincoln), Gene Lockhart (Stephen Douglas), Mary Howard (Ann Rutledge)
35 mm, black & white, 110 minutes. Print gift from RKO.
Friday, February 13 (7:30 pm.)
Celebrating Black History Month
DO THE RIGHT THING (Universal, 1989) Rated R for violence and language.
On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence.
Provoking both substantial praise and fierce criticism for its "inflammatory" content, Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing examined racism in all its complexity, eschewing simple answers for an ambiguous, artistically ambitious mosaic. The action is confined to one Brooklyn block on the hottest day of the summer, and the Bedford-Stuyvesant location thus becomes a multi-racial and multi-ethnic microcosm, spanning all ages and character types. The tapestry of incidents, whether humorous, intimate, or increasingly hostile, becomes a means to articulate a wide range of attitudes and beliefs, bolstered by cinematographer Ernest Dickerson's contrasting "hot" and "cool" colors and Lee's stylistic breaks from traditional narrative, such as direct address to the camera. --- by Lucia Bozzola for allmovie.com
Directed, written and co-producer by Spike Lee; Co-Producers Jon Kilik & Monty Ross; Cinematographer: Ernest R. Dickerson; Composer (Music Score): Bill Lee
With Danny Aiello (Sal), Spike Lee (Mookie), Richard Edson (Vito), John Turturro (Pino), Giancarlo Esposito (Buggin Out), Rosie Perez (Tina)
35 mm, color, 120 minutes. Copyright deposit print.
Saturday, February 14 (2:00 p.m.)
Valentine’s Day
WHEN HARRY MET SALLY… (Columbia, 1989) Rated R for language and sexual innuendo.
In this romantic comedy a man and a woman turn a feud into a lasting friendship, until love threatens to ruin everything.
Harry meets Sally on a post-graduation drive from the University of Chicago to New York, but when she rebuffs his flip advances, instant antipathy is born. Nonetheless, over the next 10 years in Manhattan, the two bump into each other at various emotionally crucial points in their lives and eventually manage to effect a friendship. Then sex rears its insistent head once more, and, following a period of readjustment, commitment-shy Harry learns that staying an entire night--and possibly an entire life--with one's object of lust is actually possible. --- tvguide.com
Directed and Co-produced by Rob Reiner; Co-producers: Steve Nicolaides, Andrew Scheinman & Jeffrey Stott; Screenwriter: Nora Ephron; Cinematographer: Barry Sonnenfeld; Composer (Music Score) / Songwriter: Harry Connick, Jr.; Composer (Music Score) / Musical Arrangement: Marc Shaiman With Meg Ryan (Sally Albright), Billy Crystal (Harry Burns), Carrie Fisher (Marie),Bruno Kirby (Jess) 35 mm, Color, 96 minutes. Copyright deposit print.
Sunday, February 15 (2:00 pm.)
Weekend Silents – A Special Silent Film Presentation with live musical accompaniment
A COTTAGE AT DARTMOOR (British International Pictures, 1929)
A jealous barber's assistant is enraged by the attentions that his manicurist girlfriend pays to a customer. He threatens the customer with an open razor and lands in jail.
A tense, shocking thriller that stylistically evokes the early films of Alfred Hitchcock and the masterworks of Russian and German silent cinema, it is also an innovative work in its own right. From the dramatic opening night scenes on the English moorlands, director Anthony Asquith (Pygmalion, The Winslow Boy) establishes an eerie, unpredictable atmosphere. Filled with astounding camerawork and lighting, and some of the fastest editing of the late silent period, Dartmoor shows silent-era techniques at their apex – just as sound was about to radically change the industry and the movies. --- kino.com
Piano Score Composed and Performed by Stephen Horne
Directed by Anthony Asquith; Producer: H. Bruce Woolfe; Screenwriter: Anthony Asquith from a story by Herbert C Price; Music: William Hodgson
With Norah Baring (Sally), Uno Henning (Joe),Hans Schlettow (Farmer), Judd Green (Customer)
35mm, Silent, black & white, 87 minutes. Print on loan from the British Film Institute.
Tuesday, February 17 (7:00 pm.)
Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial
YOUNG MR. LINCOLN (20th Century-Fox, 1939)
The future president considers a political career while practicing law.
Ten years in the life of Abraham Lincoln, before he became known to his nation and the world. He moves from a Kentucky cabin to Springfield, Illinois, to begin his law practice. He defends two men accused of murder in a political brawl, suffers the death of his girlfriend Ann, courts his future wife Mary Todd, and agrees to go into politics. --- by Ed Stephan for imdb.com
Directed by John Ford; Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck; Associate producer: Kenneth Macgowan; Screenwriter: Lamar Trotti; Cinematographers: Bert Glennon & Arthur C. Miller; Alfred Newman; Composer (Music Score)
With Henry Fonda (Abraham Lincoln), Alice Brady (Abigail Clay), Marjorie Weaver (Mary Todd), Arleen Whelan (Hannah Clay), Eddie Collins (Efe [Turner]), Pauline Moore (Ann Rutledge)
35 mm, black & white, 100 minutes. Print gift from Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation.
Friday, February 20 (7:30 p.m.)
Celebrating Black History Month – Double Feature
STORMY WEATHER (20th Century-Fox, 1943)
The relationship between an aspiring dancer and a popular songstress provides a retrospective of the great African American entertainers of the early 1900s.
The film is one of two major Hollywood musicals produced in 1943 with primarily African-American casts and is considered a time capsule showcasing some of the top performers of the time, during an era when black actors and singers rarely appeared in lead roles in mainstream Hollywood productions, particularly of the musical genre. The story, which takes its title from the 1933 song of the same title, is loosely based upon the life and times of its star, dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. Robinson plays "Bill Williamson," a natural born dancer who returns home in 1918 after fighting in World War I and tries to launch a career as a performer, along the way wooing a beautiful singer named Selina Rogers. --- from Wikipedia.com
Directed by Andrew Stone; Producer: William LeBaron; Screenwriters: Frederick Jackson & Ted Koehler; Director of Photography: Leon Shamroy; Music Director: Emil Newman
With Bill Robinson (Bill "Corky" Williamson), Lena Horne (Selina Rogers), Cab Calloway, Katherine Dunham, Fats Waller (Himself), Nicholas Brothers (Themselves), Dooley Wilson
35 mm, black & white, 78 minutes. Print gift from Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation.
LOOKOUT SISTER (Astor Pictures, 1948)
In this musical/western a famous bandleader, suffering from exhaustion, goes to a sanitarium for a rest. While there he dreams of being out west at a dude ranch, where he gets involved with the beautiful owner's struggle to keep her ranch from falling into the hands of the villain.
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: 01/27/2009