Anniversary Classics Archives – Page 22 Of 28

Halloween Twofer Tuesday: THE MUMMY and CAT PEOPLE on October 31st in NoHo, Pasadena, and West LA

October 19, 2017 by Lamb Laemmle Leave a Comment

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a special Halloween double feature in the popular Twofer Tuesday Series (two films for the price of one) on October 31.

We will show a “double treat” of the 85th anniversary of THE MUMMY (1932) with the 75th anniversary of CAT PEOPLE (1942). Both films epitomize atmospheric black-and-white chills from the classical studio era.

THE MUMMY was one of the early efforts from Universal studios to capitalize on the their success in the horror genre (following the 1931 hits Dracula and Frankenstein).

Karl Freund, the German émigré cinematographer of Metropolis and Dracula, made his directorial debut with this film inspired by the opening of Tutankhamen’s tomb in 1922.

Producer Carl Laemmle Jr. hired one of the writers of Dracula, John L. Balderston, to craft a screenplay from a story by Nina Wilcox Putnam and Richard Schayer, and cast Boris Karloff, fresh from his star-making performance in Frankenstein, as the three-thousand-year-old mummy stalking an English girl (Zita Johann) he believes is the reincarnation of his ancient love.

The cinematography is credited to Charles Stumar (who shot the Lon Chaney silent The Hunchback of Notre Dame). The result is a masterpiece of mood, described by critic Pauline Kael as “…disturbingly beautiful. No other horror film has ever achieved so many emotional effects by lighting; the film has a languorous, poetic feeling, and the eroticism that lives on under Karloff’s wrinkled parchment skin is like a bad dream of undying love.”

With David Manners, Bramwell Fletcher, Arthur Byron, and Edward Van Sloan.

CAT PEOPLE was the first venture from producer Val Lewton (I Walked With a Zombie, Curse of the Cat People, The Body Snatcher) as head of RKO’s new horror division in 1942. He gave Jacques Tourneur the chance to direct his first feature with this tale of a new bride (Simone Simon) who fears she is a descendant of a predatory cat family.

DeWitt Bodeen (I Remember Mama, Billy Budd) wrote the screenplay from a short story by producer Lewton, who also employed cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca and editor Mark Robson (future director of Peyton Place and Valley of the Dolls), to create one of the most imaginative low-budget films ever made. Tourneur and Musuraca later collaborated on one of the seminal film noirs, Out of the Past.

Roger Ebert called Cat People one of the “Great Movies,” extolling it as “frightening in an eerie, mysterious way that was hard to define; the screen harbored unseen threats, and there was an undertone of sexual danger that was more ominous because it was never acted upon.”

With Kent Smith, Tom Conway, and Jane Randolph. Inducted into the National Film Registry in 1993.

Our Halloween Twofer plays October 31 at three locations: Royal, NoHo 7 and Pasadena Playhouse 7. The complete double feature screens twice, with THE MUMMY shown at 5:00 pm and 8:20 pm; CAT PEOPLE at 6:40 pm and 10:00 pm.

Director Richard Donner In-person for LETHAL WEAPON 30th Anniversary Screening on October 24 at the Ahrya Fine Arts

October 12, 2017 by Lamb Laemmle Leave a Comment

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 30th anniversary screening of LETHAL WEAPON, the hyperkinetic buddy cop movie that launched an enormously popular franchise.

LETHAL WEAPON (1987)
Q&A with Director Richard Donner
Tuesday, October 24, at 7:30 PM
at the Ahrya Fine Arts
Click here for tickets

Mel Gibson and Danny Glover star as cops who are polar opposites but are forced to work together to break up a deadly drug ring. Gibson plays a reckless, undisciplined, suicidal detective who is paired with a cautious family man, played by Glover.

Screenwriter Shane Black brought a fresh twist to the thriller genre with these unexpected characterizations, and Richard Donner directed with energy and finesse.

Gary Busey and Mitchell Ryan portray the villains, and Darlene Love and Traci Wolfe co-star. Joel Silver produced the film.

The Washington Post called the film—a box office smash in 1987–“a vivid, visceral reminder of how exciting an action film can be.”

Roger Ebert declared, “This movie thrilled me from beginning to end,” and his critical confrere, Gene Siskel, added, “Gibson and Glover make a great team.” Three sequels and a TV series followed.

After starting in television, Richard Donner scored his first big-screen success with a low-budget horror movie, The Omen. He then launched the comic book film craze with Superman in 1978, which introduced Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel. Donner’s many other films include the three Lethal Weapon sequels, Inside Moves, Ladyhawke, The Goonies, Scrooged, and Conspiracy Theory.

55th Anniversary Screenings of BOCCACCIO ’70 on Wednesday, October 18th in Encino, Pasadena, and West L.A.

October 3, 2017 by Lamb Laemmle Leave a Comment

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series presents a 55th anniversary screening of the Italian anthology film BOCCACCIO ’70 from 1962. It will play at three locations: Royal, Town Center 5 and Pasadena Playhouse 7 on October 18, 2017, as part of our popular Anniversary Classics Abroad series.

International omnibus films were in vogue during the golden age of the art house in the early 1960s, and BOCCACCIO ’70 was the most critically and commercially successful of these anthologies.

The film is a four part production about morality and love, re-imagining how the ribald Renaissance author Giovanni Boccaccio might have presented these tales if writing them in the 20th century, as contemporary versions of his 14th century Decameron.

Conceived by the Italian screenwriter Cesare Zavattini, and produced by Carlo Ponti, the film’s reputation rests on its collection of international talents, with segments by directors Mario Monicelli (Big Deal on Madonna Street), Federico Fellini (La Dolce Vita) featuring Anita Ekberg, Luchino Visconti (The Leopard) featuring Romy Schneider, and Vittorio De Sica (The Bicycle Thief) featuring Sophia Loren.

Although the film seems innocuous by current standards, it was the center of two uproars in 1962. The original four part version seen in Italy was trimmed for its international premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, with Monicelli’s segment dropped. That spawned a boycott of the festival by the film’s four directors.

Then for its American release the now three part version became the focus of a crusade by the Legion of Decency, the censorious arm of the Roman Catholic Church (who had condemned it for its nudity and frank sexuality), to boycott showings when it was booked by regular movie theaters in the fall of 1962.

With all the attention (coupled with the marquee draw of the directors and European beauties) the film became a crossover hit, playing beyond the art houses. It was another triumph for Sophia Loren, the reigning Oscar queen (she had won Best Actress for De Sica’s Two Women in April); for her performance Show magazine called her “one of the most accomplished comediennes in film today.”

“It has glamour, sophistication, color, wit and sensuality,” proclaimed Bosley Crowther in The New York Times, but he only saw the three part film.

Now here is a rare opportunity to the see the complete, four part version, which was never released theatrically in the United States. Come and see what all the fuss was about with this special presentation on Wednesday, October 18 at 7:00 pm at three Laemmle locations: Royal, Town Center 5 and Pasadena Playhouse 7. Click here for tickets.

Twofer Tuesday: A Paul Newman Double Feature of COOL HAND LUKE (1967) and SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH (1962) on October 3rd!

September 19, 2017 by Lamb Laemmle Leave a Comment

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a tribute to Oscar-winning actor Paul Newman with the latest installment in our popular Twofer Tuesday program.

Newman received one of his nine Oscar nominations for the landmark prison drama, COOL HAND LUKE, released in 1967. He reprised his acclaimed stage performance in the film version of Tennessee Williams’ steamy melodrama, Sweet Bird of Youth from 1962.

Enjoy these two films for the price of one on Tuesday, October 3rd at your choice of three Laemmle locations—the Royal in West LA, the NoHo in North Hollywood, and the Playhouse in Pasadena.

COOL HAND LUKE received a total of four Academy Award nominations in 1967, and George Kennedy won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, an award that invigorated the career of one of Hollywood’s most well liked character actors.

Newman plays a rebellious prisoner on a Southern chain gang who eventually wins the support of all his fellow convicts even though he infuriates the prison officials.

The warden’s rebuke to Newman—“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate”—became one of the most quoted lines in cinema history, and many scenes, including an egg-eating contest and an unexpected song that Newman sings after learning of his mother’s death, have also entered the lexicon.

The supporting cast includes a number of other acclaimed actors—Dennis Hopper, Harry Dean Stanton, Strother Martin, and Oscar winner Jo Van Fleet.

Stuart Rosenberg directed the Oscar-nominated screenplay by Donn Pearce and Frank R. Pierson.

The Saturday Review’s Hollis Alpert called Luke “a film as beautifully executed as any made this year.” Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times added that the film was “a triumph for Paul Newman.”

SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH received three Oscar nominations in 1962, and Ed Begley won the award as Best Supporting Actor for his vivid portrayal of a tyrannical Southern political boss.

Lead actress Geraldine Page and supporting actress Shirley Knight also earned nods from the Academy. Page and Newman had both starred in the Broadway production of Williams’ play, and they revisited and deepened their performances in the screen version, which despite a few compromises dictated by the Production Code, was generally regarded as superior to the play.

Richard Brooks, who had also adapted Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Newman, wrote the screenplay and directed.

The heart of the film lies in the provocative bedroom scenes between Page and Newman, playing a gigolo slightly past his prime and a has-been movie star happy to pay for his sexual favors.

The cast also includes Rip Torn, Mildred Dunnock, and Madeleine Sherwood.

Newsweek praised Sweet Bird as “a forceful, often devastating piece of work.” The Hollywood Reporter wrote that “Newman is the almost perfect Williams hero, sensitive, vulnerable, but undeniably masculine.”

Click here to get tickets to the 4:40pm show of SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH, admission to the 7pm COOL HAND LUKE is included. Click here to buy tickets to the 7pm show of COOL HAND LUKE, admission to the 9:30pm SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH is included.

TWO FOR THE ROAD 50th Anniversary Screening with Co-stars William Daniels and Jacqueline Bisset In-person on September 27 in West LA.

September 14, 2017 by Lamb Laemmle Leave a Comment

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 50^th anniversary screening of one of the most delightful and innovative romantic comedies ever made, Stanley Donen’s Two for the Road.

TWO FOR THE ROAD (1967)
50th Anniversary Screening
Q & A with Co-stars William Daniels and Jacqueline Bisset
Wednesday, September 27, at 7:00 PM
At the Royal Theatre in West L.A.
Click here for tickets

Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney star as a couple trying to come to terms with the changes in their marriage over a 12-year period.

Screenwriter Frederic Raphael, who had won an Oscar for writing Darling two years earlier, received another nomination for Best Original Screenplay for his groundbreaking, time-traveling script for Two for the Road.

Donen, the director of such films as Singin’ in the Rain, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Funny Face, and Charade, here created one of his most provocative works.

This excavation of a marriage centers on half a dozen trips through the south of France taken by Mark and Joanna Wallace (Finney and Hepburn). But these trips are not presented in chronological order. In fact, the different time sequences are intercut breezily throughout the film. This experiment in non-linear storytelling was clearly influenced by some of the movies of the French New Wave during the 60s. But this was the first major Hollywood film to try to translate that innovative approach to a more mainstream commercial picture. Reactions were mixed at the time, but the film’s reputation has grown in later years, and many now cite it as one of their all-time favorite romantic films.

Life magazine’s Richard Schickel was one of the few to appreciate it in 1967. As he wrote, “Mr. Donen has always been one of the truly stylish directors of light comedy, but here he has surpassed himself and in the process made it clear that the commercial filmmaker no longer has to be bound by the traditions of the past.” Leonard Maltin calls it a “perceptive, winning film… beautifully acted.”

The supporting cast includes William Daniels, Eleanor Bron, Claude Dauphin, Nadia Gray, and Jacqueline Bisset in one of her very first screen roles. Other key contributors to the film include cinematographer Christopher Challis, whose glorious images of the French Riviera dazzle the eye, and multiple Academy Award-winning composer Henry Mancini, who regarded this lyrical score as one of his personal favorites.

Co-star William Daniels, who portrays a hilariously finicky American tourist, had a busy year in 1967. In addition to this film, he co-starred in The President’s Analyst and also played Dustin Hoffman’s father in The Graduate. His other films include A Thousand Clowns, The Parallax View, Oh God!, and Warren Beatty’s Reds. He played John Adams in the acclaimed stage musical, 1776, and reprised his role in the 1972 movie version. Daniels played John Quincy Adams in the TV miniseries, The Adams Chronicles, and also had major roles in the series St. Elsewhere, Boy Meets World, and Grey’s Anatomy.

Two for the Road was one of her very first movies. Her many other films include Roman Polanski’s Cul-de-Sac, Bullitt, Airport, The Grasshopper, Murder on the Orient Express, The Deep, George Cukor’s Rich and Famous, John Huston’s Under the Volcano, and Francois Truffaut’s Oscar-winning classic, Day for Night. Tickets are available here.

Lesley Ann Warren In-person for VICTOR/VICTORIA 35th Anniversary Screening September 19th at the Ahrya Fine Arts

September 6, 2017 by Lamb Laemmle Leave a Comment

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present the 35th anniversary of Blake Edwards’ gender-bending musical comedy VICTOR/VICTORIA from 1982.

It will screen on Tuesday, September 19 at the Ahrya Fine Arts in Beverly Hills, with special guest Lesley Ann Warren, Oscar-nominated as Best Supporting Actress for her role. Presented on DCP. Click here for tickets.

Julie Andrews, who was celebrated as Broadway’s My Fair Lady in the 1950s, and Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins in the 1960s, emerged from a decade long career slump in the 1970s to some of the best notices of her career in 1982’s Victor/Victoria, written and directed by her husband, Blake Edwards (Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Pink Panther).

Andrews put a whole new spin on her musical sweetheart persona by playing a down-on-her-luck singer in 1930s Paris who finds fame, fortune and romance disguised as a man pulling off a female impersonator act.

A skillful supporting cast added to the merriment, including James Garner as a Chicago gangster who falls for Andrews, Alex Karras as his bodyguard, Robert Preston as a gay cabaret performer who coaches Andrews in the masquerade, and Lesley Ann Warren as Garner’s moll.

Nominated for 7 Academy Awards, including Andrews as best actress, Edwards for best screenplay adaptation, and Preston and Warren in the supporting acting categories. Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse won the Oscar for their delightful Original Song Score.

Roger Ebert applauded it as “a classic movie sex farce…not only a funny movie, but a warm and friendly one.”

Vincent Canby in The New York Times heaped praise on the entire cast, especially Andrews, Garner, and Preston, “each giving the performance of his and her career in a marvelous fable about mistaken identity, sexual role-playing, love, innocence and sight gags.”

Canby also had kudos for Warren (“squeaky-voiced Norma is enchantingly self-possessed and very comic.”) and for Edwards (“His chef d’oeuvre, his cockeyed, crowning achievement.”)

Our special guest Lesley Ann Warren began her lengthy show biz career on the stage, debuting on Broadway in 1963, which led to her being cast in the title role of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical Cinderella in 1965. Following her work as Walt Disney’s main ingénue (The Happiest Millionaire) et al, she graduated to more mature roles in television movies in the 70s before being cast in Victor/Victoria, and played the archetypal dumb blonde with such aplomb that Stanley Kauffmann of the New Republic was impressed that Warren “plays her as if the character had just been invented.”

Warren is also known for playing Miss Scarlet in the cult movie Clue, and for recent recurring TV guest roles in series such as Will & Grace, Desperate Housewives, and Blunt Talk.

The 35th anniversary screening of Victor/Victoria, with a Q&A with Lesley Ann Warren, plays Tuesday, September 19 at 7:30 pm at the Ahrya Fine Arts theatre in Beverly Hills. Click here for tickets.

55th Anniversary Screening of GYPSY and Q&A with Carla Malden September 12th in West LA

August 31, 2017 by Lamb Laemmle Leave a Comment

GYPSY (1962) 55th Anniversary Screening
With Carla Malden, Daughter of Karl Malden In-person
Tuesday, September 12, at 7:00 PM at the Laemmle Royal
Presented on Blu-ray. Click here for tickets.

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 55th anniversary screening of GYPSY, the 1962 film adaptation of one of the masterworks of the American musical theater, with its triumphant Stephen Sondheim-Jule Styne score.

The film version stars Natalie Wood as burlesque queen Gypsy Rose Lee, Rosalind Russell as Momma Rose, the ultimate stage mother, and Karl Malden.

The screening takes place on September 12, 7:00 pm at the Royal theatre in West LA, with guest Carla Malden, daughter of Karl Malden, and co-author of his memoir, When Do I Start?

In 1962 Natalie Wood was at the peak of her career, having been Oscar nominated as Best Actress for Splendor in the Grass (1961) and co-starring in that year’s Best Picture, West Side Story, when she was cast to portray the queen of the striptease, Gypsy Rose Lee. Rosalind Russell was cast as Momma Rose by Jack L. Warner, who bought the film rights, and the vibrant star of Auntie Mame took considerable critical heat for displacing Broadway legend Ethel Merman in the role. Malden’s part was built up for the Oscar-winning actor, and he doubled as Uncle Jocko and boyfriend-manager Herbie in the film. Other alterations included the trimming of one song, but these slight modifications did not detract from the success of the film.

Written for the screen by Leonard Spiegelgass from Arthur Laurents’ libretto, and directed by Mervyn Leroy, (Little Caesar, I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, and co-producer The Wizard of Oz), Gypsy remains a faithful, brassy celluloid version of one of the greatest musicals ever staged.

The public didn’t seem to miss Merman, as the movie was a box office smash. Critics were divided at the time, but veteran scribe Joe Baltake (Philadelphia Daily News, Sacramento Bee) later wrote that Russell, “whose line readings are flawless …fleshed out the character of Rose as no one else ever has.” And as noted by Leonard Maltin, “(You) can’t lose with that Stephen Sondheim-Jule Styne score.” Nominated for 3 Academy Awards (Cinematography, Costume Design and Music Scoring).

Gypsy will screen Tuesday, September 12 at 7:00 pm at the Royal; Q&A with Carla Malden who will reminisce about her father and the making of the film, accompanied by a rare showing of the musical number cut from the film, after the screening.

65th Anniversary Screening of SUDDEN FEAR Starring Joan Crawford and Jack Palance, August 29th in Beverly Hills

August 17, 2017 by Lamb Laemmle Leave a Comment

SUDDEN FEAR (1952) 65th Anniversary Screening
With Introduction by film historian Jeremy Arnold
Tuesday, August 29, at 7:30 PM at the Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre
Presented on DCP. Click here for tickets.

One of the dominant series in this year’s Emmy competition is Feud: Bette and Joan, which earned a near-record total of 18 nominations, and the top contender for Best Actress is Jessica Lange for her multi-dimensional portrayal of screen icon Joan Crawford.

During this Emmy season, Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 65th anniversary screening of one of Crawford’s most memorable performances in the film noir favorite, SUDDEN FEAR.

The film earned four Oscar nominations in 1952, including one for Crawford as Best Actress, one for Jack Palance as Best Supporting Actor and another for Charles Lang’s moody black-and-white cinematography.

The ingenious screenplay by Lenore J. Coffee and Robert Smith, adapted from a novel by Edna Sherry, casts Crawford as a highly successful New York playwright who rejects an aspiring young actor when he auditions for the leading role in her latest play. Crawford insists that he lacks the charisma to be convincing as a romantic lead.

Ironically, when she later meets the actor on a train heading back to her home in San Francisco, she finds him more compelling and begins to fall in love with him. But this is only the beginning of a romantic melodrama with some startling and frightening twists ahead for both characters.

Film noir historian Spencer Selby called the film ”undoubtedly one of the most stylish and refined woman-in-distress noirs.” Leonard Maltin agreed that the film is a “solid suspense thriller with many neat twists.”

Gloria Grahame, who made four movies in 1952, including The Bad and the Beautiful (which won her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress), has a juicy supporting role as Palance’s secret lover.

David Miller (Midnight Lace, Lonely Are the Brave, Captain Newman, M.D.) directed.

The screening will be introduced by film historian Jeremy Arnold, author of TCM’S The Essentials, who provided the audio commentary on the recent Blu-Ray edition of SUDDEN FEAR.

Click here for tickets

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9GHtPQ7DNA

Sudden Fear – Trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9GHtPQ7DNA)