Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present the latest installment in our Anniversary Classics Abroad series, Louis Malle’s irreverent and often uproarious comedy, MURMUR OF THE HEART, which earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay of 1972.
During the course of his career, Malle proved himself one of the most astonishingly versatile of all international directors. His movies ran the gamut from the influential French noir, Elevator to the Gallows to the sexually daring drama, The Lovers, which was charged with obscenity and eventually cleared by the United States Supreme Court; the dark screwball comedy, Zazie dans le Metro; two piercing World War II dramas, Lacombe Lucien and Au Revoir Les Enfants; and the documentary Calcutta.
In America, Malle made the controversial Pretty Baby, which introduced Brooke Shields; the scintillating two-character talkathon, My Dinner with Andre; and the bittersweet comedy classic, Atlantic City, which earned five Oscar nominations, including one for best picture and another for Malle as best director.
Murmur of the Heart was an autobiographical memoir from Malle, a coming-of-age story told with candor and exuberant wit. Set in 1954, the year that France lost control of its colonies in Indochina, the film focuses on a chaotic bourgeois family headed by a wild, taboo-breaking mother, played to perfection by Italian actress Lea Massari.
The cast also includes Benoit Ferreux as her 14-year-old son, Daniel Gelin as her gynecologist husband, and Michel Lonsdale as a somewhat hypocritical priest.
Pauline Kael called the film an “exhilarating high comedy about French bourgeois life,” and she added, “Massari is superb as Clara, the carelessly sensual mother.”
Leonard Maltin praised the picture as a “fresh, intelligent, affectionately comic tale” that builds to “a thoroughly delightful resolution.”
MURMUR OF THE HEART screens at 7pm on August 16th at the Royal in West L.A., the Town Center in Encino, and the Playhouse in Pasadena. Presented on DVD. Click here for tickets.
Mitchum was a contract player at RKO when he starred in Out of the Past, directed by Jacques Tourneur with a script by Geoffrey Homes (Daniel Mainwaring), adapting his novel, “Build My Gallows High.” Mitchum plays an ex-private eye entangled in a web of double-dealings by former criminal associates (gangster Kirk Douglas and old flame Jane Greer). Mitchum, described in the New York Times review of the day as “magnificently cheeky and self-assured,” entrenched his cynical, antihero image in this film.
Cape Fear came at the end of the classical black-and-white film noir period (1942-62), and stars Mitchum in his most memorable villainous role, Max Cady. In this adaptation by James R. Webb of James D. MacDonald’s novel, “The Executioners,” an ex-con plots insidious revenge on the lawyer (Gregory Peck) whose testimony sent him to prison. Director J. Lee Thompson was an admirer of Alfred Hitchcock, and paid homage to the Master of Suspense with camera angles and the use of his frequent collaborator, composer Bernard Herrmann, who provided a superbly menacing score. Mitchum was so convincing in the role that co-star Polly Bergen (as Peck’s wife) said she was genuinely frightened in an improvised scene with him. Leonard Maltin calls Mitchum’s performance “believably creepy,” and the American Film Institute cited his portrayal of Cady as one of the top 30 “All-Time Screen Villains.” Martin Balsam, Lori Martin, Telly Savalas, and Barrie Chase co-star.
60th Anniversary Screening of PEYTON PLACE (1957)
Leonard Maltin summed up the critical consensus when he wrote, “Grace Metalious’s once-notorious novel receives Grade A filming.” Producer Jerry Wald (whose credits included Mildred Pierce, Key Largo, Johnny Belinda, An Affair to Remember, The Long Hot Summer, and Sons and Lovers) bought the rights to the novel for $250,000 and hired a classy team to bring it to the screen. Screenwriter John Michael Hayes wrote many of the best Alfred Hitchcock movies of the 1950s, including Rear Window, The Trouble with Harry, and The Man Who Knew Too Much. Director Mark Robson started as an assistant editor on Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons, then directed such successful films as Champion, The Bridges at Toko-Ri, and Inn of the Sixth Happiness. Oscar winning composer Franz Waxman provided the memorable musical score. The cast also includes Mildred Dunnock, Betty Field, Lloyd Nolan, David Nelson, Terry Moore, and Barry Coe.
During Gay Pride month, Laemmle Theatres and the 
Barry Sandler wrote and produced the cult favorite, Crimes of Passion, starring Kathleen Turner and directed by Ken Russell. His other credits include Kansas City Bomber with Raquel Welch, The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox with George Segal and Goldie Hawn, and The Mirror Crack’d with Angela Lansbury, Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and Kim Novak.