The Official Blog of Laemmle Theatres.

blog.laemmle.com

The official blog of Laemmle Theatres

You are here: Home / Repertory Cinema

Video Game Inspired Cinema Every Throwback Thursday in November at the NoHo 7

by

When we’re not watching foreign films or documentaries, we’re probably watching the Dodgers. But the rest of the time? The rest of the time we’re playing video games! Join us in celebrating one of the world’s most under appreciated art forms with four of our favorite gaming-inspired films every Throwback Thursday in November at the NoHo 7 in North Hollywood.

Our “My Life as a Video Game” Throwback Thursday series begins on Thursday, November 1st with THE LAST STARFIGHTER! Doors open at 7pm, trivia starts at 7:30, and movies begin at 7:40pm. Check out the full schedule below!

November 1: The Last Starfighter

Q&A with star Lance Guest!
Avid video game player Alex Rogan (Lance Guest) finds himself transported to another planet after conquering The Last Starfighter video game only to find out it was a test. He’s been recruited to join a team of top starfighters to defend their world from the attack. TICKETS.

November 8: WarGames

A young video game aficionado, David (Matthew Broderick), inadvertently taps into a top secret U.S. military computer and proceeds to play his favorite game, “Global Thermonuclear War.” What we know, but David doesn’t, is that the Pentagon, hoping to eliminate the chancy “human element” in the event of an actual war, has given its computer total, irreversible control over the launching of nuclear weaponry. David and government official McKittrick (Dabney Coleman) race against time to reverse the computer’s resolve to send bombers to Russia. TICKETS.

November 15: TRON

A hacker is abducted into the digital world and forced to participate in gladiatorial games where his only chance of escape is with the help of a heroic security program. Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, and David Warner star. TICKETS.

November 22: Thanksgiving (No Screening) ?

 

November 29: Scott Pilgrim vs The World

Director Edgar Wright’s adaptation of a series of graphic novels follows Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera), who must defeat his new girlfriend’s (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) seven evil exes in order to win her heart in this original and clever coming-of-age comedy. TICKETS.

Details about December #TBT screenings are coming soon. Remember to check www.laemmle.com/tbt for updates!

Two Horror Classics from the Universal Studio Vaults on Tuesday, October 30 in Pasadena, NoHo, and West LA

by

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a double feature of classic Universal studios’ horror films on the eve of Halloween, October 30, in our popular Twofer Tuesday (two films for the price of one) program. We will show a “double treat” of the 85th anniversary of THE INVISIBLE MAN (1933) paired with the 70th anniversary of the horror-comedy ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948).

THE INVISIBLE MAN was a key entry in the cycle of terror films from Universal studios in the early 1930s that helped secure its reputation as the “house of horror” in the early sound era. Produced by Carl Laemmle Jr., son of the studio founder, the film stars Claude Rains in his American screen debut and Gloria Stuart, and was based on the H. G. Wells’ novel, adapted for the screen by R. C. Sheriff (‘Goodbye, Mr. Chips,’ ‘The Four Feathers,’ ‘Odd Man Out’). Universal called on James Whale, the acclaimed director of ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘The Old Dark House’ (with ‘The Bride of Frankenstein’ still waiting in the wings in the genre), to helm the project.

Rains portrays Dr. Jack Griffin, a chemist whose experiments with an obscure drug go awry, rendering him invisible and murderously insane. Rains played the title character mostly as a disembodied voice, often shown swathed in bandages, appearing only briefly on screen. He would later become one of the most recognizable of British actors working in Hollywood, garnering four Oscar nominations (‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,’ ‘Casablanca,’ ‘Mr. Skeffington,’ ‘Notorious’) and dozens of notable performances in his illustrious career.

Leading lady Gloria Stuart would have to wait sixty-four years before she capped her career with an Oscar nod for ‘Titanic’ in 1997. THE INVISIBLE MAN was a major hit at the box office, and was named one of the year’s ten best by The New York Times, whose critic at the time wrote,“The story makes such superb cinematic material that one wonders why Hollywood did not film it sooner…it is a remarkable achievement.” In 2008 the Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry.


ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN, as noted by TV Guide, is a “hilarious spoof of the Universal horror films of the 1930s and early 40s.” Bud Abbott and Lou Costello star as railway freight handlers who unwittingly deliver the “undead” bodies of Dracula (Bela Lugosi) and Frankenstein’s Monster (Glenn Strange) to a wax museum, where they are revived. Lon Chaney Jr. co-stars, recreating his role as the Wolf Man, who tries to aid the comic duo. Lugosi donned Dracula’s cape in a featured role for the second and final time on the screen. The Invisible Man also makes a cameo appearance, this time with the voice of Vincent Price.

The film, directed by Charles Barton from a screenplay by Robert Lees, Frederic Rinaldo, and John Grant, was such a huge hit that it propelled Abbott and Costello onto the Top Ten Box Office Stars Poll the following year, where they would be ranked for four consecutive years. Its success also spawned a series of seven films in which the duo would “meet” more of the monsters from the Universal vaults. The film is ranked 56th on the AFI’s list of the Funniest Movies, and was added to the National Film Registry in 2001.

The Halloween Eve Twofer Tuesday double bill of THE INVISIBLE MAN and ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN plays at three Laemmle locations: Royal, NoHo and Pasadena Playhouse 7 on October 30.

ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN shows at 4:40 PM and 8:10 PM. THE INVISIBLE MAN shows at 6:30 PM and 9:55.

Click here to get tickets for the 4:40 PM or 8:10 PM ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN with the 6:30 PM or 9:55 THE INVISIBLE MAN included.

Click here to get tickets for the 6:30 PM THE INVISIBLE MAN with the 8:10 PM ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN included.

AMERICAN GRAFFITI 45th Anniversary with Screenwriters and Co-stars In-person on October 23 in Beverly Hills

by

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 45th anniversary screening of one the most beloved comedies of the era, George Lucas’s AMERICAN GRAFFITI.

The film earned five Oscar nominations in 1973, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actress Candy Clark, and it was a box office smash, despite the studio’s nervousness about the film’s innovative structure and largely unknown cast (all of whom would go on to have extraordinary careers).

“Where were you in ’62?” was the advertising tag line for the movie, and it tapped into the nostalgia that many Americans felt for a more innocent time, before all the violent upheavals of the late 60s and 70s. Set around Lucas’s home town of Modesto, California, the film follows a group of friends on a single night before two of them are scheduled to leave for college. They cruise the main drag and have a series of wild and sometimes dangerous adventures before dawn forces them all to a reckoning with both their past and their future.

As Variety wrote, “Of all the youth-themed nostalgia films in the past couple of years, George Lucas’ American Graffiti is among the very best to date… all the young principals and featured players have a bright and lengthy future.”

Those “young principals” include Ron Howard, a former child star and future Oscar-winning director; Richard Dreyfuss, who would win a Best Actor Oscar four years later; Cindy Williams, who would star in the hit TV series, Laverne and Shirley, later in the decade; Harrison Ford, who would soon become a megastar in Lucas’ Star Wars and other films; Candy Clark, Paul LeMat, Charles Martin Smith, Mackenzie Phillips, and Bo Hopkins.

The behind-the-scenes team was equally impressive. Fresh off his triumph on The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola acted as producer, along with Gary Kurtz. The impressive night-time cinematography was by Oscar winner Haskell Wexler, credited as “visual consultant.” The film’s Oscar-nominated editors were Marcia Lucas and Verna Fields (later an Oscar winner for Steven Spielberg’s Jaws). The musical score—a non-stop medley of 1950s and early 60s hits—provided delightful punctuation to the action, with commentary by real-life deejay Wolfman Jack, who makes a memorable cameo appearance late in the film.

Many later films followed the template created by American Graffiti of having all the action take place over a single day or night. These hit films, which might never have been financed without the success of Lucas’s film, include several John Hughes movies (The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) and Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused.

Entertaining as they were, few of these later films had the same emotional depth that American Graffiti plumbed. Newsweek’s Paul D. Zimmerman called it a “brilliant, bittersweet memoir.” Writing in the New York Times, Stephen Farber said, “The stunning screenplay by Lucas, Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck is rich in characterization, full of wit and surprise.” And Time’s Jay Cocks declared, “Few films have shown quite so well the eagerness, the sadness, the ambitions and small defeats of a generation of young Americans. Bitchin’ as they said back then. Superfine.”

Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz also wrote the screenplays for Radioland Murders, French Postcards, and the Lucas-Spielberg production of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Candy Clark, who earned an Oscar nomination for her engaging performance in American Graffiti, co-starred with David Bowie in Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth and also appeared in Jonathan Demme’s Citizens Band, Blue Thunder, At Close Range, and David Fincher’s Zodiac. Charles Martin Smith co-starred in The Buddy Holly Story, Never Cry Wolf, Starman, and The Untouchables. More recently, he has written and directed for both film and television.

AMERICAN GRAFFITI screens Tuesday, October 23, at 7:30PM at the Ahrya Fine Arts in Beverly Hills. Oscar-nominated screenwriters Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz and co-stars Candy Clark and Charles Martin Smith will participate in a Q&A at the screening. Click here for tickets.

Format: DCP

Jacques Tati’s MON ONCLE 60th Anniversary Screenings October 17 in Encino, Pasadena, and West LA

by

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present the latest installment in our popular Anniversary Classics Abroad program, 60th anniversary screenings of the Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film of 1958, Jacques Tati’s MON ONCLE.

Tati made only six feature films over the course of his career (including Jour de Fete, Playtime, and Traffic), and this comedy—his first film in color—is considered one of the highlights.

Tati had introduced the character of Mr. Hulot in Mr. Hulot’s Holiday, his highly praised film from 1953. He once again plays the character of Hulot in this more ambitious satire of modern technology and its dehumanizing effect on family life. Jean-Pierre Zola and Adrienne Servantie play a married couple in thrall to a sterile, workaday world. Alain Becourt plays their young son who finds liberation with his playful uncle.

As in many of Tati’s films, Mon Oncle pays homage to the masters of silent comedy. There is very little dialogue in the film; instead the humor is visual, where the slightly futuristic settings are as important as the human characters. The ingenious sets were designed by Jacques Lagrange at the Victorine Studios outside Nice.

Variety wrote, “Jacques Tati’s film has inventiveness, gags, warmth and a ‘poetic’ approach to satire.” Leonard Maltin declared, “Tati’s first color film is a masterpiece… Continuous flow of sight gags (including the funniest fountain you’ll ever see) makes this easygoing, nearly dialogue-less comedy a total delight.”

The film has also had an enduring impact on many other directors. At the AFI Festival in 2010, David Lynch presented a screening of Mon Oncle and announced that it was one of the films that had the greatest influence on him.

MON ONCLE screens Wednesday, October 17, at 7pm at the Royal, Town Center, and Playhouse. Click here for tickets.

65th Anniversary of HOUSE OF WAX in 3-D on October 13 at the Ahrya Fine Arts in Beverly Hills

by

This Halloween season Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 65th anniversary screening of the 1953 horror thriller HOUSE OF WAX, starring horrormeister Vincent Price, in 3-D.

The film was a remake of Warner Bros.’ Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) with the added sensation of three-dimensional technology. This version is noteworthy for its creative use of 3-D and emphasis on storytelling over gimmicks.

Directed by Andre de Toth from a screenplay by Crane Wilbur (adapted from the earlier film and the play The Wax Works by Charles Belden). Toth, a Hungarian émigré and workman director who remarkably had one eye, which rendered him unable to see the 3-D effects of his most accomplished movie. House of Wax was the first color 3-D feature film from a major studio, and its’ success at the box office fueled the first 3-D craze that swept Hollywood in the early 1950s.

Vincent Price stars as a wax sculptor-artist of an early twentieth-century New York wax museum who is disfigured in a fire set by his greedy business partner. He returns to open a new house of wax figures that create a show business sensation of shock and terror, with a horrifying secret – his wax effigies are now filled with corpses.

After primarily supporting parts, Price relished the leading role that launched him into the front ranks of screen villainy, and he spent the rest of his movie career closely identified with the horror-terror genre in such films as House on Haunted Hill, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Masque of the Red Death, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, and Theater of Blood.

A strong supporting cast included Frank Lovejoy, Phyllis Kirk, and in roles early in their careers, future Oscar-nominee Carolyn Jones (Bachelor Party, TV’s The Addams Family) and action star Charles (Bronson) Buchinsky (Death Wish), who is somewhat pitiable in the role of madman Price’s mute assistant.

The novelty of wearing polaroid glasses to view the 3-D effects (including a paddleball-pitchman and the original museum fire) helped lure audiences away from their television sets in the fifties.

Variety aptly predicted “this film will knock ‘em for a ghoul.” The film was successfully reissued twice, in 1971 and again in the second 3-D fad of the early 1980s. In 2014, the movie was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress in the National Film Registry.

The 65th anniversary screening in 3-D shows at the Ahrya Fine Arts in Beverly Hills on Saturday, October 13 at 7:30 PM. 3-D glasses provided to view the fun.

Click here for tickets.

Format: 3-D DCP

SUPERMAN 40th Anniversary Screening in 4K with Cast Member Q&A on Tuesday, October 9 in Beverly Hills

by

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 40th anniversary screening of the film that launched the comic book movie craze, the original SUPERMAN, directed by Richard Donner and starring new screen personality Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel.

Comics had inspired TV series and Saturday afternoon serials, but there had not been a big-budget attempt to capture the spirit of these fan favorites until Donner, working for producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind, gambled a huge budget on a screen version of DC Comics’ favorite superhero. As this character is so popular amongst comic book fans, it was only right that a budget was found to bring fans closer to their favorite superhero. Recently, it was actually found that Superman is the favorite of the most amount of states still. This means that people are still enjoying this character’s journey to the big screen. Whether in comic books or on TV, Superman has a special place in a lot of people’s hearts. This is why the movie’s success spawned three sequels and also led to the first big-screen incarnation of another DC hero, Batman, a decade later (in the version directed by Tim Burton).

To write the screenplay, the Salkinds hired a bevy of successful writers-best-selling author Mario Puzo, acclaimed screenwriters Robert Benton, David and Leslie Newman, though the final version was reportedly crafted by Tom Mankiewicz, credited as “creative consultant.”

The film takes an epic approach to the tale of Superman, beginning with a prologue on the planet Krypton, then following Clark Kent’s childhood and adolescence in Smallville, Kansas, before he takes on his grown-up identity as the “mild-mannered reporter” at The Daily Planet in the city of Metropolis.

The all-star cast included Oscar winners Marlon Brando as Superman’s father, Jor-El, and Gene Hackman as arch-villain Lex Luthor, along with Susannah York, Glenn Ford, Ned Beatty, Valerie Perrine, Jack O’Halloran, Maria Schell, Terence Stamp, Jeff East, Jackie Cooper as Daily Planet editor Perry White, Marc McClure as cub reporter Jimmy Olsen, and Margot Kidder as Superman’s love interest, Lois Lane.

After many big-name actors turned down the title role, the filmmakers decided to take a chance on a brand new actor, Christopher Reeve, who had only a couple of TV appearances and one other feature film to his credit. Their gamble paid off and turned the brash, witty young actor into a superstar.

The creators of the original comic book, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, praised the casting. As Shuster said, “Chris Reeve has just the right touch of humor.” Oscar-winning cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth (Becket, Cabaret) had one of his last credits on the movie, and multiple Oscar-winning composer John Williams wrote the stirring score. The movie won a special Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

In addition to scoring an enormous box office success, the movie received mainly favorable reviews. Variety called Superman “a wonderful, chuckling, preposterously exciting fantasy.” Making an apt comparison, The New York Daily News’ Kathleen Carroll, declared, “It is this year’s answer to Star Wars, a movie that is pure escape and good, clean, unadulterated fun.” Roger Ebert wrote, “Superman is a pure delight… Reeve is perfectly cast in the role.”

Several of the supporting cast members will participate in our Q&A after the screening, including Jack O’Halloran (the 1976 King Kong, The Flintstones), Marc McClure (Back to the Future, Apollo 13), and Valerie Perrine (Oscar nominee for Lenny).

SUPERMAN screens Tuesday, October 9 at 7:30pm at the Ahrya Fine Arts in Beverly Hills. Click here for tickets.

Format: 4K DCP

The Return of Scary Subtitles: Frightening Foreign Films Every Throwback Thursday in October at the NoHo 7

by

At Laemmle we say, “Not Afraid of Subtitles.” But this October, subtitles get downright horrifying! Join us for the second installment of our month-long tribute to frightening foreign films at the NoHo 7… just in time for Halloween!

Our “Scary Subtitles” Throwback Thursday series begins on Thursday, October 4th with THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE! Doors open at 7pm, trivia starts at 7:30, and movies begin at 7:40pm. Check out the full schedule below!

October 4: The Devil’s Backbone [El Espinazo del Diablo]

After Carlos, a 12-year-old whose father has died in the Spanish Civil War, arrives at an ominous orphanage for boys, he learns that the school is haunted and has many dark secrets that will confront him. Directed and co-written by Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labrynth, The Shape of Water). Produced by Pedro Almodóvar. In Spanish with English subtitles. TICKETS.

October 11: Black Sabbath [I Tre Volti della Paura]

In this 1963 horror anthology, Boris Karloff hosts a trio of stories concerning a stalked call girl, an vampire who can only feed on those he loves, and a nurse who is haunted by her ring’s rightful owner. Actor/producer Mark Damon, who stars in the third segment, will participate in a Q&A at the screening. In addition to his acting career, Damon has produced many films including MONSTER and DAS BOOT. In Italian with English subtitles. TICKETS.

October 18: I Saw the Devil [Angmareul Boatda]

A shockingly violent and stunningly accomplished tale of murder and revenge from Korean genre master Jee-woon Kim (The Good, The Bad, The Weird and A Tale of Two Sisters). It transcends the police procedural and serial killer genres in surprising and thrilling new ways. In Korean with English subtitles.  TICKETS.

October 25: Dead Snow [Død Snø]

A group of friends had all they would need for a successful Easter vacation; cabin, skis, snowmobile, toboggan, and copious amounts of beer. Certainly, none of them had anticipated not returning home alive. However, the Nazi-zombie battalion haunting the mountains surrounding the aptly named Oksfjord (Axefjord) had other plans… In Norwegian with English subtitles. TICKETS.

Details about November #TBT screenings are coming soon. Remember to check www.laemmle.com/tbt for updates!

ROSEMARY’S BABY plus Q&A, book sale and signing with ‘This Is No Dream: Making Rosemary’s Baby’ author James Munn September 26th in Pasadena

by

In conjunction with the publication of This is No Dream: Making Rosemary’s Baby by James Munn, Laemmle Theatres, the Anniversary Classics Series and Vroman’s Bookstore present a 50th anniversary screening of one of the most terrifying movies of all time, ROSEMARY’S BABY.

Ira Levin’s ingenious best-selling novel imagined a witches’ coven hiding in plain sight in contemporary Manhattan and hatching a plot to bring the Devil’s son to earth. Producer William Castle, the mastermind behind many successful B-horror movies, graduated to the A ranks with this classy production. Paramount’s head of production, Robert Evans, hired acclaimed European director Roman Polanski to make his Hollywood debut with the film.

The casting of the film was inspired. As the innocent woman at the center of the diabolical conspiracy, the filmmakers chose a relatively new face to movies, Mia Farrow, and she played the role with endearing vulnerability.

The film’s success catapulted her to full-fledged stardom. John Cassavetes took a break from his own independent productions to play Farrow’s conniving husband. The brilliance of the casting extended to the supporting players, a veritable Who’s Who of vintage Hollywood and Broadway actors, including Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans, Ralph Bellamy, Patsy Kelly, and Elisha Cook Jr. Gordon won the Oscar for best supporting actress for her spot-on portrayal of a nosy neighbor with a sinister agenda. Polanski earned an Oscar nomination for his adapted screenplay.

Behind-the-scenes credits were just as impressive. Six-time Oscar nominee William Fraker (‘Bullitt,’ ‘Heaven Can Wait’) was the cinematographer, while two-time Oscar winner Richard Sylbert (‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,’ ‘Chinatown,’ ‘Dick Tracy’) was the production designer. The eerie score was composed by a gifted friend of Polanski, Christopher Komeda, who died tragically at the age of 37 soon after the release of the film.

Among the stellar reviews for the film, Leonard Maltin hailed a “classic modern-day thriller by Ira Levin, perfectly realized by writer-director Polanski.” Stephen Witty of the Newark Star-Ledger called it “one of the finest horror films ever made.” In 2014 ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.

Q&A, book sale and signing with author James Munn after the screening. Munn is a freelance writer, film historian and former editor at Architectural Digest; he grew up in rural Nebraska and currently resides in Hollywood, California.

ROSEMARY’S BABY screens Wednesday, September 26 at 7pm at the Laemmle Playhouse 7 in Pasadena. Click here for tickets.

Format: DCP