Movies on the Green 2009

Mary Riempa Ross Media Arts Center is sponsoring Movies on the Green outside of Kimball Recital Hall at 12th and R streets.  This years theme is Depression era films.  The showing is absolutely free and popcorn and pop will be sold at the screening.  Show time is at dusk or about 9 p.m.  If a screening is cancelled due to inclement weather, the film will be shown the next day (Friday) at the same time.

Thursday, July 9 - YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU by Frank Capra (1938; 2 hours, 8 minutes)
Tony (James Stewart), the eldest son of millionaire Anthony P. Kirby, has fallen in love with Alice Vanderhof. She’s a sweet working girl who lives with her eccentric family and a few extra misfits in a decaying old house. It’s a building that just happens to stand in the way of Mr. Kirby’s plans to construct an impressive office complex. But when Grandpa Vanderhof refuses to sell, it’s a clash of the cantankerous titans. Unfortunately, the fallout may send lovebirds Tony and Alice flying in different directions. YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU is a Capra‐fied adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize‐winning play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, and it earned a number of Oscar nominations and wins, including the Best Picture statuette.

Thursday, July 16 - A STAR IS BORN by William Wellman (1937; 1 hour, 56 minutes)
The beautifully shot A STAR IS BORN recounts a tragic Hollywood tale of fame and misfortune. As young Esther Blodgett (Janet Gaynor) rises to stardom, her husband, former leading man Norman Maine (Fredric March), is in the midst of a heartbreakingly rapid decline. Gaynor is both genuine and funny as the small‐town girl who loses her one great love while she pursues another, and March is perfect as the passé alcoholic has‐been. The film received six Academy Award nominations and won a special award for its color cinematography.

Thursday, July 23 – SAHARA by Zoltan Korda (1943; 1 hour, 37 minutes)
There’s plenty of top‐notch, explosive action in this 1943 “Bogie” classic about a ragtag battalion stranded in the great African desert during World War II. After the fall of the Libyan city of Tobruk, Sgt. Joe Gunn (Humphrey Bogart) and his crew‐‐“Waco” Hoyt (Bruce Bennett), Fred Clarkson (Lloyd Bridges) and Jimmy Doyle (Dan Duryea)‐‐retreat in their tank across the Sahara. Along the way they pick up six Allied stragglers and Tambul (Rex Ingram), a Sudanese corporal and his Italian prisoner. Tambul directs the group to a desert fortress, where they hope to find desperately needed food and water. A detachment of German soldiers arrives and attempts to barter for food and water, but Gunn and his followers refuse. When the Germans attack, Gunn leads his desert‐weary men in a desperate battle, hoping that British reinforcements can arrive in time. Academy Award Nominations: 3, including Best (Black‐and‐White) Cinematography.

Thursday, July 30 - THE STRANGER by Orson Welles (1946; 1 hour, 35 minutes)
Orson Welles directed and starred in THE STRANGER, a tense black‐and‐white thriller that Welles made for maverick producer Sam Spiegel. Welles portrays Charles Rankin, a respected academic at a prominent Connecticut college. He seems to have the perfect life: a beautiful new wife, Mary (Loretta Young); and a charming home in a small town that holds him in high esteem. Enter Mr. Wilson (Edward G. Robinson), a detective on the hunt for Nazi war criminal Franz Kindler. The appearance of Mr. Wilson threatens to reveal that underneath this idyllic veneer is a secret that could tear everything apart. Although many of Welles’s most interesting scenes wound up on the cutting‐room floor when Spiegel reedited the film, THE STRANGER is still multilayered, complex, and fascinating. The scenes between Welles and Robinson are intellectually gripping, leading up to the stylized, shocking conclusion. As with so many of Welles’s films, he was unhappy with the final result, but the viewer won’t be. It would be most interesting to see the film as Welles intended it to be, but in the meantime, this version of THE STRANGER is a marvel.

Thursday, August 6 - YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER by William A. Seiter (1942; 1 hour, 38 minutes)
Hotel magnate Edwardo Acuna has a thorn in his side. Maria (Rita Hayworth), his beautiful nubile daughter, refuses to seriously consider marriage. A traditional patriarch, Mr. Acuna wants his girls married off one by one. So until Maria’s mated, he won’t allow either of her lovesick younger sisters to wed. Knowing Maria likes orchids, her father creates a secret admirer by sending anonymous love letters and fresh flowers from a mystery man. When Robert (Fred Astaire), a talented entertainer in Mr. Acuna’s employ, delivers one of the phony love letters, Maria mistakes him for the suitor in question. After Robert takes one look at Maria, he decides he doesn’t mind being mistaken for her smitten wooer. But a
tap‐dancing crooner is last thing Acuna wants for a son‐in‐law. This first‐rate musical romance features the title song, “I’m Old Fashioned,” and “Dearly Beloved.” Academy Award Nominations: Best Sound Recording, Best Song (“Dearly Beloved”), Best Scoring of a Musical Picture.

Thursday, August 13 - LOST HORIZON by Frank Capra (1937; 2 hours, 14 minutes)
The classic film adaptation of James Hilton’s romantic novel of a paradise found… and almost lost forever. Revolution has broken out in China, and English diplomat Robert Conway and his brother George help to evacuate British citizens from the danger zone. But on their way home, gunmen hijack their plane and take them off course; they finally crash in the mountains of Tibet. To the survivors’ surprise, a rescue team approaches and leads them into the land of Shangri‐La. Robert Conway discovers that the country, established nearly two centuries ago, has magic qualities; within its borders people may survive for hundreds of years, and live in peace and harmony with each other and the world. For Robert, Shangri‐La is everything he ever dreamed of ‐‐ but his brother wants only to leave. Should he stay, and desert his brother… or go, and never see Shangri‐La again?