(Akira Kurosawa, Japan 1950, 88 min., Japanese with subtitles, 35mm)

Kurosawa gained international fame and awakened the world to the importance of Japanese cinema with this story of murder told through the eyes of four different characters. The film remains a potent allegory of the chaotic conditions in Japan immediately following World War II.

(Frank Tashlin, US 1955, 109 min., 35mm)

Jerry Lewis is a kook whose nightmares and fantasies supply the stories for the comic books drawn by his roommate Dean Martin. In the rubber-faced, gibberish-speaking Lewis, director Tashlin found the perfect performer to complement his cartoonish vision of the modern world. This very funny and quintessentially ’50s slice of American pie boasts a “va-va-voom” supporting cast including Shirley MacLaine, Dorothy Malone, Eva Gabor, and Anita Ekberg. Preceded by Tashlin’s shorts: A TALE OF TWO MICE (1945, 35mm) and PUSS N’ BOOTY (1943, 35mm nitrate print).

(Frank Tashlin, US 1956, 99 min., 35mm)

The eye-popping Jayne Mansfield is a stay-at-home kind of girl who finds herself pushed to become a pop singer by thuggish boyfriend Edmond O’Brien. Director Tashlin’s splashy, cartoony style reached its apex with this zany satire of ’50 mores, culture, and music that features dynamic performances by Little Richard, Fats Domino, the Platters, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, and others. Preceded by Tashlin’s shorts: I GOT PLENTY OF MUTTON (1944, 16mm) and SWOONER CROONER (1944, 35mm nitrate print).

(Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard, UK 1938, 95 min., 35mm)

Professor Henry Higgins (co-director Leslie Howard, one year before Gone With the Wind) finds Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Wendy Hiller) outside a London theatre and decides that, with the proper training, he can pass her off as a princess within six months. David Lean edited what is considered by many to be the best of all screen adaptations of George Bernard Shaw’s plays.

(Frank Capra, US 1932, 83 min., 35mm)

Lulu (Barbara Stanwyck), a small-town spinster who’s just found a rage to live, moves to the big city and becomes the mistress of a rising politician (Adolphe Menjou) and the mother of his illegitimate child. Soon, a newspaper editor (Ralph Bellamy) in pursuit of the scoop on this salacious story falls for Lulu, too. Then, at 8:30 p.m. THE MIRACLE WOMAN (Frank Capra, US 1931, 90 min., 35mm) Barbara Stanwyck stars as a thinly disguised version of legendary evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson in a funny expose of religious con artists. Both films have been recently preserved by Sony Pictures and will be shown in new 35mm prints. Two films for one admission price.