(Gregory LaCava, US 1936, 95 min.)
The screwiest of screwball comedies features Carole Lombard as a dizzy blonde who hires tramp William Powell as butler to her equally loopy family of socialites. The upside-down situation of a bum imparting lessons in manners, ethics and discipline is the perfect material for the sterling cast, particularly the priceless Eugene Palette as Lombard’s dad.
(Otto Preminger, US 1954, 91 min.)
Monroe co-stars in a rugged outdoor adventure/love story as a woman searching for her missing husband with the help of barrel-chested Robert Mitchum. Their perilous journey on a river raft takes great advantage of a then-new widescreen frame. “One of the first films to discover the potential of CinemaScope® and a fine example of Preminger’s rational approach to the mysteries of personal morality”—Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader.
(NI NEIBIAN JIDIAN, Tsai Ming-Liang, France/Taiwan 2001, 116 min., Taiwanese/French/subtitles)
In Taipei, laconic young watch vendor Hsiao-kang (director Tsai’s frequent collaborator Lee Kang-Sheng) is beset on one side by the fragile emotions of his recently widowed mother and on the other by his longing for a woman, Shiang-chyi, who just left for Paris. Shuttling effortlessly between two continents, Tsai’s tale of time, desire, and displaced city dwellers is enhanced by a marvelously droll sense of visual humor. Followed by the short sequel THE SKYWALK IS GONE (TIAN QIAO BU JIAN LE, Tsai Ming-Liang, Taiwan/France 2002, 25 min.) Members admitted free.
(Frank Tuttle, US 1931, 63 min.)
then at 9 p.m. WHITE WOMAN
(Stuart Walker, US 1933, 68 min.)
Screen icon Carole Lombard stars in a pair of racy features from a brief period of relaxed censorship in Hollywood. First, Lombard is a secretary who doesn’t know she’s in for a surprise when she plans to marry the layabout heir to a soap fortune. Rochester’s own Louise Brooks co-stars! Then, in the lush White Woman, a torch singer (Lombard) banished from Malay nightclubs for “arousing” the natives, absconds with a sadistic plantation owner (Charles Laughton) who takes turns tyrannizing his new wife and his pet monkey. This wacky precursor to Apocalypse Now offers a heady brew of tribal insurrections, sexy ex-convicts, and a delirious Laughton as self-appointed “King of the Jungle.” Two films for one admission price.
(George Cukor, US 1964, 170 min.)
In Lerner and Loewe’s classic, an erudite professor attempts to transform a lowly flower girl into a lady of distinction. Audrey Hepburn is Eliza Doolittle and Rex Harrison is Henry Higgins in this beloved multi-Oscar®-winning musical adaptation of Shaw’s Pygmalion. One of the most lushly designed of all widescreen films, veteran filmmaker Cukor and his cast and crew are at the peak of their talents here. “Wouldn’t it Be Lovely” to see it again?
