quarterly pdf - Anthology Film Archives

SERIES
TWO FOR THE ROAD THE RIVER’S EDGE
MORNING GLORY
Allan Dwan
THE RIVER’S EDGE
1957, 87 min, 35mm
Ray Milland stars as an anxious thief on the lam,
fleeing to Mexico after lifting a million dollars from a
U.S. bank. He solicits the help of border guide Anthony
Quinn to lead him through the California wilderness and
to freedom – there’s only the small matter of Quinn’s
exasperated wife Debra Paget, who just so happens to
be Milland’s ex-girlfriend. Shooting on location and in
CinemaScope, the madly prolific Dwan transforms this
crime-melodrama quickie into another of his terrific
B-movies. Sarris grouped the film alongside the director’s
SILVER LODE and THE RESTLESS BREED, and said
they “represent a virtual bonanza of hitherto unexplored
classics. …[I]t may very well be that Dwan will turn out
to be the last of the old masters.”
–Sat, February 23 at 5:00 and
Sun, February 24 at 7:00.
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Tay Garnett
THE SPIELER
1928, 62 min, 35mm.
Con men Flash and Luke (character actor extraordinaire
Alan Hale and stuntman Clyde Cook) try to elude the
cops by taking jobs at Cleo’s (Renee Adoree) carnival.
When the charismatic Flash falls hard for the ravishing
Cleo, he vows to help her mission of running a respectable
show, but scheming pickpocket Big Flash (the great
heavy Fred Kohler) has other plans in mind. Garnett’s
suspenseful and evocative second feature “[suggests]
that [his] personality is that of a rowdy vaudevillian, an
artist with the kind of rough edges that cause the overcivilized
French sensibility to swoon in sheer physical
frustration” (Sarris).
–Sat, February 23 at 7:00 and
Sun, February 24 at 9:00.
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Phil Karlson
THE BROTHERS RICO
1957, 92 min, 35mm
Adapted from a Georges Simenon story, this
no-nonsense noir classic from crime movie master
Karlson (THE PHENIX CITY STORY) stars Richard Conte
as Eddie, the oldest Rico brother and a former mob
accountant pulled back into a world of crime by his
younger siblings. “Karlson’s best film. […] [He] was
most personal and most efficient when he dealt with the
phenomenon of violence in a world controlled by organized
evil. […] Unfortunately, an American director gets
nowhere making films like THE BROTHERS RICO. The
cosmopolitan genre prejudices are too strong” (Sarris).
–Fri, March 22 at 7:00, Mon, March 25
at 9:00, and Sun, March 31 at 4:45.
Joseph H. Lewis
MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS
1945, 65 min, 35mm
Short on money while receiving medical attention in
London, American Julia Ross takes a job as secretary for
the eccentric Hughes family. She falls into a deep sleep
at the Hughes estate, only to awaken in a different house
with another woman’s name and a psychotic fiancé.
After years spent toiling on small B-pictures, Lewis (GUN
CRAZY) was finally given a chance at a bigger production
by Columbia’s Harry Cohn, and this resulting gothic
thriller proved to be his breakthrough: “In 1945, MY
NAME IS JULIA ROSS became the sleeper of the year.
From that point on, the director’s somber personality
has been revealed consistently through a complex visual
style” (Sarris).
–Fri, March 22 at 9:00, Wed, March 27
at 7:15, and Sat, March 30 at 7:15.
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Robert Mulligan
BABY THE RAIN MUST FALL
1965, 100 min, 35mm
Following his success on TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD,
Mulligan re-teamed with producer Alan J. Pakula, writer
Horton Foote, and composer Elmer Bernstein for another
Southern-set drama, an adaptation of Foote’s play.
Steve McQueen is “particularly memorable” (Sarris) as
an ex-con, country singer, and emotional trainwreck
struggling to do right by wife Lee Remick and his young
daughter and stay on the law’s good side. A literate,
patient, and sincere character study, filled with what
Sarris called the director’s “behavioral beauties.”
–Sat, March 23 at 5:00, Tues, March 26
at 9:00, and Sun, March 31 at 6:45.
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Gerd Oswald
FURY AT SHOWDOWN
1957, 75 min, 16mm
Shot in just a week by the great Wilder and Preminger
cinematographer Joseph LaShelle, Oswald’s taut and
tense Western stars John Derek as a gunslinger looking
to settle down to a quiet life of cattle ranching. But when
an old foe has his brother killed, he’s forced to strap on
his guns once again. “Oswald has shown an admirable
consistency, both stylistically and thematically, for a
director in his obscure position. A fluency of camera
movement is controlled by sliding turns and harsh stops
befitting a cinema of bitter ambiguity. …Oswald has
been making distinguished American films that are never
reviewed in the fashionable weeklies and monthlies that
feed off the fashionable and well-publicized projection
room circuit” (Sarris).
–Sat, March 23 at 7:15, Wed, March 27
at 9:00, and Sun, March 31 at 9:00.
Lowell Sherman
MORNING GLORY
1933, 74 min, 16mm.
Katherine Hepburn stars – in only her third film appearance
– as a small-town actress who comes to New York
with dreams of Broadway stardom, but must first navigate
the affections of theater manager Adolphe Menjou and
playwright Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Sherman, coming off his
own successful acting career, rehearsed the script extensively
and shot the film in sequence, guiding Hepburn to
her first Oscar win. “Sherman deserves an esoteric niche
all his own for the behavioral glories of Katherine Hepburn
in MORNING GLORY…. His civilized sensibility was ahead
of its time, and the sophistication of his sexual humor
singularly lacking in malice” (Sarris).
–Sat, March 23 at 9:00 and
Thurs, March 28 at 7:15.
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John M. Stahl
HOLY MATRIMONY
1943, 87 min, 35mm
Eager to escape the limelight, a celebrated but reclusive
painter (Monty Woolley) fakes his own death and assumes
the identity of his recently deceased valet, only to discover
the valet was engaged to be married via a matrimonial
agency…and already had a wife. Stahl – perhaps best
known for his melodramas that would be remade by
Douglas Sirk – had, according to Sarris, “a startling
quality of consistency from 1932 on. …[His] strong point
was sincerity and a vivid visual style.” Featuring an Oscarnominated
script by Nunnally Johnson (THE GRAPES OF
WRATH, THE DIRTY DOZEN), this rarely-screened comedy
was described by Sarris as “a success by any standards.”
–Sun, March 24 at 5:00 and
Fri, March 29 at 7:00.
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Frank Tashlin
BACHELOR FLAT
1962, 91 min, 35mm
In “Tashlin’s best film” (Sarris), bone-obsessed British
archaeologist Terry-Thomas takes a house for the summer
in Malibu while his fiancée Helen travels to Paris, only to
find a gaggle of adoring young co-eds at his doorstep
and a troublesome Dachshund next door. Then Helen’s
daughter Tuesday Weld appears… “Tashlin is impressively
inventive, particularly with gadgets and animals,”
Sarris wrote, but he especially admired in BACHELOR
FLAT a sweetness and sympathy he found lacking in the
director’s other ribald satires.
–Sun, March 24 at 7:00 and
Sat, March 30 at 9:00.
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