Love Me or Leave Me

Monday, July 8th, at 7:00pm
Matinee Showing Tuesday, July 9th, at 2:00pm

This dramatic musical won an Academy Award for its script and a Best Actor nomination for James Cagney. But, above all, it is our tribute to the phenomenal talent of Doris Day, who still holds the record as one of the greatest box office draws in movie history, proving here that she was underrated as both actress and singer. Originally written for Ava Gardner, who turned it down, this film proved, once and for all, that Doris Day was not always a “good” girl. This film counters all her “sweet” comedies as she plays a loose woman in a tight dress and sings “Ten Cents a Dance,” which is the amount she charges. This is the best performance of her career. The other songs, which served to make a huge best-selling album, include “Never Look Back,” “You Made Me Love You,” “Mean to Me,” “My Blue Heaven,” and “I’ll Never Stop Loving You” (nominated for the Oscar as Best Song). Doris proves that no one could sing the blues as naturally and as effortlessly as she did. The final moments of the film, when she sings “Love Me or Leave Me,” are a dramatic highlight. She won the festival’s Best Actress award for Teacher’s Pet and Cagney won for one of the festival’s biggest surprise hits, the comedy One, Two, Three. There are fireworks, both dramatic and musical, as we say goodbye to Doris Day. Directed by Charles Vidor. (1955, 122 mins)

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The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Monday, July 15th, at 7:00pm
Tuesday, July 16th, at 1:00pm

Charles Laughton and Maureen O’Hara star in this classic 1939 spectacle with a cast of thousands and sets that only Hollywood could have created to capture the look of the original medieval cathedral—a building that is much in the minds of people around the world after this year’s tragic fire. After the tragedy, Victor Hugo’s novel once again shot to the top of best seller lists in France. The film offers further proof that there was a time when Hollywood set designers were experts at creating the mood, and architecture, of the past. No one could successfully overact like Charles Laughton, and Quasimodo the hunchback is his supreme achievement. (Laughton won the festival’s Best Actor award earlier for Witness for the Prosecution and will be in the running again this year). The film received Oscar nominations for Alfred Newman’s music and for its sound. Directed by William Dieterle. (1939, 117 mins)

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Affair in Trinidad

Monday, July 22nd, at 7:00pm
Tuesday, July 23rd, at 1:30pm

“Rita’s Back” was the headline in newspapers around the world in 1952 when Rita Hayworth, Hollywood’s anointed “love goddess,” returned to movies after a four-year absence, during which she was married to Prince Aly Khan, thus becoming a princess long before Grace Kelly. One of your most requested movies has been a repeat of Gilda, the love-hate scorcher, but we’ve gone one better here with Rita dancing barefoot to a number called “The Trinidad Lady,” plus another called “I’ve Been Kissed Before,” both choreographed by the great modern dancer Valerie Bettis. And, once more, her co-star is Glenn Ford. They hate each other so much that they’re in love —again. Surprisingly, this film actually outgrossed Gilda at the box office. Set against a backdrop of suspenseful foreign intrigue, its supporting cast includes Alexander Scourby and Juanita Moore (who later was Oscar-nominated for Imitation of Life). A rare find, this film has not been seen on a big screen in 50 years, thus making it a “new” film. Directed by Victor Sherman, it’s an affair to remember. (1952, 98 mins)

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Red River

Monday, July 29th, at 7:00pm
Tuesday, July 30th, at 12:15pm

Directed by Howard Hawks, John Wayne stars in what is, perhaps, the last great western we hadn’t yet selected for the festival. It has been named by the American Film Institute as one of the five greatest westerns of all time. There is no more stirring moment in movie history than when a symphony orchestra swells to full force as Wayne calls for the cattle herd to be headed out on this fictional account of the first cattle drive from Texas to Kansas along the Chisholm trail. The music is by Dimitri Tiomkin. Montgomery Clift, the new acting find of the era, is his co-star. Red River is the western that fans have been encouraging us to do. (And, incidentally, it was “the last picture show” in the movie of the same name). (1948, 133 mins)

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The Red Shoes

Monday, August 5th, at 7:00pm
Tuesday, August 6th, at 1:00pm

Here is a box office phenomenon that has shocked the movie industry year after year as it becomes more legendary. The British Film Institute named it the Best British film of all time and, with its initial release in the United States, it ran for two years in a single theater in New York City, inspiring a cult of worshippers to return and see it over and over. This very rare screening again proves that it is one of the most beautiful color movies of all time—with great photography by the legendary Jack Cardiff. Starring the fiery red-headed ballerina Moria Shearer, it is about obsessive love, as the heroine’s dance career clashes with her personal life. She, fatefully, is appearing in a ballet in which the red shoes have been cursed and she must dance until she dies. Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg headed an effort to restore the film to its original glory and, as a result, it was again premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, in 2009. Nominated for five Academy Awards, it won for its score and for its art direction, receiving other nominations for Best Picture, Script, and Editing. Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger. (1948, 134 mins)

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