Tuesday Nights at the Movies

Woodmere Art Museum and the Chestnut Hill Film Group present the 51st year of rare and underseen films as well as classics. Sponsored by the Chestnut Hill Local.

SEPTEMBER 26 - KAY FRANCIS DOUBLE FEATURE

TROUBLE IN PARADISE (1932 / 83 minutes)

Director Ernst Lubitsch’s delightful, spicy, and cynical pre-Code comedy about a pair of con artists Miriam Hopkins and Herbert Marshall) and their romantic/criminal triangle with heiress Kay Francis. Costarring the ever-wonderful Edward Everett Horton and C. Aubrey Smith.

In 1991, Trouble in Paradise was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

ONE WAY PASSAGE (1932 / 68 minutes)

Rueful and bittersweet, pre-Code shipboard romance on a Hong Kong to San Francisco sailing. Captured-scaped murderer William Powell is being returned to prison for his imminent execution, but finds 11th hour love with terminally ill beauty, Kay Francis having her one last cruise ship hurrah. Their passion smolders and they make the most of their monthlong final voyage. Powell and Francis' 6th movie together, co-written by Wilson Mizner, and directed with expert finesse by Tay Garnet.

OCTOBER 3 - MAN’S CASTLE (1933 / 75 minutes)

Spencer Tracy and Loretta Young star in this stirring pre-Code drama about the relationship between two homeless people and their struggle to survive in a shanty town. A visually evocative depiction of Depression-Era American life.

OCTOBER 10 - PETITE MAMAN (2021 / 73 minutes)

This wondrous and original film of a young girl’s trip to her mother’s childhood home, and a young girl she meets in the nearby woods. This charming and profound meditation on loss is directed by French director Celine Sciamma (Portrait of a Lady on Fire). In French with English subtitles.

OCTOBER 17 - THE MASK OF DIMITRIOS (1944 /95 minutes)

The feature film debut for director Jean Negulesco (Humoresque, How to Marry a Millionaire), this moody noir stars the irresistibly watchable Peter Lorre as a Dutch mystery writer working to piece together clues on the life of deceased criminal Dimitrios Makropoulos (Zachary Scott).

OCTOBER 24 - SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE (2000 / 92 minutes)

A mordantly funny reimagining of the making of F.W. Murnau’s German expressionist classic Nosferatu that operates on the premise that Murnau (John Malkovich) makes a Faustian bargain and casts an actual vampire (Willem Dafoe) as his leading man. Dafoe won a well-deserved Oscar for his creepily compelling portrayal of Max Schreck, the vampire in question.

OCTOBER 31 - HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1944 / 71 minutes)

Celebrate Spooky Season with this Universal horror classic that unites some of its most iconic monsters–Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, the Hunchback, and the Mad Scientist—in a madcap yarn of mayhem and revenge.

NOVEMBER 7 - BOY (2010 / 87 minutes)

Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok, Jojo Rabbit) writes, directs and stars in this offbeat father/son dramedy set in his native New Zealand. A boy named Boy becomes acquainted with his wayward father (Waititi in hilarious form) who returns to recover a bag of money that he buried years ago. Waititi’s signature blend of humor and pathos is on full display.

NOVEMBER 14 - NOW, VOYAGER (1942 / 117 minutes)

Bette Davis is at her best in this melodrama as Boston socialite Charlotte Vale, a frumpy and repressed young woman who becomes transformed into a confident and vivacious beauty-through lots of therapy and a little romance. Featuring a soaring orchestral score and a stellar supporting cast, including Paul Henreid as the smoldering love interest, Gladys Cooper as the overbearing mother, and Claude Rains as her sage and sympathetic therapist.

In 2007, Now, Voyager was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

NOVEMBER 21 - THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1951 /105 minutes)

Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn play the consummate oddball couple as a boozy riverboat captain and a prim but spirited missionary who venture down a river in East Africa to attack a German

gunship during WWI. Restored to its original Technicolor glory in 2010, this highflying adventure film thrills and enchants.

In 1994, The African Queen was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

NOVEMBER 28 - DELICATESSEN (1991 / 99 minutes)

Written and directed by the inventive French creative team Caro and Jeunet, this surreal post-apocalyptic comedy is set in an apartment building and focuses on the intersecting lives of its landlord and tenants. This film has an utterly unique visual style but is not for the faint of heart. Viewer discretion is advised.

DECEMBER 5 - WHITE HEAT (1949 / 114 minutes)

Along with The Public Enemy and Angels with Dirty Faces, White Heat completes a triumvirate of James Cagney gangster films released by Warner Brothers in the 1930’s and 1940’s. In this film, the latest of the three, Cagney is at his unhinged best as a psychopathic criminal with some serious mommy issues who escapes from prison and leads his gang in a chemical heist.

In 2003, White Heat was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

DECEMBER 12 - THE YOUNG IN HEART (1938 / 90 minutes)

A family of con artists gets booted from Monte Carlo after their latest grift goes awry. They then set their sights on a lonely widow, who invites them to stay with her after they seemingly save her life. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. stars in this effervescent comedy about haves and have-nots.

DECEMBER 19 - BEAU GESTE (1939 / 112 minutes)

Gary Cooper, Ray Milland and Robert Preston star in this ageless tale of three heroic brothers who join the French Foreign Legion in Northern Africa after one of them steals a prized heirloom jewel from their adoptive family.

This film will be followed by a screening of a shorter documentary film about Beau Geste.