March 23d 2014. Pick of the Day.
New York City's premiere resource for classic film screenings in the metropolitan area. Offering reviews, recommendations, venues and a host of links keeping classic film and the silver screens alive.
Today's continuing series include the slowly winding down The Complete Hitchcock at Film Forum, See it Big! Comedies at Museum of the Moving Image, and Auteurs Gone Wild at Anthology Film Archives. The lowdown be thus;
Film Forum
THE NAVIGATOR (1924) Dir; Buster Keaton
SUSPICION (1941) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock
THE RING (1927) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock
SPELLBOUND (1945) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock
Museum of the Moving Image
SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959) Dir; Billy Wilder
Mid-Manhattan Library
IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME (1949) Dir; Robert Z. Leonard
Anthology Film Archives
EDWARD, MY SON (1949) Dir; George Cukor
BROKEN LULLABY (1932) Dir; Ernst Lubitsch
A WOMAN OF PARIS (1923) Dir; Charles Chaplin
Today's Pick? Wilder and Monroe tempt with SOME LIKE IT HOT, and Joan Fontaine's existential fear of aloof hubby Cary Grant in SUSPICION never fails to entertain, but how often do we get to witness a film directed by, but not starring, the great Chaplin, let alone his first attempt at creating solely from behind the camera? The great silent actress Edna Purviance, Chaplin's frequent co-star in his early period, essays her first lead under her onetime lover's guidance, a provincial naif whose ambitions and subsequent betrayals lead her inexorably to the City of Lights and the same cycle of tragedy, albeit on a grander scale. It was Chaplin's first flop; a shame rendered all the more ignominious because it was the first produced for his own new studio, a little cinematic co-op called United Artists. Ya might've heard of it. Chaps quickly rebounded with the phenomenal success of THE GOLD RUSH, but some maintain the prior effort gets short shrift, and is worthy of your attendance whence it screens. Count me amongst that number.
Charlie Chaplin's A WOMAN OF PARIS screens tonight at Anthology Film Archives as part of their Auteurs Gone Wild series.
For more info on these and all NYC's classic film screenings in March '14 click on the interactive calendar on the upper right hand side of the page. And be sure to follow me on both Facebook, where I provide further info and esoterica on the rep film circuit and star birthdays, and Twitter, where I provide a daily feed for the day's screenings and other blathery. Back tomorrow with a brand new Pick, til then be safe and sound and make sure the next knucklehead is too. Excelsior!
-Joe Walsh
P. S. Should you be feeling charitable during this harsh weather period please remember to check in with the good folks over at Occupy Sandy. Some of our NY neighbors are still feeling the effects of last year's hurricane. Be a mensch.
