April 29th 2014. Pick of the Day.
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As the month draws to a close activity on the rep film circuit grows increasingly potential rather than kinetic, and the May sked promises some BIG series and special screenings to be sure, but while today's listings might seem scant the pickin's be bountiful indeed. The lone ongoing series today is the Nitehawk Cinema's sadly, imminently mothballed Vice Presents the Film Foundation Screening Series, which has just about hit the year-old mark (I've counted the notches next to the fridge), and goes out with a spectacular bang indeed. Firstly, let's examine the repertory unspoolings in toto;
Film Forum
OTHELLO (1952) Dir; Orson Welles
Film Society of Lincoln Center
THE SEVEN PER CENT SOLUTION/THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1976/70) Dir; Herbert Ross/Billy Wilder
Nitehawk Cinema
SHADOW OF A DOUBT (1943) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock
IFC Center
GODZILLA (1954) Dir; Ishiro Honda
Today's Pick? No question. I bid the Nitehawk's Film Foundation series a temporary (fingers crossed) adieu with tonight's 35mm screening of Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece SHADOW OF A DOUBT. In my esteem not his first masterpiece, that honor might well belong to THE 39 STEPS; but it is arguably his first American masterpiece, and serves as the damnedest of valentines to one's newly adopted homeland. Hitch found a kindred spirit in scribe Thorton Wilder, who also made a living off the playful exposing of the blacker, more diabolically eccentric heart of small-town Americana. There may be no more perfect scenario's unfolding to be found in Tha Mahstah's CV than the scene where patriarch Henry Travers engages in one of his routine parlor games, the devising of the perfect murder, with pedantic neighbor Hume Cronyn, while daughter Teresa Wright boldly stares down an actual killer, her namesake and perhaps, queerly enough, her soulmate; Joseph Cotten's Uncle Charley.
Cotten's murderous sociopath heralded Big Al's future thematic course in a way. By daring to explore the mind of a killer, arming the piece's villian with mitigating factors (at the height of the Hays Code and the propaganda era no less), he unlocked a fascination with psyche damaged and deranged that would continue with Robert Walker's patricidal Bruno in STRANGERS ON A TRAIN; James Stewart's scopophiliac Jeff Jefferies and necrophiliac Scotty Ferguson in REAR WINDOW and VERTIGO, respectively; culminating with Anthony Perkins' pick-your-neuroses Norman Bates in PSYCHO, an arc which ultimately finds the sociopath, the character feared, simultaneously the one most deserving of our empathy. Hitch had issues.
Yes we have Russell Crowe-level rains approaching, yes most of you will have to board the L train to attend, and yes, it's friggin' Williamsburg. The bottom line is this; if you let any or all of those factors keep you from this screening, one that promises to be most memorable depending on your level of Cinegeekdom, then draw the scarlet H on your back and wear it unproudly. You obviously don't care about NYC's rep film circuit. Or film in general. Or puppies. As a matter of fact I'm pretty sure I saw you kicking one. You callin' me a liar, puppy-kicker?
Alfred Hitchcock's SHADOW OF A DOUBT screens tonight at the Nitehawk Cinema as part of their excellent Vice Presents the Film Foundation Screening Series. Here's hoping they resume this baby as soon as possible!
For more info on these and all NYC's classic film screenings in April '14 click on the interactive calendar on the upper right hand side of the page. For the monthly overview listen in to the inaugural podcast! For reviews of contemporary cinema and my streaming habits (keep it clean!) check out my Letterboxd 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 wear galoshes. And take an umbrella. And do a last head count to make sure ya got two of everything.
-Joe Walsh
P. S. Should you be feeling charitable during this still 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 the 2012 hurricane. Be a mensch.
