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Kevin Thomas

Filmmakers in the indie, experimental, foreign, avant-garde or,until very recently, documentary fields desperately need critics. Lacking money for a promotional campaign and forced to rely on word-of-mouth, these filmmakers have found no better friend over the past 40-plus years than Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times.

Hard to believe there once was a time in antediluvian Los Angeles when major critics shunned anything with subtitles. And drive-in movies were certainly beyond the pale. So it fell to Kevin to alert Angelenos to the French New Wave and to such giants as Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti and Andrei Tarkovsky. He also discovered talented newcomers doing interesting work in films from Roger Corman and American International Pictures. Indeed, he was the first journalist to interview a young actor named Jack Nicholson.

His love of avant-garde and experimental films led him to be the only Los Angeles Times critic to review films by Kenneth Anger and Andy Warhol. Since 1984 his "Special Screenings" column in the Los Angeles Times has been the lifeblood for venues that exhibit films for brief runs or even one night. In short, no one in the Los Angeles critical establishment has done more to create an awareness and appreciation of film culture than Kevin Thomas.

-- Kirk Honeycutt, Los Angeles Film Critics Association

For my second series of favorites I have chosen the theme of films by friends, which encompasses pictures made by people I knew well over many years—Budd Boetticher, George Cukor, Fritz Lang and Mae West—and those with whom I had warm acquaintances over the decades—Akira Kurosawa, Vincent Sherman, Billy Wilder. I interviewed Sir Carol Reed on location for FLAP, here represented by ODD MAN OUT. I did meet Dame Judith Anderson, the co-star of that Pre-Code gem, BLOOD MONEY. I must confess I never met Max Ophuls, who died while I was still in college, but his son Marcel Ophuls, the great documentarian, shared with me memories of his father. When LOLA MONTES proved unavailable for my first series I was determined that, as one of my most favorite directors, Ophuls would be represented by another of his great films, in this instance THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE… I will have plenty of stories to tell, especially of Budd Boetticher, that dashing romantic figure with a character of granite; of George Cukor, the finest mentor anyone could ever have; of Fritz Lang, who was like a father to me; and of the incomparable Mae West, who managed to sustain an 80-year career and who always knew how to enjoy life to the fullest. --- Kevin Thomas

Thursday, January 17 – 7:30 PM

Restored Print! ANATOMY OF A MURDER, 1959, Sony Repertory, 160 min. Dir. Otto Preminger. The finest courtroom drama ever made, a masterpiece of ambiguity in which the audience is the ultimate juror. James Stewart (in what is arguably his richest, certainly his most ambivalent performance) is a small town lawyer who defends an arrogant soldier (Ben Gazzara) for the murder of his sexy wife’s supposed rapist. The characters often seem to behave inappropriately, in the process blurring the dividing line between guilt and innocence. Filmed on location in upper Michigan, in the actual locations where the true-life murder and trial took place. Superb performances from Eve Arden as Stewart’s rock-solid gal Friday, Arthur O’Connell as an alcoholic attorney, George C. Scott as a prosecuting who seems as aware as Stewart’s lawyer that the courtroom is a stage and that victory belongs to the best actor, and McCarthy silencer, real-life lawyer (and non-actor) Joseph N. Welch as a droll judge. Enhanced by Duke Ellington’s jazz score (Ellington makes a surprise cameo appearance, performing at the neighborhood juke joint). Introduction by Film Critic Kevin Thomas.

THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, 1946, MGM Repertory, 172 min. Three World War II veterans return home and struggle with the physical and emotional demands of adjusting to civilian life in this timeless portrait of the human costs of war. Director William Wyler balances multiple storylines and social issues over the course of three swiftly paced hours, and CITIZEN KANE cinematographer Gregg Toland gives the drama visual weight with his typically beautiful deep-focus compositions. Real-life veteran Harold Russell is a standout in an Oscar-winning performance, but the others in the cast --including Dana Andrews, Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright and Fredric March -- are superb as well. Winner of seven Oscars including Best Director and Best Picture. Film Critic Kevin Thomas will introduce the screening.