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JANUARY

Sunday, January 13 – 4:00 PM

Family Matinee Double Feature:

TARZAN’S GREATEST ADVENTURE, 1959, Warner Bros., 88 min. John Guillermin (THE BLUE MAX; THE TOWERING INFERNO) directed what is commonly acknowledged by Tarzan fans as the all-time best Tarzan picture. Producer Sy Weintraub was intent on depicting a more literate, intelligent King of the Jungle (as depicted in Edgar Rice Burroughs’s many novels) and found the perfect match in actor Gordon Scott. Shot entirely on location, the non-stop thrills start when psychotic Anthony Quayle and his band of career criminals (including Sean Connery and Nial MacGinnis) go on the rampage in preparation for a diamond robbery. Saddled with a stranded female pilot (Sara Shane), Scott’s Tarzan tracks Quayle – a former nemesis – and his cronies through the jungle till the bitter, savage end. "A superior action yarn shot on location in Africa, more adult than most of its predecessors…" – Leonard Maltin NOT ON DVD

TARZAN ESCAPES, 1936, Warner Bros., 89 min. Dir. Richard Thorpe. Many regard this as one of the best of the Johnny Wesimuller Tarzan films. One of the most riproaring of the early part of the series, it was also regarded as exceedingly violent for the time period. Indeed, just like KING KONG, some scenes were cut before release (reportedly there was a giant vampire bat sequence!), judged as just too intense for audiences. Jane’s cousins, intent on trying to untangle red tape with Jane’s inherited fortune, enlist the help of nefarious hunter and animal trapper, Captain Fry. Fry has his own agenda – he sees dollar signs if he can bring Tarzan back alive to exhibit in England. But, as we all know, capturing Tarzan will not be easy. With Maureen O’Sullivan.

FEBRUARY

MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (TONARI NO TOTORO), 1988, Walt Disney, 86 min. The third Studio Ghibli feature from former Toei animator cum writer, producer, director and entrepreneur Hayao Miyazaki. The story of two young sisters, Satsuki and Mei Kusakabe, who move into a new house with their father, near a vast forest to be closer to their ailing, hospitalized mother. Discovering wondrous forest spirits and dust-bunnies, they also encounter Totoro, a giant lumbering bunny-esque creature. "Here is a children's film made for the world we should live in, rather than the one we occupy. A film with no villains. No fight scenes. No evil adults. No fighting between the two kids. No scary monsters. No darkness before the dawn. A world that is benign. A world where if you meet a strange towering creature in the forest, you curl up on its tummy and have a nap. MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO has become one of the most beloved of all family films without ever having been much promoted or advertised." -- Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times

May

Family Matinee:
New 35mm Print! OLIVER TWIST, 1948, MGM/UA, 116 min. Dir. David Lean. A startlingly real, atmospheric evocation of childhood terrors and the evils of poverty. Innocent orphan Oliver (John Howard Davies) is shanghaied into a gang of child thieves by blackguard Bill Sykes (a particularly chilling Robert Newton). Alec Guinness’ masterful, almost unrecognizable performance as the Jewish kingpin of boy thieves, Fagin, led to unexpected problems when the film was denounced as anti-Semitic by the League of B’nai B’rith – in Berlin, rioters tore the theatre apart where the film was shown, and its release was delayed for three years in the U.S. to let tensions ease. More on this film. "OLIVER TWIST moves forward in staccato bursts, propelled by coiling tensions and by outbursts of sudden, brutish violence…This is possibly David Lean’s wildest movie, certainly his darkest and arguably his best." – Al McKee, Film Comment.