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Now Playing at the Packard Campus Theater (Aug. 24-26, 2017)

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The following is a guest post by Jenny Paxson of the Packard Campus.

Platinum Blonde (Columbia, 1931)

Thursday, August 24 (7:30 p.m.)
Platinum Blonde (Columbia, 1931)
Jean Harlow is the title character in this romantic comedy directed by Frank Capra. Originally intended as a vehicle for starlet Loretta Young, who is top billed, the name was changed from Gallagher (Young’s character) to Platinum Blonde to capitalize on Harlow’s rising popularity. Both women vie for the attention of reporter Stew Smith:  Young as one of his newspaper pals and Harlow as a society dame whose family was recently embroiled in a sex scandal that Stew covered for the tabloid. Critics praised the performance of relative newcomer Robert Williams as the cocky reporter and predicted a big career in pictures to follow. Sadly, Williams died from peritonitis just four days after the film’s bi-coastal premiere.

Friday, August 25 (7:30 p.m.)
Allegheny Uprising (RKO, 1939)
Set in in the days before the American Revolution, local settlers and Indian fighters in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Valley try to persuade the British authorities to ban the trading of alcohol and arms with the marauding Indians. Released eight months after Stagecoach, this was the second pairing of the stars of that film, John Wayne and Claire Trevor. William A. Seiter directed this historical adventure based on a true incident. The supporting cast includes Brian Donlevy as a crooked trader and George Sanders as a tyrannical British captain. The 35mm film print being shown was made by the Library of Congress Film Preservation Lab in 2016.

Saturday, August 26 (2 p.m.)
Tuck Everlasting (Disney, 2002)
Based on the best-selling children’s book by Natalie Babbitt, this Disney-released family fantasy film asks the question, “If you could choose to live forever, would you?” It tells the story of the strictly-brought up teenager Winnie Foster (Alexis Bledel) whose world is opened up by a chance meeting with a boy and his backwoods family who seem to have discovered the secret for eternal life. Directed by Jay Russell, the cast also includes Jonathan Jackson, Sissy Spacek and William Hurt. Chicago Sun-Times critic Richard Roeper wrote that the film was “a successful merger of the whimsical and the weird.”

 For more information on our programs, please visit the website at: www.loc.gov/avconservation/theater/.

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