Every month films from the Library’s collection are shown at the Mary Pickford Theater ranging from titles newly preserved by the NAVCC film lab, classics from the National Film Registry, and lesser known titles worthy of discovery.
This month we present The Great Garrick:
Thursday, September 20 (7:00pm)
THE GREAT GARRICK (Warner Bros., 1937). Directed by James Whale. Written by Ernest Vajda, With Brian Aherne, Olivia de Havilland, Edward Everett Horton, Melville Cooper, Lionel Atwill, Luis Alberni. (95 min, black & white, 35mm)
Upon hearing rumors that the celebrated British actor David Garrick intends to use his guest appearance at the Comédie Française to “teach the French” how to act, the French actors concoct an elaborate ruse to humiliate the pompous Englishman. With its gallery of Anglo-French characters and a theatrical setting, the film was a perfect fit for English stage and movie director James Whale (Frankenstein, The Old Dark House, Showboat), on loan from Universal following the fiasco of his war drama The Road Back (1937), which had been heavily cut and reshot “to cultivate the good will of Germany.” A charming light-hearted comedy, The Great Garrick was a change of pace for Whale and is usually referred to as the “last wholly satisfactory film of his career.” Preserved in 2016 by the Library of Congress Packard Campus Film Preservation Lab from nitrate negatives in the United Artists Collection.
Seating is on a first-come first-serve basis. Doors open at 6:30 pm.
For more information on our programs, please visit our Mary Pickford Theater website.
The Mary Pickford Theater, is located on the 3rd floor of the Library of Congress James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E.