At the Packard Campus Theater — July 2019

Our summer-long film series “Kids These Days,” which explores the age-old opinion by adults that the younger generation is going to hell in a handbasket, continues with four films from the 1970s and 1980s: Footloose, Carrie, River’s Edge, and The Bad News Bears. Two silent comedies starring Clara Bow, Kid Boots (1926) and Hula (1927) will be shown with live musical accompaniment by Andrew Simpson and we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s moonwalk with the Armstrong biopic First Man (2018) on July 20.

Friday, July 5 (7:30 p.m.)
Footloose (Paramount, 1984)
Kevin Bacon, in the role that made him a star, plays Chicago teenager Ren McCormack who is transplanted to an ultra-conservative small town in Utah where dancing is outlawed. Recruiting his best pal, the quiet Willard (Chris Penn), and his girlfriend (Lori Singer), daughter of clergyman Rev. Shaw Moore (John Lithgow), Ren goes before the city council to have the law overturned so that the school can hold a senior prom. The film, directed by Herbert Ross, was a box office smash and the soundtrack album reached number one on the US Billboard 200 chart. The title song from the film, written by Kenny Loggins and Dean Pitchford, was nominated for an Academy Award and Loggins’ recording of it was added to the National Recording Registry in 2017. Rated PG. 35mm archival film print, 107 min.

Saturday, July 6 (2 p.m.)
Yankee Doodle Dandy (Warner Bros., 1942)
Ostensibly a biopic about jingoistic songwriter-performer George M. Cohan (portrayed with buoyant enthusiasm by James Cagney), the film’s patriotic message, celebratory musical numbers and sentimental family saga were aimed at bolstering morale during the early months of World War II. Directed by Michael Curtiz, Cagney’s Oscar winning for Best Actor performance was complemented by Walter Huston as his father, Rosemary DeCamp as his mother, real-life sister Jean Cagney as his sister, and Joan Leslie as his perky champion and wife. The film was selected to the National Film Registry in 1993. 35mm film print produced by the Library of Congress Film Preservation Lab in 1996, 126 min.

Saturday, July 6 (7:30 p.m.)
Carrie (United Artists, 1976 – rated R*)
This classic horror movie based on Stephen King’s first novel stars Sissy Spacek as Carrie White, a shy, ostracized teenager who is the butt of practical jokes at her small-town high school. When popular mean-girl Chris Hargenson (Nancy Allen) engineers a particularly reprehensible prank at the school prom aimed at White, Carrie lashes out with a horrifying display of her telekinetic powers. Directed by Brian De Palma, the film was a critical and box office success and received Oscar nominations for Best Actress for Spacek and Best Supporting Actress for Piper Laurie, for her portrayal of Carrie’s delusional mother. The supporting cast includes Betty Buckley, John Travolta, Amy Irving and William Katt. 35mm archival film print, 98 min. *No one under the age of 17 will be admitted without a parent or guardian.

Thursday, July 11 (7:30 p.m.)
River’s Edge (Island Pictures, 1986 – rated R*)
Inspired by a true event, “River’s Edge” follows how a group of apathetic high school students in a dismal, dead-end California town deal with their friend’s murder of his girlfriend. Tim Hunter directed this dark and chilling tale that was noted by several critics as being a contemporary-day horror film. Except for Dennis Hopper as a drug dealer, the cast was largely comprised of young unknown actors, many of whom (Keanu Reeves, Ione Skye, Crispin Glover, Daniel Roebuck) would definitely be heard from in the future. Film critic Roger Ebert called it “The best analytical film about a crime since The Onion Field and In Cold Blood.” 35mm archival film print, 99 min. *No one under the age of 17 will be admitted without a parent or guardian.

Friday, July 12 (7:30 p.m.)
Pete Seeger and Friends on Rainbow Quest (1965-1966)
This video compilation is culled from “Rainbow Quest,” an independently produced folk music series hosted by Pete Seeger. Pete talks to and performs with the Clancy Brothers, Tom Paxton, Elizabeth Cotten, Jean Ritchie, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Malvina Reynolds, New Lost City Ramblers, Doc Watson with Clint Howard and Fred Price, Richard and Mimi Farina, the Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys, Donovan, Reverend Gary Davis, Theodore Bikel, Judy Collins, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Mississippi John Hurt, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Johnny Cash and June Carter. The show was only broadcast in the NYC area on stations on WNJU and WNDT and most of the footage has not been seen since the show aired in the 1960’s. Digital presentation.

Saturday, July 13 (2 p.m.)
Dinosaur (Disney, 2000)
This computer-animated adventure film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation tells the story of Aladar, an orphaned Iguanodon, who grows up in the care of a group of lemurs. When a meteor shower appears, Aladar and his lemur “family” flee their homeland and seek safety. While on the run, Aladar encounters other dinosaurs for the first time. While the characters in “Dinosaur” are computer-generated, most of the backgrounds are live-action and were filmed in a number of locations including Canaima National Park in Venezuela and Angel Falls. Dinosaur was nominated for five Annie Awards, given for excellence in animation in film and television. The voice cast includes D.B. Sweeney as Aladar, Alfre Woodard, Ossie Davis, Julianna Margulies and Della Reese. Rated PG. 35mm archival film print, 82 min.

Saturday, July 13 (7:30 p.m.)
The Bad News Bears (Paramount, 1976)
Walter Matthau stars as the grumbling, beer-guzzling Morris Buttermaker, a former minor-league pitcher roped into coaching a Southern California Youth Baseball League team made up of rejects – the League’s worst players. Realizing the team is nearly hopeless, he recruits a couple of unlikely prospects: sharp-tongued Amanda (Tatum O’Neal), a skilled pitcher who is the 12-year-old daughter of one of Buttermaker’s ex-girlfriends, and Kelly (Jackie Earle Haley), a cigarette-smoking, Harley-Davidson-riding troublemaker who happens to be a gifted athlete. The screenplay by Bill Lancaster, son of actor Burt Lancaster, was winner of a Writers Guild of America award. The success this underdog comedy from director Michael Ritchie almost single-handedly spawned the kids’ sports film boom of the 1980s and ’90s. Rated PG. 35mm archival film print, 102 min.

Thursday, July 18 (7:30 p.m.)
Force of Evil (MGM, 1948)
Abraham Polonsky came to prominence with his screenplay for the box-office success of the John Garfield boxing drama “Body and Soul” in 1947, and made his directorial debut a year later with “Force of Evil.” Acclaimed as a masterpiece of postwar American noir, the drama tells of mob lawyer Joe Morse (John Garfield), working for a powerful gangster, who wishes to consolidate and control the numbers racket in New York. This means assuming control of the many smaller numbers rackets, one of which is run by Morse’s older brother Leo (Thomas Gomez). The plot which unfolds is a terse, melodramatic thriller notable for realist location photography and almost poetic dialogue. The film was selected to the National Film Registry in 1994. Digital presentation, 79 min.

Friday, July 19 (7:30 p.m.)
The Wages of Fear (Distributors Corporation of America, DCA), 1953)
In a squalid South American oil town, four desperate men sign on for a suicide mission to drive trucks loaded with nitroglycerin over a treacherous mountain route. As they ferry their explosive cargo to a faraway oil fire, each bump and jolt tests their courage, their friendship, and their nerves. The result is one of the greatest thrillers ever committed to celluloid, a white-knuckle ride from France’s legendary master of suspense, Henri-Georges Clouzot. This French-Italian production stars Yves Montand and is based on the 1950 French novel Le salaire de la peur (The Salary of Fear) by Georges Arnaud. 147 min. Presented in a new 35mm print created from a complete HD digital restoration, courtesy of Janus Films.

Saturday, July 20 (7:30 p.m.)
First Man (Universal, 2018)
Ryan Gosling stars as Neil Armstrong in this intimate account of the first manned mission to the moon, focusing on the decade leading to the historic Apollo 11 flight. Told from Armstrong’s perspective (based on the book by James R. Hansen), the film explores the triumphs and the cost – on Armstrong, his family, his colleagues and the nation itself – of one of the most dangerous missions in history. Directed by Damien Chazelle (La La Land), First Man features Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler and Corey Stoll in the supporting cast. Shown on the 50^th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing in which Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first two men to set foot on the lunar surface. Rated PG-13. 35mm archival film print, 141 min.

Thursday, July 25 (7:30 p.m.)
My Favorite Wife (RKO, 1940)
Three years after their great success in “The Awful Truth,” writer/director Leo McCarey reunited stars Cary Grant and Irene Dunne for another romantic comedy classic. Inspired by Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem, “Enoch Arden,” Dunne (as Ellen Arden), returns to her spouse and children after being shipwrecked on a tropical island for several years, only to find that her husband Nick (Grant) has had her declared legally dead and is about to marry another woman. Co-written and produced by McCarey and directed by Garson Kanin, the film receive Oscar nods for Best Story, Best Score and Best Art Direction. Remade in 1963 as Move Over, Darling starring Doris Day and James Garner. 35mm film print, recently produced by the Library of Congress Film Preservation Lab, 88 min.

Friday, July 26 (7:30 p.m.)
Kid Boots (Paramount, 1926)
Eddie Cantor was already an established stage star when his Broadway musical-comedy Kid Boots opened in December of 1923,  a smash hit that ran for over a year. Paramount signed Cantor to recreate his role for the cameras where he was paired with rising star and future “It” girl, Clara Bow. Directed by Frank Tuttle, Cantor plays the hapless “Kid Boots” who is rescued from a bully by a handsome young playboy named Tom (Lawrence Gray); in return, Kid agrees to help Tom get a divorce from the gold-digging Carmen Mendoza (Natalie Kingston) who tricked him into marriage. Also on board is beautiful Billie Dove as Tom’s new love interest. Digital presentation, 77 min. The two-reel comedy short The Way of All Pants (1927) starring Charley Chase will also be on the program. For decades only nine minutes of this film, missing most of the first reel, was the only version available on the title. A nearly complete print was recently discovered at the Library of Congress National Audio Visual Conservation Center.  Live musical accompaniment will be presented by Andrew Simpson.

Saturday, July 27 (2 p.m.)
Hula (Paramount, 1927)
Clara Bow plays free-spirited “Hula” Calhoun, the daughter of a Hawaiian pineapple plantation owner who falls for a dashing but serious British engineer (Clive Brook), brought in to build a new dam on the island. She finds herself competing with the local widow (Arlette Marchal) for his attentions, but both women get a big surprise when his wife (Patricia Dupont) shows up. Future Oscar winner Victor Fleming (Gone with the Wind) directed this romantic comedy in which Bow dances in a grass skirt, rides a horse, rescues a dog and famously skinny dips in a stream. 35mm film print produced by the Library of Congress Film Preservation lab, 64 min. The rarely seen comedy short No Publicity (1927) starring popular character actor Edward Everett Horton and produced by Harold Lloyd will precede the feature. Live musical accompaniment will be presented by Andrew Simpson.