Harold B. Lee Library

BYU Motion Picture Archive Film Series Season 14 – 2012-2013

Sabrina

The “Wilder” Side of Audrey Hepburn

September 14, 2012

Starring Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, William Holden, Walter Hampden, John Williams.

Under Billy Wilder’s direction, Samuel Taylor’s Broadway play of a lowly chauffeur’s daughter enamored with wealthy Long Island playboy William Holden was perfect for Audrey Hepburn following her Best Actress Oscar win for Roman Holiday the year before. Bogart gets top-billing, but it is Hepburn and Holden who make the magic in this delightful romantic classic that the New York Times calls “a picture to be cherished as a real and lasting joy.”

Paramount. 1954. 1 hr. 53 mins. Director: Billy Wilder.

Dick Tracy’s G-Men: The Master Spy,  30 mins.

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 The Conqueror

“They Conquered Each Other and Then the World”

September 28, 2012

Starring John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Pedro Armendariz, Agnes Moorehead.

The red-rock country of southern Utah’s Snow Canyon and various locations in Washington County stand in for Mongolia in this box office champion featuring, ahem, John Wayne as the 12^th century Mongol warrior Genghis Khan and Susan Hayward as his Tartar princess. The film is now considered a bizarre cinematic curiosity, but is best remembered as a focal point for radiation poisoning that led to the deaths of many of the film’s cast and crew and that jump-started Utah’s long-fought battle for compensation to those who became known as Downwinders.

RKO Radio Pictures. 1956. 1 hr. 51 mins. Technicolor. CinemaScope. Director: Dick Powell.

Dick Tracy’s G-Men: Captured, 17 mins.

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The Most Dangerous Game

The Game is. . .Human!

October 12, 2012

Starring Joel McCrea, Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Leslie Banks.

The geniuses behind the legendary King Kong-Merian C. Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack-were the right ones to adapt Richard Connell’s story of a hunter shipwrecked on an island and hunted in turn by a sadistic Russian prince. The explorer filmmakers had Kong stars Fay Wray and Robert Armstrong appear in both films simultaneously and, together with young star Joel McCrea, they made this early film a thrilling standout, aided by a gripping musical score by Max Steiner, the pioneer of movie music.

RKO Radio Pictures. 1932. 1 hr. 3 mins. Director: Ernest B. Schoedsack.

The Twilight Zone: Nightmare at 20,000 Feet. One of the most famous episodes of the classic television series stars a young William Shatner in Richard Matheson’s story of Robert Wilson, whose fear of flying causes him to see things during a commercial airline flight that no one else does. . . or do they?

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Aired October 11, 1963, CBS. 25 mins. Director: Richard Donner.

Dick Tracy’s G-Men: The False Signal, 17 mins.

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Bride of Frankenstein

“The Monster Demands A Mate!”

October 26, 2012

Starring Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson, Ernest Thesiger,

Elsa Lanchester.

Stylishly and beautifully photographed, this sequel to the original Frankenstein never fails to please. Franz Waxman’s pulsating score is only one of the memorable aspects of this classic tale directed by James Whale. A sympathetic monster, Ernest Thesiger’s Dr. Pretorious and Elsa Lanchester’s “electrifying” performance as the monster’s bride set a pattern for spoofs and imitators for decades to come and make this one of the few classic-era horror films. . . with taste.

Universal. 1935. 1 hr. 15 mins. Director: James Whale.

Dick Tracy’s G-Men: The Enemy Strikes, 17 mins.

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Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

Positively Pixilating!

November 2, 2012

Starring Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, George Bancroft, Lionel Stander.

What to do with a fortune?  Humble Vermont tuba player Longfellow Deeds wrestles with that vexing problem in this memorable Frank Capra film classic that won for the director an Academy award.  When others try to manage his inheritance, Deeds appears ripe for  the pickings to a scheming attorney and too a reporter (Jean Arthur) who tires to get the scoop on the patsy millionaire, only to fall in love with him.  Nominated for Best Picture, Mr. Deeds does not fail to please.

Columbia Pictures.  1936.  1 Hr. 55 mins.  Director: Frank Capra.

Dick Tracy’s G-Men: Crack-Up!, 17 mins.

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 Dick Tracy’s G-Men: Sunken Peril, 17 mins.

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The Bishop’s Wife

An Angel to the Rescue

November 30, 2012

Starring Cary Grant, Loretta Young, David Niven, Monty Woolley.

The enchanting fantasy about an angel sent to help the marriage of a Protestant bishop preoccupied with raising funds for a new cathedral at the expense of his neglected wife. Add the “Goldwyn touch” that meant fine production values, including Gregg Toland’s marvelous photography, a now-legendary score by Hugo Friedhofer, and direction by Henry Koster, and you have a timeless Christmas classic that touches the heart with authenticity.

Samuel Goldwyn. 1 hr. 49 mins. Director: Henry Koster.

Dick Tracy’s G-Men: Tracking the Enemy, 17 mins.

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Miracle on 34^th Street

Do You Believe?

December 6, 2012

Thursday                           Starring Maureen O’Hara, John Payne, Edmund Gwenn, Natalie Wood.

Edmund Gwenn is Kris Kringle and the motion picture industry agreed when it gave him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his winning portrayal of Christmas’s kindly benefactor. This contemporary tale, set around Macy’s department store in Manhattan and its annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and a “modern” mother and daughter jaded to the notion of Santa Claus also won an Oscar for the Valentine Davies story. Our Christmas gift to you as we close 2012.

20^th Century-Fox. 1947. 1 hr. 36 mins. Director: George Seaton.

Dick Tracy-s G-Men: Chamber of Doom, 17 mins.

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Dick Tracy’s G-Men. A serial in 15 chapters

Starring Ralph Byrd, Irving Pichel, Ted Pearson, Phylis Isley [Jennifer Jones].

Chester Gould’s hit comic strip of ace detective Dick Tracy received its third adaptation to the ever-popular Saturday afternoon serials by Republic Pictures. In 15 cliffhanging chapters, Tracy works with the FBI in convicting “the most hated man on earth,” international spy and criminal Zarnoff, only to have him escape execution. Zarnoff’s nefarious plans include bombing a vital canal. Look for a future Academy Award-winning actress before her name-change by David O. Selznick to Jennifer Jones. One episode accompanies each of the season’s feature film showings. Republic. 1939. 15 chapters. Chapter 1, 30 mins. All other chapters, 17 mins. each. Directors: William Witney and John English.

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