Harold B. Lee Library

Film Series Schedule – Fall 2008

Starring Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter, Edward G. Robinson, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Yvonne De Carlo, Debra Paget, John Derek.

  • Time: 6:00 PM — (Note: Special Time)
  • Date: Thursday, September 11 & Friday, September 12, 2008
  • Place: HBLL Auditorium, 1st Floor; Admission is free; arrive early for seats.


About the Event
Cecil B. DeMille made the first feature film in Hollywood in 1914 and, until his death in 1959, was the most successful filmmaker of them all. His crowning achievement, The Ten Commandments, was also the most expensive Hollywood film up to that time. It paved the way for Hollywood’s growing use of visual effects, after the reaction to the still impressive parting of the Red Sea sequence . The story pits the Hebrew-born prince against his avaricious cousin in the court of Sethi, and afterwards as leaders of their kingdoms. There is also a Cold War political edge to Moses’s challenge to Rameses: “Is man the property of the State, or free under God?” DeMille’s second attempt at this subject (the first being in 1923) took him to Egypt for extensive location shooting, including Mt. Sinai. This is the most beloved and enduring of DeMille’s 70 motion pictures. No one could make a movie spectacular quite like Cecil B.DeMille. L.Tom Perry Special Collections is the home of the Cecil B.DeMille Papers, and items from the collection will be shown prior to each of the two complete screenings. Paramount Pictures, 1956. 221 mins. Technicolor. Director: Cecil B. DeMille.

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Starring John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Thomas Mitchell, Andy Devine, Donald Meek.

  • Time: 7:00 PM
  • Date: Friday, September 26, 2008
  • Place: HBLL Auditorium, 1st Floor; Admission is free; arrive early for seats.


About the Event
Under John Ford’s direction, John Wayne, as the Ringo Kid, became a star in this legendary western saga of a diverse group of outcasts traveling through Indian country to Lordsburg, New Mexico. Producer Merian C. Cooper (King Kong) and business partner Ford took the project to independent producer Walter Wanger when David O. Selznick insisted on more bankable stars. Stagecoach also heralded the mature, adult-themed westerns and more generous budgets than the then-current “B” western variety of Saturday matinees. The other major star to come out of this film was the awe-inspiring scenery of Monument Valley on the Utah-Arizona border. Many years ago the original negative to Stagecoach was lost and subsequent copies, including those on video, were taken from John Wayne’s worn 35MM print. This copy was struck in the early 1940s for Merian C. Cooper from the original negative and is from the Cooper Papers in the L.Tom Perry Special Collections. Walter Wanger/United Artists, 1939. 97 mins. Director: John Ford.

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Starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Patric Knowles, C. Henry Gordon, Donald Crisp, David Niven.

  • Time: 7:00 PM
  • Date: Friday, October 17, 2008
  • Place: HBLL Auditorium, 1st Floor; Admission is free; arrive early for seats.


About the Event
Inspired by Tennyson’s poem and freely adapted from history, the “noble six hundred” of the British light cavalry ride to their death at Balaklava in this famous episode from the Crimean War in 1854. Charge was one of the biggest adventure films of the 1930s, produced on a grand scale, but taking care to delight audiences with the romance of British cavalry officers Flynn and his brother Knowles, both in love with the same woman. This is the second of eight films in which the lovely Olivia de Havilland appears with Flynn. The brilliantly staged climatic charge by Michael Curtiz (Casablanca), is one of the great moments in movie history. It was also the first major score by legendary film composer Max Steiner (King Kong, Gone With the Wind, A Star is Born) for the studio that would be his home for nearly 20 years. Steiner’s papers are preserved in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections. Warner Bros., 1936. 115 mins. Director: Michael Curtiz. *Special personal appearance by Anna Bonn, William Stromberg, and John Morgan of Tribute Film Classics to mark the release of their world premiere re-recording CD of Max Steiner’s legendary music score. Copies will be available.

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Starring Jimmy Hunt, Helena Carter, Arthur Franz, Morris Ankrum, Leif Erickson, Hillary Brooke.

  • Time: 7:00 PM
  • Date: Friday, October 24, 2008
  • Place: HBLL Auditorium, 1st Floor; Admission is free; arrive early for seats.


About the Event
In the years since its release, this independently produced film, one of the first sci-fi movies to begin production in the 1950s, has become a cult classic. Youngster David MacLean (Hunt) observes the landing of a flying saucer in a field behind his home and reports it to his disbelieving parents, whose minds are soon after taken over by the alien forces, as are the police chief and others in their small town. Paranoia, spaceships, and large green mutants who eventually come up against the might of the U.S. Army make Invaders From Mars an apt metaphor for 1950s concerns about the growing threat of Communism. Its low budget is otherwise visually enhanced by the stunning work of famed production designer William Cameron Menzies (Gone With the Wind and many others), who also is its director. We are showing the rarely screened long version of this science fiction mainstay that was only distributed in Europe. Edward L. Alperson/20th Century-Fox, 1953. 79 mins. Cinecolor. Director: William Cameron Menzies.

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Starring Audrey Hepburn, Peter Finch, Edith Evans, Peggy Ashcroft, Dean Jagger. Mildred Dunnock.

  • Time: 7:00 PM
  • Date: Friday, November 21, 2008
  • Place: HBLL Auditorium, 1st Floor; Admission is free; arrive early for seats.


About the Event
Some have called The Nun’s Story the greatest film that Hepburn ever made, although it would seem unlikely that a story, beginning in the late 1920s, about a young postulant nun in a Belgian convent striving for a career as a nurse, would rate such prominence. It came about because of Kathryn Hulme’s best-selling 1956 novel, based on the real Marie-Louise Habets, Hepburn’s enthusiasm for playing the lead role, and the assistance of Habets during production. This is a powerful, gripping film. The theme of the “clash of an individual with the community of which he is a part” is universal, said director Fred Zinnemann (High Noon, Oklahoma!, A Man For All Seasons). “An individual who is trying to follow his own, personal conscience against all kinds of odds; it applies equally to a purely interior dilemma, where the conflict of conscience is not directed against an opponent, but rages within the soul of the individual himself.”
Warner Bros., 1959. 149 mins. Technicolor. Director: Fred Zinnemann.

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Starring Cary Grant, Loretta Young, David Niven, Monty Wolley, James Gleason.

  • Time: 7:00 PM
  • Date: Friday, December 5, 2008
  • Place: HBLL Auditorium, 1st Floor; Admission is free; arrive early for seats.


About the Event
The versatile Cary Grant takes the part of a mild-mannered angel attired in a pedestrian, nondescript business suit in this enchanting fantasy about his mission to help the marriage of a Protestant bishop who is preoccupied with fundraising for a new cathedral at the expense of his neglected wife. The skating scene, to the music of Hugo Friedhofer, has been called as near to poetry as film can get. Robert Nathan’s 1928 novel is brought to life by director Henry Koster, whose collection is preserved in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections. The music and papers of Academy Award-winning composer Friedhofer are also a part of the holdings of Special Collections. The limited edition original soundtrack CD, a product of the BYU Film Music Archive, will be available at a special price to those attending this showing. Samuel Goldwyn/ RKO, 1947. 109 mins. Director: Henry Koster.

Links and Materials