Time: 7:00 PM
Date: Friday, September 9, 2011
Place: HBLL Auditorium, 1^st Floor

About this Event: Hollywood often looked at itself in movies, starting in the silent era, but none are as revealing or as riveting as this one, written by the talented team of director Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett. Swanson appears in a thinly-veiled story of her own career—or does she?—in an Academy Award-nominated performance as an aging movie queen whose great days have passed her by. Or so she thinks until struggling screenwriter Holden takes refuge in her decaying Hollywood mansion. The then active and successful director Cecil B. DeMille nearly steals the show in a cameo role playing himself.

Admission is free
Arrive early for seats.

Date: A new serial is played at the beginning of every film


About this Event: Chapter-play serials were a staple of American moviegoing, beginning in the early silent-film era. Later hit features Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Disney’s Rocketeer owe their success to the serials that their producers and directors watched as youngsters. The best sound serials were produced by Republic Pictures.

In 15 thrilling chapters, Mysterious Doctor Satan finds America threatened by a mad scientist who has constructed robots with which to enslave the free nation. However, Bob Wayne, the Copperhead, stands in his way. Each chapter concludes with a “cliffhanger” ending that is explained in the beginning of the following chapter. Designated chapters precede the showing of the scheduled feature films listed above, just like in the old days at the movies!

Time: 7:00 PM
Date: Friday, September 23, 2011
Place: HBLL Auditorium, 1^st Floor

About this Event: The fast-talking hoodlum character created by James Cagney in a number of gangster movies during the 1930s added a fascinating psychological dimension in this post-war heist film that one Cagney biographer wrote “he was born to play.” A botched train robbery has technology-equipped modern police in pursuit of Cagney and his gang, that includes an undercover cop. Cagney trapped atop a natural gas tank is one of the great moments in the movies. Max Steiner’s throbbing score adds to the gritty realism of this iconic crime film.

Admission is free
Arrive early for seats.

Time: 7:00 PM
Date: Friday, October 14, 2011
Place: HBLL Auditorium, 1^st Floor

WATCH THE TRAILER for The Cat and the Canary

About this Event: Famous radio personality Bob Hope and pert comedienne Paulette Goddard (then married to Charlie Chaplin) were launched as stars with this film that turned the Old Dark House genre of Grand Guignol movies on its head. The reading of the will, scheming beneficiaries, and mysterious murders in an old New Orleans mansion all combine to make The Cat and the Canary both frightful and delightfully funny.

Admission is free
Arrive early for seats.

Time: 7:00 PM
Date: Friday, October 28, 2011
Place: HBLL Auditorium, 1^st Floor

About this Event: Often billed as the “twin titans of horror,” Karloff (the Frankenstein monster in the 1931 classic film) and Lugosi (synonymous with his title role in Dracula) were teamed for the first time in this stylish horror thriller. Bearing little resemblance to the Edgar Allan Poe story, The Black Cat has Lugosi visiting his old nemesis Karloff, who heads a devil cult in a castle nestled in the mountains near Budapest. A stranded honeymooning couple comes between the two men who have a surprising score to settle in one of the great modestly-budgeted films that distinguished Universal Pictures during the 1930s and 1940s, known subsequently as the “Universal Horrors.”

Admission is free
Arrive early for seats.

Time: 7:00 PM
Date: Friday, November 4, 2011
Place: HBLL Auditorium, 1^st Floor

About this Event: With Trigger, “the smartest horse in the movies,” Roy Rogers became an icon of decency and fair play during the long run of his hit 1950s television show. However, Rogers’s film career started with his first starring role in 1938. This film celebrates his first decade in the movies as he is shown making a movie at Republic Pictures, featured in the film’s early moments. Soon after, a local horse dealer steals Trigger to sell, along with rounded-up strays. A young boy caught between the two warring parties adds intrigue to the plot. Also featured are Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers, with whom Rogers sang early in his career.

Admission is free
Arrive early for seats.

Time: 7:00 PM
Date: Friday, November 18, 2011
Place: HBLL Auditorium, 1^st Floor

About this Event: Perhaps the most popular singer of his generation, Gene Autry had his own radio show and sold millions of records before entering movies in the early 1930s. Under contract to Republic Pictures, the breezy contemporary Westerns in which Autry played himself, short on plot but rich in famous song hits, propelled the Texas-born songwriter, singer, and actor to stardom and fame. This film has Autry as a federal agent sent to Mexico and to a fictional country to foil a “foreign power” from controlling its oil fields and establishing a submarine base there to foment revolution.

Admission is free
Arrive early for seats.

Time: 7:00 PM
Date: Friday, December 2, 2011
Place: HBLL Auditorium, 1^st Floor

WATCH THE TRAILER for It’s a Wonderful Life

About this Event: Frank Capra’s time-honored classic of the indispensable nature of each person’s life, a tale that has never been done better, was Stewart’s favorite film, and according to most sources, Capra’s as well. One’s selfless sacrifice for others, as dramatized in the life of George Bailey, seems to hit some snags until he is taught a lesson about life—and death—by an angel. The print screened was Stewart’s personal copy, now in his collection at BYU.

Admission is free
Arrive early for seats.

Spy Smasher
Starring Kane Richmond, Sam Flint, Marguerite Chapman, Hans Schumm, Tristram Coffin.

• Time: 7:00 PM
• Date: New serial shown with each movie–see them all.
• Place: HBLL Auditorium, 1st Floor; Admission is free; arrive early for seats.

About the Event:
Chapter play serials were a staple of American moviegoing, beginning in the early silent-film era. Later hit features Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Disney’s Rocketeer owe their success to the serials that their producers and directors watched as youngsters. The best sound serials were produced by Republic Pictures. One of the very best, Spy Smasher the first derived from a popular comic book hero, is set during World War II and is directed with energy by William Witney. Spy Smasher’s mission, following his capture by Germans and his subsequent escape in occupied France, is to foil an infamous Nazi villain known as the Mask, who, in the United States, has his hands in counterfeiting, trying to steal a secret bombsight, and a weapon that destroys airplane engines. Each thrilling chapter concludes with a “cliffhanger” ending that is explained in the following chapter. Designated chapters precede the showing of scheduled feature films, just like the old days!
Republic Pictures. 1941. 12 chapters. Chapter 1, 28 mins. Other chapters, 17 mins. each. Director: William Witney.

Hollywood Canteen
Starring Joan Leslie, Robert Hutton, Dane Clark, with cameo appearances by more than 50 Hollywood stars.

• Time: 7:00 PM
• Date: Friday, May 27, 2011
• Place: HBLL Auditorium, 1st Floor; Admission is free; arrive early for seats.

About the Event:
The film’s namesake was an actual gathering place in Hollywood, created by the film industry and run by movie stars, for those in the Armed Forces during World War II. Wounded soldier Hutton’s desire for a date with actress Joan Leslie is the story that connects numerous appearances and performances by Eddie Cantor, Bette Davis, Jack Benny, Jane Wyman, John Garfield, Barbara Stanwyck, and the Andrews Sisters, among others. This is a real gem that parades a gallery of the greats of Hollywood’s Golden Age as well as a reminder of America’s can-do spirit during wartime.
Warner Bros. 1944. 124 mins. Director: Delmer Daves.

Sown with the movie: Spy Smasher: Chapter 11 “Hero’s Death;” Chapter 12 “V…”