Our friend, film historian and programmer par excellence,
Elliot Lavine, has embarked on an exploration of a different part of the cinematic past this March at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. From March 2-March 8, 2012, Elliot has put together a series of double features for those fortunate movie-goers in the Bay area. This "arsenal of artistic bravura" includes well known pre-codes such as
Scarface, Call Her Savage, Three on a Match and
The Bitter Tea of General Yen as well as less familiar classics that offer viewers a glimpse of a brazenly youthful
Tallulah Bankhead in
The Cheat, the delightful if now obscure
Jack Oakie in the woozy comedy-mystery,
Murder at the Vanities and a visit with the denizens of a green hell called
Kongo with the masterful actor
Walter Huston. The film critic for
The San Francisco Chronicle,
Mick LaSalle,(the author of two of the best overviews of the pre-code era,
Complicated Women and
Dangerous Men) has also
written in detail about this event.The San Francisco Bay Guardian also has
a piece devoted to the "seedy delights" highlighted in this festival.
Below is the list of all the films to be included in this festival of the disreputable and more details can be seen at the
Roxie Theater website:
Friday, March 2:
Scarface (1932-Howard Hawks):
In a violent story based on the career of Al Capone, this gangster story still sears its way through a character study of remarkable brutality and twisted instincts, providing Paul Muni, Boris Karloff, George Raft, Karen Morley, and Ann Dvorak with emblematic roles that showed their talent and versatility. In B&W from a 35mm Studio Archive Print. 93 mins. 1932.
FRI at 8:00 and 11:00 pm late show
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