SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents
Part of our JOHN HUSTON HARD BOILED DOUBLE series! Friday, April 8, 2022
LOCATION: The Secret Movie Club Theater, 1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90021
*Please note entrance/parking is actually in the back of the building. Make a right on Wilson Street, then a right behind the building. We’re the first set of black steps after the big gate. We’ll have staff to help guide/park you.
730pm THE MALTESE FALCON (1941, adap/wri by John Huston, Warner Brothers, 101mns, 35mm presentation)
940pm THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1947, adap/dir by John Huston, Warner Brothers, 126mns, 35mm presentation)
This double is guest programmed by Secret Movie Club Team Member & Projectionist Alex Olivier for his birthday. Happy birthday Alex!
IMPORTANT NOTES:
***ALL AUDIENCE are still required to show proof of vaccination at the door. PLEASE HAVE YOUR VIRTUAL OR PHYSICAL VACCINATION CARD READY BEFORE ENTERING THE THEATER. If you have an exemption, please have proof of a negative PCR level COVID test within 3 days of the screening.
***As of April 1, 2022, masks are now optional for indoor theater events if you're fully vaccinated. Anyone with a vaccination exemption can still attend as long as they have proof of a RT-PCR level negative Covid test ( within 72 hours of the event) but will be required to wear a mask. We will continue to update our protocols with the dynamic situation.
HOW TO:
1)PLEASE BRING YOUR VACCINATION CARD (digital cards accepted).
2)PRE-ORDER ANY CONCESSIONS OR MOVIE MERCHANDISE you would like from the additional Add-Ons. You can pick up all concessions & merchandise at our tables in our lobby prior to the screening.
We will be able to sell concessions & merchandise at the theater. But it will make everything much quicker and easier if you pre-order!
3)PLEASE BE AWARE THAT ANYONE EXHIBITING COVID OR FLU LIKE SYMPTOMS AT THE DOOR, WILL BE OFFERED COMPLIMENTARY TICKETS TO A FUTURE SHOW AND ASKED TO RETURN WHEN HEALTHY. So please, if you’re feeling sick, just write us at community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer your complimentary tickets to a future screening when you’re healthy. Let’s all do our part to beat this thing so we can go back to the complete movie going experience!
Paul Newman may have described all-time master writer/director John Huston best when he said Huston was "the eccentric's eccentric".
Born into a famous show-biz family headed by his superstar father Walter Huston, John Huston was onstage by three, a well-traveled adventurer by his early 20's, and one of Hollywood's most prolific, idiosynchratic, and independent filmmakers by his late 30's.
Catapulted by his screenplay for Howard Hawks' SERGEANT YORK (much like Francis Ford Coppola a generation later with his screenplay for PATTON), John Huston was able to leverage his growing reputation in Hollywood into the opportunity to direct his first feature, The Maltese Falcon. This universally praised noir adapted from the Dashielle Hammet novel of the same name (itself already adapted into a Hollywood movie in 1931), The Maltese Falcon also helped transition actor Humphrey Bogart from a decade playing second and third billed baddies to one of Hollywood's most complex stars and anti-heroes.
Bogart plays San Francisco detective Sam Spade who gets entangled in an underworld of femme fatales, treasure seekers, traitors, murderers all after a fabled artifact "the Maltese Falcon" which will bring its owner untold treasures/riches.
Smart enough to know he's being played by everyone, Spade has to navigate a minefield of seductions, double crosses, and lies to figure out the truth and save his own skin.
The Maltese Falcon already shows Huston's skepticism, street smartness, profound understanding of character, irony, and biting viewpoint of the world. One of the most fascinating aspects of the Huston "special sauce" is how Huston could have such an acidically astute and often dark view of human nature while never fully dipping into outright cynical pessimism. As if Huston's own never-ending love of life (well documented in his great autobiography An Open Book) always prevented him from outright drowning in the dark side.
But boy did he love visiting.
We follow this up with possibly Huston's greatest masterpiece, his 1948 adaptation of B. Traven's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. A sly re-working of one of Chaucer's CANTERBURY TALES, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre rich in atmosphere and world building, follows down on his luck ex-pat Fred C. Dobbs (Bogart fully bracing unhinged anti-hero)adrift in Mexico.
When Dobbs and flophouse friend Bob Curtin ( a dynamite Tim Holt) hit the lottery, they take on old-timer Howard (Huston's own father Walter Huston in his best known performance which won him the Academy Award) to go mining in the Mexican wilderness.
But when they actually HIT a huge motherlode, all the good will and promises when they had nothing disappear (just as old timer Howard predicted) as Dobbs gets consumed by greed, suspicion, and paranoia about his partners.
A movie with the concentrated power of a Greek tragedy mixed (somewhat mind-blowingly) with the jagged glass in the belly dark humor Huston always infused into his movies, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is one of the greatest movies ever made in classic Hollywood.
Come watch this double bill on 35mm and thank birthday boy Alex Olivier for programming such a dynamite program!
Best always,
Craig Hammill
35mm Secret Movie Club Founder.Programmer
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS FOR OUR IN-DOOR THEATER SCREENINGS
REFUNDS:
We can offer refunds up to 24 hours before showtime. Please request a refund through Eventbrite and we will process ASAP. After that, no refunds. Sorry.
However if something last minute comes up and you can’t make the screening, for whatever reason, just write us at: community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer you complimentary tickets to a future screening.
HELPFUL SECRET MOVIE CLUB (1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, LA, CA 90021) THEATER PARKING TIPS:
We recommend that you park just outside our theater. Remember our theater is actually in a beautiful street art alleyway in the back of the 1917 Bay Street building. You get to our entrance by taking a right on Wilson, then a right behind the building. We are the first set of black steps on the right after the big gate.
We will have a staff member on duty to monitor all cars parked in the street-art alleyway at our entrance.
There is also a parking lot at the corner of Mateo and Violet Street, just 2 blocks from our theater, which costs $7 per car.
HOW CAN WE STAY ON TOP OF NEWLY ANNOUNCED 35MM SCREENINGS, EVENTS, ETC?
You can follow us on Facebook: @secretmovieclub35mm or Instagram/Twitter: @secretmovieclub
You can also subscribe to our weekly email newsletter by writing us at community@secretmovieclub.com and using the header “SUBSCRIBE ME TO NEWSLETTER”.
HOW CAN I CONTACT YOU IF I HAVE OTHER QUESTIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS:
You can always email us at community@secretmovieclub.com with any other questions, concerns, thoughts, recommendations.