SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents
Part of our JOHN FORD FUNDAMENTALS series! Wednesday, May 11, 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.
8pm THEY WERE EXPENDABLE (1945, dir by John Ford, Captain U.S.N.R, MGM, 135mns, 35mm)
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!
In May, we look at John Ford's World War II feature and documentary work. Both because it's Memorial Day Month and because Ford's war service and work would create even further visible complexity in his post war work which includes some of the best features he ever made well into his career.
First up we screen Ford's vastly underrated They Were Expendable which easily ranks alongside My Darling Clementine as one of Ford's strongest mid to late 1940's features.
(On Memorial Day proper, Monday, May 30, 2022, we screen Ford's WWII documentary work! Look elsewhere for tickets & info)
Expendable is an adaptation of a novel by the same name of the slightly fictionalized exploits of Motor Boat Torpedo Squadron 3 who fought and suffered during the devastating Battle of the Phillipines in 1941-1942 early in the war.
As you soon find out in the feature (or would know from history class), this is a losing battle and the Japanese completely drove out American forces including General Douglas MacArthur who famously said "I Shall Return". And did four years later when the tide turned.
But here Ford focuses (as he often does) on the quiet resolve of a community, for this movie a community of military men, World War II nurses, doctors, villagers as they strive to do their best despite being vastly outnumbered and under-resourced.
The movie is filled with striking chiarascuro lighting (courtesy of longtime Ford DP, Joseph August), surprisingly intense and emotional battle scenes, and a powerful representation of both strong men AND women who grit it out under difficult circumstances.
Ford famously made life miserable for co-star John Wayne on this picture because Wayne (and fellow Ford Stock Repertory player Ward Bond) did NOT serve during the war.
At the end of the picture, Ford had everyone's military rank initials next to their credit, so that the lack of such next to Wayne and Bond would signal them out for choosing to sit out the fight.
It was a typically rough and brutal Ford tactic and quite possibly unfair to Wayne and Bond. At the same time, it also highlighted that the overwhelming majority of the cast and crew (including lead Robert Montgomery, screenwriter Frank Wead, director Ford) had enlisted and served.
It's hard to put into words how complex Ford was throughout his life. And this certainly would have to apply for his military service as well.
But what is undeniably true is that Ford, well beyond enlisting age (Ford was in his late 40's), could have sat out the war or gotten a desk job in Washington DC and instead chose to be film, document, record, and be at some of the toughest battles of the war including Midway and D-Day.
They Were Expendable is an amazing bit of moviemaking both for its artistry AND for its first hand understanding of the reality, emotion, and struggle of people who decide to fight.
Ford would often make movies about missions that failed and yet find nobility in the act of standing one's ground or fighting for what one knew was important. As with the very greatest of filmmakers he understood that some of the most fascinating aspects of human nature are revealed-for better and for worse-in moments of greatest crisis.
Come see this classic on 35mm!
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.