SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents

Part of our JOHN FORD FUNDAMENTALS series! Wednesday, April 6, 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 WAGON MASTER (1950, dir by John Ford, Warner Brothers, 86mns, 35mm presentation)

915pm THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS (1974, dir by Steven Spielberg, Universal, 110mns, 35mm presentation)

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!

Our April John Ford Fundamentals selections kick off with one of Ford's post World War II masterpieces, the quiet, soft spoken, yet cinematically powerful and emotionally moving Wagon Master.

Wagon Master has a number of stylistic innovations and approaches that show Ford approaching the height of his artistry (he's only 6 years away from The Searchers). Notably Ford experiments with a pre-credits Prologue/Pre-Amble and a kind of theatrical musical "Final Curtain" at the end of the movie that elevate the picture to the kind of cinematic marvel usually only seen in the world cinema of Bergman, Fellini, and Kurosawa (all of whom actually used Wagon Master amongst other Fords as inspiration).

Here Ford tells the story of a wagon train of Mormons who meet up with a stranded troupe of actors on its way to the Utah territory. As romances bloom and trials and tribulations are fought en route, we know that ultimately the train is headed for a showdown with the just escaped criminal Cleeg family (seen in the prologue/preamble).

Here Ford sheds the use of stars like John Wayne and Henry Fonda to give center stage to many of his "stock" company ensemble regulars including most notably Ben Johnson, Ward Bond, and Harry Carrey Jr. Many have noted this is consistent with the film's very Fordian theme of how misfits slowly become a community and how a community slowly becomes America.

A beautiful film and all-time Ford classic, this one must be seen for any student of Ford.

We follow it up with Steven Spielberg's official debut feature film, 1974's The Sugarland Express. Sugarland plays like a kind of Bonnie and Clyde meets The Grapes of Wrath meets a budding young cinema master in love with John Ford films.

Lou Jean (a wonderfully game and against type Goldie Hawn) springs her husband Clovis (70's perennial William Atherton) out of prison so they can get their son out of a foster home to be re-united. Soon they find they've taken a police officer hostage in his car and spark a state wide cop car caravan headed by none other than John Ford regular Ben Johnson (fresh off his Academy Award winning The Last Picture Show turn).

The Sugarland Express shows Spielberg somewhere in transition between the nail biting to the bone action terseness of Duel and his more family focused larger canvas work about to follow with Jaws and Close Encounters. Many of the Spielberg elements are already here-the focus on a fractured family yearning to be made whole, the first collaboration with John Williams, the incredible ability to stage action in endlessly inventive kinetic and dynamic ways.

Sugarland also shows a young Spielberg willing to traffic in a kind of ambiguity and ambivalence he would carry into his two next mega-hits but then pull back from until he would return again tentatively to it in Empire of the Sun.

Paired with Wagon Master, The Sugarland Express is an incredible compliment as we watch a master in full mature bloom and possibly his greatest American student at the beginning of his growth-generously cribbing and inspired by Fordian imagery (including a tremendously inspired Fordian last shot).

Come watch these two dynamite movie makers on 35mm on the big screen!

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.