SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents
Part of our SEEING DOUBLE series! Sunday, October 30, 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.
7pm CAPE FEAR (1962, dir. J. Lee Thompson, Universal, USA, 106mns, 35mm)
9:15pm CAPE FEAR (1991, dir. Martin Scorsese, Universal, USA, 124mns, 35mm)
For the final entry in our Seeing Double series: Cape Fear. First up, the 1962 Cape Fear starring Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum, based on John D. MacDonald’s 1957 novel The Executioners. If you’ve never seen the original, you’re in for a treat. Mitchum plays just released rapist and criminal Max Cady like a cold blooded reptile (a choice echoed visually in one of the movie’s best shots). He was sent away for 8 years because of the testimony of lawyer Sam Bowden (Peck) who also intervened and stopped the assault.
Now Cady wants revenge. And he's had 8 years to figure out just how to exactly tear apart Bowden’s family and Bowden’s life without the law ever getting to him.
A nail-biting thriller complete with Bernard Hermann score, Cape Fear in many ways reflects the earthquake-like fissures in the illusion of Eisenhower’s 1950’s nuclear family. It’s as if Mitchum himself represents the whirlwind that’s about to descend on America.
We follow this up with Martin Scorsese’s stunning, even more disturbing and complex 1991 remake. Scorsese and Spielberg famously swapped projects midstream with Scorsese taking over Spielberg’s Cape Fear remake and Spielberg taking over Schindler’s List after Scorsese had done sizable script and character work. Interestingly, you can see each filmmaker’s fingerprints in the work of the other. Scorsese, though, takes the Cape Fear story and, with the commitment of longtime collaborator Robert De Niro -- as well as newcomers to the Scorsese fold Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, and Juliette Lewis -- turns the story into a kind of dark Catholic parable of how sin itself will find and force you into active reconciliation whether you want it or not.
De Niro plays Max Cady as an aggrieved lower class violent criminal, angry at the inequity and differences of the haves and have nots in this world. The biggest change from the original is in Scorsese’s conception of lawyer Sam Bowden (Nolte) who now is a compromised lawyer who’s had affairs and unethically buried information so as to make sure his client, Cady, went to jail for Cady’s horrible, violent assaults.
A much grayer and ambiguous line exists between Cady and Bowden and Cady does everything he can to make sure Bowden pays for his sins.
A fascinating double feature of the fears, anxieties, and directorial choices of each moviemaking age, come watch two dynamite movies. On 35mm!
Best always,
Craig Hammill
Secret Movie Club Founder.Programmer
*Please note that though we strive to always show titles on 35mm film if advertised, we may have to screen digitally if the print we receive is in such bad shape or if we don't receive the print in time because of a shipping delay. We will do our best to alert the audience. When this does occur, we will offer each ticket holder who chooses not to attend a complimentary ticket to a future event in exchange. (Disclaimer: Good for 90 days – Future screening must have available tickets, cannot be a fundraiser, and must be comparably priced)
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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 to us before showtime: community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer you complimentary tickets to a future screening, good for 90 days. (Disclaimer: Future screening must have available tickets, cannot be a fundraiser, and must be comparably priced)
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.
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 Instagram/Twitter: @secretmovieclub or Facebook: @secretmovieclub35mm
You can also subscribe to our weekly email newsletter at secretmovieclub.com or by writing to 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.