SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents
Part of our JOHN FORD FUNDAMENTALS Series, Friday, December 16, 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.
7:15pm THREE GODFATHERS (1948, dir. John Ford, MGM, USA, 106mns, *35mm being sought with DCP backup if necessary)
9:30pm RIO GRANDE (1950, dir. John Ford, USA, 105mns, *35mm being sought with DCP backup if necessary)
Tonight we screen a rare John Ford Christmas movie that inspired a Satoshi Kon masterpiece (you’ll understand in a moment) and one of John Ford’s greatest westerns about family.
First up, Ford’s heart-warming and. . .dare we say it. . .light-hearted riff on the three wise men of Christmas, Three Godfathers. The movie tells the story of three outlaws (John Wayne, Pedro Aremndariz, and Harry Carey Jr) who help a dying woman in labor in the desert. When she delivers a boy, she makes them promise to be the boy’s godfathers and deliver him to safety. The Three Godfathers struggle across the desert (the movie was shot in Death Valley!!) to fulfill their promise.
A remake of Ford’s 1919 Marked Men which starred Harry Carey (the father of this movie’s Harry Carey Jr), Three Godfathers is one of those movies that finds Ford in felicitous spirit.
We follow this with the climax of Ford’s Cavalry trilogy: Rio Grande. This Programmer’s personal favorite of the three Cavalry pictures (Fort Apache and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon being the others), Rio Grande is one of those surprisingly rich and complex Ford westerns where Ford works to thread the personal, the autobiographical, and the historical all into one movie. John Wayne plays Lt Colonel Yorke who hasn’t seen his son or wife in over 15 years. Yorke fought in the Civil War (on the North’s side) and alienated his wife who came from the south. When Yorke’s son arrives at his base, the son asks for no special treatment. Then when Yorke’s estranged wife Kathleen (played by Maureen O'Hara) arrives to try and get her son out of the army, a family drama is set up with a surprisingly rich and emotional drama.
The movie has problems to be sure (the Native Americans here are treated in the most one dimensional way of the three Cavalry movies). And those need to be acknowledged. But watching Rio Grande one can tell right away Ford is less interested in the “Cowboys and Indians” nature of the story than in the psychological and emotional dynamics of a family torn apart by historical events that still yearns to heal and be one again.
So come join us for two great John Ford movies. Hopefully on 35mm!
Best always,
Craig Hammill
Secret Movie Club Founder.Programmer
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?
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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.