SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents
Part of our THE HEART WANTS Series, Thursday, February 16, 2023
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.
7:30pm THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (1947, dir. Orson Welles, Columbia, USA, 87mns, 35mm)
9:30pm IN A LONELY PLACE (1950, dir. Nicholas Ray, Columbia, USA, 94mns, 35mm)
This year we’re alternating the comedic, light hearted, hopeful romantic with the doppelgänger of romantic comedies-the dark mysterious noirs where romances and love stories go to shadowy nightmarish places. . .and sometimes never return.
Two of the greatest intense noir love stories are on full display tonight. First up, Orson Welles’ greatest movie of the 1940’s after Kane and Ambersons, The Lady From Shanghai. Welles famously made the picture to pay back Columbia studio head Harry Cohn for an advance when one of Welles’ theatrical productions needed money. Welles bluffed the story over the phone and Cohn bit.
Who knew that Welles would go on to create his greatest noir next to Touch of Evil. Down on his luck Irish sailor Michael O Hara (Welles) agrees to captain a yacht to the Caribbean for combative married couple Elsa (Rita Hayworth) and her lawyer husband Arthur (Welles regular Everett Sloane). But when Michael and Elsa feel the sexual heat between themselves, things go south quick and Michael comes to realize Elsa herself may be playing him and everyone around her.
Famous for its final “house of mirrors” shoot out that demonstrated yet again that Welles could create iconic cinematic sequences that also had tremendous psychological power, The Lady From Shanghai was also the last gasp of the doomed Hayworth-Welles marriage in real life. The movie remains one of Welles’ absolute best.
We follow this up with the equally autobiographical and disturbing In A Lonely Place directed by Nicholas Ray (Bigger than Life, Rebel without a Cause). Violent and unstable screenwriter Dixon Doll (Humphrey Bogart), hanging on my thread to his sanity after a string of failures post World War II starts an unsteady romance with Laurel (Gloria Grahame) who begins to suspect that Dix may be responsible for a series of violent murders of women.
Ray, who himself was known to be unstable, violent, erratic, crafts a deeply unsettling (for even our current time) dark look at dysfunctional relationships and people. What’s most unsettling is how Ray gets at how people who know they are no good for each other can still pursue relationships because of deep seated warped needs.
We never know if Dix is innocent or guilty until the very end of the picture and the uncertainty creates an incredible tension in every scene between Dix and Laurel.
Two of the greatest noir movies of the 1940’s. Come join us to see noir love stories done to perfection. 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.