SECRET MOVIE CLUB present

Part of our THE FORD FUNDAMENTALS series! Friday, June 24, 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 THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (1962, dir by John Ford, Paramount, USA, 123mns, 35mm)

9:45pm THE LAST HURRAH (1958, dir by John Ford, Columbia, USA, 121mns, we are working to get this on 35mm but audience should be ready for digital presentation if need be)

IMPORTANT NOTES:

***As of April 1, 2022, masks are now optional for indoor theater events if you're fully vaccinated. Anyone without proof of vaccination will be required to wear a mask for their own safety. We will continue to update our protocols with the dynamic situation. We are working to make sure we make the theater going experience the most enjoyable and safest possible.

HOW TO:

1)PLEASE BRING YOUR VACCINATION CARD (digital cards accepted).

2)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 you complimentary tickets to a future screening when you’re healthy. (Disclaimer under “REFUNDS” applies)

Tonight, we continue our Ford Fundamentals year-long series by jumping forward in time to two of John Ford’s late period masterpieces.

First up is a movie that revolutionized the Western much the same way that Hitchcock’s Psycho revolutionized the horror movie - The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

Adopting a kind of Rashomon narrative approach, Liberty Valance begins at the end with Senator Ransom Stoddard (a wonderful Jimmy Stewart) returning with his wife Hallie (Vera Miles) for the funeral of local rancher Tom Doniphon (John Wayne).

A local reporter asks Stoddard to tell the famous story of how Stoddard shot notorious outlaw Liberty Valance (a wonderfully committed Lee Marvin), an event that got Stoddard started on his fame and career in politics.

We then see how the story actually happened. How rancher Doniphon quietly loved Hallie, protected Stoddard, but stayed in the background. How Valance, representing the wild west, refused to acknowledge or respect the coming of the law.

And how all these forces headed for a crash collision on main street one fateful evening. . .

This is one of John Ford’s absolute best films. It is actually devoid of many of his pictorial flourishes (much as Psycho was absent Hitchcock’s usual German expressionism in exchange for a more modern approach). Instead Liberty Valance, like Scorsese’s The Irishman 60 years later, seems to be a kind of summation statement. Ford looked at all the roiling currents of his nature and interests: the best and worst of America, unrequited love & whether the American system of law which Ford so cherished really could handle someone like Liberty Valance (the name itself is a strangely clear giveaway to the movie’s obsessions).

Valance also accomplished what only a supreme Master like Ford could: it showed the myth, then completely demythologized it, pulled back the curtain and showed the truth.

Then it showed why both the myth and the truth are necessary for society to exist.

We follow this up with one of Ford’s unsung late-period masterpieces The Last Hurrah, starring a wonderfully mischievous Spencer Tracy. The movie looks at the Boston mayoral campaign of Democratic Party machine politician Frank Skeffington (Tracy).

Skeffington is a politician of the old school. He visits funerals, kisses baby, pumps hands, makes back room deals, works every neighborhood to get a vote. But he’s up against a new foe: not really his opponent, but television. And his inexperienced opponent, who in past times would be a cinch to beat, looks great on the new medium.

Skeffington, advanced in years, and not used to short news bite answers, struggles.

Ford spent his last ten years or so making a string of movies that predicted or examined all the social changes the country was going through-civil rights (Sergeant Rutledge), American violence against indigenous peoples (Cheyenne Autumn), feminism (Seven Women).

And here Ford predicts how television will forever alter how the political game is played. A bittersweet and insightful comedy-satire with some of Ford’s greatest final picture making (including a very famous shot towards the end of the movie that Spielberg would lift for Lincoln). Come see two great late period Fords. On the big screen!

Best always,

Craig Hammill

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 to us before showtime: community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer you complimentary tickets to a future screening. (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.