SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents
Part of our ALFRED HITCHCOCK: THE MASTER Series, Saturday, February 11, 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 39 STEPS (1935, dir. Alfred Hitchcock, Park Circus, UK, 86mns, 35mm)
9:20pm THE LADY VANISHES (1938, dir. Alfred Hitchcock, Park Circus, UK, 97mns, 35mm)
The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes are often considered the crown jewels of Hitchcock’s British period. And we’re screening them both tonight on 35mm!
The 39 Steps is often considered Hitchcock’s first out and out all-time masterpiece. Much like Akira Kurosawa’s Drunken Angel or Fellini’s I Vitelloni, The 39 Steps feels like the first time everything that makes an Alfred Hitchcock picture, an Alfred Hitchcock picture is on full radiant display.
When everyman Richard Hannay (a charming and intense Robert Donat) goes home with a mysterious woman, he wakes up to discover her murdered but before she dies, she gives him just enough information to search out “the 39 Steps” in Scotland.
Thus begins the story of Hitchcock’s beloved “innocent man on the run” formula he would perfect across decades. The 39 Steps is, in many ways, the grandfather of movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark in that it is wildly entertaining from the very first scene and never, EVER, lets up its breakneck pace. Hitchcock would often point out that this kind of movie is very hard to get right. A filmmaker has to develop character, tell story, build audience engagement, while at the same time delivering crackerjack sequence after sequence.
But here, maybe even MORE than in North by Northwest (the movie most like The 39 Steps in Hitch’s American period), Hitch achieves a sublime popcorn aesthetic that has still never quite been topped.
We follow The 39 Steps with The Lady Vanishes which Hitchcock made just three years later. Young tourist and about-to-be-married independent minded Iris boards a train in an Eastern European country and gets to know elderly kind Miss Froy. But when Iris wakes up from a nap, Miss From has disappeared and everybody on the train claims the old woman never existed.
A wonderful set-up with a delightful and stunningly successful execution, The Lady Vanishes finds Hitchcock broadening his palette by also filling the movie with undercurrents of the spreading fascism and violence that was sweeping Europe at the time. The Lady Vanishes is also filled with an amazing gallery of supporting performances. In fact, the two cricket-loving English bachelors Charters and Caldicott even got their own movie series!
Movie by movie, we see Hitchcock honing his craft. At the time, it would have been hard for any moviemaker or movielover to believe that Hitchcock could surpass The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes. They are near perfect movies. Yet, Shadow of a Doubt, Notorious, Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, all lay ahead. . .
Join us for these two must-see Hitchcocks. 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.