SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents
Part of our THE HEART WANTS Series, Friday, February 10, 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 PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940, dir. George Cukor, Warner Bros., USA, 112mns, 35mm)
9:45pm HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940, dir. Howard Hawks, Columbia, USA, 92mns, 35mm)
The screwball comedy, a sub-genre of the romantic comedy, flourished in Hollywood from the early 1930’s through the early 1940’s. So many innovations occurred in the renaissance of the screwball comedy that it’s easy to take them for granted. And we shouldn’t!
The screwball comedy introduced an equality of the sexes, rapid fire tasty dialogue, hilarious comedy bordering on the surreal and the absurd, heretofore mostly only seen in the occasional Ernst Lubitsch outlier.
These crazy movies, with nary a boring moment on their thin wiry athletic frames, entertained a country pummeled by the Depression and a darkening situation in Europe. They also came to serve as a beacon for an American era where women would assert their right to have as much freedom in career and life as men had had.
These movies are also wonderful gifts of classic Hollywood entertainment.
We start with The Philadelphia Story starring Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and Jimmy Stewart. Directed by Hepburn’s preferred director, George Cukor, The Philadelphia Story follows Tracy Lord (Hepburn) recently divorced from C.K. Dexter Haven (Grant) on the week of her second marriage to a more stable, even-keeled (if boring) fiancé George Kittredge.
But. . .and there’s always a but…magazine reporter Mike (Stewart) and Dexter (who also works for the magazine) get assigned to cover the wedding and create some fireworks.
The comedy comes from Tracy trying to do the right thing by her family while feeling the pull for the passionate if fiery marriage she had with Dexter. She is also attracted to Mike who is down to earth and shuns all the hypocrisies of high society weddings.
A screwball comedy always gets going right away and is a close sibling to the farce. Part of the joy is in watching everything go cockeyed within the first few minutes and only get loonier and loonier.
In The Philadelphia Story, we get one of the surprisingly sweet of the screwballs. The chemistry between Hepburn and Grant is so palpable that they would work together in several other classic comedies of the time. This is one of the movies that shows Hollywood firing on all cylinders in the white heat of its classic period.
We follow this with Howard Hawks’ His Girl Friday. This programmer’s personal favorite screwball comedy of all time and in his top 50 movies of all time. Master moviemaker Howard Hawks never met a genre he didn’t like and couldn’t lick. Hawks made at least one masterpiece in almost every genre. And we show three of his greatest screwball comedies across the month.
His Girl Friday (a clever re-working with a gender role switch of the newspaper comedy The Front Page) follows ace journalist Hildy Johnson (a jaw-droppingly great Rosalind Russell) who is about to get married a second time after divorcing her unscrupulous editor Walter Burns (a never better Cary Grant).
Of course when she comes to the newspaper office to give Walter the news, he just so happens to have a key news story about an inmate on death row who may deserve to be spared execution that needs Hildy’s special touch.
His Girl Friday continues to be the gold-standard when it comes to amazing dialogue delivered by performers hitting every beat like master jazz drummers. Hawks and his team perfected the overlapping fast paced dialogue style that can give a movie a propulsive sense of forward movement. But it can only work when everyone is at the top of their game.
His Girl Friday also reaches all-time classic status because it somehow manages to deliver laugh out loud screwball comedy with much darker undertones and cross-currents (corrupt politics, mental health issues, race issues). It may also be possibly the greatest American comedy ever made.
So join us for two out and out romantic comedy screwball bangers. Get ready to hold on to your seats. It’s going to be a wild ride.
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.