The Silver Theatre's 75th Anniversary
September 13–18
Sunday, September 15, marks the 75th anniversary of the Silver Theatre's grand opening in 1938. To celebrate this occasion, AFI Silver presents a selection of some of that year's most beloved films, including a FREE screening of Warner Bros.' FOUR DAUGHTERS (the big-screen debut of John Garfield), including newsreel and cartoon, reprising the very first program to screen at the Silver.
FREE admission to FOUR DAUGHTERS
All other films just $5!
Screenings supported by:
AFI Member passes accepted.
CAREFREE
Ralph Bellamy needs help convincing his cold-footed girlfriend Ginger Rogers to marry him, so he persuades his psychiatrist friend Fred Astaire to take her on as a patient. Happily, through treatment, Rogers does succeed in falling in love...just not with the right guy! The film is notable for featuring the first-ever kiss between Rogers and Astaire, following their dance to "I Used to Be Color Blind." Nominated for Academy Awards for Art Direction (Van Nest Polglase), Musical Score and Best Song ("Change Partners," by Irving Berlin).
DIR Mark Sandrich; SCR Allan Scott, Ernest Pagano, Dudley Nichols, Hagar Wilde; PROD Pandro S. Berman. US, 1938, b&w, 83 min, 35mm. NOT RATED
Fri, Sep 13, 3:15; Sat, Sep 14, 1:15; Sun, Sep 15, 12:00;
Mon, Sep 16, 5:00
Tickets $5!
THE LADY VANISHES
The greatest of Alfred Hitchcock's British films: not just the template for his later Hollywood films in its deft blend of suspenseful mystery and wry comedy, but a hugely influential film for all moviemaking. Brits Michael Redgrave and Margaret Lockwood become embroiled in a mystery aboard a transcontinental train after Lockwood witnesses the strange disappearance of fellow traveler Dame May Whitty. Their search for clues among a parade of bizarre and sinister passengers uncovers an international espionage ring and imminent danger.
DIR Alfred Hitchcock; SCR Sidney Gilliat, Frank Launder, from the book by Ethel Lina White; PROD Edward Black. UK, 1938, b&w, 97 min, 35mm. NOT RATED
Fri, Sep 13, 5:00; Sat, Sep 14, 3:10; Sun, Sep 15, 11:00 a.m., 7:00;
Tue, Sep 17, 7:00
Tickets $5!
FOUR DAUGHTERS screens with cartoon CRACKED ICE and a 1938 newsreel, re-presenting the very first program to screen at the Silver.
FOUR DAUGHTERS
The lovely Lane Sisters–Priscilla, Rosemary, Lola and "fourth Lane Sister" Gale Page–are the top-billed stars in this small-town family dramedy, now better remembered as the impressive screen debut of John Garfield, in an Oscar-nominated performance. Widower Claude Rains does his damnedest to maintain parental authority over his four spirited daughters, even as suitors line up to woo the spunky girls. A box-office hit in its day, the film was nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture, leading to eventual sequels FOUR WIVES and FOUR MOTHERS. Director Michael Curtiz and screenwriter Julius J. Epstein, both nominated here, would later win Oscars for their 1942 collaboration, CASABLANCA.
DIR Michael Curtiz; SCR Julius J. Epstein, Lenore J. Coffee, from the Cosmopolitan Magazine story by Fannie Hurst; PROD Hal B. Wallis. US, 1938, b&w, 90 min, 35mm. NOT RATED
CRACKED ICE
Ice-skating on the pond, porcine confidence trickster W.C. Squeals schemes to access the emergency bar of a vigilant Saint Bernard. DIR Frank Tashlin; SCR Jack Miller. US, 1938, color, 8 min, DVD. NOT RATED
Hosted by WJLA's Arch Campbell
Arch Campbell has reported on movies, theatre and entertainment in Washington, DC, and on the national scene since the 1970s. He joined NBC-owned WRC TV News in 1974 as a feature reporter, and created that station's entertainment beat. From 1985-1990, he hosted THE ARCH CAMPBELL SHOW, which won more than a dozen Emmy awards, including the "Best Local Entertainment Show" three years in a row. In 2007, Campbell moved his entertainment reports to ABC7/WJLA-TV. He also hosts THE ARCH CAMPBELL SHOW, which airs on WJLA’s sister station News Channel 8. Arch appears in a regular segment on Friday mornings on WASH FM and has a new entertainment website,
ArchCampbell.com.
NEWS PARADE OF 1938!
Aviation: Howard Hughes' conquest of time and space! – Nature's fury in 1938! – Year's most spectacular fire! – 1938's strangest human drama! – War! Japan's conquest of China! – Crisis in Europe! Austria seized! – Czechoslovakia divided – Peaceful interlude! – War clouds! Europe mobilizes! – "Peace" pact signed at Munich! – America rallies for tolerance! – America re-arms against tyranny!
Vintage 35mm newsreel courtesy of UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Admission is FREE!
Tickets available at the box office on the day of the show, starting at noon. Limit four per person.
Sun, Sep 15, 2:00
THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD
For many, no screen Robin Hood has come close to Errol Flynn, and the bright, bold Technicolor brilliance of 1938's THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD remains the definitive telling of the English medieval legend about the freedom-loving bandit who robbed from the rich and gave to the poor. The charismatic Flynn has ample opportunity to display his action-hero aplomb, ably supported by a terrific supporting cast, especially baddies Basil Rathbone as Sir Guy of Gisbourne, Claude Rains as Prince John and Melville Cooper as the Sheriff of Nottingham. Eugene Pallette makes for a jolly Friar Tuck alongside merry men Patric Knowles, Alan Hale and Herbert Mundin, and Olivia de Havilland is the loveliest of Maid Marians. Winner of three Oscars, including one for Carl Jules Weyl's eye-popping art direction and Erich Wolfgang Korngold's memorable score.
DIR Michael Curtiz, William Keighley; SCR Norman Reilly Raine, Seton I. Miller, based on Robin Hood legends. US, 1938, color, 102 min, 35mm. NOT RATED
Sat, Sep 14, 11:05 a.m.; Sun, Sep 15, 4:45; Tue, Sep 17, 4:45;
Wed, Sep 18, 4:45
Tickets $5!
BRINGING UP BABY
Put-upon paleontologist Cary Grant is feeling the pressure: his brontosaurus skeleton is just one intercostal clavicle away from completion, he has an important meeting coming up with donor prospect May Robson, and his wedding to straitlaced Virginia Walker looms. Then he meets kooky free spirit Katharine Hepburn. Before Grant knows what hit him, he’s beating the bush in rural Connecticut, searching for Hepburn’s escaped pet leopard, Baby, and the valuable dinosaur bone that her dog buried. And falling in love. A legendary flop when first released, Howard Hawks’ fast-talking, energetic masterpiece has over time come to be seen as the definitive screwball comedy.
DIR/PROD Howard Hawks; SCR Dudley Nichols, Hagar Wilde. US, 1938, b&w, 102 min, 35mm. NOT RATED
Sat, Sep 14, 5:15; Sun, Sep 15, 9:00
Tickets $5!