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Burt Lancaster, Part 1

I WALK ALONE

Sat, Apr 5, 11:10 a.m.; Sun, Apr 6, 9:30

“Once I trusted a dame…now I walk alone.” After doing 14

years in jail, ex-bootlegger Burt Lancaster looks up his old

partner Kirk Douglas to collect on his half of their operation,

as they agreed before Lancaster got pinched. But Prohibition’s

over and Douglas has long since gone legit, and isn’t about to

cut a mug like Lancaster in on his swanky new nightclub now.

Sultry singer Lizabeth Scott and Lancaster’s brother Wendell

Corey, both on Douglas’ payroll, find their loyalties divided

and allegiances in flux as the two former friends become bitter

enemies.

DIR Byron Haskin; SCR Charles Schnee, from the play "Beggars Are Coming to

Town" by Theodore Reeves; PROD Hal B. Wallis. US, 1948, b&w, 97 min. NOT RATED

Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.

JIM THORPE—ALL-AMERICAN

Mon, Feb 24, 5:00; Tue, Feb 25, 3:00; Thu, Feb 27, 5:00

Legendary sports hero Jim Thorpe’s life story—from Oklahoma

Native American reservation to Carlisle College track and

football phenom to 1912 Olympic medalist to pro football and

major league baseball player—gets the big screen treatment,

directed by versatile vet Michael Curtiz. As Thorpe, Lancaster

gives a moving performance, combining the requisite physicality

of a prodigiously gifted athlete with a soulful sensitivity.

DIR Michael

Curtiz; SCR Douglas Morrow; SCR/PROD Everett Freeman. US, 1951, b&w, 107 min. NOT RATED

60th Anniversary!

APACHE

Sat, Mar 8, 11:00 a.m.; Mon, Mar 10, 5:15; Thu, Mar 13, 5:15

Scheduled for deportation along with his fellow Apache

warriors to a Florida reservation following the surrender of their

Chief Geronimo (Monte Blue), Massai (Lancaster) escapes

from his prison train and makes his way on foot back to his

homeland, with plans to settle down for a peaceable life of

farming. But the vengeful US Cavalry has other ideas. Robert

Aldrich’s gritty Western is deftly attuned to the inconvenient

truths propping up the white man’s “civilization” of the “savage”

frontier, and represents one of the earliest examples of the

revisionist Western.

DIR Robert Aldrich; SCR James R. Webb, from the novel by Paul

Wellman; PROD Harold Hecht. US, 1954, color, 86 min. NOT RATED

THE CRIMSON PIRATE

Mon, Mar 3, 5:15; Tue, Mar 4, 9:30; Wed, Mar 5, 5:15

In the pirate-infested Caribbean of the late 18th century,

Captain Vallo (Lancaster) matches wits with both the British

King’s special envoy Baron Gruda (Leslie Bradley) and rebel

leader El Libre (Frederick Leister), hoping to play one against

the other and make off with a fortune. But El Libre’s beautiful

daughter Consuelo (Eva Bartok) might make a hero out of

this rogue yet. Lancaster impresses with his derring-do and

extensive stunt work in this key swashbuckler film, the one that

links Fairbanks and Flynn with Depp’s iconic performance as

Captain Jack Sparrow in PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN.

DIR Robert

Siodmak; SCR Roland Kibbee; PROD Harold Hecht, Burt Lancaster. US/UK, 1952, color, 105 min.

NOT RATED

ALL MY SONS

Sat, Mar 15, 11:05 a.m.; Mon, Mar 17, 3:00

Looking to branch out from the tough guy roles that made him

a star, Lancaster impressed critics and the public alike with

his portrayal of youngest son Chris Keller opposite troubled

patriarch Joe Keller (Edward G. Robinson) in the screen

adaptation of Arthur Miller’s play. The Keller defense contracting

business made a fortune during WWII, but a scandal now

shadows the family. Son Chris falls in love with Ann (Louisa

Horton), the daughter of his father’s jailed ex-business partner,

and formerly the fiancée of his older brother Larry, killed in

the war. The announcement of their engagement leads to

revelations about the past and the two families’ intertwined fate.

DIR Irving Reis; SCR/PROD Chester Erskine, from the play by Arthur Miller. US, 1948, b&w, 94

min. NOT RATED

Print courtesy of the Library of Congress.

SORRY, WRONG NUMBER

Fri, Feb 28, 5:15; Mon, Mar 3, 9:20; Tue, Mar 4, 5:15;

Wed, Mar 5, 9:30; Thu, Mar 6, 5:15

Confined to a bed in her Manhattan penthouse, invalid heiress

Barbara Stanwyck busies herself calling around town keeping

tabs on wandering husband Burt Lancaster. When a crossed

wire results in her overhearing someone else's conversation—the

plotting of a murder—the already tightly wound Stanwyck goes

hysterical, calling frantically in search of someone who will

believe her. Adapted from a radio play, the twist-ridden finale will

please film noir fans. Stanwyck's fourth Oscar nomination.

DIR/

PROD Anatole Litvak; SCR Lucille Fletcher; PROD Hal B. Wallis. US, 1948, b&w, 89 min. NOT RATED

THE FLAME AND THE ARROW

Sat, Feb 22, 11:05 a.m.; Mon, Feb 24, 3:00;

Tue, Feb 25, 5:15; Thu, Feb 27, 3:00

Lancaster’s athleticism and years of circus training are deployed

to entertainingly acrobatic effect in his role as Dardo, leader of

a peasant uprising, in this swashbuckling romp, a Robin Hood-

esque tale set in 12th century Lombardy. A dispute with Hessian

Count Ulrich (Frank Allenby) results in the kidnapping of Dardo’s

son and his imprisonment in the tyrannical nobleman’s castle,

leading to the first of many balletic skirmishes, swashbuckling

stunts and daring escapes. Stylishly directed by Jacques

Tourneur (OUT OF THE PAST), with Technicolor photography

by the great Ernest Haller; screenplay by Waldo Salt.

DIR Jacques

Tourneur; SCR Waldo Salt; PROD Frank Ross, Harold Hecht. US, 1950, color, 88 min. NOT RATED

TRAPEZE

Sat, Mar 29, 1:30; Thu, Apr 3, 5:15

Lancaster’s passion project, bringing the intense professionalism,

discipline, showmanship and bravery of the world’s greatest

circus artists to the big screen, was a smash hit around the

globe. Former circus star Mike Ribble (Lancaster), who was

gravely injured and nearly lost his life after a mishap doing a

triple somersault, takes on talented young acrobat Tino Orsini

(Tony Curtis) as his protégé. The two men’s friendship and focus

is threatened by another up-and-coming aerialist, the exotic,

ruthlessly ambitious Lola (Gina Lollobrigida).

DIR Carol Reed; SCR James R.

Webb; PROD James Hill. US, 1956, color, 105 min. NOT RATED

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY

Fri, Mar 7, 5:15; Mon, Mar 10, 7:05

In the days leading up to the December 7 attack on Pearl

Harbor, private dramas and grudges hold sway over the restless

army community: independent-minded private Montgomery

Clift resists his captain’s overtures to box, preferring romance

with club hostess Donna Reed; sergeant Burt Lancaster silently

seethes under the command of incompetent officers, and, not-so

coincidentally, takes up with officer's wife Deborah Kerr; and

big-mouthed private Frank Sinatra runs afoul of sadistic sergeant

Ernest Borgnine. Nominated for 13 Academy Awards, winning

Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for Sinatra and

Best Supporting Actress for Reed.

DIR Fred Zinnemann; SCR Daniel Taradash,

from the novel by James Jones; PROD Buddy Adler. US, 1953, b&w, 118 min. NOT RATED

THE ROSE TATTOO

Sat, Mar 29, 11:05 a.m.; Tue, Apr 1, 5:15

Boozy, reclusive widow Anna Magnani gets her groove

back after hunky young truck driver Burt Lancaster moves in

as a boarder. Adapted from the play by Tennessee Williams,

written with the great Magnani expressly in mind for the

lead. Nominated for eight Oscars, winning three, including

Magnani for Best Actress and James Wong Howe for b&w

cinematography.

DIR Daniel Mann; SCR Tennessee Williams, from his play; PROD Hal B.

Wallis. US, 1955, b&w, 117 min. NOT RATED

60th Anniversary!

VERA CRUZ

Fri, Mar 21, 5:15; Sat, Mar 22, 11:05 a.m.; Tue, Mar 25, 7:20

Burt Lancaster and

Gary Cooper are rival

soldiers of fortune south

of the border, looking to

cash in on the Mexican

Revolution by selling their

services to the highest

bidder. But they'll have

to join forces if they want

to claim a big payday,

escorting the Countess

Duvarre (Denise Darcel)

cross-country to Vera

Cruz on the Gulf coast.

When her armed escort's

hired guns—including

Ernest Borgnine, Charles

Bronson and Jack Elam—

discover that the countess

is transporting $3M in gold earmarked for the French army,

chivalry goes out the window and it's every man for himself.

DIR

Robert Aldrich; SCR Roland Kibbee, James R. Webb, from a story by Borden Chase; PROD James

Hill. US, 1954, color, 94 min. NOT RATED

COME BACK, LITTLE SHEBA

Sun, Mar 16, 11:00 a.m.; Thu, Mar 20, 3:00

Daniel Mann’s big-screen debut, from the play by William Inge

(PICNIC, BUS STOP, SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS), earned

three Oscar nominations, with Shirley Booth winning Best

Actress. Middle-aged couple “Doc” Delaney (Lancaster) and

wife Lola (Booth) have a lifetime of regret and recrimination

behind them, not to mention Doc’s raging alcoholism, now

under control with the help of AA. But their dull lives change

after they take in college co-ed Marie (Terry Moore) as a

boarder, stirring up long-suppressed tensions between the

couple, and unruly passions in Doc. The masterfully composed

b&w photography is by James Wong Howe.

DIR Daniel Mann; SCR Ketti

Frings, from the play by William Inge; PROD Hal B. Wallis. US, 1952, b&w, 95 min. NOT RATED

GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL

Sun, Apr 6, 11:00 a.m.; Mon, Apr 7, 2:30; Tue, Apr 8, 2:30;

Thu, Apr 10, 2:30

Following a years-long feud and the murder of his brother

Virgil, lawman Wyatt Earp (Lancaster) shoots it out with the

cattle-rustling Clanton/McLowery gang in Tombstone, Arizona,

backed by a posse of his surviving brothers and gambler Doc

Holliday (Kirk Douglas). John Sturges’ iconic Western was a

box-office smash, launching the greatly embellished telling of the

real-life tale into the pop cultural firmament. With Dennis Hopper,

Lee Van Cleef, Rhonda Fleming, Jo Van Fleet, John Ireland, Jack

Elam and STAR TREK’s DeForest Kelley. Music by Dimitri Tiomkin.

DIR John Sturges; SCR Leon Uris; PROD Hal B. Wallis. US, 1957, color, 122 min. NOT RATED

THE KENTUCKIAN

Sun, Mar 23, 11:00 a.m.; Tue, Mar 25, 5:15

Lancaster’s lone solo directorial effort is this engaging Western

adventure, filmed in stunning Technicolor CinemaScope by

Ernest Laszlo and featuring a score by Bernard Herrmann.

In 1820s Kentucky, recently widowed frontiersman Big Eli

Wakefield (Lancaster) and son Little Eli (Donald MacDonald)

pack up and head for Texas to make a new life. Stopping

over to visit brother John McIntyre in the river town of Humility,

the Wakefields become embroiled in both a local feud and

romantic intrigue. With Walter Matthau, in his feature debut, as

whip-wielding saloon keeper Stan Bodine, plus Dianne Foster,

Diana Lynn, Una Merkel and John Carradine.

DIR Burt Lancaster; SCR A.

B. Guthrie, Jr.; PROD Harold Hecht. US, 1955, color, 104 min. NOT RATED

SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS

Fri, Apr 11, 5:00; Sat, Apr 12, 5:25; Sun, Apr 13, 1:00;

Mon, Apr 14, 5:00; Wed, Apr 16, 5:00; Thu, Apr 17, 3:00, 5:00

"I'd hate to take a bite out of you. You're a cookie full of

arsenic." The nastiest, most acid-tongued indictment of the

power of the press ever produced. Burt Lancaster gives a

legendary performance as J. J. Hunsecker, the most feared

columnist in New York, who delights in making desperate press

agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) do his dirty deeds. Simply put:

one of the most enjoyably unpleasant films ever made.

DIR Alexander Mackendrick; SCR Clifford Odets, Ernest Lehman; PROD James Hill. US, 1957, b&w,

96 min. NOT RATED

“Caustically brilliant! James Wong Howe's black-and-

white cinematography is among the best in the film-noir

genre, and the performances of Lancaster and Curtis—

both playing against type—rank among their greatest.”

—Jack Mathews, New York Daily News

Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Courtesy of United Artists

Courtesy of Sony Pictures Repertory

Courtesy of Paramount

Courtesy of United Artists

Courtesy of MGM