9/16 STATE FAIR (1945). In Technicolor. Cast: Jeanne Crain, Dana Andrews, Dick Haymes, Vivian Blaine, Charles Winninger, Fay Bainter, Frank McHugh, Percy Kilbride. Director: Walter Lang. We begin our season with a family’s adventures while attending their annual State Fair. The tuneful Rodgers and Hammerstein score includes “It Might as Well Be Spring”, “It’s a Grand Night For Singing”, “That’s For Me” and other favorites.

9/23 THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT (1940). Cast: George Raft, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino, Alan Hale, Roscoe Karns, Gale Page. Director: Raoul Walsh. Exciting drama of truck driving brothers (Raft and Bogart) battling the dangers of the open road. A terrific story with a top-notch cast.

9/30 HAL ROACH COMEDY FESTIVAL. A fun evening spotlighting the top 1930s comedy series from the Hal Roach studios. We’ll see the following shorts: Our Gang in PAY AS YOU EXIT (1936), Thelma Todd & Zasu Pitts in LET’S DO THINGS (1931) and Charley Chase in HASTY MARRIAGE (1931), plus Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy in their 1931 featurette, BEAU HUNKS. A comedy feast!

10/7 WESTERN DOUBLE FEATURE

VIGILANTES OF DODGE CITY (1944). Cast: Wild Bill Elliott, Bobby Blake, Alice Fleming, Linda Sterling, LeRoy Mason. Director: Wallace Grissell. An action-packed “Red Ryder” adventure as Red (Elliott) and Little Beaver (Blake) are hot on the trail of stagecoach robbers and horse rustlers. One of the series’ best entries.

TRIGGER, JR. (1950). In Color. Cast: Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Trigger, Pat Brady, Gordon Jones, Grant Withers, Peter Miles, Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage. Director: William Witney. This beautifully restored Rogers classic has Roy fighting a crooked protection association that’s terrorizing local ranchers. A great one from Republic!

10/14 LIVING IT UP (1954). In Technicolor. Cast: Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Janet Leigh, Fred Clark, Edward Arnold, Sheree North, Sig Rumann. Director: Norman Taurog. One of Martin & Lewis’ best films is a wild musical-comedy that has the entire city of New York thinking that Jerry’s dying of radiation poisoning. Dean’s his shady doctor who keeps the very profitable ruse going. The boys are in top form in this one, plus some great songs.

10/21 CITY STREETS (1931). Cast: Gary Cooper, Sylvia Sidney, Paul Lukas, Guy Kibbee, Wynne Gibson. Director: Rouben Mamoulian. A crook’s daughter (Sidney) is fascinated by gangsters…until her formerly naïve boyfriend (Cooper) becomes one! An interesting Pre-Code mix of crime story and romantic drama, written by Dashiell Hammett.

10/28 HALLOWEEN DOUBLE FEATURE

MAN-MADE MONSTER (1941). Cast: Lon Chaney, Jr., Lionel Atwill, Anne Nagel, Samuel S. Hinds, Frank Albertson. Director: George Waggner. An ambitious scientist (Atwill) loads an unsuspecting Chaney with massive charges of electricity, making him a high-voltage killer. Chaney’s first horror film at Universal.

BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935). Cast: Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Ernest Thesiger, Valerie Hobson, Elsa Lanchester, Una O’Connor, Dwight Frye, E.E. Clive. Director: James Whale. Dr. Frankenstein (Clive) joins forces with a strange doctor (Thesiger) to create a mate for the Monster (Karloff). We are proud to be presenting a recent restoration of this Universal horror classic that looks and sounds terrific.

11/4 KLONDIKE ANNIE (1936). Cast: Mae West, Victor McLaglen, Philip Reed, Helen Jerome Eddy, Harold Huber, Soo Yung, Gene Austin. Director: Raoul Walsh. Mae plays “The Frisco Doll”, who is on the lam from the police and escapes to the Yukon. To avoid being detected, she assumes the identity of a virtuous mission worker. A lively combination of comedy, drama and music, done as only Miss West can.

11/11 STALAG 17 (1953). Cast: William Holden, Otto Preminger, Peter Graves, Don Taylor, Robert Strauss, Harvey Lembeck, Sig Rumann. Director: Billy Wilder. Our Veterans Day show remembers POWs with Wilder’s skillful and tasteful blend of drama and humor, set in WWII. Holden won the “Best Actor” Academy Award for his excellent performance in this fine film.

11/18 MYSTERY DOUBLE FEATURE

A DATE WITH THE FALCON (1941). Cast: George Sanders, Wendy Barrie, James Gleason, Allen Jenkins, Mona Maris, Ed Gargan. Director: Irving Reis. The suave Gaylord Lawrence, aka “The Falcon” (Sanders), is getting married…but first he must find a missing scientist who has invented a formula for synthetic diamonds. Fast-moving detective fun.

MURDER MAN (1935). Cast: Spencer Tracy, Virginia Bruce, Lionel Atwill, Harvey Stephens, James Stewart. Director: Tim Whelan. Tracy’s first MGM film and Stewart’s film debut is this well-done “whodunit”, with the case being investigated by Tracy as a tough newspaper reporter who specializes in covering murders.

11/25 SWING TIME (1936). Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Victor Moore, Helen Broderick, George Metaxa, Eric Blore, Betty Furness. Director: George Stevens. The first film in our two-week “Ginger Rogers Festival” is one of Fred and Ginger’s best musicals, and we’re screening a brand-new restoration of this classic! The excellent Jerome Kern-Dorothy Fields score features such hits as “Pick Yourself Up”, “A Fine Romance”, “The Way You Look Tonight” and others.

12/2 I’LL BE SEEING YOU (1944). Cast: Ginger Rogers, Joseph Cotten, Shirley Temple, Spring Byington, Tom Tully, John Derek. Director: William Dieterle. We continue our “Ginger Rogers Festival” with this fine example of her more serious dramatic work. Ginger plays a convict who is on parole for the holidays and meets an emotionally disturbed soldier (Cotten)….and things become complicated as their relationship grows. A sensitive film filled with superb performances.

12/9 THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (1940). Cast: James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan, Frank Morgan, Joseph Schildkraut, Felix Bressart, Sara Haden, William Tracy, Charles Smith. Director: Ernst Lubitsch. Our season finale is this beloved Lubitsch gem: Two co-workers in a gift shop (Stewart and Sullavan) are romantic pen pals with each other, but they don’t realize it. A witty script and outstanding cast make this a wonderful light comedy for the holidays.