AN UPDATE FROM THE SYRACUSE CINEPHILE SOCIETY

 

While we’re still waiting in the wings to resume our weekly Monday night screenings at the Spaghetti Warehouse, an update on our current situation is in order.
While we have been tentatively planning to restart our series and begin a Spring 2021 season on March 22, 2021, the raw truth is that right now we’re not really sure when we will be able to start.
We still WANT to begin in late March, and we certainly will if it’s safe to do so, but the increasing number of positive COVID cases and resulting warnings from health officials and state restrictions could necessitate waiting a bit longer.
A positive and promising development is the encouraging test results of various COVID vaccines, and a safe and effective vaccine being approved and administered is really the key to our public in-person shows beginning again.
Another issue to consider is the fact that right now we’re not allowed to have our in-person shows due to NYS’ current ruling that restaurants and bars cannot have separate show attractions which include live “headlined” music, dinner theater, standup comedy, magic shows and yes, movie screenings due to the pandemic. Once that ruling is reversed we can look at realistic restarting dates.
In the meantime we have been in close and constant contact with our venue The Spaghetti Warehouse, and I’m pleased to say that both of the restaurant’s managers, Jay and Marcos, have been very cooperative and helpful in working with us to plan ahead. They’re real partners in considering various options and time frames for our return.
We’ve also been in contact with our studio distributors to keep them updated on our situation, and they’ve been very understanding and helpful.
On another positive note, our digital operator Mark Philp and I have been visiting the restaurant during our hiatus to fire up and test the projection equipment in the screening room, making sure that it doesn’t sit idle and is in good working order when our shows resume.
So as you can see, we’re actively working behind the scenes to monitor COVID and vaccine developments, communicate with our venue and distributors, keep our equipment in good working order and most importantly, to keep all of you updated and informed as to our restarting status and plans.
We will continue to give you updates and in the meantime, please enjoy our daily poster images on our “Syracuse Cinephile Society” group page on Facebook….and please continue to support our friends at The Spaghetti Warehouse which is still open for take-out and socially distanced indoor dining.
We appreciate your patience and understanding, and we’ll be back with you “live and in person” with Monday night movie screenings just as soon as we can.
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Below is our tentative Spring 2021 season schedule:

  Syracuse Cinephile Monday Night Series

 Programs begin at 7:30 PM

3/22   THE THIN MAN GOES HOME (1944).  Cast:  William Powell, Myrna Loy, Gloria De Haven, Anne Revere, Harry Davenport, Lucile Watson, Leon Ames, Donald Meek, Edward Brophy.  Director: Richard Thorpe.  Our season opens with this entertaining entry in MGM’s “Thin Man” series of comedy-mysteries. Nick and Nora Charles visit Nick’s hometown and become involved in a murder while they’re there.  Lots of suspense, but plenty of fun laughs too.

3/29   TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942).  Cast: Jack Benny, Carole Lombard, Robert Stack, Lionel Atwill, Felix Bressart, Sig Ruman, Tom Dugan. Director: Ernst Lubitsch.  Lubitsch’s classic about a troupe of Polish actors who become part of a plan to foil invading Nazis during WWII.  A superb blend of comedy and espionage drama, and one of Jack Benny’s best films.

4/5    OLD ACQUAINTANCE (1943).  Cast: Bette Davis, Miriam Hopkins, Gig Young, John Loder, Dolores Moran, Philip Reed, Roscoe Karns. Director: Vincent Sherman. Davis and Hopkins play two longtime friends who have personal and professional rivalries that span the years. An engrossing story with fascinating performances.

4/12   THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE (1946).  Cast: Dorothy McGuire, George Brent, Ethel Barrymore, Kent Smith, Rhonda Fleming, Elsa Lanchester. Director: Robert Siodmak. An atmospheric and suspenseful thriller about a mute servant (McGuire) who works in an eerie Victorian home that may be harboring a serial killer. An “edge of your seat” classic.

4/19   HELLO, FRISCO, HELLO (1943).  In Technicolor.  Cast: Alice Faye, John Payne, Jack Oakie, June Havoc, Lynn Bari, Laird Cregar.  Director: H. Bruce Humberstone. Beloved 20th Century-Fox musical of four Barbary Coast  singing and dancing performers and the changes they face when they hit the big time.  Wonderful music, including Alice Faye singing her Oscar-winning signature tune, “You’ll Never Know”.

4/26   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.

5/3  “COMEDIANS AND KIDS” DOUBLE FEATURE

KENTUCKY KERNELS (1934).  Cast: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Spanky McFarland, Mary Carlisle, Noah Beery, Lucille LaVerne, Willie Best.  Director: George Stevens. Wheeler & Woolsey travel to the South to reunite a young orphan (Spanky) with his wealthy relatives…and they get caught in the middle of a longtime family feud!

TILLIE AND GUS (1933).  Cast: W.C. Fields, Alison Skipworth, Baby LeRoy, Jacqueline Wells, Clifford Jones, Clarence Wilson, Edgar Kennedy.  Director: Francis Martin. When a young couple and their baby are swindled out of their rightful inheritance, a long-lost uncle and aunt (Fields and Skipworth) arrive to help save the day.  Great fun!

5/10   GRAND HOTEL (1932).  Cast: Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery, Jean Hersholt, Lewis Stone. Director: Edmund Goulding. MGM’s all-star drama that depicts the various characters and situations in a plush Berlin hotel.  Academy Award winner for Best Picture of 1932.  We are proud to be screening a stunning restoration that gives this classic an impressive pristine presentation.

5/17  CHAD HANNA (1940).  In Technicolor. Cast: Henry Fonda, Dorothy Lamour, Linda Darnell, Guy Kibbee, Jane Darwell, John Carradine. Director: Henry King. Walter D. Edmonds’ colorful drama of a circus troupe traveling through Central and Upstate New York during the 1840s. Several familiar Central New York cities and towns are mentioned and depicted, including Syracuse.

5/24   MYSTERY DOUBLE FEATURE

CHARLIE CHAN IN RENO (1938).  Cast: Sidney Toler, Ricardo Cortez, Phyllis Brooks, Slim Summerville, Sen Yung, Kane Richmond, Kay Linaker. Director: Norman Foster. Chan tries to solve a murder case in the 1930s divorce capital and has to deal with some squabbling couples in the process.  An interesting assortment of characters in this fun puzzler.

POWER OF THE WHISTLER (1945).  Cast: Richard Dix, Janis Carter, Jeff Donnell, John Abbott.  Director: Lew Landers. A helpful woman (Carter) tries to aid a confused amnesiac (Dix) in recalling his identity.  The closer he gets to remembering who he is, the more dangerous the situation becomes.  A great entry in Columbia’s popular “Whistler” series based on the famous radio show.

5/31   NO SHOW  (Memorial Day)

6/7  ROMAN HOLIDAY (1953).  Cast: Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert. Director: William Wyler.  A young princess (Hepburn) yearns for a normal life, runs away to enjoy Rome on her own and meets a handsome reporter covering a story there (Peck). A wonderful romantic comedy in which Audrey Hepburn won the Academy Award for Best Actress in her American film debut.

6/14   THE GREAT McGINTY (1940).  Cast: Brian Donlevy, Akim Tamiroff, Muriel Angelus, Allyn Joslyn, William Demarest.  Director: Preston Sturges.  Sturges wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay and also made his directorial debut with this sharp comedy of a crude loudmouth (Donlevy) who is brought into politics by a crooked political machine….and ends up being elected to a high office!  A wild, well-written story with an excellent cast.

6/21   TALL IN THE SADDLE (1944).  Cast: John Wayne, Ella Raines, Ward Bond, Gabby Hayes, Elisabeth Risdon, Raymond Hatton. Director: Edwin L. Marin.  Wayne plays a cowboy who begins a new job on a ranch and is met with several surprises, including a murder, a crooked lawyer (Bond) and a beautiful but feisty wildcat of a woman who owns the neighboring ranch (Raines).  One of the Duke’s most popular westerns of the 1940s.

6/28   FOOTLIGHT PARADE (1933).  Cast: James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Frank McHugh, Guy Kibbee, Hugh Herbert, Ruth Donnelly, Claire Dodd.  Director: Lloyd Bacon. Our season finale is this star-filled blockbuster musical-comedy from Warner Brothers.  Cagney plays a stage director whose live productions are in trouble when talking pictures take over theaters, and he must become unusually creative to stay in business.  This film features three elaborate eye-popping and jaw-dropping production numbers directed by Busby Berkeley: “By a Waterfall”, “Honeymoon Hotel” and the classic “Shanghai Lil”. Our screening proudly presents the recent studio restoration that looks terrific!

Enjoy your dinner before the show.  It is suggested you arrive for dinner No Later than 6:15PM so you can complete your meal prior to show time at 7:30PM

Please join us for dinner before the show, now with Cheesecake Factory desserts!  It is suggested you arrive for dinner no later than 6:15PM so you can complete your meal prior to show time at 7:30PM!

The Monday Night Series is Brought to you by Syracuse Cinephile

Located at the Spaghetti Warehouse Restaurant
 Programs begin at 7:30 PM

Members – $3.00
Non-Members – $3.50
Annual Membership – $5.00