Joining the guests of the Famous Monsters of Filmland Returns weekend film series May 30 & 31 is Bela Lugosi, Jr. who will introduce DRACULA on Sunday, May 31 at 7:30 PM. Other guests include: Sara Karloff, Carla Laemmle (DRACULA), Janet Ann Gallow (GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN) and Jane Adams (HOUSE OF DRACULA). The Famous Monsters folks will have merchandise to sell and other Scare-tacular touches to a monsterously good weekend (coinciding with Monsterpalooza - attendees get a special ticket discount!

Actor Lance Henriksen will join director Kathryn Bigelow to introduce a double feature of NEAR DARK and STRANGE DAYS on Saturday, June 6 at 7:30 PM. See some silent films with your American Girl doll and stay for some vampire, futuristic apocalyptic action in 1999!!!

That's right, we have a family matinee celebrating the newest addition to the American Girl family!!

Calling all doll (and silent film) lovers - meet Rebecca Rubin, the newest American Girl character, at our American Girl Silent Screen event (with live piano accompaniment and and an American Girl Craft) on June 6th. Rebecca Rubin longs to become an actress when she grows up. She loves Charlie Chaplin and is the daughter of Jewish Russian immigrants living on Manhattan's Lower East Side in 1914.

Tickets are available for all of these events on www.fandango.com

Join as a NEW Member at any level at the American Cinematheque's Aero Theatre during our 70mm series Thursday, May 21 - Sunday, May 24 and receive 20% off the cost of membership AND a classic film DVD. This offer is only good for in person purchase of new or gift memberships. Box office opens at 6:00pm each day of the series.
Check out the 70MM line up at the Aero Theatre including one of our most requested (and attended) titles (so get your tickets in advance on www.fandango.com), Hitchcock's VERTIGO, THE UNTOUCHABLES, The Who in the rock opera TOMMY - and - sorry kids, the evening with ALIENS and THE ABYSS with James Cameron sold out eons ago. Sign up for our mailing list on the American Cinematheque website to be informed in advance of special events like this!

Famous Monsters In Hollywood

May 30 - 31, 2009 Famous Monsters of Filmland Return

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An Egyptian Theatre Exclusive!
Take a break from Monsterpalooza and join in celebrating the return of one of the most popular, beloved and influential movie magazines ever - Famous Monsters of Filmland. Legendary fan, literary agent and writer Forrest J. Ackerman started the magazine with publisher James Warren in 1958, and it continued to publish under their guidance until 1983 when it folded after 191 scare-packed issues. The publication's fortunes fluctuated through a roller-coaster of legal issues from 1993 until just this year. Make merry (or should we say, scary?) at the re-launch of the magazine and its website. Classic horror films such as GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN, SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, DRACULA and HOUSE OF DRACULA will be screened, along with appearances by special guests Sara Karloff, Carla Laemmle (DRACULA), Janet Ann Gallow (GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN) and Jane Adams (HOUSE OF DRACULA).

Saturday, May 30 - 7:30 PM
Double Feature:
SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, 1939, Universal, 99 min. Dir. Rowland V. Lee. The third atmospheric installment in Universal's FRANKENSTEIN franchise finds Henry Frankenstein's grown-up son Wolf (Basil Rathbone) returning to the family estate with his wife and son (Josephine Hutchinson and Donnie Dunagan) after many years. The laboratory is in ruins - nevertheless Wolf soon becomes enmeshed in his family's nefarious legacy when he finds the dormant monster (Boris Karloff) being looked after by a vengeful gallows' survivor, the crook necked Ygor (a very creepy Bela Lugosi). Universal was firing on all cylinders with their bolt-necked creature when they released this exceptionally entertaining tall tale. Watch for Lionel Atwill as the one-armed police chief (he lost his missing appendage to a previous encounter with the monster). Trailer

GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN, 1942, Universal, 67 min. Universal's horrors became much more formulaic and by-the-numbers in the 1940s, but the creative juices were still amply flowing in this fourth time out with the Frankenstein monster. Director Erle C. Kenton (ISLAND OF LOST SOULS) helms this fast-moving tale of Wolf Frankenstein's brother Ludwig (Cedric Hardwicke) trying to live down the ignominy of the family name. Too bad for him that Ygor (Bela Lugosi) and the monster (now played by Lon Chaney, Jr.) survived somehow at the end of SON OF... Now they're back knocking on his door for help in reviving the ailing monster, hoping to restore him to his former glory. Adding to Ludwig's headaches are an envious, formerly illustrious doctor (Lionel Atwill) and Ludwig's beautiful daughter Elsa (Evelyn Ankers). Introduction to first film by Sara Karloff. Introduction to second film by Janet Ann Gallow. Trailer

Sunday, May 31 - 7:30 PM
Double Feature:
DRACULA, 1931, Universal, 75 min. Director Tod Browning (FREAKS) and actor Bela Lugosi established the Transylvanian count as one of the archetypal movie vampires and a monster icon for Universal Studios' golden era of classic horror films. This adaptation of Hamilton Deane's then-popular stage play of Bram Stoker's novel is quite different from Murnau's silent NOSFERATU, or from later works coming from Hammer Studios in the 1950s-1970s and Francis Ford Coppola's 1990s version. Real estate agent Renfield (played by everyone's favorite madman Dwight Frye) goes insane after visiting Dracula at his Transylvanian castle and is thereafter confined to a London asylum, though he does the Count's bidding as a hypnotized slave when Dracula comes to Britain and moves into the deserted Carfax Abbey. David Manners is Jonathan Harker and Helen Chandler is his lady love, who Dracula wants to make his bride. Edward Van Sloan, a fixture in early Universal horrors, is Professor Van Helsing. Trailer

HOUSE OF DRACULA, 1945, Universal, 67 min. Dir. Erle C. Kenton. To maximize returns and balking at continuing to grant their monsters a perpetual string of individual sequels, Universal decided to give audiences more bang for their buck. Monster rallies FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN and HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN had already come and gone, and by the time of HOUSE OF DRACULA, the only original star to appear was Lon Chaney, Jr., reprising his role yet again as Lawrence Talbot, the Wolf Man. Both Talbot and Count Dracula (John Carradine) desire a cure for their afflictions, and secure the help of renowned scientist Dr. Edelman (Onslow Stevens) and his hunchbacked nurse (Jane Adams). Complicating matters are the suspicions of beautiful nurse Martha O'Driscoll and police inspector Lionel Atwill, and the discovery of the dormant Frankenstein monster (Glenn Strange) in a sea cave! Extremely entertaining. Introduction to first film by Carla Laemmle (DRACULA). Introduction to second film by Jane Adams Trailer

American Cinematheque
6712 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
www.americancinematheque.com
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****You can buy tickets for the Egyptian and Aero Theatres online at Fandango.com****

Mickey Rooney - The longest career in motion picture history

Requiem For A Heavyweight & Killer McCoy were shown last night, but Rooney films including the musicals with Judy Garland continue through May 10 (see the post below about MAD WORLD) and Rooney will appear in person with THE BLACK STALLION on Saturday, May 9 for a family matinee!

by Dr. Yes
5/7/2009

Wednesday night the American Cinematheque’s Max Palevsky Aero theater played host to the Opening Night of a Five Night Tribute to the man Mickey Rooney, and the longest career a memorable evening, highlighted by an in-person appearance by none other than the real McCoy himself, the inimitable, Mickey Rooney.

General Moninger S. Grant got the evening’s festivities rolling with the pre-film announcements, a big crowd and a big applause for Mr. Rooney and what was a highly anticipated screening and Q&A. HEAVYWEIGHT still hits hard. Works the body till the head follows. Rooney’s place in the triangle of pain, Mountain Rivera’s corner, as trainer, "Army" to Jackie Gleason’s manager and Anthony Quinn’s boxer, is a singular example of just how powerful, revelatory even, an actor’s performance can be in a supporting role. Rooney’s character within the relationship of these three men in the twilight of a once great career as they struggle with the degradation of being forced to "get something outta the losing" is essential in carrying the pathos, illustrating a "nurturing" masculine element, and serves as the film’s only comic relief. "Army" pulls it off in one stand alone card game of "War."

With NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM 2 and three films in post production, "Recently named the longest career in motion picture history, from ’27 till now, four times Oscar nominated, twice honorary award, Emmy award winner -- the awards get too many. All I’m going to say is here’s Mickey Rooney." With those words, host Peter Hammond welcomed actor, veteran, philanthropist, legend Mickey Rooney down to the Aero’s stage. A stage which has been held by countless giants of the film industry and a few seats in the audience too, this night was really special.

Mickey Rooney, unassuming in air and dress, took a seat alongside Mr. Hammond and Microphone in hand, proceeded to speak in a voice that was soft and steady never wavering and always settling. Mr. Rooney was joined in the audience by friends, family, and his wife Jan.

"Thank you. Well, I made so many bad pictures that weren’t released, A few that escaped. But it truly, I truly… have always believed that Anthony Quinn was one of the great actors of our time and should have been nominated and should have won. (Jackie) Gleason was coming off of Ralph Kramden… Director Ralph Nelson was a patient wonderful gentleman, tremendous gentleman. It was a great honor for me to be an infinitesimal part."

Continued... click here.

An Evening with Atom Egoyan & Company at the Aero Theatre

ADORATION
by Randy Wyatt
April 24, 2009

You want a piece of me?

Wow, what a contrast to last night’s RED DAWN Q&A. Two movies seemingly worlds apart --25 years certainly – yet both touching on many of the same themes, social and familial issues, and their respective cultural roots, the ties that both bind and repel human beings from their fellows. Vengeance, terrorism, and the justification or insufficient grounds for justification of acts of extreme violence and mass murder – and the discussion between characters regarding the moral implications of said issues – exist in both films, at times at great lengths. Certainly, in RD, it constitutes some of the longer and certainly more meaningful stretches of dialogue, in the case of tonight’s SNEAK PREVIEW of ATOM EGOYAN’s ADORATION at the Aero, this debate between characters and by proxy us the audience is catapulted into the cyber age. ADORATION opens with a series of settling images, a young boy in a park, a girl playing violin on a pier overlooking a placid lake. Then quickly we’re watching a teenage boy (played wonderfully by DEVON BOSTICK), videotaping an elderly man in a hospital bed. His father perhaps? But wait, as will happen with the reveal of the remaining cast of the characters, we’re opened to one possibility and or truth only to have that appearance of truth shift with the unfolding plotline. Not as much verisimilitude as in a crafty magician’s legerdemain within a topnotch screenplay. The bedridden patient will be revealed as his grandfather and what began as an exercise in high school French class balloons into a massive internet hoax with potentially dire consequences. The drama’s stakes intensify as the faux history ala chat room prank spirals out of control. But this is a “Sneak Preview,” so I will not reveal, divulge, or any other way compromise the story, besides there’s so much more to talk about, namely Mr. Egoyan and Co.
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IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD

Greatest. Comedy. Ever.
by Michael Schlesinger

It’s been a few years since IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD graced a theatre screen in L.A., so its appearance Sunday, May 10tttth at the Aero is welcome news. On the 45tttth anniversary of its general release (with much footage from the roadshow version still MIA), the movie Stanley Kramer vowed to be The Comedy To End All Comedies somehow manages to seem not only as hilarious as ever, but even more pertinent. (You really didn’t expect Kramer to make “just” a comedy, did you?) Yes, it’s hardly a surprise that the overarching theme is greed: how easily ordinary joes can be totally corrupted by the possibility of scoring a big pile of stolen cash. But less obvious is the constant surveillance the fortune-hunters are under; the cops know everything they’re doing throughout the film. In an era where the government has no compunction about tapping phones and reading mail, it’s almost eerie how Kramer and writers William and Tania Rose inserted this into the narrative so slyly. (There’s also a total yet fascinating coincidence: twice during the climactic chase scene, the cars speed by billboards that read “Nixon For Governor.”)
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