New York’s leading movie house for independent premieres and repertory programming
A nonprofit cinema since 1970
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New York’s leading movie house for independent premieres and repertory programming
A nonprofit cinema since 1970
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PROGRAMMED BY BRUCE GOLDSTEIN Vince Giordano & His Nighthawks play the music of the 20s & 30s live, |
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Click here to read the New York Post article on "Breadliines & Champagne" |
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FEBRUARY 6 FRI
(1933, Wesley Ruggles) Mae West tames a den of lions, an all-male jury, and socialite Cary Grant, in the supremely Pre-Code picture that scandalized the Legion of Decency. Plus vintage trailers, cartoon, and Hearst Metrotone News! Complete program at 1:00, 3:15, 5:30, 7:45, 10:00
“Mae West was the sensation of 1933. A total delight to watch.” – Andrew Bergman “Going to help redistribute a nice chunk of the nation's coin. Mae West is today the biggest conversation-provoker, free space grabber and all-around box office bet in the country.” “Arguably West's best film, certainly one of her funniest.” – Pauline Kael FEBRUARY 7/8*/9 SAT/SUN*/MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
"A NEGLECTED MASTERPIECE. Few love stories have achieved this emotional intensity. “Frank Borzage was that rarity of rarities, an uncompromising romanticist...Borzage never needed dream worlds for his suspension of disbelief. He plunged into the real worlds of poverty and oppression, the world of Roosevelt and Hitler, the New Deal and the New Order, to impart an aura to his characters, not merely through soft focus and a fluid camera, but through a genuine concern with the wondrous inner life of lovers in the midst of adversity.” “One of the most beautifully assembled, lighted and photographed pictures of the 30s.” – Elliott Stein “Rarely seen... Fascinating. Remarkable.” “TIMELY, TOPICAL, HUMAN, DRAMATIC, PUNCHY AND GOOD ENTERTAINMENT... “One of the most exciting, realistic mob scenes ever pictured on the screen outside of the newsreels. FEBRUARY 9 MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) “Two cures for the Great Depression: The unemployed organize a rural kolkhoz as the federal government nationalizes vaudeville.”
(1934, King Vidor) The ultimate expression of the Depression’s
collective spirit, as a young couple (including future
blacklistee Karen Morley) and assorted jobless drifters team
up to work a drought-threatened farm. “A FASCINATING TIME CAPSULE from the New Deal period, and a rare instance “Beautifully directed and edited, this is one of the best and most energetic of Vidor's early talkies, “Innovatively well directed, the rhythmic visual conceptions are beautifully realized.” (1934, Hamilton MacFadden) The President names Broadway
producer Warner Baxter “Secretary of Amusement,” a
new cabinet post created to “put smiles” on the faces of
Depression-plagued Americans, but it’s toddler Shirley Temple
who steals the show with “Baby, Take a Bow.”
“Comes close to a conception of what a modern Gilbert and Sullivan opus might be.
FEBRUARY 10 TUE (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) 
“As oily as he is ruthless, capitalist swine Warren William runs a department store in one movie and an office tower in the other,
(1933, Roy Del Ruth) Relentlessly paced shop girl’s 42nd Street,
as Warren William’s department store manager (“the caddish
personification of ruthless capitalism” – J. Hoberman) drives
himself and everyone else to the limit to stay in business, en
route seducing Loretta Young, both before and after marriage
to nice guy Wallace Ford. Approx. 75 min. “A libidinous tyrant, played by the king of cads Warren William, seduces or torments everybody in sight in this racy comedy-drama.” (1932, Edgar Selwyn) Over-sexed Warren William as the
Donald Trump of his day, in Pre-Code paean to the modern
(and Deco) office building. Habituees of this Gotham Grand
Hotel include Hedda Hopper, Verree Teasdale, Anita Page,
and Maureen O’Sullivan — on the receiving end of a shocking
seduction. Approx. 99 min. * BANK NITE DRAWING! (6:10 & 8:10 ticketholders only) “Affords a rich measure of entertainment. Replete with suspense and vitality... FEBRUARY 11 WED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) “Marquee pizzazz and va-va-voom.”– Time Out New York “A snappy comedy. Harlow, seen by master cinematographer Joe Walker as a superbly sculpturesque object “A brilliant screwball comedy. Has a charm and naturalness.” – All Movie Guide “Holds up solidly... Williams comes off either like Noel Coward's roughneck brother (1933, Elliott Nugent) When those
mining stocks prove worthless,
the Rimplegar family — mom Mary
Boland, daughter Claudette Colbert, and her three hapless
brothers — are forced to (gasp) work. “Slightly screwball... a predecessor of You Can't Take It With You.” – Leslie Halliwell “The golden age of screwball comedy was brief but glorious... Three-Cornered Moon is often cited as the first real example of the genre, but whether screwball or not, it's a delightful and charming comedy.” FEBRUARY 12 THU – SPECIAL EVENT! 
YOUNG MISTER LINCOLN 1:00, 4:35, 8:05 THE TALL TARGET 3:00, 6:30, 10:00 FEBRUARY 13 FRI (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) “WELLMAN'S ONE-TWO PUNCH! Focuses on two successive lost generations.”
(1933, William Wellman) Richard Barthelmess’ trip to Calvary,
from the trenches of WWI to the breadlines and railroad ties
of 1933, encountering communism, welfare capitalism, drug
addiction, Red Squads, police brutality and riots along the
way. “One of the very few Depression films not to cop out in its climax.” – William K. Everson “AN ESSENTIAL DEPRESSION DOCUMENT. Wellman examines issues generally avoided in Hollywood.” “The first topical film released in New Deal America.” – Andrew Bergman
(1933, William Wellman) Instead of burdening their penniless
families, Frankie Darro, Edwin Phillips, and Dorothy Coonan
(soon to be Mrs. Wellman) decide to ride the rails, dodging
train detectives in search of jobs and shelter. “Has a claim to
greatness.” – Todd McCarthy. Approx. 68 min. “The underrated Wellman made many neglected classics during the Depression, “A curious film indeed. It stands up beautifully - completely undated, well-paced, surprisingly well acted by the youthful players, and graced by photography that is both grimly realistic and strangely beautiful at the same time. It is a moving, restless, stark kind of photography that captures the feeling of hobo life on the freight trains...” FEBRUARY 14 SAT (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) 
(1936, Gregory La Cava) Dizzy heiress Carole Lombard wins
the scavenger hunt by producing bum William Powell as
a “forgotten man” — then hires him as her butler, joining
air-headed mom Alice Brady’s
menagerie of acidulous relatives
and hangers-on.
Approx. 94 min. “One of screwball’s greatest triumphs. It’s one of the few movies that you can never see too many times.” “One of the richest films in the screwball tradition so closely associated with life in Depression America.” – Vincent Canby, The New York Times “A durably clever and harmonious romantic farce whose blend of topicality, absurdity and geniality remains unrivaled.” – The Washington Post
(1937, Mitchell Leisen) Working
girl Jean Arthur is mistaken for a
Wall St. lion’s mistress, but finds love in the Automat with
Ray Milland, in Preston Sturges’ most famed pre-directorial
screwball comedy. Approx. 88 min. “If you paired it with My Man Godfrey, you'd have a beautiful portrait “A blithe romantic comedy. You can already hear the beginnings of the trademark 90mph banter “One of the most pleasurable of the romantic slapstick comedies of the 30s, and full of surprises.” “Not only is it funny and gracious and generous in the best Sturges tradition; it is also velvety smooth and comfortably movie-ish...Jean Arthur gives Easy Living much of its spunky-elegant resilience.” FEBRUARY 15 SUN (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) “THEY DON'T MAKE 'EM LIKE THIS ANYMORE! Barbara Stanwyck systematically sleeps her way to the pinnacle of economic power;
(1933, Alfred E. Green) Barbara Stanwyck (“the ultimate
Pre-Code hottie” – J. Hoberman) turns tricks out of her
dad’s dreary Erie, Pa., speakeasy, then sleeps her way up
the corporate ladder. The Citizen Kane of Pre-Code movies
became even racier with the discovery of five more sordid
minutes in 2005. Approx. 76 min. “Code, schmode. This movie probably couldn't be made today even as a comedy. “Barbara Stanwyck’s marvelous paean to sleeping one’s way to the top.” (1932, Roy Del Ruth) The apotheosis of Lee Tracy, inventor
of the fast-talking newspaperman, here machine-gunning
his way through a raucous send-up of Walter Winchell, and
attaining utter delirium when he talks Allen Jenkins through
his own imagined electrocution. Approx. 80 min. “One of the best of the high-pressure irreverent comedies of the early 30s.” “A raggedy masterpiece of solipsistic showboating.” – Donald Phelps, Film Comment “This newsroom comedy has laughs aplenty.”
– Time Out New York “Witheringly funny.” – Janet Maslin, The New York Times FEBRUARY 16 MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) (1933, Gregory La Cava) Mysteriously “possessed” by a
heavenly spirit, party hack chief exec Walter Huston is
suddenly transformed into a Super-President, single-handedly
wiping out crime, unemployment, mortgage payments (!) — and Congress itself. Approx. 86 min. “A bizarre Depression fantasy... A brilliant comedy director, “One of the craziest political comedies ever made in America.”
– J. Hoberman, Village Voice “Flag-waving flapdoodle, shrewdly dished up for the man in the street and his best girl. Beautifully produced, cannily hoked, and looks like money all round.” (1932, James Cruze) Pre-Mr.
Smith Goes to Washington,
as fast-talking Lee Tracy’s
Congressman “Button Gwinnett Brown” teams up with the
Bonus Army to expose an influence peddler/murderer.
Plus Betty Boop for President! Total approx. 86 min. “Fascinating.” – Elliott Stein “A snappy, Pre-Code movie. 1932 was an election year, and Hollywood was quick to cash in on that with a number of melodramas and satires that were far from kind to the political arena, and took graft and inefficiency pretty much for granted.” FEBRUARY 17 TUE (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
“HARD-BOILED AND DELICIOUS, working gal pals Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Blondell handle the low life,
(1931, William Wellman) Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Blondell,
quick-changing between uniforms and deshabillé, breezily
battle bootleggers, drunken mothers, corrupt doctors, and
a tawdry child abuse case master-minded by menacing
chauffeur Clark Gable. “Pre-Code with a vengeance.” –
William K. Everson. Approx. 72 min. “A wonderfully pacy thriller, with sparkling dialogue, a nice line in blackish humor, an undertow of Pre-Code eroticism, and Stanwyck in full-hard-bitten cry. TOUGH, TAUT, AND FUN.” “Hard as nails, with lots of spunk.” – Jonathan Rosenbaum
“Directed with leering vigor by Wellman. Stanwyck is the purest embodiment of Pre-Code pluck and sexual adventurousness.” “Edgy, frightening, and very tough.” – David Thomson “Just what the public wanted in 1931.” – Leslie Halliwell (1933, Sam Wood) Sent to a reformatory after con man Clark
Gable gets her “in trouble,” tough cookie Jean Harlow slugs it out
with drunken Dorothy Burgess and warbles “Onward Christian
Soldiers” while plotting her getaway. Approx. 87 min. “A low-down but soft-hearted mug and moll romance.” – Andrew Sarris * BANK NITE DRAWING! (6:00 & 7:30 ticketholders only) FEBRUARY 18 WED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) (1936, Archie Mayo) Factory worker Humphrey Bogart, sore
at losing promotion to a “foreigner,” joins a Klan-like secret
society, but then it’s a few short steps to murder and that look
on wife Ann Sheridan’s face. Approx. 83 min. “One of the most direct social pieces released from Hollywood.” “A scorching crime drama, and a frightening picture (1935, Michael Curtiz) Despite union opposition, Polish miner
Paul Muni is schnookered by rabble-rousers into leading
a wildcat strike in the Pennsylvania coalfields. Approx. 94 min. "The most powerful strike picture that has yet been made, and I am aware of the better-known Soviet jobs in the field." “A good example of the extent to which Warner Bros was the proletarian studio: it plays with political dynamite... immigrant workers' harsh living and working conditions are vividly recreated in Warner's specially constructed 'Coal Town', an impressive complex of wooden shacks, drills and mineshafts.”
FEBRUARY 19 THU (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) (1933, Lewis Milestone) Al Jolson, as the “mayor” of Central
Park, and his homeless constituents (“30s versions of
beatniks” – Pauline Kael) come to the aid of amnesiac
Madge Evans in one-of-a-kind Rodgers & Hart musical,
complete with “rhythmic dialogue,” Soviet cutting, and
Bolshevik Harry Langdon. Approx. 82 min. “Recommended! One of the most singular movies made during the Depression. Political undercurrents and a peculiar supporting turn by Harry Langdon add to the overall sense of originality and passion.” More rare Vitaphone sound shorts from the late 20s and early
30s, all restored by the UCLA Film Archive. Tonight’s program
includes a prologue from “czar of all the rushes” Will Hays;
banjo ace Roy Smeck; Gus Arnheim’s band, featuring Crosby/
Vallee rival Russ Columbo; and vaudevillians Shaw & Lee,
Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy, and Bert Lahr, all topped
by Jolson’s pre-Jazz Singer “Plantation Act.” Introduced
by Ron Hutchinson of The
Vitaphone Project. Total approx. 100 min. Click here for The Vitaphone Project website. “Film Forum cracks open the time tunnel!” FEBRUARY 20 FRI (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) (1937, William Wyler) Along the East River, ritzy apartments
bump up against crummy tenements, as unemployed
architect Joel McCrea yearns for a stuck-up socialite, while
slum-raised Sylvia Sidney yearns for him and the Dead End
Kids idolize local-boy-made-hood Humphrey Bogart. Approx. 93 min. “A riveting portrait of slum life. (1932, Mervyn LeRoy) At a slum girls’ reunion, steno Bette Davis,
socialite Ann Dvorak and showgirl Joan Blondell light up — and
then it’s change partners and dance as one power dives to
the skids, courtesy of angel dust. With young Humphrey Bogart
already in form as a kidnapper. Approx. 63 min. “Joan Blondell, Bette Davis, and Ann Dvorak in the same movie, “Compresses thirteen years into sixty-three minutes of screaming headlines and sordid melodrama... then tweaks the social-determinist schematic with bitter irony.” FEBRUARY 21 SAT (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) (1932, Howard Hawks) X marks the corpses, as they drop in
garages, lunch rooms, and bowling alleys: Paul Muni’s Capone
prototype wastes his boss and takes over his moll, aided by
coin-flipping cohort George Raft, but his — extremely possessive
— heart belongs to sister Ann Dvorak. ““THE ERA'S MOST NOTORIOUS GANGSTER FLICK... an outrageously black screwball comedy. Paul Muni chews the scenery to a pulp. Machine guns were invented for this baby which, in addition to some rattlingly good dialogue, features flaming performances by two of the toughest flappers in Depression Hollywood: Dvorak and Morley.” “A BRUTAL CLASSIC. One of my favorite films.” – Martin Scorsese “Has a zest and intimacy that is shocking and gleeful.” – David Thomson
BLOOD MONEY (1933, Rowland Brown) Bail bondsman George Bancroft dallies
with thrill-seeking heiress Frances Dee, despite his longtime
mistress (debuting-Dame-to-be Judith Anderson), but then
finds himself holding the bag after a half-mill bank robbery.
Condemned by censors because it “would incite law-abiding
citizens to crime.” Approx. 65 min. “One of the toughest of all the early underworld movies.” – David Shipman “A BIG MUST SEE! The highly talented and unjustly forgotten director Brown creates a picturesque milieu of petty crime “A déclassé daisy-chain hard-boiled beyond belief and almost kabuki in its economy of means.” – J. Hoberman FEBRUARY 22/23 SUN/MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) (1934, Frank Capra) Following a memorable New York-bound
Greyhound bus ride, only the “walls of Jericho” separate story-hungry
newshound Clark Gable from bratty runaway heiress
Claudette Colbert, in the first picture to sweep the major
Oscars. Approx. 105 min. “Made audiences happy in a way only a few films in each era can do. It was the Annie Hall of its day.” “One of the most important pictures ever made in America.” “Still flawlessly entertaining.” – Janet Mastlin, The New York Times
(1933, Victor Fleming) Jean
Harlow’s Lola Burns — the
infamous If Girl — supports
sponging family, endless
entourage and a major Hollywood studio, while fending off
stop-at-nothing press agent Lee Tracy and romantic con
artist Franchot Tone. Approx. 96 min. “A CINEMATIC TREASURE in its rich mixture of behavioral bawdiness and verbal crackle.” “Excellent satire, rapid, extremely ingenious and not without subtlety. In fact with a little more metaphysics it would make a suitable theme for Pirandello.” “Crackpot farce even by today's standards.” – Leslie Halliwell “One of the fastest and funniest Hollywood pictures ever made.” – Photoplay “For laughter with a frisson, with stabs of reality through the Metro gloss, Bombshell now stands out as a Hollywood landmark.”
FEBRUARY 23 MON (Evening Only) – SPECIAL EVENT! AN EVENING WITH MARNI NIXON Admission: $20, $10 for Film Forum members. FEBRUARY 24 TUE (3 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) (1933, Michael Curtiz) Tycoon Ruth Chatterton runs her auto
company by day and dips into the junior executive pool by
night, until George Brent shows who’s wearing the pants. Approx. 60 min. “A bracing feminist fever dream. Breezily directed with some very sumptuous set design-Depression fantasy of the good life at its most hyperbolic.” “Its first two-thirds are as subversive as a Hollywood movie - “Startlingly bold in its sexual themes.” – Dave Kehr, The New York Times
(1933, Robert Florey) Bohemian
artist Bette Davis shacks up with
Gene Raymond, but after their
“oh, why not?” marriage, things go sour. Daring scenes in a
High Deco boudoir kept censors steaming. Approx. 67 min. “Bette Davis was never more overtly sexy than in this, her first leading role.” “Incredibly progressive for its day. May Robson is wonderfully irascible.” “Fascinating as a rare example of Hollywood tackling the ravages * BANK NITE DRAWING! (6:15 & 7:30 ticketholders only) FEBRUARY 25 WED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) “Angry little man gets his comeuppance: Edward G. Robinson stars as a megalomaniacal mobster who rises to the top and dies in the gutter,
(1931, Mervyn LeRoy) “Mother of Mercy, is this the end
of Rico?” moans Edward G. Robinson at the climax of his
star-making incarnation of an Al Capone type’s rise and fall.
Adapted from the hard-boiled classic by W.R. Burnett.
“A model of gangster-film toughness.” – David Sterritt, The Christian Science Monitor “Still as fast and abrasive as when it was made.” – Peter Waymark “There's no denying the seminal importance of this classic. The parallels with Capone, Tony Gaudio's photography, and LeRoy's totally unrepentant tone ensure that it remains fascinating.” (1932, Mervyn LeRoy) That’s how long it takes Edward G.
Robinson to die once they turn on the juice, with flashbacks
to a drunken marriage, death on the high iron, and murder. Approx. 67 min. “The tautest of Warner Bros. urban melodramas.” – Village Voice “The realities of American life in the Thirties are vividly examined in this bracingly bleak gangster picture.” FEBRUARY 26 THU (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) NO GREATER GLORY (1934, Frank Borzage) Two groups of Budapest boys, imitating
their elders’ hero worship of militarism, go to literal — and
eventually mortal — battle over a lumber yard, in this powerful,
rarely-seen anti-war allegory, adapted from Ferenc (Lilliom/
Carousel) Molnár’s The Boys of Saint Paul. Approx. 74 min. “THIS WEEK'S MUST-SEE! Borzage's most original and personal film... Borzage’s war metaphor becomes extraordinary. (1933, Cecil B. DeMille) A vigilante fantasy — some say an
incitement to fascism — with schoolboys finding new ways to rid
their town of rampant gangsterism, including grilling mobster
Charles Bickford over a pit of rats. Approx. 86 min. “Loaded with that power which excites emotional hysteria... FEBRUARY 27 FRI (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) (1936, Frank Capra) Gary Cooper’s greeting-card-versifying
Vermonter Longfellow Deeds inherits 20 million from
an uncle he’s never known — and then he’s whisked to
Park Avenue before he
knows what hit him. With
Jean Arthur as a cynical
newsgal. Approx. 116 min. “A comedy quite unmatched on the screen.” – Graham Greene “Everywhere the picture goes, from the endearing to the absurd, the accompanying business is carried through with perfect zip and relish.” “Recommended! Why this gem of a comedy isn’t better known is a mystery. “Dunne appears as one of the best comedians of the screen in the best light comedy since Mr. Deeds.” “Irene Dunne at her best.” – Pauline Kael FEBRUARY 28 SAT (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) “Showmanship runs amok in this pairing of two 1933 blockbusters: If 42nd Street was the King Kong of backstage musicals,
(1933, Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack)
“Bring-’em-back-alive” filmmaker Robert
Armstrong, with scream queen (and Film
Forum member) Fay Wray in tow, sets out in search of the
Ultimate Attraction: The Greatest Ape of Them All. Released
the week of FDR’s bank holiday, the Mighty Kong still smashed box office records. Approx. 104 min. “The grand-daddy of all monster movies.” – Total Film “More than a technical achievement, but a curiously touching fable. “Still the quintessential pulp saga, capable of popping eyeballs 70-odd years later (1933, Lloyd Bacon) “A New Deal in Entertainment!”
Landmark paean to “The Deuce,” as running-on-nerves
director Warner Baxter gives the pep talk to understudy Ruby
Keeler after temperamental star Bebe Daniels breaks that
ankle. Three must-be-seen-to-be-believed Busby Berkeley
numbers provide the finale. Approx. 89 min. “Still enchants. Packs all the vulgar vitality that Warner Bros.' pictures exuded back then.” “Everything about the production rings true. It's as authentic to the initiate as the novitiate.” – TIME (1933) “The story has been copied a hundred times since, “Berkeley's wizardry with the camera created some of the screen's most amazing musical numbers to date “Brings the musical back with a great big bang.” – New York American (1933) MARCH 1 SUN (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) “What better way to beat back the lingering effects of depression than to sit back and train your eyes on a musical by Busby Berkeley?!” “Both films came out in the worst year of the Depression, and they have a nerve that simply refuses to be depressed.”
(1933, Mervyn LeRoy) Coin-clad Ginger Rogers warbles "We're In The Money" ("one of Depression-era cinema's most potent and reassuring icons" – Peter Kemp, Senses of Cinema), while Ruby Keeler and Joan Blondell pursue rich admirers Warren William and Dick Powell. The Pre-Code Busby Berkeley musical features the wrenching Depression anthem "Remember My Forgotten Man" "perhaps the most radical, progressive, and outraged number ever put onscreen" – David Thomson) and the downright smutty "Pettin' in the Park" number. “Busby Berkeley's kaleidoscopic choreography is a wonder to behold, to say the least.” “ESSENTIAL VIEWING. Busby Berkely lets loose with some of his best kaleidoscopic routines.” “Sums up what is meant by the phrase 'pure thirties'.” “Berkeley's inventive extremism reaches an epic, operatic pitch.” (1933, Lloyd Bacon) Busbyberkeleython climaxed by three
of his most elaborate numbers: Jimmy Cagney’s high-steppin’
search through the opium dens for “Shanghai
Lil” Ruby Keeler, aquatic ballet “By a Waterfall” (“truly
delirious” – David Thomson), and a stop at the hot and horny
Honeymoon Hotel. Approx. 104 min. “One of Berkeley's most enduring contributions to the art of the musical.” “Busby Berkeley never did anything more splendid.” “A paean to the New Deal. The only Berkeley as lickety-split surefooted in its non-Berkeley sequences (directed by Lloyd Bacon at his most lowdown vigorous) as in its production numbers, “One of the greatest of the Depression era musicals.” “The fastest moving of all musical films.” MARCH 2 MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
(1932, Raoul Walsh) Cop Spencer Tracy’s slanging matches
with hash-slinger Joan Bennett, spiced with a hilarious
parody of O’Neill’s Strange Interlude, are interrupted when
director Walsh’s brother George blasts his way into a bank. Approx. 78 min.
“Brash, lean, and energetically vulgar... the quintessential gum-chewing, fast-talking romance comedy of the period.” “A tangy tale of detectives, gangsters, and love on the Lower East Side. Walsh fills it with a wild assortment of streetwise gestures, Depression-era miseries and wiles, plenty of pre-Code sexual innuendo, and a barrage of hard-boiled slang and sassy retorts. Plenty of the sort of gimcrack antics from the sidewalks of New York that nostalgia was made for!” “A racy combination of comedy and melodrama.” – New York Times (1932) “It is really a portrait of a neighborhood, a lyrical approximation of Lower East Side... an exhilarating poetry about a brash-cocky-exuberant provincial. CENTRAL PARK (1932, John G. Adolfi) Equally
unemployed Joan Blondell and
Wallace Ford “meet cute” over stolen hot dogs, then contend
with crooked cops, a going-blind park policeman, an insane
zoo keeper, an escaped lion, and a shootout during a beauty
contest — in other words, just another day in the park. Approx. 58 min. “Extraordinary. Exhibits Manhattan's largest pleasance as a battlefield of crime and bestiality, a sink of dissipation. “Slick assembly-line merchandise-with a vengeance. Seldom has so much incident been packed into a 57-minute economy-size box. MARCH 3 TUE (3 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) “Blessed with snappy running times and smart camera work, Del Ruth's films bear a perfection that was the secret strength of (1932, Roy Del Ruth) Amid city sounds in lieu of music, cocky Yiddish redndiker cabby Jimmy Cagney can't keep his hands off bride Loretta Young at their wedding supper, then bucks a rival taxi outfit in two-fisted union war. Approx. 69 min.
“As a deese, dem and dose on-the-make example of “Sordid but amusing.” (1932, William Dieterle) Fast-talking William Powell, with ever-loyal
secretary Joan Blondell in tow, moves from schlmiely
Second Ave. mouthpiece to natty Park Ave. assistant D.A. Approx. 72 min. “A fast-paced, snappy little melodrama. Its active libido is resolutely Pre-Code.” (1931, Roy Del Ruth) Hustling bellboy James Cagney moves from gin procurement to the shakedown racket, aided and abetted by Joan Blondell ("The most alluring chambermaid you've ever seen." - Time Out New York). Approx. 79 min. “Cagney demonstrates particular genius for quick witted, fancy-footed, no nonsense characters.” * BANK NITE DRAWING! (5:25 & 6:50 ticketholders only) MARCH 4 WED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) 
COUNSELLOR AT LAW (1933, William Wyler) Posh lawyer John Barrymore finds that,
as his personal and professional crises loom, he can’t escape
his Lower East Side background. Wyler directs this adaptation
of Elmer Rice’s play at vintage 30s breakneck pace. Approx. 82 min. “William Wyler's breakthrough picture. Barrymore gives a bravura performance.” “One of the first cinematic imitations of melting-pot politics and anti-Semitic snobbery.” “One of Barrymore's best performances, and William Wyler's direction of this brisk comedy-drama is exemplary.” “Incisive and compelling.” (1932, Elliott Nugent & James Flood) Assistant D.A. Warren
William, devastated by his railroading of an innocent man,
decides to go for the buck as a gangland front man, with
dazzling success. Approx. 86 min. “One of the most immoral of these many moral tales.” MARCH 5 THU (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) “THE TAWDRY AND THE TAWDRIER! Lonely rich guy Warren William spells doom for Ginger Rogers's nice young stripteaser; Boris Karloff's sleazy nightspot provides a venue for betrayal, murder, and assorted drunken antics, not to mention a lascivious Busby Berkeley dance number.” (1934, Roy Del Ruth) Double trouble for millionaire Warren
William: beating two murder raps, and choosing between
friendly chorus girl Ginger Rogers and neglectful wife Mary
Astor. Based on a story by Ben Hecht. Approx. 73 min.
“Pre-code and post-Depression with a vengeance!” “American Tragedy in reverse. 
NIGHT WORLD (1932, Hobart Henley)
Grand Hotel in a seedy
night club, complete with
Busby Berkeley number,
as boozing playboy Lew Ayres and dancer Mae Clarke
(Cagney’s grapefruit recipient) are befriended by surprisingly
sympathetic owner Boris Karloff. “Pre-code and post-Depression with a vengeance! “A symphonic arrangement of songs and snatches of human experience.”
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Special thanks to Mike Mashon, Rob Stone (Library of Congress ); Jared Sapolin, Grover Crisp, Helena Brissenden (Sony Pictures); Marilee Womack (Warner Bros.); Paul Ginsburg, Bob O’Neil (NBC Universal); Todd Wiener (UCLA Film & Television Archive); Caitlin Robertson, Schawn Belston (20th Century Fox); Mary Tallungan, Scott Kelly (The Walt Disney Company); Anne Morra, Mary Keene (Museum of Modern Art); J. Hoberman; Greg Ford; Clive Hirschhorn; and Rick Scheckman.
“IF YOU ONLY DO 1 THING THIS WEEK… Brother, can you spare a dime for this WONDERFUL LOOK BACK AT DEPRESSION-ERA FILMS?!
This timely series collects the most anxious and zany cinema of the 1930s! WATCH AND LEARN.”
MAN’S CASTLE 
(1933, 
AMERICAN MADNESS 
OUR DAILY BREAD
STAND UP AND CHEER
EMPLOYEES’ ENTRANCE
SKYSCRAPER SOULS
PLATINUM BLONDE 
THREE-CORNERED MOON
HEROES FOR SALE
WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD
MY MAN GODFREY
EASY LIVING
BABY FACE 
BLESSED EVENT
GABRIEL OVER THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
MERRY-GO-ROUND
NIGHT NURSE
HOLD YOUR MAN
BLACK LEGION
BLACK FURY
HALLELUJAH, I’M A BUM
VITAPHONE VARIETIES OF 2009
DEAD END
THREE ON A MATCH
SCARFACE
IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT
BOMBSHELL
MILLS OF THE GODS 
LITTLE CAESAR
TWO SECONDS
THIS DAY AND AGE
MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN
THEODORA GOES WILD
KING KONG
42ND STREET
GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933
FOOTLIGHT PARADE
ME AND MY GAL
LAWYER MAN
BLONDE CRAZY
THE MOUTHPIECE
UPPERWORLD