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The Last Run
Tuesday, November 17 | 1:00 pm
Tuesday Matinees
1971/color/100 min./Panavision | Scr: Alan Sharp; dir: Richard Fleischer; w/ George C. Scott, Tony Musante, Trish Van Devere, Colleen Dewhurst.
An aging gangster insists on pulling one more job for the mob.
The Man Who Knew Too Much
Friday, November 20 | 7:30 pm
Hitchcock: The British Thrillers
1934/b&w/75 min. | Scr: Edwin Greenwood, A.R. Rawlinson, Charles Bennett, D.B. Wyndham Lewis; dir: Alfred Hitchcock; w/ Peter Lorre, Leslie Banks, Edna Best
While on holiday in Saint Moritz, the teenage daughter of a British couple is kidnapped by members of a terrorist group and spirited off to London. The couple’s desperate attempts to locate their child while preventing the assassination of a foreign dignitary leads to a tense shootout in Albert Hall. With his popping eyes and baleful stare, Peter Lorre—whom Hitchcock nicknamed “the Walking Overcoat,” a reference to Lorre’s character in Lang’s M—infuses his character with an aura of perfect villainy. “A small, tightly woven film which includes a generous portion of Hitchcockian humor and a more than adequate amount of suspense…A smashing financial and critical success, the film has garnered unanimous praise as one of the best British films and best thrillers ever.”—Richard A. Harris, Michael S. Lasky, The Complete Films of Alfred Hitchcock.
Murder!
Friday, November 20 | 9:00 pm
Hitchcock: The British Thrillers
1930/b&w/92 min. | Scr: Alfred Hitchcock, Alma Reville, Walter C. Mycroft; dir: Alfred Hitchcock; w/ Herbert Marshall, Norah Baring
Seductive, intelligent Herbert Marshall is a juror bent on proving that a young actress accused of killing her friend is innocent of the crime and proceeds to retrace the police’s investigation on his own. Under the influence of German cinema’s rich expressionistic stylizations, Hitchcock offers a London closer in spirit to Murnau’s Berlin. “[The film] has not only withstood the test of time, but it is one of his most successful—or, at any rate, one of the best films of his English period.”—Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol.
Sabotage
Saturday, November 21 | 7:30 pm
Hitchcock: The British Thrillers
1936/b&w/76 min. | Scr: Charles Bennett, Jesse Lasky, Ian Hay, Helen Simpson, E.V.H. Emmett; dir: Alfred Hitchcock; w/ Sylvia Sydney, Oscar Homolka.
In this adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s novel The Secret Agent, a movie theater manager’s wife suspects her husband, Homolka, may be involved with a gang of anarchists plotting to destroy London. Two of the film’s most celebrated sequences, a murder scene played in silence, and the journey of a teenage boy who unknowingly carries a time bomb across the English capital on a bus, are among the best of Hitchcock’s career. “Ripe for reevaluation as the masterpiece of Alfred Hitchcock's British period.”—Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader.
Secret Agent
Saturday, November 21 | 9:00 pm
Hitchcock: The British Thrillers
1936/b&w/86 min. | Scr: Alma Reville, Charles Bennett, Ian Hay, Jesse Lasky, Campbell Dixon; dir: Alfred Hitchcock; w/ John Gielgud, Peter Lorre, Madeleine Carroll, Robert Young
In this adaptation of Somerset Maugham’s Ashenden, set during World War I, a novelist and undercover intelligence agent (Gielgud) travels to Switzerland where he is joined by the flirtatious Carroll posing as his wife, and trigger-happy, scene-stealing Lorre (“Me touchy all I vant!”). His mission: to eliminate a spy whose identify he does not know. “I said to myself, ‘What do they have in Switzerland? They have milk chocolate, the Alps, village dances, and lakes… (so) we used lakes for drownings, the Alps to have characters fall into crevasses, and a chocolate factory for the chase.’”—Alfred Hitchcock.
Knights of the Round Table
Tuesday, November 24 | 1:00 pm
Tuesday Matinees
1953/color/116 min./Scope | Scr: Talbot Jennings, Jan Lustig, Noel Langley; dir: Richard Thorpe; w/ Ava Gardner, Robert Taylor, Mel Ferrer.
King Arthur establishes the greatest reign England has ever seen, and along for the ride are his indispensable Knights of the Round Table.
View the film's trailer here.
The 39 Steps
Friday, November 27 | 7:30 pm
Hitchcock: The British Thrillers
1935/b&w/87 min. | Scr: Charles Bennet, Alma Reville, Ian Hay; dir: Alfred Hitchcock; w/ Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll
This civilized thriller follows the escapades of Donat, a secret service agent who is implicated in a murder. Police and members of an occult spy ring relentlessly pursue him across the Scottish moors as he tries to clear himself by finding the real killers. The film builds to one of Hitchcock’s finest climaxes: a music hall where “Mr. Memory” answers riddles on stage while the heavies stalk Donat through the audience. “Hitchcock rates The 39 Steps as one of his favorite films. He feels that its tempo is perfect. There is no dead footage, and the audience’s absorption in the web of intrigue creates the impression of extremely fast pace. Hitchcock once commented, ‘What I liked were the sudden switches and the jumping from one situation to another with such rapidity. Donat leaping out of the window of the police station with half a handcuff on, and immediately walking into a Salvation Army Hall... ‘Thank God you’ve come, Mr. so-and-so,’ they say and put him on a platform. Then a girl comes along with two men and takes him by car to the police station, but it’s not really to the police station…. The rapidity of the switches, that’s the great thing about it.”—Richard A. Harris, Michael S. Lasky, The Complete Films of Alfred Hitchcock.
Number 17
Friday, November 27 | 9:10 pm
Hitchcock: The British Thrillers
1932/b&w/62 min. | Scr: Alfred Hitchcock, Alma Reville, Rodney Ackland; dir: Alfred Hitchcock; w/ Leon M. Lion, Anne Grey
An old dark house where a rogue’s gallery of baddies gathers is the starting point for a rapid flow of dramatic entrances, mysterious strangers, impersonations, reverses and reveals. Along the way we discover a handcuffed corpse, a stolen necklace, a prowling detective and a female crook who falls for him. At the climax, as a train hurtles through a station en route to destiny, Hitchcock cuts to a close-up of a wooden sign that reads: “Stop Here for Dainty Teas!” Hitchcock’s seventeenth feature film is “deliriously and irresistibly comic… a charming film to the extent that it shows us a grownup child playing with his favorite toys.”—Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol.
The Lady Vanishes
Saturday, November 28 | 7:30 pm
Hitchcock: The British Thrillers
1938/b&w/96 min. | Scr: Sidney Gilliat, Frank Launder; dir: Alfred Hitchcock; w/ Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Dame May Whitty
When dotty old Miss Froy vanishes from a trans-European train that is snowbound in the Balkans, a poor musician and a beautiful heiress team up to uncover a nest of spies while falling in love. The final and snappiest of Hitchcock’s British thrillers, it blends wit, invention, suspense and charm in a way that only Graham Greene has matched on the printed page. "Some of the finest examples of Hitchcock's touches . . . directed with such skill and velocity that it has come to represent the quintessence of screen suspense."—Pauline Kael.
Young and Innocent
Saturday, November 28 | 9:15 pm
Hitchcock: The British Thrillers
1937/b&w/82 min. | Scr: Charles Bennett, Edwin Greenwood, Anthony Armstrong, Gerald Savoury, Alma Reville; dir: Alfred Hitchcock; w/ Nova Pilbeam, Derrick De Marney
A young man, accused of murder, is pursued by the police as he and his lovely companion search the Cornish countryside for the real killer. The chase is played out against the gentle charm of the rural surroundings, but as the couple's panic mounts and terror lurks at every turn, the seemingly serene landscape grows ugly and threatening. "This underrated thriller… takes a common plot, a young man wrongly accused of murder who tries to discover the real murderer, and adds a great script, great acting, and of course great directing by the master of suspense himself."—Britmovie.
Program Notes
Friday and Saturday screenings begin at 7:30 pm unless otherwise noted. There is a ten-minute intermission between features on a double bill. All programs are subject to change. Films are in 35mm unless otherwise indicated. Foreign-language films are subtitled in English. Many films are unrated and may not be appropriate for younger viewers. If a film is listed as "sold out," a standby line will form one hour before the screening. Any cancellations or seats that become available will go to people waiting in this line. Please note that there is no guarantee that everyone in the standby line will be accommodated.
The Leo S. Bing Theater is equipped with a DTS digital sound system courtesy of Universal Pictures, an SDDS digital sound system courtesy of Sony Cinema Products, and Dolby digital sound.
The 2009–2010 film program is made possible by the generosity of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and Time Warner Cable, in partnership with Ovation TV.
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Ticket Prices
$10 general admission.
$7 museum members, seniors (62+), students with valid ID.
$5 second film only of a double-feature; no advance purchase.
$2 Tuesday matinees.
$1 Tuesday matinees, seniors (62+).
Where to Buy
Buy tickets at the museum box office (tel. 323 857-6010) or online. Many programs sell out so try to purchase in advance.
Included
Your film ticket covers both films in a double bill, except where noted, and includes entrance to the museum galleries as well.
Film Department
Tel. 323 857-6177
Ian Birnie, Director
Bernardo Rondeau, Program Coordinator
Pauline Posner, Volunteer
If you would like to subscribe to the Film Department’s e-mail newsletter, please send a message to film@lacma.org.
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