The Phantom Tollbooth
Tuesday, July 8 | 1:00 pm
Tuesday Matinee
1970/color/90 min. | Scr: Chuck Jones, Sam Rosen; dir: Chuck Jones, Abe Levitow; w/ Butch Patrick, Mel Blanc

A bored boy enters a fantasy world where letters and numbers are at war.

Love Affair
Friday, July 11 | 7:30 pm
The Discreet Charm of Charles Boyer
1939/b&w/87 min. | Scr: Delmer Daves, Donald Ogden Stewart; dir: Leo McCarey; w/ Charles Boyer, Irene Dunne

This classic tale of a shipboard romance that ends when the lovers fail to rendezvous at the top of the Empire State Building is beautifully played by both Boyer and Dunne, shrouded in atmosphere by master cinematographer Rudolph Maté, and sensitively directed by McCarey, who years later remade the film as An Affair to Remember.

Hold Back the Dawn
Friday, July 11 | 9:10 pm
The Discreet Charm of Charles Boyer
1941/b&w/116 min. | Scr: Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder; dir: Mitchell Leisen; w/ Charles Boyer, Olivia de Havilland, Paulette Goddard

As the down-and-out gigolo stuck in a Mexican border town, Boyer employs his trademark charm in a calculated effort to marry naive school teacher de Havilland and gain entry to the United States. Nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actress.

Lilliom
Saturday, July 12 | 7:30 pm
The Discreet Charm of Charles Boyer
1934/b&w/118 min. | Scr: Robert Liebmann; dir: Fritz Lang; w/ Charles Boyer, Madeleine Ozeray

At the age of thirty-five, Boyer confirmed his status as a romantic lead with a dark side by taking on the role of Liliom, a carnival barker who is shot during a robbery and who is allowed to return to earth for one day to make amends to his wife and child. Fritz Lang's adaptation of a play by Ferenc Molnár is the German director's only film in French, and features a great early score by Franz Waxman (Rebecca, A Place in the Sun). New print courtesy Fox Archive

A Woman's Vengeance
Saturday, July 12 | 9:40 pm
The Discreet Charm of Charles Boyer
1948/b&w/96 min. | Scr: Aldous Huxley; dir: Zoltan Korda; w/ Charles Boyer; Ann Blyth, Jessica Tandy, Cedric Hardwicke 

The anguish of unrequited love is the real subject of this taut courtroom drama about a dislikable British squire (Boyer) sentenced to hang for the murder of his sickly wife. A wonderful film with a marvelous cast and a brilliantly written screenplay by LSD guru Aldous Huxley.

Northwest Passage
Tuesday, July 15 | 1:00 pm
Tuesday Matinee
1940/color/126 min. | Scr: Laurence Stallings, Talbot Jennings; dir: King Vidor; w/ Spencer Tracy, Robert Young, Walter Brennan

True story of Rogers' Rangers and their fight to open up new frontiers for colonial America.

History is Made at Night
Friday, July 18 | 7:30 pm
The Discreet Charm of Charles Boyer
1937/b&w/97 min. | Scr: Gene Towne, Graham Baker; dir: Frank Borzage; w/ Charles Boyer; Jean Arthur

In this gossamer-light romantic drama, a wealthy American woman (Arthur) falls in love with a charming Parisian headwaiter (Boyer), only to be thwarted by her insanely jealous husband. "A profound expression of Borzage's commitment to love over probability."—Andrew Sarris.

Gaslight
Friday, July 18 | 9:20 pm
The Discreet Charm of Charles Boyer
1944/b&w/114 min. | Scr: John Van Druten, Walter Reisch, John L. Balderston; dir: George Cukor; w/ Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, Angela Lansbury

Cukor called this gothic chiller about a greedy Victorian husband trying to drive his wife insane in a gaslit London mansion "a movie in the best movie tradition … the scenario seems to move up and down and around." Among the film's seven Oscar nominations were Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Actress, which Bergman won.  

Le Bonheur
Saturday, July 19 | 7:30 pm
The Discreet Charm of Charles Boyer
1934/b&w/98 min. | Scr: Michel Duran, Marcel L'Herbier; dir: L'Herbier; w/ Charles Boyer; Gaby Morlay, Michel Simon

Boyer is superb as an educated anarchist who attempts to kill a music hall chanteuse (Morlay) whose repertoire includes "Le Bonheur," a.k.a. "Happiness." For his crime he is given eighteen months' jail time and on his release discovers that his story will be turned into a movie. An enigmatic and complex film from one of the prominent figures of the French avant-garde of the 1920s, featuring a comic turn by Michel Simon, as a limp-wristed art director, and an early appearance of Jean Marais. Print courtesy the Bureau du cinema, Paris.

The First Legion
Saturday, July 19 | 9:20 pm
The Discreet Charm of Charles Boyer
1951/b&w/86 min.  | Scr: Emmet Lavery; dir: Douglas Sirk; w/ Charles Boyer, William Demarest, Barbara Rush 

Boyer gives one of his best performances as the head of a Jesuit seminary and a former lawyer who questions the miracle that occurs when a crippled priest suddenly rises from his bed and walks.

Yolanda and the Thief
Tuesday, July 22 | 1:00 pm
Tuesday Matinee
1945/color/109 min. | Scr: Irving Brecher; dir: Vincente Minnelli; w/ Fred Astaire, Lucille Bremer, Frank Morgan, Mildred Natwick

A con man poses as a Latin American heiress's guardian angel.

Cluny Brown
Friday, July 25 | 7:30 pm
The Discreet Charm of Charles Boyer
1945/b&w/100 min. | Scr: Samuel Hoffenstein, Elizabeth Reinhardt; dir: Ernst Lubitsch; w/ Charles Boyer, Jennifer Jones

The last film with the fabled "Lubitsch touch" is a bubbly satire-romance, set in pre-World War II England, that pairs Czech writer-refugee Boyer with plumber's daughter Jones, the maid at the genteel country manor where he is staying. Lubitsch takes shots at the insular upper-class British world of gardening, tea parties and gossip, until Jones and Boyer upset the apple cart and bring some spirit into the household.

The Happy Time
Friday, July 25 | 9:20 pm
The Discreet Charm of Charles Boyer
1952/b&w/92 min. | Scr: Earl Felton; dir: Richard Fleischer; w/ Charles Boyer, Louis Jordan, Marsha Hunt

This fine film version of a stage hit portrays a warm, fun-loving, French-Canadian family living in Ottawa and captures the coming of age of the innocent twelve-year-old boy Bibi. In one of his favorite films, Boyer plays the boy's father, a kindly man who sees his son through his first romantic crisis. Richard Fleischer directs with elan.

The Earrings of Madame de…
Saturday, July 26 | 7:30 pm
The Discreet Charm of Charles Boyer
1953/b&w/105 min. | Scr: Marcel Achard, Max Ophüls, Annette Wademant; dir: Max Ophüls; w/ Charles Boyer, Danielle Darrieux, Vittorio De Sica

As the earrings of Madame de… travel a circuitous route from one owner to the next, an entire world comes to life—the world of the French aristocracy during the Belle Èpoque, particularly the interior world shared by Madame de..., her proud husband, and her soft, charming lover. Ophüls' masterpiece, easily one of the greatest films ever made, has all the trappings of romantic cinema, but its fluid camera takes us beyond the film's glittering surfaces ("only superficially superficial," as Boyer so aptly puts it) to the raw feelings surging beneath-and ultimately into the spiritually redemptive territory of grand passion. Darrieux, Boyer and de Sica did their greatest work in this towering film. "The Earrings of Madame de… glitters and dazzles… The film is famous for its elaborate camera movements, its graceful style, its sets, its costumes and of course, its jewelry. We sit in admiration of Ophüls' visual display, so fluid and intricate. Then to our surprise we find ourselves caring. His films are one of the great pleasures of the cinema."—Roger Ebert.

Conquest
Saturday, July 26 | 9:25 pm
The Discreet Charm of Charles Boyer
1937/b&w/113 min. | Scr: Samuel Hoffenstein, Salka Viertel, S. N. Behrman; dir: Clarence Brown; w/ Charles Boyer, Greta Garbo

Politics trumps love in the on-again, off-again affair between Napoleon Bonaparte and Polish countess Marie Walewska, who bears him a son he never knew. For his uncanny portrayal of Napoleon, Boyer received an Oscar nomination, becoming Garbo's first co-star to steal her thunder.

The Happy Years
Tuesday, July 29 | 1:00 pm
Tuesday Matinee
1950/color/110 min. | Scr: Harry Ruskin; dir: William A. Wellman; w/ Dean Stockwell, Darryl Hickman, Scotty Beckett

The taming of an unruly pupil at a turn-of-the-century American school.

Divorce Italian Style
Friday, August 1 | 7:30 pm
Two Comedies by Pietro Germi
1961/b&w/104 min. | Scr: Ennio De Concini, Pietro Germi, Alfredo Giannetti; dir: Germi; w/ Marcello Mastroianni, Daniela Rocca, Stefania Sandrelli

Baron Ferdinando Cefalù longs to marry his nubile young cousin Angela, but one obstacle stands in his way: his fatuous and fawning wife, Rosalia. A hilarious and cutting satire of Sicilian male-chauvinist culture, the film won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1962. "One of the greatest films about Sicily. Ferdinando remains one of the great icons of my movie-going memory. Has some of the richest, most beautiful black and white photography ever put on film and, sensual atmosphere, where lust and passion become almost aromatic. Very inventive, it really moves, as few films do, with deftness and the driest, most cutting wit... It's a film that truly haunts me. As funny as it is, the emotions that Germi was dealing with were primal, savage, and most disturbingly of all, eternal."—Martin Scorsese.

Seduced and Abandoned
Friday, August 1 | 9:30 pm
Two Comedies by Pietro Germi
1964/b&w/117 min. | Scr: Pietro Germi, Luciano Vincenzoni; dir: Germi; w/ Stefania Sandrelli, Saro Urzi, Aldo Puglisi.

Shotgun weddings, kidnapping, attempted murder, emergency dental work—the things Don Vincenzo will do to restore his family's honor! Germi's follow-up to his international sensation Divorce Italian Style skewers Sicilian social customs and pompous patriarchies with a sly, devilish grin. "Maliciously funny … in a crowded, cartoonish style that suggests the work of Preston Sturges."—Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader.

Divorce Italian Style
Saturday, August 2 | 7:30 pm
Two Comedies by Pietro Germi
1961/b&w/104 min. | Scr: Ennio De Concini, Pietro Germi, Alfredo Giannetti; dir: Germi; w/ Marcello Mastroianni, Daniela Rocca, Stefania Sandrelli

Baron Ferdinando Cefalù longs to marry his nubile young cousin Angela, but one obstacle stands in his way: his fatuous and fawning wife, Rosalia. A hilarious and cutting satire of Sicilian male-chauvinist culture, the film won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1962. "One of the greatest films about Sicily. Ferdinando remains one of the great icons of my movie-going memory. Has some of the richest, most beautiful black and white photography ever put on film and, sensual atmosphere, where lust and passion become almost aromatic. Very inventive, it really moves, as few films do, with deftness and the driest, most cutting wit... It's a film that truly haunts me. As funny as it is, the emotions that Germi was dealing with were primal, savage, and most disturbingly of all, eternal."—Martin Scorsese.

Seduced and Abandoned
Saturday, August 2 | 9:30 pm
Two Comedies by Pietro Germi
1964/b&w/117 min. | Scr: Pietro Germi, Luciano Vincenzoni; dir: Germi; w/ Stefania Sandrelli, Saro Urzi, Aldo Puglisi.

Shotgun weddings, kidnapping, attempted murder, emergency dental work—the things Don Vincenzo will do to restore his family's honor! Germi's follow-up to his international sensation Divorce Italian Style skewers Sicilian social customs and pompous patriarchies with a sly, devilish grin. "Maliciously funny … in a crowded, cartoonish style that suggests the work of Preston Sturges."—Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader.

Clash by Night
Tuesday, August 5 | 1:00 pm
Tuesday Matinee
1952/b&w/105 min. | Scr: Alfred Hayes; dir: Fritz Lang; w/ Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas, Robert Ryan, Marilyn Monroe

In a northern fishing village, jealousy and near tragedy are occasioned by the return home of a girl hardened by the big city.

Pushover
Friday, August 8 | 7:30 pm
Richard Quine at Columbia
1954/b&w/88 min. | Scr: Roy Huggins; dir: Richard Quine; w/ Fred MacMurray, Kim Novak

This moody film noir features a vulnerable Novak as a bank robber's girlfriend who falls for a corrupt cop.

Drive a Crooked Road
Friday, August 8 | 9:10 pm
Richard Quine at Columbia
1954/b&w/83 min. | Scr: Blake Edwards, Richard Quine; dir: Quine; w/ Mickey Rooney, Dianne Foster, Kevin McCarthy

A lonely mechanic with dreams of racing car fame is lured into driving a getaway vehicle in this intelligent and ingenious thriller.

Strangers When We Meet
Saturday, August 9 | 7:30 pm
Richard Quine at Columbia
1960/color//117 min./ Panavision | Scr: Evan Hunter; dir: Richard Quine; w/ Kim Novak, Kirk Douglas, Ernie Kovacs, Walter Matthau

A married architect constructing an ultramodern Bel Air house embarks on a secret affair with a beautiful suburban mother.

The Solid Gold Cadillac
Saturday, August 9 | 9:40 pm
Richard Quine at Columbia
1956/b&w and color/100 min. | Scr: Abe Burrows; dir: Richard Quine; w/ Judy Holliday, Paul Douglas

Holliday shines as a dizzy blonde who own ten shares of stock in a major company in this satire based on a hit Broadway play.

Presenting Lily Mars
Tuesday, August 12 | 1:00 pm
Tuesday Matinee
1943/b&w/106 min. | Scr: Richard Connell, Gladys Lehman; dir: Norman Taurog; w/ Judy Garland, Van Heflin, Fay Bainter

A small-town girl fights for her big chance on Broadway.

My Sister Eileen
Friday, August 15 | 7:30 pm
Richard Quine at Columbia
1955/color/108 min./CinemaScope | Scr: Blake Edwards, Richard Quine; dir: Richard Quine; w/ Janet Leigh, Jack Lemmon, Betty Garrett, Robert Fosse.

This original musical about two Ohio sisters living in Greenwich Village features clever choreography by Bob Fosse. Leigh called the shoot "a six-month labor of love … no one wanted it to end."

Bell, Book and Candle
Friday, August 15 | 9:30 pm
Richard Quine at Columbia
1959/color/106 min. | Scr: Daniel Taradash; dir: Richard Quine; w/ Kim Novak, James Stewart, Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs

James Wong Howe's color cinematography reveals a "magical" Big Apple in this fanciful tale of a beautiful witch who owns a Manhattan art shop. Lemmon is hysterical as a jazz-loving warlock.

Operation Mad Ball
Saturday, August 16 | 7:30 pm
Richard Quine at Columbia
1957/b&w/105 min. | Scr: Arthur Carter, Jed Harris, Blake Edwards; dir: Richard Quine; w/ Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs, Mickey Rooney

Lemmon is an Army private who organizes a "mad ball" to bring the enlisted men together with the nurses—who are officers—in this uninhibited farce that Pauline Kael called "one of the funniest films of its period."

The Notorious Landlady
Saturday, August 16 | 9:30 pm
Richard Quine at Columbia
1962/b&w/123 min. | Scr: Blake Edwards, Larry Gelbart; dir: Richard Quine; w/ Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon, Fred Astaire

As a woman suspected of murdering her husband, Novak is ravishing in this clever romantic comedy-mystery, her final film with Quine.

The Invisible Boy
Tuesday, August 19 | 1:00 pm
Tuesday Matinee
1957/b&w/90 min. | Scr: Cyril Hume; dir: Herman Hoffman; w/ Richard Eyer, Philip Abbott, Diane Brewster

A scientist allows his ten-year-old son to repair a robot, which then comes under the control of an alien force.

Robin and the Seven Hoods
Tuesday, August 26 | 1:00 pm
Tuesday Matinee
1964/color/123 min./Panavision | Scr: David R. Schwartz; dir: Gordon Douglas; w/ Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Bing Crosby, Peter Falk, Barbara Rush, Edward G. Robinson  

A Chicago gangster stumbles into philanthropic work during a gang war in 1920s Chicago.

$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
Lee Marcuse, Volunteer
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.