Harold Lloyd can't avoid the crowds on their way to Film Forum for classic-comedy series
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
December 11 – January 5
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org
Film Forum has just the cure for the madness that takes over Manhattan during the holiday season – more than three weeks of classic New York-set comedies that will have you laughing out loud as you make your way through the very same but ridiculously crowded streets and mind-numbing department stores you’ve just seen on film. The series gets going December 11-12 with a Cary Grant double feature, THE AWFUL TRUTH (Leo McCarey, 1937) and HOLIDAY (George Cukor, 1938), and includes such other twofers as Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in ADAM’S RIB (George Cukor, 1949) and WOMAN OF THE YEAR (George Stevens, 1942), William Powell starring as THE THIN MAN (W. S. Van Dyke, 1934) and MY MAN GODFREY (Gregory La Cava, 1936), and the holiday duo of MIRACLE ON 34th STREET (George Seaton, 1947) and CHRISTMAS IN JULY (Preston Sturges, 1940). If you like your humor with a little more edge, you can try THE KING OF COMEDY (Martin Scorsese, 1983), the inspired pairing of THE PRODUCERS (Mel Brooks, 1968) and BROADWAY DANNY ROSE (Woody Allen, 1984), a New year’s Eve party with THE APARTMENT (Billy Wilder, 1960) and BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S (Blake Edwards, 1961), or the underrated LITTLE MURDERS (Alan Arkin, 1971) screening with the overrated WHERE’S POPPA? (Carl Reiner, 1970). Other films feature Buster Keaton, Marilyn Monroe, Joel McCrea, Barbara Stanwyck, Jimmy Stewart, Jean Arthur, and Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Be ready to laugh your ass off – you know you need it.
Humphrey Bogart stars in Nicholas Ray’s powerful, intense film about a cynical Hollywood screenwriter with a violent side. Dixon Steele (Bogart, in one of his strongest performances) is asked to write a screenplay based on a pulpy romance he has little interest in, so he brings home a coat-check girl who has read the book so she can tell him the story. The girl turns up dead, and Steele, known for his drunken forays and abuse of women, is the main suspect. Aspiring star Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame), who has recently moved into the same Beverly Hills apartment complex, supplies an alibi for Steele, but she might have ulterior motives for doing so. Ray’s moody, introspective gem keeps you guessing until the very end. This special screening, introduced by Ken Brown, is part of the Rubin Museum’s weekly Friday-night film series, which is currently focusing on the exhibit “The Red Book of C. J. Jung,” is in the gallery space right outside the downstairs theater. (All of the museum’s galleries are open for free after 7:00.) Upcoming screenings in this series include Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’ECLISSE on January 8, David Lynch’s BLUE VELVET on January 15, and Hiroshi Teshigahara’s THE FACE OF ANOTHER on January 22.
Sure, to some people holiday movies mean IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, MIRACLE ON 34th STREET, and A CHRISTMAS CAROL, but for us it’s the one and only HEBREW HAMMER. Adam Goldberg (SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, A BEAUTIFUL MIND) stars in this riotous low-budget laugh-fest that is as hysterically politically incorrect as possible. Goldberg is Mordechai Jefferson Carver, a “circumcised dick” who is hired by the Jewish Justice League, headed by Bloomenbergensteinthal (Peter Coyote), to save Chanukah, which Damian Claus (Andy Dick), Santa’s evil spawn, wants to destroy forever. The Semitic Stud gets help from Mohammad Ali Paula Abdul Rahim (Mario Van Peebles), head of the Kwanzaa Liberation Front, and Bloomenbergensteinthal’s sexy daughter, Esther (Judy Greer), who is a “nice piece of tuchus.” This is one funny self-described Jewxploitation flick that will bring knowing chuckles and guffaws to anyone who has ever attended Hebrew school or has an overbearing mother.
When local official Tange Tanzen (Raizo Ichikawa) comes upon a battle between two schools of sword fighting, including his own, he chooses not to get involved as rogue samurai Yasubei Nakayama (Shintaro Katsu) displays his discipline’s superiority by killing several members of Tange’s school. After Tange is expelled from his school for turning his back on his brothers, Yasubei is expelled from his as well as an act of honor and enmity. Soon the two ronin are helping each other while also falling in love with the same woman, Chiharu (Chitose Maki). But blood and betrayal await them as they set off on new paths that continue to cross. Inspired by the classic story of the 47 Ronin, SAMURAI VENDETTA is an entertaining period piece despite its overt cheesiness, especially the fight scenes shot on a bridge with a ridiculously fake sunset in the background. Although there’s not nearly enough sword play – there are long periods of sentimental melodrama – the finale in the snow is a doozy. The screening will be followed by a reception and book signing with Chris D., author of OUTLAW MASTERS OF JAPANESE FILM.