<<< January 16 - 18, 2009 >>>

Join us for our mini-retrospective saluting the underrated maestro of westerns and all things adventuresome and actionful, John Sturges (THE GREAT ESCAPE). We’ll be screening THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, THE LAW AND JAKE WADE, GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL, HOUR OF THE GUN, BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK, plus author Glenn Lovell will be signing copies of his new Sturges biography Escape Artist.

Friday, January 16 – 7:30 PM

New 35mm Print!

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, 1960, MGM Repertory, 128 min. An excellent, Americanized version of Akira Kurosawa’s classic THE SEVEN SAMURAI, helmed by noted action auteur John Sturges (THE GREAT ESCAPE), with charismatic Steve McQueen making his first star turn alongside Yul Brynner, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter and Horst Buchholz as seven gunmen hired to safeguard a Mexican farm village from marauding bandit chieftain Eli Wallach. With an instantly memorable Elmer Bernstein score that inspired everything from future westerns to cigarette commercials (!) for decades. Enormously influential on the oncoming rush of spaghetti westerns that were still to come. "…emerges as not only ludicrously enjoyable entertainment but also a superior and thoughtful character study… Blessed with such a charismatic cast, bristling with chemistry, the film elevates beyond simple Good-versus-Evil ciphers, allowing Sturges to consolidate themes of male bonding and alienation into teeming drama… Sturges crafts an exciting adventure with lasting stature." – Danny Graydon, BBCiFilms (U.K.) Trailer | More Author Glenn Lovell will be signing copies of his new Sturges biography Escape Artist starting at 6:30 PM preceding the screening.

GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL, 1957, Paramount, 122 min. The famous quote from John Ford’s THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE, "When the legend becomes truth, print the legend," applies not only to Ford’s own version of the Earp-Holliday-Clanton Tombstone saga (MY DARLING CLEMENTINE), but to this go-round at the tale by director John Sturges. One can quibble about Wyatt Earp (Burt Lancaster) inexplicably not having his famous moustache or about the accuracy of events with Earp’s mortal enemies, the Clanton family, but the film is so ferociously entertaining, one can forgive the fudging of historical fact. Kirk Douglas gives one of his most dynamite performances as the tragic, hot-tempered Doc Holliday, dying of tuberculosis and constantly at odds with his paramour Kate (Jo Van Fleet, in another great bit of casting). More familiar faces pop up in appropriate roles, with Rhonda Fleming, John Ireland as Johnny Ringo, Dennis Hopper as Billy Clanton, DeForest Kelley as Morgan Earp, plus Lyle Bettger, Earl Holliman, Ted de Corsia and Kenneth Tobey as Bat Masterson. Blink and you’ll miss Lee Van Cleef in a small bit. Frankie Laine sings the instantly memorable title song.

HOUR OF THE GUN, 1967, MGM Repertory, 100 min. Exactly 10 years after the O.K. CORRAL film, director John Sturges revisited his take on the Earp-Clanton feud with this excellent, much harder-edged western. Events related are much closer to what supposedly transpired, although the final showdown between Earp (James Garner) and Ike Clanton (Robert Ryan) is still somewhat of a stretch. Garner makes a great Earp, a man hardened by the world around him and his inability to protect his family from outlaws. Jason Robards has just the right sardonically fatalistic temperament to make a perfect Doc Holliday, though he is older than Holliday was at the time. Edward Anhalt wrote the gritty screenplay, and Lucien Ballard did the stark, sun-parched cinematography. Albert Salmi, Charles Aidman, Steve Ihnat, William Windom, Lonny Chapman, Larry Gates, Jon Voight (in one of his earliest roles) and Frank Converse offer superb support. Author Glenn Lovell will be sign copies of his new Sturges biography Escape Artist starting at 6:30 PM preceding the screening. More | Trailer

Sunday, January 18 – 7:30 PM

Double Feature:

BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK, 1955, Warner Bros., 81 min. Set in a mythical backwater desert town post-WWII, the film follows one-armed tough guy Spencer Tracy as he tries to find out what happened to his Japanese-American friend. He stumbles onto a secret some would kill to keep. De facto town leader and full-time racist bully Robert Ryan and his thuggish pals, Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine, are out to stop Tracy in this stunning suspense-action classic from director John Sturges and screenwriter Millard Kaufman (RAINTREE COUNTRY). Co-starring Anne Francis, Walter Brennan, Dean Jagger and John Ericson. More | Trailer

THE LAW AND JAKE WADE, 1958, Warner Bros., 86 min. Dir. John Sturges. Ex-outlaw-turned-lawman Jake Wade (Robert Taylor) secretly breaks his old partner in crime, Clint (Richard Widmark) out of jail to even the score from a past obligation. But Clint is less than grateful, kidnapping Jake’s girl (Patricia Owens) to get Jake to lead him and his gang (including deliciously psychotic Henry Silva) to hidden loot from the pair’s last larcenous collaboration. The showdown finale in a very realistic ghost town is atmospheric and suspenseful. The solid script is by William Bowers, who penned western classic, THE GUNFIGHTER, as well as such noir thrillers as SPLIT SECOND and CRY DANGER. More