On February 27, Gary Meyer, impresario of San Francisco’s beloved Balboa Theater in San Francisco, outdid himself. He staged the theater’s 67th Birthday Bash in the afternoon, and had a first-ever Oscar telecast complete with costume contests in the evening.
Published: April, 2005
On February 27, Gary Meyer, impresario of San Francisco’s beloved Balboa Theater in San Francisco, outdid himself. He staged the theater’s 67th Birthday Bash in the afternoon, and had a first-ever Oscar telecast complete with costume contests in the evening.
Gary is becoming justly famous for his innovative programming in this well-loved neighborhood theater (can we believe our eyes: two first-run pictures as a double feature!). Coming up for April and May is a truly amazing array for special events with movie stars (in person) and movies made about, and in, San Francisco.
Bullitt
Sat.-Sun., April 16-17
Before Dirty Harry, there was Lt. Frank Bullitt. Steve McQueen’s laconic loner is known as much for his sexy turtleneck and sports car as for his savvy police work. Incredible location shots of ’60s San Francisco frame one of the most famous car chases of all time, in which Potrero Hill is just around the corner from Fisherman’s Wharf. (1968)
(1:00), 5:00, 9:00 Nathaniel
Rich (author San Francisco
Noir) at Sun. 9pm show
Point Blank
Lee Marvin’s tour de force as the ultimate doomed hero Walker, who is betrayed, shot, and left for dead by his wife and best friend, transforms this revenge thriller into an existential quest that leads from San
Francisco to LA with the lovely Angie Dickinson in tow. The script, based on a Donald Westlake novel, was originally all set in San Francisco, but director John Boorman felt the city was too beautiful for the cold, dark
picture he had in mind. (1967)
(3:10), 7:10
Psych-Out
Sat., April 16
It’s 1968 and 17-year-old deaf runaway Susan Strasberg comes to summer-of-love Haight-Ashbury looking for her brother, Bruce Dern. Hippies Jack Nicholson, DeanStockwell, and Max Julien turn her onto the psychedelic lifestyle in this AIP wonder directed by Richard Rush and produced by (!) Dick Clark. (1968)
Late Show 11:15pm
1906 San Francisco
Earthquake Anniversary
Mon.-Tues., April 18-19
Gambling halls, nightclubs, ambitious showgirls, Nob Hill socialites, and a doozy of an earthquake, all the elements of early 20th century San Francisco are limned in this Anita Loos-scripted romance. Clark
Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, and Spencer Tracy are a few of the plucky denizens whose spirits can’t be crushed by a mere 8.6 temblor. And, of course, there’s that fabulous song! (1936)
(2:35), 7:00 James Dallesandro (author 1906) introduces Monday 7pm show.
Follow The Fleet
Sailors Fred Astaire and Randolph Scott are on shore leave in San Francisco where they head off to the Paradise (same name as the club in San Francisco) to romance sisters Ginger Rogers and Harriet Hilliard. The exquisite Irving Berlin score includes Let’s Face the Music and Dance, and Let Yourself Go. (1936)
(12:25), 4:50, 9:15
Joy Luck Club
Wed., April 20
San Francisco-filmmaker Wayne Wang turned San Francisco-author Amy Tan’s deeply moving novel into an equally moving film. The story is of four friends, immigrants from pre-revolutionary China, and their American-born daughters, their hopes and dreams and generational conflicts. (1993)
(4:00), 8:40 Author Amy Tan
in person at 8:40pm show.
Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner
Stanley Kramer’s social message film was pretty controversial in the late ’60s when interracial romance was still shocking. Patrician San Franciscans Matt and Joanna Drayton (Spencer Tracy and Katharine
Hepburn in their last screen appearance together) must cope when their daughter’s fiancé turns out to be Sidney Poitier. (1967)
(2:00), 6:30
The Conversation
Thurs.-Fri., April 21-22
Gene Hackman is surveillance expert Harry Caul in this masterpiece of paranoia. Director Francis Coppola’s brilliant script is at once an affecting character study and a psychological thriller, as genius sound
man Walter Murch’s sound montage gets under the skin. A time capsule look at San Francisco in the early ’70s when mimes roamed the streets. (1974)
(2:45), 7:00 Walter Murch introduces 7pm show (subject to schedule)
Petulia
This artifact of San Francisco in the swinging ’60s stars the luscious Julie Christie as a quixotic socialite who pursues and beds recently divorced George C. Scott. And what would ’60s San Francisco be
without the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company? Directed by Richard Lester. (1968)
(12:40), 4:55, 9:15
Amarilly Of Clothes-Line Alley (1918)
Sun., April 24
America’s sweetheart, Mary Pickford, plays Amarilly, a cigarette girl from one of San Francisco’s working-class neighborhoods who falls for a swell who frequents her bar. Plus two classic silent shorts set
in San Francisco, Charlie Chaplin’s In The Park and Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle’s Fatty And Mabel At The World’s Fair (that’s the 1915 Panama-PacificExposition).
11:30am only (separate admission)
The Maltese Falcon
Sat.-Sun., April 23-24
John Huston’s directorial debut based on Dashiell Hammett’s novel is considered by some the first film noir. Certainly Humphrey Bogart’s hardboiled Sam Spade (“when you’re slapped, you’ll take it and like it.”) set the standard for all film detectives that followed. The extraordinary cast includes Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre. (1941)
(1:30),5:10,8:55
The Maltese Falcon
(aka Dangerous Female)
Ricardo Cortez’s Sam Spade is, shall we say, a little more of a morally ambiguous character than Bogey’s. This pre-Code gem doesn’t mince words! Sam beds every dame that crosses his path. (1931) (3:30), 7:00 Noir City’s Eddie Muller and author Joe Gores (Hammett) introduce Sat. evening shows.
Out of the Past
Mon.-Tues., April 26-26
Jacques Tourneur’s quintessential noir stars Robert Mitchum as the poor sap who can’t outrun his past in the persons of gangster Kirk Douglas and fatale Jane Greer. The streets of San Francisco have never seemed more sinister. (1947)
(2:55), 7:00
Sudden Fear
Wealthy playwright Joan Crawford lives in a San Francisco mansion (2800 Scott Street to be exact), marries her young lover, Jack Palance, and is set to live happily ever after. Until Gloria Grahame shows
up, that is. (1952)
(12:45), 4:50, 8:55
Crumb
Wed., April 27
San Francisco director Terry Zwigoff’s remarkable documentary about Robert Crumb is an intimate portrait of the artist critic Robert Hughes calls “the Breughel of the 20th Century.”A darkly funny, haunting film about the prodigiously talented, sex-obsessed Crumb; his troubled family; and our culture. (1994)
(1:05), 4:50, 8:30 Director
Terry Zwigoff in person at 8:30
Lenny Bruce: Performance Film
Director John Magnuson caught the great Lenny Bruce in his next-to-last appearance at San Francisco’s Basin Street West before his untimely death. A fascinating document, this is a rare look at Bruce, an artist persecuted for being ahead of his time. (1967)
(3:25), 7:10 Director John
Magnuson in person at 7:10
The Sniper
Thurs., April 28
1952 San Francisco is the backdrop for this early treatment of the serial killer theme. Arthur Franz is a tortured sex offender parolee with a high-power rifle and Marie Windsor is his first victim. Adolphe
Menjou (as Lt. Frank Kafka!) is the policeman in charge of stopping the carnage. Directed by Edward Dymtryk.
(3:10), 7:10
Experiment In Terror
A superb use of San Francisco locations and an amazing score by Henry Mancini frame this suspense thriller about a bank teller (Lee Remick) who’s terrorized by extortionist Ross Martin and forced to assist in a robbery. The breathtaking climax takes place at Candlestick Park during a Giants-Dodgers game! Directed by Blake Edwards. (1962)
(12:50), 4:40, 8:50
Harold And Maude
Fri.-Sat., April 29-30
Hal Ashby’s film about an unlikely couple--rich, depressed 20-year-old Harold (Bud Cort) and 79-year-old free spirit Maude (Ruth Gordon)--became an instant cult film upon its release in 1971 and remains a paean to life’s possibilities. Great location work in San Francisco and environs and an enchanting Cat Stevens score. (1971)
(12:00), 3:30, 7:00, 10:30
Play It Again, Sam
One of the early, funny Woody Allen’s is actually directed by Herbert Ross! Allen’s screenplay has mild-mannered film critic (played by Allen) getting romantic advice from the ghost of Humphrey Bogart, his
hero. And, of course, Allen and costar Diane Keaton live in San Francisco. Where else would Bogart’s hardboiled spirit reside? (1972)
(1:45), 5:15, 8:45
Programmed by Gary Meyer, Film Notes by Anita Monga.
