Heritage House Arts & Civic Center continues its screening series — The (Third Thursday) Classic Film Series. The series is a unique program that brings some of the finest films from the Golden Age of Hollywood, the Silent Era, and the Hollywood Renaissance of the 1960s and 70s to the Chattanooga area. There will be a series of 12 films, one a month, at 2 and 7 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month starting in April. The films will be shown upstairs in the studio space of Heritage House Arts & Civic Center on Jenkins Road, just off East Brainerd Road in Heritage Park. This offering, now in its fifth year, will showcase some of the most well-regarded films ever produced as well as expose viewers to some overlooked gems they might have missed, said officials.
Heritage House series curator Kris Jones said, “We want to expand the variety of films being screened in our city, promote appreciation of classic titles, and build community by bringing movie lovers together to view films that have a deep emotional resonance with audiences.”
Mr. Jones says this year's selection of films is a nice mix of screwball comedies, dramas, historical epics and thrillers — moving stories driven by larger-than-life stars, unforgettable stories, memorable characters, and dazzling cinematography and production design. Each film provides an opportunity to bring our community together, relive the ‘golden age’ of theater moviegoing and bond with our fellow Tennessee Valley film lovers.”
Over the past four years, audiences have seen more than 60 legendary films at Heritage House’s free matinee and evening screenings.
The series will feature 12 films and include free refreshments. “With each film attendees receive a complimentary popcorn as well as a souvenir program,” said Heritage House Director Chris Holley. The essay in the program is written by Heritage House’s own Kris Jones, an arts assistant at the facility, and features original vintage movie poster artwork on the cover.
Each screening will also be introduced by Mr. Jones. “All of the films feature names most moviegoers will instantly recognize,” said Mr. Jones “but every film also has a great story behind it as to the challenges of its production and the way it was originally received by audiences.”
The Classic Film Series is a program of the Chattanooga Department of Youth & Family Development. Heritage House, an arts and civic center, was founded in 2006 to provide the East Brainerd area a community center with a focus on ‘the arts’ — in all its many and varied forms. The large neo-Georgian mansion in Heritage Park now serves as both a public forum for community gatherings and free arts events as well as a rental space for private events (primarily on weekends.)
Here is the 2017- 2018 Heritage House Classic Film Schedule and their reviews:
April 20 The timeless story of the small-town girl who is discovered by Hollywood is the theme of the original A Star Is Born, starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March.
When a young actress (Gaynor) arrives in Hollywood with hopes of stardom, a chance encounter places her under the wing of older actor Norman Maine (March). Adopting the stage name of Vicki Lester, she co-stars with Norman in a major motion picture, but his success is clearly fading even as her career begins to blossom.
May 18 Shakespeare fans, rejoice! The month of May brings one of the most successful big screen adaptations of The Bard’s work ever mounted — Laurence Olivier’s Henry V. In the midst of the Hundred Years' War, the young King Henry V of England embarks on the conquest of France in 1415. In 1944, during the darkest days of World War II, Laurence Olivier directed and starred in Henry V as a patriotic call to the barricades — a resounding success on both fronts.
June 15 Who’s not in the mood for a good thriller mixed with just a touch of comedy? June brings the return engagement of a Heritage House fave, Charade, starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. Romance and suspense ensue in Paris, as a woman (Hepburn) is pursued by several men who want a payroll fortune which her murdered husband had stolen. But who can she trust? Called by The Guardian, “the greatest Hitchcock film Hitch never made,” Charade features the expert direction of Stanley Donen dazzling performances by James Coburn, George Kennedy and Walter Matthau.
July 20 In honor of the Independence Day holiday, Heritage House takes the side of “the opposition” ;-) to present The Way Ahead. The inspiring story of our British allies at the start of World War II, star David Niven leads a company of seemingly hopeless everymen drawn from all walks of English life. His challenge is to bond them into a cohesive unit during basic training before they are shipped off to North Africa for their first encounter with the vaunted Axis.
Aug. 17 Who can say, “No” to Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper? We didn’t think you could! The heat of August will be put to good use as Heritage House transports moviegoers to Morocco, in director Josef von Sternberg’s exotic predecessor to Casablanca. Cooper plays a Legionnaire soldier stationed in the exotic locale and Dietrich is the showgirl who catches his eye. Adolphe Menjou is the wealthy playboy who throws a wrench in the whole works.
Sept. 21 Screwball comedies have always been a hit with Heritage House audiences, and September’s offering promises to continue the trend. Director Howard Hawks’ His Girl Friday pairs Cary Grant as the hardboiled newspaper editor with his ex-wife (Rosalind Russell), who just happens to be his former ace reporter! Not only does Grant have trouble letting go, but now she’s going to marry some bland insurance salesman! Supreme hijinks ensue.
Oct. 19 October is the traditional season for a bit of gooseflesh, and that requirement will be amply fullfilled by Le Diabolique, directed by ‘The French Hitchock’ — Henri Clouzot. In this classic of French suspense, the cruel and abusive headmaster of a boarding school becomes the target of a murder plot hatched by an unlikely duo -- his meek wife and the mistress he brazenly flaunts.
Nov. 16 Chris Holley, Heritage House Director, came up with the idea of doing something especially memorable for the month of November. “Every November, Heritage House will be providing the turkey!” she now boasts. (No, not real turkey, but turkey of a certain ‘cinema flavor.’) Come see the unintentioned hilarity of Plan 9 From Outer Space — widely regarded as the worst film ever made. (Presented fully restored and on Blu-Ray, of course, and accompanied by a documentary on the ever-so-curious life of director Ed Wood).
Dec. 21 The holidays mark the return of an old friend, The Bishop’s Wife, starring David Niven and Cary Grant. This holiday fave from 1947 tells the story of Bishop Henry Brougham (Niven), who is having troubled finding the funds for the building of a new cathedral. Brougham prays for divine guidance and his plea is seemingly answered by a suave angel named Dudley (Grant); however, Dudley’s counsel isn’t about fund-raising.
Jan. 18 Noted as the first mainstream American feature film to focus on the issue of drug addition as the central theme, The Man With the Golden Arm helped build the reputation of Otto Preminger as a director not shy about tackling controversial issues. This milestone film pulls no punches, portraying heroin addiction in stark, dramatic terms and setting the standard against which most later films about drugs would be compared. Frank Sinatra, his singing career temporarily in eclipse, delivers a masterful performance, earning him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor of 1955.
Feb. 15 Pioneering African-American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux, the first great black film director, was the most prolific ‘indie’ during the early days of Hollywood. Micheaux’s Within Our Gates is a 1920 American silent film that portrays the contemporary racial situation in the United States during the early twentieth century. These turbulent years were marked by Jim Crow legislation, the revival of the Ku Klux Klan, the Great Migration of blacks to cities of the North & Midwest, and the emergence of the “New Negro,” as well as the “race film” — motion pictures created specifically for minority audiences and shown in designated theaters or at particular showtimes.
March 15 The Fritz Lang noir classic Scarlet Street tells the story of Chris Cross, a cuckholded husband and frustrated artist who is made the target of a young couple’s embezzling scheme. The film reunites the Lang stock company of Edgar G. Robinson, Joan Bennett and Dan Duryea from The Woman in the Window and was originally banned upon its release in February of 1946 due to its dark, sordid plot and themes. In 2008 the film was nominated for AFI’s “Top 10 Gangster Films of All Time.”
"It's a big win for the city. And it's a chance for the community to see some truly unforgettable films that spotlight the early masterworks of known directors and actors," said Mr. Jones. "The Heritage House is a city-run nonprofit, so the payoff in an event like this is getting a chance to connect with other film people in the community. For film-lovers, this is definitely one of those gotta-be-there events."
The Classic Film Series is Chattanooga’s only regular screening of classic films, providing the Chattanooga community with a big screen experience of historically significant films. The Heritage House hopes to connect audiences with international and classic cinema, and by doing so encourage discussions about the films and their subjects as well as the technical aspects of film making.