Featured, Home, Theatre News

AT&T Performing Arts Center & Dallas Film Society Announce Sunset Screenings – Spring 2015 Line-up

The nonprofit AT&T Performing Arts Center and the Dallas Film Society announced today their fourth season and continued collaboration for Sunset Screenings on The Shannon and Ted Skokos Pavilion at the Center’s outdoor venue, Annette Strauss Square, which was recently named “Dallas’ Best Outdoor Venue” in the Dallas Observer.

Beginning this spring, these FREE outdoor movie screenings will feature three award-winning directors and films of the 1940’s. The spring lineup begins on April 26th with the 75th Anniversary celebration of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca.

“The focus on decades and directors took Sunset Screenings to a new level,” said Doug Curtis president and CEO of the AT&T Performing Arts Center. “More and more people are enjoying classic films under the stars in the Dallas Arts District, so we’re excited to continue working with the Dallas Film Society to offer this free experience to North Texans.”

Sunset Screenings is presented by the Dallas Observer.

The FREE outdoor screenings at Strauss Square provide an opportunity for the public to relax in a spectacular downtown venue in the Dallas Arts District while enjoying a movie.

Admission to Sunset Screenings is FREE. RSVP is encouraged, but not required, at www.attpac.org/sunset. Chairs are available at the front of the venue in addition to lawn seating. Chairs are first come first served.

NOTE: Patrons enjoying Sunset Screenings at Strauss Square will be able to bring their own food and drinks, including alcoholic beverages. Soft-sided coolers and picnic baskets up to 16” X 16” will be allowed. Sammons Park Porch will be open for concessions, including alcoholic beverages. However, purchased alcoholic beverages must be consumed in the defined area and may not be transported to the patron’s performance seat.

The scheduled dates and movies for Sunset Screenings are:

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca
8:00 p.m. Sunday, April 26th
130 minutes, Not Rated
(Mystery, Thriller)

Rebecca is a 1940 American psychological thriller-drama film. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, it was his first American project, and his first film produced under contract with David O. Selznick. The film’s screenplay was a version by Joan Harrison and Robert E. Sherwood based on Philip MacDonald and Michael Hogan’s adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel Rebecca. The film was produced by Selznick and stars Laurence Olivier as the brooding aristocratic widower Maxim de Winter, Joan Fontaine as the young woman who becomes his second wife, and Judith Anderson as the stern housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers.

The film is shot in black and white, and is a gothic tale. We never see Maxim de Winter’s first wife, Rebecca, who died before the story starts, but her reputation, and recollections about her, are a constant presence to Maxim, his new young second wife, and the housekeeper Danvers.

The film won two Academy Awards, Outstanding Production and Cinematography, out of a total 11 nominations. Olivier, Fontaine and Anderson were all Oscar nominated for their respective roles. However, since 1936 (when awards for actors in supporting roles were first introduced), Rebecca is the only film that, despite winning Best Picture, received no Academy Award for acting, directing or writing.

Rebecca was the opening film at the 1st Berlin International Film Festival in 1951.

John Huston’s The Maltese Falcon
8:30 p.m. Sunday, May 31st
100 minutes, Not Rated
(Crime, Drama, Film-Noir)

The Maltese Falcon is a 1929 detective novel by Dashiell Hammett, originally serialized in the magazine Black Mask beginning with the September 1929 issue. The story has been adapted several times for the cinema. The main character, Sam Spade, appears in this novel only and in three lesser known short stories, yet is widely cited as the crystallizing figure in the development of the hard-boiled private detective genre. Raymond Chandler’s character Philip Marlowe, for instance, was strongly influenced by Hammett’s Spade. Spade was a departure from Hammett’s nameless detective, The Continental Op. Sam Spade combined several features of previous detectives, most notably his cold detachment, keen eye for detail, and unflinching determination to achieve his own justice.

In 1998, the Modern Library ranked The Maltese Falcon 56th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

Howard Hawk’s His Girl Friday
8:30 p.m. Sunday, June 21st
92 minutes, Not Rated
(Comedy, Drama, Romance)

His Girl Friday is a 1940 American screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks, from an adaptation by Charles Lederer, Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur of the play The Front Page by Hecht and MacArthur. The major change in this version, introduced by Hawks, is that the role of Hildy Johnson is a woman.
The film stars Cary Grant as Walter Burns and Rosalind Russell as Hildy Johnson and features Ralph Bellamy as Bruce Baldwin.

The film was #19 on American Film Institute’s 100 Years…100 Laughs and has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Due to a failure to renew the copyright registration, the film entered the public domain in 1968; the 1928 play it is based on remains under copyright until 2024.

Walter Burns (Cary Grant) is a hard-boiled editor for The Morning Post who learns his ex-wife and former star reporter, Hildegard “Hildy” Johnson (Rosalind Russell), is about to marry bland insurance man Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy) and settle down to a quiet life as a wife and mother in Albany, New York. Walter determines to sabotage these plans, enticing the reluctant Hildy to cover one last story, the upcoming execution of convicted murderer Earl Williams (John Qualen).

Walter does everything he can to keep Hildy from leaving, including setting Bruce up so he gets arrested over and over again on trumped-up charges. He even kidnaps Hildy’s stern mother-in-law-to-be (Alma Kruger). When Williams escapes from the bumbling sheriff (Gene Lockhart) and practically falls into Hildy’s lap, the lure of a big scoop proves too much for her. She is so consumed with writing the story that she hardly notices as Bruce realizes his cause is hopeless and returns to Albany.
The crooked mayor (Clarence Kolb) and sheriff need the publicity from the execution to keep their jobs in an upcoming election, so when a messenger (Billy Gilbert) brings them a reprieve from the governor, they try to bribe the man to go away and return later, when it will be too late. Walter and Hildy find out in time to save Walter from being arrested for kidnapping.

Afterward, Walter offers to remarry Hildy, promising to take her on the honeymoon they never had in Niagara Falls. But then Walter learns that there is a newsworthy strike in Albany, which is on the way to Niagara Falls by train.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

James McDonald

Originally from Dublin, Ireland, James is a Movie Critic with 40 years of experience in the film industry as an Award-Winning Filmmaker. He is also a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association.