Movies at Loew's Jersey

[MCA™]

Sally Kellerman coming to Jersey City Landmark Loew's to talk about her new memoir
Ron Stein/The Jersey Journal
on May 03, 2013 at 10:00 AM, updated May 03, 2013 at 10:11 AM

Sally Kellerman, best known for her Academy Award-nominated turn as Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan in Robert Altman’s 1970 classic black comedy M‚‚A‚‚S‚‚H, released her tell-all memoir, “Read My Lips,” this week.

The actress and singer will be on site at Jersey City’s Landmark Loew’s tonight to sign copies of her book and present a screening of the film that put her on the map.

Born in 1937, Kellerman grew up in the San Fernando Valley outside of Los Angeles.

She knew very early on that she wanted to be an entertainer.

“I came out of the womb singing and acting,” Kellerman said in a telephone interview this week. “My best friend in grammar school wrote a play and let me star in it.”

Kellerman kept mum on revealing too many of the stories and accounts in her book. She promises, however, that there is something for everyone and her fans will enjoy the “juicy” stories she tells in the pages.

“I think there will be things that people will identify with and a reminder that no matter what you go through or how difficult times are, with friends and loved ones, you can make it through everything,” Kellerman said.

Included in the book are her experiences working as a waitress at a Los Angeles coffee house on Sunset Boulevard where she befriended legendary actors like Steve McQueen, Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson.

She also talks about early-career run-ins with actors she worshipped growing up, like Marlon Brando, and what it was like on the set of M‚‚A‚‚S‚‚H, the film that was her star-maker turn.

“It was like going out into the country on a picnic with a genius standing by your side,” Kellerman said of Altman. “It was so much fun.”

The book signing will begin at 7:30 p.m., followed by an on-stage interview. M‚‚A‚‚S‚‚H will be screened around 8:45 p.m.

Admission is $8 for adults and $6 for kids and seniors. Refreshments will be sold in the lobby. For information, call the theater at (201) 798-6055.

[MCA™]

[MCA™]

[Bobblehead]

Read it and weep, with joy!

Loew’s Theatre Hosting Series of Whodunnit Films This Weekend
By Summer Dawn Hortillosa • Jan 23rd, 2013 • Category: Arts, Blog

What on at the Loew’s this weekend? It’s a mystery! Literally.

The Whodunnit fun kicks off Friday, Jan. 25 at 8 pm with a Sherlock Holmes double feature, Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon starring Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce and Lionel Atwill and The Woman in Green, also starring Rathbone in the lead role, with Nigel Bruce and Hillary Brooke. There will also be a rare 1927 short with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s only interview given on film.

Admission for both films is $10 for adults, $7 for seniors and kids. The films may not be suitable for young children.

The mystery continues with Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly on Saturday, Jan. 26 at 6 pm. It will be followed by The Usual Suspects with Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Benicio Del Toro, Kevin Pollak, Stephen Baldwin, Chazz Palminteri and Pete Postlethwaite at 8:20 pm. Admission for each movie is $7 for adults and $5 for seniors and kids.

Also, tonight the Loew’s will host the Jersey City Arts High School concert featuring some of the city’s most talented kids performing both classical and contemporary works. There will also be performances by the Pop Band and Brass Ensemble. The free concert takes place today, Jan. 23, at 6:30 pm.

The Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre is located at 54 Journal Square on Kennedy Boulevard.

[MCA™]

[JCConfidential]

I dropped in on Sunday to see Bus Stop at Loew's Jersey Theater.

This was my first visit to the venue.

I arrived about about fifteen minutes before the advertised curtain time. There was a line of 10-12 people streaming out the door. A bit chilly outside. Brrrt.

We were let into the theater shortly after. Two volunteers were taking tickets at the door. There is a concession stand nearby, with more helpful volunteers. Everyone in the house was very gracious and welcoming. Vibe was very good. It's clear that this is a labor of love for all of those involved. Very positive atmosphere. Ticket was $7.

Shortly after I paid, the folks at the door announced that the show would be starting later than expected because of some delays. Then there was a further announcement that the film would not start at 4:30 -- which was what I had counted on -- but instead a bit later, so that Don Murray could give a pre-show presentation. Uh-oh ... I had planned on being in and out in under 2 hours.

They still hadn't let out the the folks from the previous show, so I amused myself by strolling around the lobby. The interior of the theater lives up to its reputation for splendor. Wow. It's quite faded now, of course, but has been substantially renovated -- you definitely get the sense of just how dazzling this place was in its heyday. Visitors have access to both the ground floor and mezzanine terrace of the lobby and there is a lot to see. You can easily get lost just looking at the details of the place. Still, you get the sense that love is not enough. The Loew's Jersey Theater really needs money -- and a lot of it -- to really restore the place to its former glory.

Eventually, we were let into the hall itself -- again, stunning -- really quite unbelievable. I really enjoyed hearing and watching the organist play as we all filtered into our seats. It looked like there were maybe 100-120 of us in the place. The crowd for the earlier show, which I saw exiting, seemed a bit larger.

Don Murray participated in a 15-minute interview pre-show, where he talked about working on Bus Stop and about working with Marilyn Monroe. Very interesting stuff. Audience was very appreciative.

By the time the movie started, it was already 5:30, though. There was a projector/audio problem about 20 minutes in that caused some groans. I hadn't seen the movie before -- but I thought that just exploring the theater was perhaps more interesting than the film itself, though I did enjoy Don Murray's appearance. I couldn't stay for the whole movie, because it got started so late and I had somewhere else to be at 6:30.

But I enjoyed the experience  -- a really amazing venue. (I'm sure I don't have to tell anyone this.) I will be back.

[LoewsJ]

Sunday, November 18 4:30PM at Loew's Jersey at JSQ

"Bus Stop" Starring Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray, Arthur O'Connell, Betty Field.Directed by Joshua Logan. 1956.96mins. Color

Hosted by Don Murray In Person


Marilyn Monroe was already a huge star by the mid 1950s, known around the world as Hollywood's most luminous sex symbol in movies such as "Gentlemen Prefer Blonds". But many critics dismissed any thought that she was a serious actress, even though she had actually turned in good performances in a number of dramatic roles such as in "Niagara". Monroe desperately wanted to be taken seriously as an actress, and eventually walked out of her contract with 20th Century Fox to study under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York. To woo her back, Fox eventually offered her a good degree of creative control. She took the offer, and for her first "serious" project chose to work on a film version of a hit Broadway play called "Bus Stop". The story seems frothy verging on silly: A fifth-rate female lounge singer who dreams of making it big even as she sings in backwater bars meets a hayseed-type who's never even kissed a girl but decides on the spot that she's his "angel". When he literally tries to kidnap her they both wind up marooned in a roadside diner/bus stop where each eventually learns something about themselves, the other, love and life. What makes this work so wonderfully well is Monroe -- she more than proved how well she could act by playing a clever parody of her screen persona: very sexy but shop-worn, vulnerable but jaded. The critics were impressed. Even the legendarily grumpy Bosley Crowther of The New York Times who wrote "Hold onto your chairs, everybody, and get set for a rattling surprise. Marilyn Monroe has finally proved herself an actress in 'Bus Stop.' She and the picture are swell!" But make no mistake, the movie certainly does not diminish Monroe's image as a sex symbol. Her sexy rendition of "That Old Black Magic," while lit by red flames is one of the spotlight moments in her career. For his part, Don Murray was pitch-perfect in his first film role as the hayseed; he plays a deliberately cartoon-like character with just enough humanity that the audience feels it understands and likes him. Murray was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his work. And though Monroe and Murray playing off each other's characters is the filling that gives this confection its shape and taste, the supporting cast all contribute nice icing on the cake. "Bus Stop" is perhaps the perfect Marilyn Monroe film because it not only displays her luminous physical charms but also her considerable acting talents as well.


$7 for Adults, $5 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

[LoewsJ]

Sunday, November 18 2PM at Loew's Jersey at JSQ  (201) 798-6055  loewsjersey.org

"The Hoodlum Priest"Starring Don Murray, Larry Gates, Cindi Wood, Keir Dullea. Directed by Irvin Kershner. 101mins. 1961
Hosted by Don Murray & Keir Dullea In Person

Don Murray was a young rising star in Hollywood when he was buttonholed by a Catholic priest from St. Louis. After just one sentence Murray was intrigued: "Listen Kid I ain't no square priest." "I was instantly intrigued by the dichotomy," Murray recalled. "He was dressed like a priest, but he spoke like a character out of Guys and Dolls." It turned out that the priest had been doing pioneering work for years to help convicts turn their lives around. He'd opened what was probably the nation's first half-way house for ex-cons, and was struggling for support. The priest had decided he wanted somebody to make a TV show about his work, and Don Murray was to be that somebody. For his part, Murray had been thinking about following the lead of several other Hollywood stars by developing his own independent films. After hearing the priest's story, Murray decided that he'd found his subject. The result is an excellent film with a gritty, real feel that packs a surprisingly effective emotional punch as it tells an unabashed moral tale. The film lays out the general story of the priest, played by Murray, and his work against long odds, but centers the drama around one troubled ex-con played very effectively by Keir Dullea, some eight years before 2001: A Space Odyssey. Great acting from Murray, Dullea and the whole cast was supported by a tight, very effective script co-written by Murray. A young Haskell Wexler, who would go on to become a legendary cinematographer, gave the film a look that belied its small budget. And the direction of Irvin Kershner, better known as the only man to direct a Star Wars film other than George Lucas, was adroit and effective. Making the movie was a herculean task according to Murray, but it won high praise on its premiere, acclaimed by Time and Newsweek among others, and did fairly well at the box office. But some controversy soon developed out of a disagreement between Murray and director Kershner, along with some deliberate bad press from the editor of a St. Loius newspaper who was offended by the production. The film's distributors seemed to back away, and the movie faded from the public's mind. And that's a shame because it is a superb precursor to such big hits as "Dead Man Walking" and "Capote". It's a message movie, but make no mistake you will definitely be entertained even as you reflect. Don't miss the chance to rediscover it.

$7 for Adults, $5 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

[LoewsJ]

Saturday, November 17 8:40PM at Loew's Jersey at JSQ

"Wings" Starring Clara Bow, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Richard Arlen. Directed by William Wellman. 139 mins. 1927 B&W Color.

- - - Winner of the first Academy Award for Best Picture - - -
With LIVE ORGAN Accompaniment

- - - Shown In Paramount Pictures' Archive Print - - -


Actor and author William Wellman, Jr. will introduce "Wings" and hold a Q&A about his father and the making of the film after the movie.

If you think that thrilling air and ground combat scenes can only be found in such relatively “modern” movies as "Top Gun" and "Saving Private Ryan", you have to watch the silent-era "Wings". The plot may now be comfortably familiar because it’s been reused in whole or part in dozens of later war movies: Two young recruits initially can’t stand each other but become fast friends during their training as aviators, only to fall out again over a girl. Each must face fate in the Great War while one earns the selfless dedication of a pretty virtuous army nurse.

But what is still very fresh and truly unique about Wings are the spectacular aerial “dogfight” sequences. Director William Wellman had been a wartime aviator himself and managed to gain the full cooperation of the U.S. War Department. The result was flying scenes that many pilots even today believe are the most thrilling and accurate ever filmed -- nothing has ever come close. And the brilliance of the flying sequences is matched by spectacular ground combat scenes. The movie’s leads gave strong performances which ensured that the plot wasn’t overshadowed by the extraordinary effects and production values. Interestingly the nurse was played very effectively by Clara Bow, the quintessential flapper of the 1920s who may have been a model of Betty Boop and who literally helped coin the phrase “The It Girl”. And Gary Cooper has a small appearance that helped put him on the road to stardom. Today it may be hard to image an epic war movie without booming, precisely mixed explosions, screams and other sound effects. But the late silent-era Wings set the standard for grand-scale war epics without any of our familiar sound effects. What is did have when it premiered however was live organ accompaniment -- which added a dimension equally as vital, moving and thrilling as any recorded soundtrack. And that’s how Wings will be shown at the Loew’s Jersey – with sound provided live by our Wonder Morton Organ.


$9 for Adults, $7 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

[LoewsJ]

"A Matter of Life and Death" Starring David Niven, Kim Hunter, Roger Livesey, Raymond Massey. Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. 104mins. 1946 Color and B&W.

Nov. 17 6PM  at Loew's Jersey, 54 JSQ. (201) 798-6055  loewsjersey.org

- - - Shown In Sony Pictures' Archive Print - - -

"A Matter of Life and Death" (released in the U.S. as “Stairway to Heaven”) is one of the most unusual and complex – not to mention entertaining, touching and ultimately uplifting -- movies to come out of World War II. It is a comedy that often leaves its viewers in tears; a romantic drama that makes audiences laugh; a literate movie with nods to Shakespeare and Schiller that is also so dazzling in its visuals that it requires more than one viewing to absorb fully. It was the first motion picture ever chosen for a Royal Command Performance, yet critics in England panned it, calling it anti-British.

The work of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the writer/director team who spent the years from 1940 to 1955 enthralling movie-goers on both sides of the Atlantic while outraging British officials and movie critics, "A Matter of Life and Death" was inspired by awareness of the deteriorating relations between the British and the Americans as WWII neared its close, a real life account of a Royal Air Force sergeant who had jumped out of a burning plane without a parachute and escaped with only minor injuries, and the deep sense of passion and devotion felt by so many couples separated during the war. The filmmakers wove these threads together into a fantastic screenplay that presented its action against infinitely large and intimately small canvases, often in the same scene.

David Niven is a World War II RAF pilot who is forced to bail out of his crippled plane without a parachute. He wakes up to find that he has landed on Earth utterly unharmed...which wasn't supposed to happen according to the rules of Heaven. But even as a celestial agent is sent to correct this mistake, the pilot has a chance encounter with an American girl, and the two promptly fall in love. And it is this new love that the pilot insists is an extraordinary extenuating circumstance that requires Heaven to reconsider his destiny. Along the way, there are ruminations on friendship, fate, sanity, madness and devotion. The film’s denouement is a celestial trial during which the virtues and vices of the British and American peoples are satirized, culminating in the discovery of a common belief in justice and a recognition of the universal need for love.

All of this could have come off as unredeemably hooky. But thanks to a remarkable script that perfectly balances wry wit with real drama, deft direction, pitch-perfect acting, and those wonderful visuals, it is one of the most charming and memorable films ever made.

$7 for Adults, $5 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

[LoewsJ]

October 27 at 10:40PM

$7 for Adults, $5 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

At the Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre, 54 Journal Sq., JC NJ 07306  Tel: (201) 798-6055.  Web: www.loewsjersey.org.  Directly across for the JSQ PATH Station.  Discount parking in Square Ramp Garage.

"The Sentinel" is being presented with Saturday Nightmares.

"The Sentinel" Starring Chris Sarandon, Cristina Raines, John Carradine. Dir. by Michael Winner. 1977, 91mins, Color. Rated R.     The Sentinel is something of a combination of “Rosemary’s Baby” and “The Exorcist”, and plays on the mix of fear and respect that people (non-adherents in particular) hold for priests and the centuries of arcane rituals of the Catholic Church. New York model Christina Raines' new apartment building is populated by a group of eccentric neighbors (including Burgess Meredith, reminiscent of Ruth Gordon’s nosy character in“Rosemary’s Baby” and John Carradine, wonderful in his late-career camp horror typecasting as a mysterious blind priest) who expend an inordinate amount of effort to draw her into their circle. When it's discovered that they may or may not be figments of her imagination, “The Sentinel's” story takes some nice twists of its own, and ultimately succeeds as a creepy little thriller. The film also boasts an amazing constellation of stars, some established and others still relative unknowns at the time, including Ava Gardner, Jose Ferrer, Martin Balsam, Eli Wallach, Jeff Goldblum, Jerry Orbach and Christopher Walken.   

[LoewsJ]

October 27 at 8:40PM

$7 for Adults, $5 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

At the Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre, 54 Journal Sq., JC NJ 07306  Tel: (201) 798-6055.  Web: www.loewsjersey.org.  Directly across for the JSQ PATH Station.  Discount parking in Square Ramp Garage.

"Horror of Dracula" Starring Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Melissa Stribling. Dir. by Terence Fisher. 1958, 82mins. Color     If Universal defined horror in the black and white era, Hammer Studios redefined it in color. Having had great success with a new, color version of Frankenstein, Hammer turned to the next logical character in the pantheon of movie monsters - Dracula, and produced a film that is far closer to the letter (and spirit) of the Bram Stoker novel than the Bela Lugosi version. The premise finds the infamous count journeying from his native Transylvania to England, where he takes a headfirst plunge into the London nightlife, and begins to rack up victim after victim. In the process, Dracula also runs into his arch-nemesis, Van Helsing, which ignites a battle of wills between the two. Christopher Lee is superb, managing to place himself right next to Lugosi in the public’s mind when imagining Dracula, and Peter Cushing as Van Helsing is equally good. The pacing is brisk, the dialogue sharp. Appropriately atmospheric and dark, even in color, the film notably builds on the hint of sexuality in the Lugosi film and adds touches of humor to update the tale's sometimes staid feel. All told, Horror of Dracula may be the single best movie incarnation of the most famous vampire. With its success, the film launched Hammer Studios and many other movie makers into a new era of horror films.                                             

[Binky]

When are you going to get Lawrence of Arabia in 70MM?

[LoewsJ]

October 27  6PM

Admission For BOTH: $10 for Adults, $7 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

At the Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre, 54 Journal Sq., JC NJ 07306  Tel: (201) 798-6055.  Web: www.loewsjersey.org.  Directly across for the JSQ PATH Station.  Discount parking in Square Ramp Garage.

"Murders in the Rue Morgue" Starring Bela Lugosi, Sydney Fox, Leon Waycoff (Ames). Directed by Robert Florey. 1932, 61mins. B&W.
With "Dracula" Starring Bela Lugosi, Edward Van Sloan, Helen Chandler. Directed by Tod Browning. 1931, 75mins. B&W.    
"Murders in the Rue Morgue" was offered to Robert Florey by Universal as a consolation for having missed the opportunity to direct “Frankenstein”, whereupon he transformed a pedestrian property into a horror classic. Owing more to “Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” than to the Edgar Allen Poe story on which it was based, the film stars Bela Lugosi as Doctor Mirakle, a carnival sideshow entertainer whose prized attraction is a killer gorilla. The good Doctor is obsessed with mixing the gorilla’s blood with that of a woman, and so he kidnaps prostitutes off the Paris streets until he realizes that his experiment needs the blood of a virgin. Lugosi gives one of his finest post-Dracula performances, even as the shadow of being eternally typecast as a mad villain was settling over him. Director Florey keeps the action moving and the audience on their toes. Masterful cinematographer Karl Freund (“Metropolis”,“Dracula”) gives the film an appropriately sinister look – especially at the key murder scenes. “Murders in the Rue Morgue” may not be as famous as “Dracula” or some of the other blockbusters in Universal’s pantheon of horror films, but it is every bit as creepily entertaining. (Look for Arlene Francis, best known to a later generation for her frequent appearances on panel shows, playing one of the prostitutes.)

"I am....Drac-u-la. I bid you velcome." Thus does Bela Lugosi declare his presence in the 1931 screen version of Bram Stoker's “Dracula”,forever associating himself with the role and founding Universal Pictures’dynasty of classic horror. Lugosi’s suave, faded gentry style and unusually cadenced in delivering his lines became the touchstone for many who followed in the role. Lugosi and director Browning also gave the character the hint of sexual carnivore that became part of the Dracula canon (who can forget the lustful gleam in the eyes of Helen Chandler as she succumbs to the will of Dracula?) and which has been made much more of in later versions. Legendary cinematographer Karl Freund added to Lugosi’s masterful incarnation by shining tiny pinpricks of light into his eyes, giving them an eerily penetrating but hypnotic quality. Adding to the film’s lore is Freund’s Expressionist-style cinematography and the wonderfully Gothic sets which created a creepy and foreboding feeling that not only pervades this movie, but would go on to define the horror genre for a generation. There can be little argument that horror in the sound era of the movies was launched by “Dracula”. It remains a timeless classic.                                                                                                                                              

[LoewsJ]

“Goldfinger”  Starring Sean Connery, Gert Fröbe, Honor Blackman. 1964, 117mins, Color

8:30PM on Saturday, Sept. 29 at the Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre, 54 Journal Sq., Jersey City, NJ  (201) 798-6055  loewsjersey.org.  Directly across for the JSQ PATH Station.  Discount parking in Square Ramp Garage.

$7 adults / $5 seniors & kids.  Combo discount with tickets to other films this weekend at the Loew's. 

On our BIG 50ft wide screen.  Plus live organ entrance music.

“Goldfinger” is arguably the most famous, and perhaps best, of all of the Bond films.  While the first two Bond films entrenched many of the series’ signature elements --including globe-trotting locations, salacious credits sequence, Q's exasperation, and 007's phenomenal abilities with women -- “Goldfinger” filled in the rest of the canon: the Aston-Martin and over-the-top gadgets, extravagant sets, “super villain”-style antagonists, and tongue-in-cheek humor that flirts with camp.  It set the tone not only for the rest of the series but also for most of the action/adventure films of the late '60s and early '70s.  Bond has to prevent a notorious gold smuggler, appropriately named Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe), from robbing Fort Knox. Goldfinger is surrounded by evil henchmen such as the sexy female pilot with the ultimate Bond-girl name: Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman) and Oddjob (Harold Sakata), who kills with his steel-rimmed bowler hats. In order to stop Goldfinger, Bond has to survive several perilous situations, including a huge, deadly laser. And of course, Shirley Bassey's "Goldfinger" theme set the mold for the series to commission signature pop theme-songs, some of which like “Goldfinger” became chart toppers. 

[LoewsJ]

“Dr. No”  Starring Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Joseph Wiseman.  Directed by Terence Young.  1962, 111mins, Color

6PM on Saturday, September 29 at the Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre, 54 Journal Sq., Jersey City, NJ  (201) 798-6055  loewsjersey.org.  Directly across for the JSQ PATH Station.  Discount parking in Square Ramp Garage.

$7 adults / $5 seniors & kids.  Combo discount with tickets to other films this weekend at the Loew's.  

On our BIG 50ft wide screen.  Plus live organ entrance music.

Sean Connery sets the standard by which all future takers must measure themselves as the insouciant and devil-may-care James Bond. The story concerns Bond being sent to Jamaica to investigate the murders of a British agent and his secretary. During his investigation, he comes into contact with the evil and unscrupulous scientist Dr. No (Joseph Wiseman) who, living on an island called Crab Key, is scheming to divert rockets fired from Cape Canaveral and blackmail the United States. Helping Bond is Ursula Andress (setting another Bond standard by being mostly undressed in a bikini throughout most of the film), as well as bad gals like Zena Marshall, who almost leads Bond to his death in her bedroom, and Eunice Gayson, a Bond pickup in a London gambling house who proves herself a greater adversary than even James Bond can handle.  Also, look for a pre-“Hawaii Five O” Jack Lord.

[LoewsJ]

“Marnie”  Starring Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery.  Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  1964,  130mins, Color

8pm Sept. 28 at the Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre, 54 Journal Square, Jersey City, NJ  (201) 798-6055  loewsjersey.org

$7 adults / $5 seniors & kids.  Plus live organ entrance music.  Combo discount with tickets to other films this weekend at the Loew's.

On our BIG 50ft wide screen.  Plus live organ entrance music.

Sean Connery made “Marnie” in the same year he made “Goldfinger” – though the two are decidedly different kinds of films.  When it premiered, critics were not kind to “Marnie” – but time has changed that verdict.  Today, it is appreciated as a fascinating, if somewhat lesser known, continuation of Alfred Hitchcock’s signature exploration of the twists, turns and terrors that can lurk in the deep waters of psychological undercurrents.  Tippi Hedren plays Marnie, an attractive woman whose catalogue of “issues” includes the fact that she’s a compulsive thief, can’t stand to be touched by any man, and goes bonkers over the sight of the color red. Her new boss, Sean Connery, has his own “issue”: he is so intrigued – and turned on -- by Marnie that he blackmails her into marriage when he stumbles onto her breaking into his safe. What could seem an unlikely story is instead absorbing thanks to great acting by the stars and supporting cast, a skillful screenplay, and “The Master’s” ability to toss in surprising angles and build suspense through simple but skillful juxtapositions and tight editing.  Even one of the harshest criticisms leveled at the film when it was released – that it was shot entirely on a sound stage and therefore looked tacky and unreal -- now seems to be a clever device that adds to the strange and slightly queasy mood Hitchcock wanted the audience to feel.  The film is also buoyed by Bernard Hermann’s driving musical score (his last for Hitchcock). Among the supporting actors in Mariette are Hartley in her film debut, and Bruce Dern who would go on to build a career largely around playing characters with decided psychological “issues”.  

[LoewsJ]

$7 Adults, $5 Kids & Seniors.

At the Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre, 54 Journal Sq., JC NJ 07306  Tel: (201) 798-6055.  Web: www.loewsjersey.org.  Directly accross for the JSQ PATH Station.  Discount parking in Square Ramp Garage.

June 9 at 8:10PM

Starring  Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Richard Harris.  Directed by Chris Columbus.  2001, 152mins., Color.

It would be hard to imagine a work of fiction that was more popular and influential with young people in the last half century than the Harry Potter series of novels by J.K. Rowling.  And it would be hard to imagine a better cinematic adaptation of a novel, ever, than the Harry Potter movies.  The Sorcerer’s Stone was the first film, and set the very high standard for the movie seriees. Upon his 11th birthday, Harry Potter, who lives in misery with an aunt and uncle that don't want him, learns that he is the orphaned son of powerful wizards. Harry is offered a place at prestigious Hogwarts, a boarding school for wizards that exists in a realm of magic and fantasy outside the dreary existence of normal humans.  Neither Rowlings story not he movie script disappoint when it comes to mining the great potential for fantasy, adventure and fun that this conceit opens up.  Too often, movies that use CGI rely on it to cover up a thin story or slight acting., but that is certainly not the case here.  The cast, especially the young stars, are superb, the script is good, and the eye-popping special effects work to compliment, not overwhelm the good script and superb acting. 

[LoewsJ]

$7 Adults, $5 Kids & Seniors.

At the Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre, 54 Journal Sq., JC NJ 07306  Tel: (201) 798-6055.  Web: www.loewsjersey.org.  Directly accross for the JSQ PATH Station.  Discount parking in Square Ramp Garage.

June 9 at 6PM

Starring Gene Wilder, Jack Albertson, Peter Ostrum.  Directed by Mel Stuart.  1971, 98mins., Color.Gene Wilder

An enigmatic candy maker invites five children and their parents on a tour of his manufacturing plant – a vast, psychedelically fantastic place that’s as much magical funhouse as it is factory.  The tour becomes an adventure, with lessons along the way in everything from parental humility to gluttony to humility.  One of the joys of the movie is the pre-CGI eye-poing sets and special effects. Both dark and sweet, just like chocolate, “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” is a rare cinematic confection that manages to be both dark and sweet a the same time: a great film for kids that’s also a dark, ironic comedy – and a musical to boot!  The movie was not well received when it premiered, but has since become a family classic.  A recent remake has not dimmed the attraction of the original.

[LoewsJ]

$7 Adults, $5 Kids & Seniors.

At the Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre, 54 Journal Sq., JC NJ 07306  Tel: (201) 798-6055.  Web: www.loewsjersey.org.  Directly accross for the JSQ PATH Station.  Discount parking in Square Ramp Garage.

June 8  8PM 

Starring Frankie Sakai, Hiroshi Koizumi, Kyoka Kagawa.  Directed by Ishiro Honda.  1961, 101mins., Color,  Japanese with English subtitles.

Japan is again being stomped by an oversized monster from the fertile imagination of Ishiro Honda and Toho Studios.  This time it’s not a big lizard, but an insect – a moth to be exact.  If “Godzilla” is an allegory to Japan’s being the victim of the first atomic bombs, “Mothra” is a cautionary tale about tampering with other peoples, cultures and nature.  She’s every bit as destructive as her reptilian Toho cousin, though not from a malevolent nature, but rather from her sheer size and power when her environment is thrown out of balance.  But don’t let the green message put you off – there’s a lot of fun here – great action plus some of the most well developed characters in the Toho canon.  And you will never forget the tiny, twin fairies.

[LoewsJ]

Saturday, June 2  8:30pm

Bringing Up Baby (1938, 103mins, B&W)
Starring Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charlie Ruggles, Barry Fitzgerald, May Robson.  Directed by Howard Hawks.

One of the crowning comic achievements in the careers of director Howard Hawks and of stars Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, “Bringing Up Baby” is also the ultimate distillation of the screwball comedy.  The story, such as it is, involves a nerdish paleontologist, an heiress determined to snag him, two leopards, a dinosaur bone and mistaken identity.  But this plot is kind of the comic equivalent to Hitchcock’s “MacGuffin”, the necessary artifice to allow a non-stop parade of inspired gags, incredibly smart and funny wordplay and the pointed if hysterical skewering of the archetypes that screwball comedy so deftly makes fun of: the idle rich, eggheads and officialdom.  All in all, it is simply non-stop fun.  "Bringing Up baby" is truly a comedy for all the ages.

$7 for Adults, $5 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre, 54 Journal Square, Jersey City 07306
(201) 798-6055  www.loewsjersey.org
Right across from the JSQ PATH Station.  Discount parking in Square Ramp Garage behind the Theatre.

[LoewsJ]

Saturday, June 2  6:30pm  

My Man Godfrey (1936, 95mins, B&W)
Starring William Powell, Carole Lombard, Alice Brady, Gail Patrick, Jean Dixon, Eugene Pallette. Directed by Gregory La Cava.

It’s the 99% vs. the 1%, 1930s style – which is to say, stylish and funny with a bite.

In the midst of the Great Depression, a spoiled daughter of a wealthy family wins a prize by bring an unemployed man living at the town dump to a fancy party.  The girl falls in love with the man and impetuously hires him as her family’s butler.  We soon find there’s more to the man than the girl or we suspect, and less to girl’s wealthy family and vapid circle of rich, spoiled friends.  Screwball comedies were born in the Depression and used a unique elixir of slapstick, fast repartee, farce, and discrete (thanks to the then-new Hollywood Production Code) but unmistakable sexual innuendo to help people cope with hard times.  But they also had an edge of decided class consciousness, skewering the idle rich who didn’t even seem to know there was a  Depression.  Few screwball comedies did this more pointedly yet enjoyably than "My Man Godfrey", which boasts one of  legendary Carol Lombard’s greatest performances and William Powell at his debonair, ironic best.
 
$7 for Adults, $5 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre, 54 Journal Square, Jersey City 07306
(201) 798-6055  www.loewsjersey.org
Right across from the JSQ PATH Station.  Discount parking in Square Ramp Garage behind the Theatre.

[LoewsJ]

Friday, June 1, 8pm

The Producers (1968, 90mins, Color)
Starring Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Kenneth Mars and Estelle Winwood. Directed by Mel Brooks.

Down-on-his luck Broadway producer Max Bialystock, played with perfect snake-oil salesman-like pitch by Zero Mostel, takes an offhand comment by his new accountant, played with perfect wide-eyed innocence by Gene Wilder, and turns it into the ultimate ponzi scheme:  the two will over-sell shares in a new musical, make sure the show is a flop that closes on the first night, and keep all the money.  In search of a sure-fire flop, the pair pick a musical about Hitler written by a drunk, unreconstructed Nazi, hire a pompously inept director who also happens to be a transvestite, and cast a thoroughly untalented singer with the initials L.S.D. (it was the ’60, after all) as the star.  Such a show would have to flop -- right?  "The Producers" is filled with some of the funniest dialogue in the entire Mel Brooks' canon, some of the most outrageous musical numbers in film history -- including the immortal production of "Springtime for Hitler” -- and a truly inspired concept that is at once a send up of the old “let’s put on a show” movies and an insightful skewering of show biz.  Interestingly, Brooks doesn’t depend upon the crazed anarchic pacing of a Marx Brothers' film to grab the audience, but instead seems to  purposefully slow the story down so the audience can enjoy the comic repartee. Incredibly, “The Producers” was not well received when it premiered, perhaps because hit Broadway musicals with macabrely dark subjects such as “Sweeny Todd” and “Evita” were still in the future, so the idea of a musical about Hitler probably seemed even more outrageous then than now.  But in the years since, of course, the film inspired a real-life Broadway hit and a re-make, and is generally recognized as one of the funniest movies ever made.

$7 for Adults, $5 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre, 54 Journal Square, Jersey City 07306
(201) 798-6055  www.loewsjersey.org
Right across from the JSQ PATH Station.  Discount parking in Square Ramp Garage behind the Theatre.

[LoewsJ]

Saturday, April 28  8:25PM
The Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre, 54 Journal Square, Jersey City 07306
(201) 798-6055   www.loewsjersey.org
Right across from the JSQ PATH Station.  Discount parking in Square Ramp Garage behind the Theatre.

"The Poseidon Adventure" Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Red Buttons, Carol Lynley, Roddy McDowall, Stella Stevens, Shelly Winters, Jack Albertson, Pamela Sue Martin, Leslie Nielsen.  Directed by Ronald Neame.  1972, 117 mins., Color

$7 for Adults, $5 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

40th Anniversary Screening is co-sponsored by Cinema Retro Magazine and will use 20th Century Fox's vault print!  Noted film critic Stephen Whitty will host and be joined by David Savage of Cinema Retro, Poseidon expert Chris Poggiali and critic Matt Forke to share info and insights about the movie and its production.

 
The name of the fictional ship may be Poseidon, but producer Irwin Allen certainly knew his movie about a wrecked luxury liner would invoke the public's enduring fascination with the Titanic. After a massive tidal wave capsizes the Poseidon on her last voyage before being scrapped, the survivors divide into two groups: those who stubbornly remain where they are to await the help they are sure will come, and a handful who bravely follow impassioned Reverend Scott (Hackman) in what he believes is their best chance for rescue by forging their way upward through the shattered, upside-down ship, toward what was the bottom of the hull but is now on the ocean's surface. The group meets its share of catastrophic obstacles -- from explosions and flooded passages to their own crippling fear and uncertainty -- as the water rises higher and higher in the sinking ship. Part of what makes the movie so effective is the novelty of seeing people trapped in a world literally turned upside-down, where barber chairs dangle eerily from the ceiling and a giant Christmas tree provides a ladder, of sorts, to climb up to what normally would be a lower deck.  Along for the water-logged trek are a gruff policeman (Ernest Borgnine), his wife - a former hooker (Stella Stevens), a sweet-natured bachelor (Red Buttons), a shell-shocked singer (Carol Lynley), an efficient waiter (Roddy McDowall), a nice old married couple (Jack Albertson & Shelley Winters) and a pair of unflappable kids (Eric Shea & Pamela Sue Martin).  But the film is held together by Hackman, who followed up his Oscar-winning work in "The French Connection" with this committed performance as the maverick priest who repeatedly questions God's authority as he tries to lead his desperate flock to salvation above water. It's an unusual role brought to life by an excellent performance. "The Poseidon Adventure" was one of the first, and arguably the best examples of a signature film genre of the 1970s: the disaster movie. With its (sometimes faded) star-laden casts, out-sized plots, and requisite spectacular explosions, fires, floods and all manner of mayhem, the genre quickly became formulaic - if not at times unintentionally self-parodying.  But the combination of Hackman's great performance, some truly original special effects, and tight direction makes "The Poseidon Adventure" holds up far better than many of the films that followed (pardon the pun) in its wake.  It is still great fun to watch.     

[LoewsJ]

Saturday, April 28 at 6PM

Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre, 54 Journal Square, Jersey City 07306
(201) 798-6055  www.loewsjersey.org
Right across from the JSQ PATH Station.  Discount parking in Square Ramp Garage behind the Theatre.

"A Night To Remember"  Kenneth More, Honor Blackman, David McCallum, Jill Dixon.  Directed by Roy Ward Baker.  1958, 123 mins., B&W, British  
In 35mm on our BIG 50ft wide screen.

Part of Real & Reel Sea Disaster Movies to Remember the Titanic

$7 for Adults, $5 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

The OTHER great Titanic Movie.  Thirty-nine years before James Cameron's opus "Titanic" set box office records, "A Night To Remember" offered movie goers what many still consider to be the definitive film re-creation of the most famous maritime disaster in history. This skillfully executed adaptation of Walter Lord's bestseller may not have the overt romance of Cameron's blockbuster, but it is just as moving and offers a more contemplative and complete portrayal of how and why the tragedy occurred.  In a grim but not morbid approach, the film lays out the human side of the tragedy, offering an emotionally potent look at the relative handful who survived and the many who did not, while it also clearly depicts the reasons, technical and human, behind the shipwreck.  Kenneth More heads a huge and stellar cast, with 200 speaking parts, as the Second Officer from whose point-of-view the story unfolds.  For anyone even slightly interested in the real life tragedy that was the Titanic, "A Night To Remember" is an essential companion to Cameron's film.