July Free Night Film Series

 

July 3: Ace in the Hole (1951) (Approved)

Starring: Kirk Douglas & Jan Sterling

Ex-New York reporter Charles Tatum (Kirk Douglas) lands a job on a Albuquerque newspaper in hopes that a sensational story will return him to the big time. When a man is trapped in an Indian cave, Tatum conspires with an unscrupulous sheriff to keep him there until the story can build to national proportions, which it does.

 

July 10:

Fanny & Alexander (Sweden) (1982) (R)

Starring: Kristina Adolphson & Borge Ahlstedt

Ingmar Bergman drew upon memories of his own childhood for this portrait of the Ekdahls, the upper-class Swedish family whose celebrations and tribulations are seen through the eyes of 10-year-old Alexander.  The world of the theater, of puppet shows and magic lanterns, does battle in this scenario with the cold realities of the palace of the bishop--a man whose influence over Alexander’s mother gives the movie the stark outlines of a fairy tale.

 

July 17:

An American in Paris (1951) (Approved)

Starring: Gene Kelly & Leslie Caron

Jerry Mulligan, a struggling American painter in Paris, is “discovered” by an influential heiress with an interest in more than Jerry’s art. Jerry in turn falls for Lise, a young French girl already engaged to a cabaret singer. Jerry jokes, sings and dances with his best friend, an acerbic would-be concert pianist, while romantic complications abound.

 

July 24:

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) (PG)

Starring: Graham Chapman & John Cleese

This comedy from the Monty Python Troupe has been called the funniest movie of all time.  The movie starts out with Arthur, King of the Britons, looking for knights to sit with him at Camelot. He finds many knights including Sir Galahad the pure, Sir Lancelot the brave, the quiet Sir Bedevere, and Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-as-Sir Lancelot.  They find Camelot, but after literally a quick song and dance they decide that they do not want to go there. While walking away, God (who seems to be grumpy) come to them from a cloud and tells them to find the Holy Grail.  Throughout their search they meet interesting characters along the way.

 

July 31: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) (NR)

Starring: Elizabeth Taylor & Paul Newman

Wealthy Mississippi plantation owner Big Daddy Pollitt, unaware that he’s dying of cancer and disturbed by the strained and childless marriage of his favored alcoholic son Brick and his other son, Gooper, whose wife is about to bring forth another in the endless line of little “no-neck monsters,” celebrates his sixty-fifth birthday with his family. Brick’s wife, Maggie, beautiful and desirable, tries unsuccessfully to coax her husband away from the bottle, while alternately enticing him and taunting him about his obsession with his deceased best friend and the guilt about their relationship. The seamy tensions reach a climax when the truth of Big Daddy’s health is revealed, and he and Brick manage to resolve their differences.