3 Classic Films - scores by Bernard Herrmann June 10, 2011

Remembering the Legendary Composer Bernard Herrmann on His Centenary with

3 Great Scores in 3 Great Movies

At The Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre
54 Journal Square, Jersey City, NJ 07306
Tel. (201) 798-6055 Fax: (201) 798-4020 Web: www.loewsjersey.org

A Not-For-Profit Arts Center in a Landmark Movie Palace

All Titles Screened in 35mm
On our BIG 50ft Wide Screen

Friday, June 10 8PM
The Original Cape Fear Starring Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, Polly Bergen. Directed by J. Lee Thompson. 1962, 106mins, B&W
The original Cape Fear is a movie that etches a place in your memory, in large part due to Robert Mitchum, who plays a convicted rapist, just out of prison, who sets out methodically and ruthlessly to exact vengeance on Gregory Peck, the prosecutor who put him away, and on Peck’s wife and daughter. Mitchum, of course, was as an actor who was as at home playing the heavy as the hero. But in Cape Fear, he created one of the screen’s most devastatingly AND believably menacing characters by radiating a sickeningly false amiability. He is, simply put, evil incarnate. Peck, playing the straight-laced hero as usual, is the perfect counter-point in what becomes a psychotic game of cat and mouse, and his growing frustration and terror at his utter helplessness -- both legally and physically -- to head off what Mitchum is so relentlessly doing is devastatingly palpable. The supporting cast is excellent. And Bernard Herrmann’s haunting score is pitch-perfect.
$7 for Adults, $5 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

Saturday, June 11 6PM
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad Starring Kerwin Mathews, Kathryn Grant, Richard Eyer & Torin Thatcher. Special Effects by Ray Harryhausen. Directed by Nathan Juran. 1958 94mins color
In the era of CGI, we tend to take for granted the seamless integration of fantastic monsters, flying objects and all manner of special effects into live action movies. But some of the most visually stunning and unforgettable scenes mixing live action and special effects were made long before the digital era, using stop motion photography --small clay models posed, photographed, re-posed and re-photographed over and over again to give the impression of movement. If Ray Harryhausen didn’t invent this technique, he certainly perfected it -- giving his stop motion creations an uncanny sense of really being alive -- and creating photographic techniques that seamlessly merged the stop motion footage with film of human actors into one scene. And beyond the high technical quality of Harryhausens’s work, there was an indefinable magic to his alchemic mix that inspired a far more deeply felt sense of fantasy and wonder than even today’s technically perfect computer creations can muster. One of Harryhausen’s best works, and his first in color, is The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, an Arabian Night-inspired tale of Sinbad as he sails the seas, forms an uneasy alliance with an evil magician and battles a Cyclops, a two-headed Roc and a magically resurrected skeleton. Other memorable effects include the genie Berani and the interior of his magic lamp, the Princess Parisa being shrunk to the size of a Barbie Doll, and the servant woman who is turned into a dancing half-woman, half-snake. The action starts right away and continues throughout the film, and Bernard Herrmann’s score is the perfect companion, adding mood that enhances the visual effects. Herrmann went on to score three more Harryhausen films in a collaboration that was equal in success to that of his famous work with Alfred Hitchcock. The 7th Voyage of Sinbad is one of the few movies that truly allows adults to suspend disbelief and enjoy it, no matter how often they’ve seen it before, with the thrill of undiluted wonder – just as kids who see it for the first time do. Its magic is timeless.
$7 for Adults, $5 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

Saturday, June 11 8:10PM
The Man Who Knew Too Much Starring James Stewart & Doris Day. Directed by Alfred Hitchock. 1956, 120mins, Color
The idea of an ordinary man finding himself caught in a web of intrigue and deceit of which he has no knowledge and seemingly little hope of understanding or escaping is a kind of delirium nightmare that touches upon fears that are instinctive to us all -- a modern life projection of the primal terror of sinking into quicksand. Perhaps not surprisingly, it was a theme to which The Master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, returned time and again with unfailing success. And in this case, Hitchcock returned to the same story. He had made the original “The Man Who Knew Too Much” in Britain in 1934. For this version, big American stars James Stewart and Doris Day headlined, the script was expanded by 45 minutes, color replaced black and white, and a magnificent score by frequent Hitchcock collaborator Bernard Herrmann was added (in a Hitchcock-like turn, Herrmann has a cameo in the film, playing the conductor of a symphony). But the basic story remains the same: American tourists Stewart and Day witness the killing of a Frenchman they've recently befriended. Just before dying, the man whispers a secret to Stewart (the Cinemascope lens turns this standard close-up into a truly grotesque vignette): a political assassination will occur during a concert at London's Albert Hall. But Stewart soon finds out that he dare not go to the police, because foreign agents have kidnapped his son to insure his silence. Stewart, as usual, is terrific. And Hitchcock was in wonderful form, stacking the thriller deck with incredible skill and aplomb, and coming up with a stunning 12-minute climax that is played without a single word of dialogue. Like all of The Master’s best work, this film is engrossing, intriguing, and captivating, and has many surprises even on repeated viewings.
$7 for Adults, $5 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

- - - Combo discounts available for multiple screenings in a weekend. - - -

**Film descriptions are compiled from various sources.

The Loew's Is Easy To Get To: The Loew's Jersey Theatre, at 54 Journal Square, Jersey City, NJ, is directly across JFK Boulevard from the JSQ PATH Center with trains to and from Lower and Midtown Manhattan and Newark's Penn Station, and is minutes from the NJ Turnpike, Rts 3 and 1&9 and the Holland & Lincoln Tunnels. We're easy to reach by car or mass transit from throughout the Metro Region.

Discount off-street parking is available in Square Ramp Garage adjoining the Loew's at the foot of Magnolia Avenue off of Tonnelle Avenue, behind the Loew's. Patrons must validate their parking ticket before leaving the Theatre.

What’s Special About Seeing A Movie At The Loew’s? The Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre is one of America’s grandest surviving Movie Palaces. We show movies the way they were meant to be seen: in a grandly ornate setting – on our BIG 50 ft wide screen! The Loew’s runs reel-to-reel -- not platter -- projection, which often allows us to screen an archival or studio vault print that is the best available copy of a movie title.

PLUS – Live organ entrance music (from the Loew’s magnificently restored pipe organ) before most screenings.

The Loew’s Jersey is managed by Friends of the Loew’s, Inc. as a non-profit, multi-discipline performing arts center.

Classic Film Weekends are presented by Friends of the Loew’s, Inc.

The Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre receives support from the City of Jersey City, Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy and the Municipal Council, and the Hudson County Open Space Trust Fund, administered by the Hudson County Division of Planning, Thomas A. DeGise, County Executive, and the Board of Chosen Freeholders.

Official Website: http://www.loewsjersey.org