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classics treasures fa n ta s m a FA N TA S T I Q U E
SPONSORS
CARETAKER of the OVERLOOK HOTEL ($450) Jonathan and Gwen Van Ark Marc Wasserman and Craig Anderson
Scott and Pandy Weaver Robert Young Budd and Tina Wilkins
VAMPIRE SLAYER ($150 - $449) CoreyandMatt.com Dylan Crumpler Curtis Greeson Cal Hawks and Mark Thompson Jonathan B. Howell Jeff and Darcy Marlow Jared McEntire and Jessie Whitman Adrienne Lea Meddock Melissa from alternativeXchange Lloyd Mielenz III Shawn D. Moore No Agenda Show
ARMY OF DARKNESS ($50) Lauren Turner
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SPECIAL THANKS
Eric Di Bernardo, Rialto Pictures Chris Chouinard, Park Circus Laura Coxin, Janus Films Paul Ginsburg, Universal Pictures Tiffany Greenwood, Swank Motion Pictures Dave Hansen, 20th Century Fox Christopher Lane, Columbia/Sony Judy Nicaud, Paramount Pictures Leah Rubin, Warner Brothers Eric Weston, Evilspeak Productions
the RETRO SEASON PASS Skip the box office line and save money
Retrofantasma season pass: $45 (6 double features) Retroclassics season pass: $45 (6 double features) Retrotreasures season pass: $45 (6 double features) 309 W Morgan St Durham, NC 27701 919.560.3030 carolinatheatre.org
super double bonus pass: $90 (Fantasma, Classics & fantastique series, 16 double features)
The new Retrofantastique Series is included for free Individual tickets are $9 per double feature ($10 for retrofantastique)
All double features start at 7p
Saturday JULY 12, 2014
fan
appreciation
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MOVIES!
REGULAR-SIZED POPCORN!
Sergio Leone’s THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
(US/Italy, R, 1966, 161 min) 7:00 p, FREE! Clint Eastwood returns as the "Man With No Name," this time teaming with two gunslingers (Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef) to pursue a cache of $200,000 and letting no one, not even warring factions in a civil war, stand in their way. From sundrenched panoramas to bold, hard close-ups, exceptional camera work captures the beauty and cruelty of the barren landscape and the hardened characters who stride unwaveringly through it. Leone forges a vibrant and yet detached style of action that had not been seen before and has never been matched since.
THE SECRET OF NIMH
(US, G, 1982, 82 min) 2:00 p, FREE! Suspenseful and heartwarming, this beautifully animated odyssey is about a mild-mannered mother mouse named Mrs. Brisby who must save her family home from the plow. She needs an engineering miracle to hoist her house, and for that she must face a mysterious rat, fend off a ferocious cat and claim a magic amulet! But when Mrs. Brisby discovers the astounding secret of NIMH...it could change her life forever.
CLUE
(US, PG, 1985, 96 min) 4:00 p, FREE! A hilariously campy murder-comedy inspired by the Parker Brothers board game. On a dark and stormy night in 1954, Mr. Green, Col. Mustard, Mrs. Peacock, Professor Plum, Miss Scarlet and Mrs. White arrive for a dinner party at the swanky mansion of Mr. Boddy. When Boddy turns up dead, however, the guests must try to figure out who killed him so they can protect their own reputations and keep the body count from growing.
classics JULY 3 / A TRIBUTE TO AGATHA CHRISTIE (A Thursday Screening Due to July 4 Holiday)
Agatha Christie’s TEN LITTLE INDIANS (UK, NR, 1965, 91 min) Ten people attend a posh weekend at a remote castle. What’s the occasion? Each has unwittingly been invited to his/her own murder. Who’s behind this dastardly plot? You’ll have a devilishly tense time figuring it out while watching this clever Agatha Christie adaptation. After the fatal poisoning of a guest, one figurine goes eerily missing. One down. Nine to go. Who’s next? That’s a fate Hugh O’Brian, British screen veterans Wilfrid HydeWhite, Stanley Holloway, and Shirley Eaton desperately hope to avoid. Agatha Christie’s EVIL UNDER THE SUN (US, PG, 1982, 116 min) Peter Ustinov stars in his second outing as Agatha Christie's famous Belgian detective. A suspicious diamond and a death by strangulation distract detective Hercule Poirot from what should have been a rest cure at a tropical resort. Energized by the prospect of solving a particularly puzzling crime, our intrepid investigator pursues every lead on the less-than-idyllic island of Sandy Cove. The parade of legendary performers includes Roddy McDowall, Diana Rigg, James Mason, Sylvia Miles, and Maggie Smith. AUGUST 1 / COMBUSTIBLE DIVAS WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (US, NR, 1962, 134 min) Bette Davis and Joan Crawford play aging sisters, Jane and Blanche, who share a rotting Los Angeles mansion, where Jane, once a vaudeville star, remains lost in her deranged childhood fantasies. When a devastating car crash leaves Blanche in a wheelchair, her increasingly psychotic sister seizes the chance to settle a jealous score. Take two combative divas from the golden age of Hollywood glamour, stir in a script reflecting the timeless themes of fading beauty and fame, and while you're at it crank Bette Davis up to 11 and you've got the perfect recipe for a camp classic. MILDRED PIERCE (US, NR, 1945, 109 min) What Veda wants, her mother Mildred Pierce provides. Even if Mildred must end her middle-class marriage, climb atop the male-dominated business world and marry a wealthy man she doesn't love. "I'll do anything," Mildred says in explaining her love for her daughter. But does anything include murder? Just when you think you've got this nominee for five Oscars including Best Picture figured out, along comes a shocking twist ending!
SEPTEMBER 5 / DEADLY INTUITION THE THIN MAN (US, NR, 1934, 91 min) The best film in the series came first: The Thin Man, W.S. Van Dyke's marvelous adaptation of a Dashiell Hammet novel. The movie gods were in a generous mood when they paired William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, the upper-class sophisticates whose sleuthing escapades somehow joined the classic form of the whodunit with the giddy-up of screwball comedy. Among the series' many attributes, one of its most radical notions was the idea that a married couple might find each other delightful and view life as a goofy adventure together. SORRY WRONG NUMBER (US, NR, 1948, 89 min) Barbara Stanwyck stars as bedridden hypochondriac Leona Stevenson, who while trying to make a call from her bedroom telephone gets her wires crossed and inadvertently overhears two men plotting a murder. Anxiously, Leona wades through telephone-company bureaucracy to trace the call, never catching on—until it's too late—that the murder being planned is hers. A series of flashbacks details the disintegrating marriage between the wealthy Leona and her weakling husband Henry (Burt Lancaster).
festivals.carolinatheatre.org/retrofantasma
all Double features start at 7 p
OCTOBER 3 / GET YOUR SHIP TOGETHER THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (US, PG, 1972, 117 min) The Poseidon, an ocean liner larger than the Queens Elizabeth and Mary combined, is charting its course on New Year's Eve. Just after midnight, the Poseidon is struck by the mother of all tidal waves and turned upside down, with only a handful of survivors. The ten lucky ones—including Ernest Borgnine, Stella Stevens, Roddy McDowall, Shelley Winters, and Jack Albertson—led by no-nonsense minister Frank Scott (Gene Hackman), desperately attempt to climb from the top of the ship (now submerged) to the bottom. RAISE THE TITANIC! (US, PG, 1980, 112 min) Based on the best-seller by author Clive Cussler, this ocean adventure follows a group of U.S. scientists on a historic mission to recover radioactive cargo from the sunken RMS Titanic. Meanwhile, as the scientists team with the U.S. Navy to raise the vessel in secret, a Russian salvage crew learns of their plan, and endeavors to reach the volatile cargo first. Jason Robards, Richard Jordan, David Selby, Anne Archer, and Alec Guinness co-star.
NOVEMBER 7 / WRONGLY ACCUSED Alfred Hitchcock’s NORTH BY NORTHWEST (US, NR, 1959, 136 min) Cary Grant is Roger O. Thornhill, an advertising executive who is mistaken by enemy spies for a U.S. undercover agent. Convinced these sinister fellows (James Mason and Martin Landau) are trying to kill him, Roger flees and meets a sexy Stranger on a Train (Eva Marie Saint). And, of course, there are the famous set pieces: the stabbing at the United Nations, the crop-duster plane attack in the cornfield and the cliffhanger finale atop the stone faces of Mount Rushmore. Stanely Donen’s CHARADE (US, NR, 1963, 115 min) Regina (Audrey Hepburn) finds herself pursued through the streets of Paris by several men in search of the fortune that her murdered husband stole from them. As her world becomes entangled with suspense, murder and plots twists, she finds herself leaning on a suave, charming stranger (Cary Grant) whose motives are unclear. Co-starring James Coburn, George Kennedy and Walter Matthau, this timeless classic will keep you guessing until the very end.
DECEMBER 5 / 1950S CREATURE FEATURES! THE FLY (US, NR, 1958, 94 min) When a scientist attempts to transfer matter through space, things go horrifically wrong and two grotesque man-fly hybrids are created. Now, with the head of a fly and a wing in place of one of his arms, the scientist desperately hopes that he, his wife (Patricia Owens) and his brother (Vincent Price) can capture the other mutant and reverse the experiment. TARANTULA (US, NR, 1955, 81 min) When biochemist Leo Carroll (John Agar) decides to feed the world by using a special growth formula on plants and animals, he instead creates a spider of mammoth proportions with an appetite to match. Escaping from the laboratory and feeding off cattle and humans, this towering tarantula has the people of Desert Rock, Arizona, running for their lives. Can this horrible creature be stopped or will the world succumb to this oversized arachnid?
treasures JULY 11 / A TRIBUTE TO WILLIAM FRIEDKIN SORCERER (US, R, 1977, 121 min) Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, and Francisco Rabal play men who, for various reasons, cannot return to their own countries. They end up in a dismal South American town where an American oil company is seeking out courageous drivers willing to haul nitroglycerin over 200 miles of treacherous terrain. The stateless men have nothing to lose and, besides, they'll be paid $10,000 apiece, and be granted legal citizenship, if they survive. THE FRENCH CONNECTION (US, R, 1971, 104 min) This gritty police drama earned five Academy Awards including Best Picture. Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman) and his partner, Buddy Russo (Roy Scheider), are New York City police detectives on narcotics detail, trying to track down the source of heroin from Europe into the United States. Acting on a hunch, Popeye and Buddy start tailing Sal Boca and his wife, Angie, who live pretty high for a couple whose corner store brings in about $7,000 a year. It turns out Popeye's suspicions are right— Sal and Angie will be smuggling $32 million worth of heroin into the city in a car shipped over from France.
AUGUST 8 / SONG AND DANCE SPECTACULARS GREASE (US, PG, 1978, 110 min) Grease became not only the word in 1978, but also a box-office smash and a cultural phenomenon. 1950s teens Danny (John Travolta) and Australian transfer student Sandy (Olivia Newton-John) spend their "Summer Nights" falling in love, but once fall comes, it's back to Rydell High and its cliques. Declaring their devotion in such ballads as "Hopelessly Devoted to You" and "Sandy," Sandy and Danny split, reconcile, and split again amidst dances, drive-ins, and a drag race, before deciding "You're the One That I Want" at the climactic carnival.. Bob Fosse’s ALL THAT JAZZ (US, R, 1979, 123 min) Part tragic, part comic, this outrageous look at life in the fast lane is the Academy Award-winning musical about Bob Fosse's excessive life in show business. Played by Roy Scheider, Fosse's alter-ego drives him over the edge and soon finds he is caught between a recurring fantasy about his death and the reality of a near-death experience. Dazzlingly presented, this electrifying story about the perils of pushing yourself too hard is filled with Fosse's legendary song-anddance choreography.
SEPTEMBER 12 / THE 80’S WERE PERFECT, JUST DAMN PERFECT FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF (US, PG-13, 1987, 103 min) Ferris Bueller's Day Off chronicles the events in the day of a rather magical young man Ferris (Matthew Broderick). One spring day toward the end of his senior year Ferris gives into an overwhelming urge to cut school and head for downtown Chicago with his girl (Mia Sara) and his best friend (Alan Ruck) to see the sights, experience a day of freedom and show that with a little ingenuity, a bit of courage and a red Ferrari, life at 17 can be a joy! REAL GENIUS (US, PG, 1985, 103 min) Chris (Val Kilmer) is the top brain who just wants to party, Mitch (Gabe Jarret) is the 16-year-old whiz kid, and Lazlo (Jonathan Gries), America's number one brain, literally lives in a world of his own. When the geniuses discover that their unscrupulous mentor Professor Hathaway (William Atherton) has had them working on a secret weapon for the military, they plot an elaborate revenge.
festivals.carolinatheatre.org/retrofantasma
all Double features start at 7 p
OCTOBER 10 / IT’S ALL ABOUT YOU, SWEETIE MOONSTRUCK (US, PG-13, 1987, 101 min) Academy Award winners Cher, Nicolas Cage and Olympia Dukakis excel in this explosively funny tale which also features wonderful performances by Danny Aiello, Vincent Gardenia and John Mahoney. Cher is devastatingly funny, sinuous and beautiful as Loretta, an unlucky in love Italian widow who finds romance through the intervention of the Manhattan moon. With her wedding to a close friend just weeks away, she meets and falls hopelessly in love with his younger brother (Cage)! SAY ANYTHING (US, PG-13, 1989, 100 min) In this charming critically-acclaimed tale of first love, Lloyd (John Cusack), an eternal optimist, seeks to capture the heart of Diane, an unattainable high school beauty and straight-A student (Ione Skye). He surprises just about everyone—including himself—when she returns the sentiment. But Diane's over-possessive, divorced Dad (John Mahoney) doesn't approve and it's going to take more than just the power of love to conquer all.
NOVEMBER 21 / WHY THEY’RE CALLED BUDDY COMEDIES THE ODD COUPLE (US, G, 1968, 106 min) Felix Unger (Jack Lemmon) is thrown out of his house by his divorcebound wife. He wanders aimlessly through the streets of New York, toying with the idea of suicide, before gravitating to the apartment of his best friend, incorrigibly sloppy sportswriter Oscar Madison (Walter Matthau). Worried that Felix will try something desperate, Oscar, invites Felix to move in with him. Within a few days, this mismatched pair is on the verge of mutual murder: Felix cannot abide Oscar's slovenliness, while Oscar is driven insane by Felix's obsession with cleanliness. THE PRODUCERS (US, PG, 1968, 88 min) Zero Mostel is Max Bialystock, a gone-to-seed Broadway producer who spends his days wheedling checks from his "investors," elderly women for whom Bialystock is only too willing to provide company. When wideeyed auditor Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder) comes to check the books, he unwittingly inspires the wild-eyed Max to hatch a sure-fire plan: conspire to select the worst play, the worst playwright, the worst director, and the worst actor to collaborate on their guaranteed flop. That play is Springtime for Hitler, a delightful romp with Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. DECEMBER 12 / SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL GUNSLINGER BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (US, PG, 1969, 110 min) Paul Newman and Robert Redford set the standard for the "buddy film" with this box office smash set in the Old West. The Sundance Kid (Redford) is the frontier's fastest gun. His sidekick, Butch Cassidy (Newman), is always dreaming up new ways to get rich fast. Times are changing in the west and life is getting tougher. So Butch and Sundance pack their guns, don new duds, and, with Sundance's girlfriend (Katharine Ross), head down to Bolivia. Never mind that they don't speak Spanish, they'll manage somehow. CAT BALLOU (US, NR, 1965, 97 min) Lee Marvin won an Oscar for his dual role as both Tim Strawn, a noseless gunslinger, and as Kid Shelleen, the woozy, boozy, has-been. Jane Fonda, at the height of her sex-kitten period, stars as Catherine "Cat" Ballou, the schoolmarm-turned-outlaw who teams with Kid to protect her father's ranch from a greedy railroad tycoon. Stubby Kaye and Nat King Cole appear as a pair of balladeers who comment on the action musically in Greek chorus style.
fantasma JULY 25 / NIGHTMARE-INDUCING KIDS’ MOVIES RETURN TO OZ (US, PG-13, 1985, 110 min) It has been six months since Dorothy has returned home from Oz and she still cannot sleep. She has been going on about imaginary places and people so much that Aunt Em takes her to see a doctor. She promptly escapes from the mental hospital and wakes up in Oz where her pet chicken, Billina, can now talk. There she meets a whole new bunch of friends and they set off to rescue the Scarecrow from the evil Nome King who has found her ruby slippers and used them to lay waste to the Emerald City and take over Oz. SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES (US, PG, 1983, 96 min) After a carnival comes to Green Town, the good citizens are compelled to follow their deepest desires, caught under the spell of the malevolent Dr. Dark (Jonathan Pryce) who can grant those desires on one condition: that the grantees will forever join his freak show. Dr. Dark is after two young boys from the town in particular, while others in the town would certainly be easy marks. As Dr. Dark works his own brand of voodoo, the citizens and the two boys—as well as the whole carnival itself—approach a final reckoning. Based on a Ray Bradbury novel.
AUGUST 29 / SOMETHING LESS THAN HUMAN THE LOST BOYS (US, R, 1987, 97 min) Lucy (Dianne Wiest) and her sons, Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Corey Haim), move to Santa Carla to live with Lucy's curmudgeonly father (Barnard Hughes). Soon Michael falls in with some actual vampires after becoming enamored of one of their victims: Star (Jami Gertz), a gypsy-like vixen who is trying to hold on to her humanity even though vampire leader David (Kiefer Sutherland) wants to play Peter Pan to her Wendy. When Michael visits the cavernous hangout of David and his cronies and unwittingly drinks from a wine bottle full of vampiric blood, he becomes a member of the bloodsucker biker gang. THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK (US, R, 1987, 118 min) On Thursday nights three friends—Alex (Cher), Sukie (Michelle Pfeiffer), and Jane (Susan Sarandon)—meet to chug martinis, learn Chinese aphrodisiac cooking and lament the scarcity of eligible men. As they sit around, they fantasize about and describe their idea of the ideal male. Arriving in town the following day is Satan, disguised as mysterious stranger Darrell Van Horn (Jack Nicholson). One by one, Van Horne seduces each of the women. The women now see that they may be in danger and begin to plot their escape. SEPTEMBER 26 / A DIFFERENT KIND OF ANIMAL AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (US, R, 1981, 97 min) Blending the macabre with a wicked sense of humor, director John Landis (National Lampoon’s Animal House) delivers a contemporary take on the classic werewolf tale in this story of two American tourists who, while traveling in London, find their lives changed forever when a vicious wolf attacks them during a full moon. Featuring groundbreaking, Academy Award-winning make-up by Rick Baker (The Wolfman). CAT PEOPLE (US, R, 1982, 118 min) Nastassia Kinski stars as Irena, a beautiful young woman who discovers love for the first time only to find that the experience brings tragic consequences. The tremendous passion of this girl’s first romantic love is so strong, it bypasses the chaos around her including the extraordinary demands of her brother (Malcolm McDowell) as it pushes her on to her own bizarre destiny. This erotic fantasy about the passion and terror surrounding this first love also stars John Heard, Annette O’Toole, and Ruby Dee.
festivals.carolinatheatre.org/retrofantasma
all Double features start at 7 p
OCTOBER 17 / OUR GANG, THIS AIN’T! THE GOONIES (US, PG, 1985, 115 min) From the imagination of Steven Spielberg, The Goonies plunges a band of small heroes into a swashbuckling surprise-around-every corner quest beyond their wildest dreams! Following a mysterious treasure map into a spectacular underground realm of twisting passages, outrageous booby-traps and a long-lost pirate ship full of golden doubloons, the kids race to stay one step ahead of a family of bumbling bad guys…and a mild mannered monster with a face only a mother could love. THE MONSTER SQUAD (US, PG-13, 1987, 82 min) You know whom to call when you have ghosts. But who do you call when you have monsters? The Monster Squad: A group of young kids devoted to protecting their suburban neighborhood from monsters and ghouls. Count Dracula escapes Van Helsing and adjourns to modern day Earth, accompanied by Frankenstein's Monster, the Wolfman, the Mummy and the Black Lagoon's Gil Man. The ghouls are in search of a powerful amulet that will grant them power to rule the world.
NOVEMBER 28 / FUTURE SHOCK: WEAR SUNSCREEN TRON (US, PG, 1982, 96 min) Tron is one of the earliest feature films to reflect the video-game craze of the 1980s. When a brilliant video game maker named Flynn (Jeff Bridges) hacks the mainframe of his ex-employer, he is beamed inside an astonishing digital world and becomes part of the very game he is designing. Flynn's principal antagonist is his glory-grabbing boss, Ed Dillinger (David Warner), who likewise metamorphoses into a video-game character. LOGAN’S RUN (US, PG, 1976, 120 min) In a post-apocalyptic urban environment several centuries hence, Logan 5 (Michael York) and his friend Francis 7 (Richard Jordan) lead unquestioning lives of hedonism. As "sandmen," they are charged with tracking down "runners"—citizens who will submit to neither "renewal" (a peaceful death) nor "carousel" (a gladiatorial battle) when their time comes. And when his superiors force him to pose as a runner himself to weed out a guerilla underground, Logan finds himself fleeing the city in search of a mythical place called Sanctuary, where people are allowed to live out their natural spans. DECEMBER 19 / WINTER IS A BITCH THE SHINING (US, R, 1980, 142 min) With wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and son Danny (Danny Lloyd) in tow, frustrated writer Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) takes a job as the winter caretaker at the ominous, mountain-locked Overlook Hotel so that he can write in peace. Danny's alter ego, "Tony," however, starts warning of "redrum" as Danny is plagued by more blood-soaked visions of the past, and Jack starts visiting the hotel bar for a few visions of his own. Frightened by her husband's behavior and Danny's visit to the forbidding Room 237, Wendy soon discovers what Jack has really been doing in his study all day, and what the hotel has done to him. GHOST STORY (US, R, 1981, 111 min) The four elderly members of the Chowder Society (Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and John Houseman), gather in each other's drawing rooms each winter to sip cognac and spin elaborate ghost stories. The four men also share a dark secret far more unsettling than fiction—a secret which has literally come back to haunt them, as well as their own adult offspring. Each man is visited by a hideous specter bearing the likeness of a young woman (Alice Krige) they accidentally killed 50 years ago.
fantISTIQUE What is Retrofantistique?
Let’s be honest: We all know who the probable target audience is for Mommie Dearest and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. For many years I insisted, like so many other fans, that Retro was a film series for people who liked classic scary movies and the occasional sci-fi epic. The day is here to recognize that the audience has changed. If you’ve been coming to Retro for some time, you and I both know that the crowds are getting bigger and more diverse, and the fact is, it’s time to address that change. The days of only screening movies like The Exorcist, Halloween, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers are over. When Annie Hall outdraws The Howling by a large margin (as it did this past Spring 2014), you have to examine what’s happening and who’s sitting in the theatre. Retro always has been—and always will be—a series for the fans. I need to recognize that our fans in 2014 aren’t necessarily of the same make-up and orientation as the ones who first came to this series in 1998. In selecting these movies, I’ve worked hard to please fans of the original series as well as acknowledge those who just newly-arrived at our gates. For me, the sense of community we’ve created over the past 16 years is an inescapable part of what Retro is now about. Therefore, my goal these days is not just to program a range of great classic movies but to program a far-reaching series that appeals to all of our modern community. This is a good thing. And thus, I’m proud to announce the inclusion of Retrofantistique in 2014. Browsing through the titles, you might sense a gravitational alignment toward the campy, the esoteric, and the bemused. This is not unintentional. The overlying theme to this newest edition to the series is fun and light-heartedness, first and foremost. There are plenty of other movies screening during Retro which address the headier issues and have won awards. So, for four weekdays during the North Carolina Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in August 2014, I invite you to experience some of the wittiest, smart-aleckiest motion pictures ever made with an audience who can probably quote them better than you can, and with pitch-perfect enunciation.
AUGUST 18 / LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD FRIED GREEN TOMATOES (US, PG-13, 1991, 137 min) Academy Award winners Kathy Bates and Jessica Tandy star with Mary Stuart Masterson and Mary-Louise Parker in this inspiring drama adapted from Fannie Flagg’s best-selling novel. When an unhappy housewife (Bates) befriends a lady in a nursing home (Tandy), she hears a remarkable tale of laughter, devotion and a special friendship that defies all obstacles in this heartwarming film from acclaimed director Jon Avnet. LEGEND OF BILLIE JEAN (US, PG, 1985, 95 min) Set in rural Texas, teenagers Billie Jean (Helen Slater) and her brother Binx (Christian Slater) are on an outing at the local swimming hole, when Binx's prize motor scooter is stolen by thugs. When Binx accidentally shoots the owner of the scooter store, the frightened teens take it on the lam. When the gang kidnaps rich amateur filmmaker Lloyd (Keith Gordon), however, the situation spins out of control. Billie Jean’s plight elevates into a national sensation, and even Lloyd's attraction to Billie Jean can't protect her from the media lightning rod she's become!
AUGUST 19 / JULIE AND BARBRA: TOGETHER AGAIN VICTOR/VICTORIA (US, PG, 1982, 132 min) On the verge of starvation in 1930s Paris, Victoria (Julie Andrews) is rescued by cabaret performer Toddy (Robert Preston). What she needs to succeed, opines Toddy, is a gimmick. What if she becomes a male impersonator? As "Victor/Victoria," she becomes the toast of Paree, and an object of fascination for big-time Chicago gangster King Marchan (James Garner), who can't quite understand the teasing sensations he experiences whenever watching her in action. WHAT’S UP DOC? (US, PG, 1972, 94 min) What’s Up, Doc? joyously recaptures the bubbly style of 1930s screwball comedies and firmly established Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal as a romantic duo uniquely endearing in screen history. Included are a daffy luggage mixup plot, dippy dialogue exchanges, a marvelous example of the art of hotel-room demolition and one of the funniest chase sequences ever. Among comedy movies, it’s the top.
festivals.carolinatheatre.org/retrofantasma
all Double features start at 7 p
AUGUST 20 / THE BITCH IS BACK MOMMIE DEAREST (US, PG, 1981, 129 min) Based on the 1978 tell-all memoir of the same name penned by Christina Crawford, the adopted daughter of Hollywood legend Joan Crawford, Mommie Dearest made a big splash. The younger Crawford details her iconic mother as a Hollywood heavy who beat her two children, demanded nonstop attention and allegiance from all, and was as generally insufferable at home as her public persona was popular at her height. No delicious detail is absent, from Mommie's notorious bed-hopping to her daily constitutional of ice and rubbing alcohol facials. THE WOMEN (US, NR, 1939, 133 min) Be careful what you say in private. It could become a movie. George Cukor directs an all-female cast in this catty tale of battling and bonding that paints its claws Jungle Red and shreds the excesses of pampered Park Avenue princesses. Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Joan Fontaine, Mary Boland and Paulette Goddard are among the array of husband snatchers, snitches and lovelorn ladies.
AUGUST 21 / BEAUTY SCHOOL DROPOUTS PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT (Australia, R, 1994, 104 min) If there is a genre of serious camp, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is it. Yes, it's comedy. Obviously, we've got drag queens. But there is also a depth to Priscilla that most camp cannot match. It's a sentimental story dressed up in camp comedy, and lots of it. At its release, the irony was Terence Stamp as the transsexual Bernadette, he of tough guy fame. (Hello, General Zod?) Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce were relative unknowns. Generations of future movie lovers are in for a treat when the time comes to be asked, ''Did you know that Agent Smith from The Matrix and that guy from Memento got their start playing drag queens?'' John Waters’ POLYESTER (US, R, 1981, 83 min) Francine Fishpaw (Divine) is a housewife whose life has become a living hell. Her husband Elmer runs a porno theater and is having an affair with secretary Sandra (Mink Stole). Francine's best friend, Cuddles (Edith Massey), is a slightly insane heiress who is somehow convinced she's a debutante. Francine's life has become so miserable that her dog commits suicide rather than witness it, but a light appears on the horizon—Todd Tomorrow (Tab Hunter), the handsome and dashing owner of a local drive-in specializing in art films with whom Dawn enters into a torrid affair.
HALLOWEEN OCTOBER 24 David Lynch’s ERASERHEAD (US, NR, 1977, 89 min) Five years in the making Eraserhead is David Lynch's bizarre and ground breaking film debut. Shot in black and white the film unfolds in a lifeless industrial wasteland where the protagonist Henry Spencer tramps the grey empty streets in a confused dream. An aloof young man who works as a printer, Henry finally faces up to his winsome hysterical girlfriend and her freak show family before finding he's the father of a mutant alien child. EVILSPEAK: Uncut Director’s Version (US, NR, 1981, 97 min) Life sucks for Stanley Coppersmith (Clint Howard), a teenage outcast who’s bullied by everyone at a strict military academy. When Stanley discovers the crypt of a 16th Century Satanist beneath the chapel, he creates a computerized Black Mass that unleashes unholy revenge upon his tormentors. Now, all hell is about to break loose! Evilspeak is not for the faint of heart.
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festivals.carolinatheatre.org/retrofantasma