July - December 2006
July 7th
TOP HAT (Dir: Mark Sandrich USA 1935 98 min B&W RKO)
The quintessential Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers musical. Sublime choreography, dazzling art direction, memorable Irving
Berlin score and Ginger in ostrich feathers! Producer: Pandro S.Berman; Writers: Dwight Taylor, Allan Scott (adapted by Karl
Noti from play ‘The Girl Who Dared’ by Alexander Farago and Aladar Laszlo); Photography: David Abel, Vernon L.Walker;
Editor: William Hamilton; Musical Director: Max Steiner; Art Director: Van Nest Polglase, Carroll Clark; Set Design: Thomas
Little; Costumes: Bernard Newman; Choreography: Fred Astaire, Hermes Pan.
Cast; Fred Astaire (Jerry Travers), Ginger Rogers (Dale Tremont), Edward Everett Horton (Horace Hardwick), Helen Broderick
(Madeg Hardwick), Erik Rhodes (Albert Beddini), Eric Blore (Bates, Butler), Lucille Ball (Flower Clerk), Leonard Mudie
(Flower Saleman), Donald Meek (Curate), Florence Roberts (Curate’s wife), Edgar Norton (Hotel Manager, London), Gino
Corrado (Hotel Manager, Venice), Peter Hobbes (Call Boy), Frank Mills (Lido Waiter), Tom Ricketts (Thackeray Club Waiter),
Dennis O’Keefe (Elevator Passenger).
Top Hat was the film which established the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers partnership as number one at the box office (it was
also the most profitable RKO production of the thirties}. Although their fourth picture together, it was the first in which the
screenplay was written specifically with their talents in mind, and is often thought to be the quintessential Astaire-Rogers
musical. The plot is based on an elaborate romantic misunderstanding, which keeps the leads at odds from London to Venice and is a virtual reworking of their earlier film, The Gay Divorcee (1934). The stylized, dazzlingly white art-deco sets and the
inventive choreography helped set the tone and spirit for most of the films the team would do together. Irving Berlin provided
one of his most memorable scores (featuring 'Top Hat, White Tie and Tails', 'Piccolino', ‘Wild About You’, ‘Get Thee Behind
Me Satan’ and 'Isn't it a Lovely Day'), but at times it’s the costumes which almost steal the show. It is impossible to think of the
film without recalling images of Ginger’s ostrich feathered outfit worn during the performance of ‘Cheek to Cheek’ which
became perhaps the duo’s most famous collaboration. Their subsequent films together were ‘Follow the Fleet’ and ‘Swing Time’
(both 1936), ‘Shall We Dance?’ (1937), ‘Carefree’ (1938) and ‘The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle’ (1939). Arguably the
finest on-screen dance pairing of all time, Federico Fellini paid his own idiosyncratic tribute to them in his 1985 film, ”Ginger
and Fred’.
Additional info on Top Hat (1935)
July 21st
THE BLUE LAMP (Dir: Basil Dearden GB 1950 84 min b&w Ealing Studios)
Jack Warner & Dirk Bogarde in a police drama which shows how Ealing's wartime mix of social purpose and fictional realism centred on the idea of a national community - was extended into postwar concerns.
Aug 4
THE OVERLANDERS (Dir: Harry Watt GB 1946 91 min b&w Ealing Studios)
With a Japanese invasion imminent, a ragged band of drovers lead a herd of cattle on a 2000 mile journey from Wyndham to the
Queensland coast. Chips Rafferty stars in Ealing's first non-British production.
Aug 18
NAKED YOUTH (Dir: Nagisa Oshima Japan 1960 97 min col Shochiku Films CINEMASCOPE)
A disillusioned young couple set up an intimidation scam to extort money from not so innocent victims. Japanese New Wave
film, set during the fiery 1960 U.S./Japan Security Treaty demonstrations.
Sep 1
DIMBOOLA (Dir: John Duigan Aust 1979 90 min col Pram Factory Pictures CINEMASCOPE)
Jack Hibberd's adaptation of his successful stage-play about a wedding in a small Victorian country town. The cast was
comprised of members of Carlton's pioneering Pram Factory theatre group.
Sep 15
THE YOUNG ONE (Dir: Luis Bunuel Mexico/USA 1960 95 min b&w Prod Co: OLMEC)
Bunuel's only English language film is among his personal favourites. In it, he brings his sharp wit to bear on a story that has
been described as 'Robinson Crusoe times three'.
September 30 - October 2
31st RESIDENTIAL FILM WEEKEND Metropole Guest House, Katoomba
Oct 20
BLONDE VENUS (Dir: Josef Von Sternberg USA 1932 93 min b&w UIP)
Marlene Dietrich is cast against type as a housewife in this melodrama of self sacrifice. The nightclub success story mirrors the
career of Josephine Baker, frequently billed as 'the Black Venus'
Nov 3
SUNSET BOULEVARD (Dir: Billy Wilder USA 1950 110min b&w Paramount Pictures)
A story told by a dead man - this bizarre and bitter tribute to vanished glory is widely regarded as the ultimate film on
Hollywood, with Gloria Swanson unforgettable as an ageing silent movie queen.
Nov 17
THE CHILDHOOD OF MAXIM GORKY (Dir: Mark Donskoi USSR 1938 99 min b&w)
Although charged with a revolutionary romanticism and the lyrical spirit of the Volga, this deeply humanist work is also
recognised as a recreation of rural life in Czarist Russia. First part of a trilogy.
Dec 1
CHRISTMAS PARTY followed by SURPRISE SCREENING