Ask a random person on the street to name five filmmakers and changes are good one of them would be “Alfred Hitchcock.” To celebrate what would be the Master of Suspense’s 127th birthday, the Brattle Theatre has lined up a pair of double features. Friday and Saturday celebrate the 50th anniversary of his final film, “Family Plot” (1976), and the 75th anniversary of “Strangers on a Train” (1951), the delightfully perverse thriller in which tennis star Farley Granger and psychopath Robert Walker agree to “trade murders” to cover their tracks. Sunday brings arguably his crowning achievement, “Vertigo” (1958); it’s paired with “Obsession” (1976), Brian De Palma’s expertly mounted homage to the master (not to be confused with the recent horror smash of the same name). No matter which of these films you opt to take in, you’re guaranteed to have a… good evening.
On Saturday afternoon, the Somerville Ciné-Club returns to the Somerville Public Library (Central Branch) for another Americanized edit of a Japanese cult classic. “Shogun Assassin” (1980) served as a western introduction to the long running “Lone Wolf and Cub” series, in which an exiled assassin wanders the countryside with his infant son in tow. In addition to dubbing the dialogue into English, the distributors of “Shogun Assassin” actually condensed the first two films of the series (“Sword of Vengeance” and “Baby Cart at the River Styx,” both originally released in 1972), creating an all-killer-no-filler blast of bloody martial arts mayhem. As a bonus, the screening will be preceded by a selection of vintage 8mm digest versions of Japanese creature features, once the only way to own movies for home use but rarely screened in these versions since. As with all Ciné-Club screenings, admission is free, and afterwards attendees are encouraged to stay for conversation.
On Sunday, keyboardist and silent film historian Jeff Rapsis returns to the Somerville Theatre to play a live, improvised score to a classic, this time “The Son of the Sheik” (1926). This was Rudolph Valentino’s final film. Though his career as a leading man lasted barely half a decade and ended a century ago, “Valentino” remains synonymous with screen sex appeal for a reason.
His good looks, which played up his sexual and ethnic ambiguity, were quite unlike anything heretofore seen in American movies, at once making him the subject of rabid adoration and salacious tabloid rumors. “The Son of the Sheik,” a sequel to 1921’s “The Sheik,” finds Valentino at his best. The film’s racial and sexual politics are, from today’s vantage, regrettable at best, but Valentino is magnetic in a surprisingly convincing dual role.
The Brattle’s repertory series “Keep Watching the Skies: Aliens in the 1950s” continues this week with a pair of double features. Monday brings a pair of Technicolor heavy hitters which epitomize big-budget studio sci-fi: “Forbidden Planet” (1956), a space-age riff on Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” features a pre-comedy Leslie Nielsen and the iconic Robbie the Robot. “This Island Earth” (1955), is a Universal epic featuring some of the most gruesome aliens of the decade. Tuesday’s bill, meanwhile, brings together two films which, while less famous, are no less influential: “The Quatermass Xperiment” (1955), a crucial early hit for the great British horror studio Hammer, and “It! The Terror from Beyond Space” (1958), an acknowledged influence on Ridley Scott’s “Alien” (1979). The E.T.s just couldn’t keep out of our airspace in the ‘50s. As we’ll see in this program over the coming weeks, they’re just getting started.
On Wednesday, the Brattle’s “TV Goes to the Movies” series continues with perhaps its most idiosyncratic selection. Joe Dante’s “The Howling” (1981) is rarely included on lists of great journalism movies and is instead quite understandably remembered for Rob Bottin’s groundbreaking werewolf makeup effects. For much of the film’s first half, though, the focus is on crusading TV news anchor Karen White (the great Dee Wallace), whose investigation of a Los Angeles serial killer leads her to a cult-like self-help retreat. Even if you know what you’re getting into, the film’s first werewolf reveal is a jump scare for the ages, coming as it does in the middle of a relatively grounded suspense story. Dante and screenwriter John Sayles are two of Hollywood’s most ingenious genre-benders, and “The Howling” is the film that put both of them on the map.
A stronger
Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day.
We are now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible.
Please consider a recurring contribution.