Last Saturday, my wife and I had a wonderful opportunity: we got to see Charlie Chaplin’s brilliant masterpiece, Modern Times, in the beautiful setting of the opulent Louisville Palace. Regular readers know of my love for the little Tramp with his funny mustache, and it was a truly satisfying experience; a perfect opening weekend for the Louisville Palace’s summer film series. This year’s theme? The Directors Series: Hollywood’s Golden Age.
The magic continues this weekend, starting with tonight’s screening of the 1938 comedy Bringing Up Baby. Cary Grant stars as David Huxley, a paleontologist attempting to assemble a Brontosaurus skeleton one bone at a time. He is also trying to secure a sizable donation from the wealthy Susan Vance (Katherine Hepburn), who currently has charge of a leopard named Baby. As they travel to deliver Baby to Susan’s aunt, hilarity and shenanigans ensue.
Bringing Up Baby is directed by the legendary Howard Hawks, who is also well-known for helming the original Scarface (from 1932) and 1951’s The Thing From Another World – the first film adaptation of the John Campbell novella “Who Goes There?,” which was later adapted into John Carpenter’s 1982 film The Thing.
Saturday evening’s film is the Orson Welles classic Citizen Kane (which I find myself writing about for the third time in a month – see earlier discussions here and here). To recap: Welles stars as Charles Foster Kane, who speaks one last word before he dies: “Rosebud.” As investigators search for the meaning of this enigmatic utterance, we see a portrait of Kane’s life and his rise and fall as a great newspaper magnate.
Films screen both nights at 8:00 and admission is a measly $5. The Louisville Palace is located at 625 S. 4th Street. More information about the Summer Film Series, as well as advance ticket sales, can be found at the Louisville Palace website.
Image: Internet Movie Database
