SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents
Part of our HOLIDAY HOPE Series, Sunday, December 24, 2023
11a IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946, co-wri & dir. Frank Capra, Paramount, 131mns) 35mm
LOCATION: The Million Dollar Theater Movie Palace, 307 South Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90013
PARKING INSTRUCTIONS: There are many parking lots around the Million Dollar Theater. We sell 30 tickets here online (go to ADD-ONS) to the Grand Central Market Parking Lot located at the corner of Hill & 3rd Street (accessible via Hill) just one block from the theater. Even if we sell out, you can still park here or at lots near the theater.
It has now become Secret Movie Club holiday tradition: one of our last screenings of the year is always a 35mm showing of Frank Capra's 1946 classic It's A Wonderful Life.
Jimmy Stewart (in his own personal favorite role) plays good hearted and kind George Bailey who never gets out of his hometown Bedford Falls to live out his dreams of travel and adventure. Rather George takes over his father's small building and loan, builds a family with his resourceful wife Mary (a wonderful Donna Reed), and helps the townspeople battle greedy heartless local millionaire Mr. Potter (viciously played with gusto by Capra regular Lionel Barrymore).
The movie has a wonderful Christmas Carol like structure in which Clarence, an angel who hasn't yet earned his wings, learns all about George's life, so he can go down to earth on a fateful Christmas Eve and save George from making a huge mistake.
It's A Wonderful Life wasn't the huge hit everyone hoped it would be in 1946. Filled with the kind of optimism and belief in humanity that freshly post WWII America couldn't yet fully embrace again, Life became the holiday classic it is now from repeated television screenings across the decade. Now it stands as one of the greatest movies of classic Hollywood.
But it's not just luck or time that makes Life such an important movie. Stewart, Capra, and many of the cast and crew had served in WWII and knew the toll the war had taken on everyone's psyche. It's A Wonderful Life actually delves into the stress, uncertainty, anxiety that grips most people at one point or another in their lives when every effort doesn't seem to help make things better.
But Life reminds us, through Capra's felicitious "every shot an idea and gag" approach, through Jimmy Stewart's 110% commitment to his part style of acting, through great writing and structure, that even in our darkest moments we are often surrounded by friends and family ready to help us as we have helped them.
Capped by one of the greatest third acts in all of cinema (this is not hyperbole, this writer puts the third act here up with the third act of Kurosawa's Seven Samurai) that miraculously ties everything together, It's A Wonderful Life is everything that great hopeful cinema can be. And more.
Watch it with us on 35mm. Happy Holidays!
Best always,
Craig Hammill
Secret Movie Club Founder.Programmer
*Please note that though we strive to always show titles on 35mm film if advertised, we may have to screen digitally if the print we receive is in such bad shape or if we don't receive the print in time because of a shipping delay. We will do our best to alert the audience. When this does occur, we will offer each ticket holder who chooses not to attend a complimentary ticket to a future event in exchange. (Disclaimer: Good for 90 days – Future screening must have available tickets, cannot be a fundraiser, and must be comparably priced)
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
REFUNDS:
We can offer refunds up to 24 hours before showtime. Please request a refund through Eventbrite and we will process ASAP. After that, no refunds. Sorry.
However if something last minute comes up and you can’t make the screening, for whatever reason, just write to us before showtime: community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer you complimentary tickets to a future screening, good for 90 days. (Disclaimer: Future screening must have available tickets, cannot be a fundraiser, and must be comparably priced)
HELPFUL SECRET MOVIE CLUB (1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, LA, CA 90021) THEATER PARKING TIPS:
We recommend that you park just outside our theater. Remember our theater is actually in a beautiful street art alleyway in the back of the 1917 Bay Street building. You get to our entrance by taking a right on Wilson, then a right behind the building. We are the first set of black steps on the right after the big gate.
There is also a parking lot at the corner of Mateo and Violet Street, just 2 blocks from our theater, which costs $7 per car.
HOW CAN WE STAY ON TOP OF NEWLY ANNOUNCED 35MM SCREENINGS, EVENTS, ETC?
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HOW CAN I CONTACT YOU IF I HAVE OTHER QUESTIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS:
You can always email us at community@secretmovieclub.com with any other questions, concerns, thoughts, recommendations.