HEIGHTS THEATER

In the 19th Century, ships are being wrecked by a mysterious sea monster. When the U.S Navy decides to investigate, they call upon noted Professor Aronnax (Paul Lukas) to help them. Sure enough, the sea monster wrecks the ship, and Aronnax, his assistant Conseil (Peter Lorre), and sailor Ned Land (Kirk Douglas) survive, only to be picked up by the monster itself—the submarine Nautilus, perhaps the coolest ship in movie history this side of Star Wars. Run by the brilliant turtlenecked vegetarian Captain Nemo (James Mason), the Nautilus seeks out warships in order to stop international arms dealers. Disney’s visually stunning film is at once thrilling, funny, and thought-provoking, a children’s adventure with a terrorist hero and a decidedly anti-war stance.

Judy (Jane Fonda) is newly divorced and needs a job, and she lands one as a secretary at Consolidated. Violet (Lily Tomlin) has worked there for a dozen years, trained her stupid boss, Franklin M. Hart (the wonderfully odious Dabney Coleman), and is stuck without promotion. Doralee (Dolly Parton) is Frank’s secretary, whom he belittles. Well, put those three women together, and in no time, they’ll have their sweet revenge… and start running the company! Produced and conceived by Jane Fonda, 9 to 5 launched Parton’s cinematic career and was a massive hit, even though President Ronald Reagan hated that the characters smoked pot in once scene. Don’t miss it!

Widely regarded as the greatest film about Broadway, All About Eve unleashed Bette Davis at her most witty and eviscerating, here going toe-to-toe with Anne Baxter, who plays the title character. This story of a young actress who claws her way to stardom, and the wreckage she leaves behind, was nominated for a then-record 14 Academy Awards, winning Best Picture and Director (among others) and remains a classic.

Two sailors, “Brooklyn” Doolittle (Frank Sinatra) and Joe Brady (Gene Kelly), fall in with a young woman, Susan (Kathryn Grayson), who’s raising her 9-year-old brother, Donald (Dean Stockwell). Donald keeps running away from school to join the Navy. When Susan asks the sailors to help convince her kid brother to say in school, Joe falls hard for her. A tremendous hit in its time, Anchors Aweigh is a fun romp through wartime Hollywood, and features a dynamite number with Kelly dancing along with an animated Jerry the Mouse.

Ella (Holliday) runs Susanswerphone, a successful answering service, and though she’s just supposed to take down messages, she can’t help but get involved in her clients’ lives. Case in point: Jeffrey Moss (Dean Martin) a struggling playwright with a drinking problem (and they cast ol’ Dean-o?!?) Dispirited over a potential failure, Jeffrey hits the bottle, so Ella takes it upon herself to help the man out, with hilarious results. Reprising her Broadway smash, Holliday has never been more charming.

From Director Steven Soderbergh, Black Bag is a gripping spy drama about legendary intelligence agents George Woodhouse and his beloved wife Kathryn. When she is suspected of betraying the nation, George faces the ultimate test – loyalty to his marriage or his country.

Billie Dawn (Holliday) is a blonde bombshell, a former dancer who is now the fiancée of a corrupt junkyard tycoon, Harry (Broderick Crawford). Problem: Harry’s hoping to buy himself a congressman, and in D.C. he’s finding out that Billie’s foul mouth offends the dignitaries he needs to impress. Enter Paul Verrall (William Holden), a journalist looking for a scoop. When Harry asks Paul to help polish his tarnished fiancée, little does Harry realize an educated Billie might not cotton to being a stooge anymore. With BORN YESTERDAY, Judy Holliday reprised her role in the smash Broadway hit, took the nation by storm, and won a surprising Best Actress Oscar in what has become one of the funniest—and most influential—comedies of all time.

Set in Paris’ theatrical society in the early 19th Century, Children of Paradise is the story of a mysterious courtesan who is beloved by four men: an actor, a thief, a count, and a mime. Director Marcel Carné and screenwriter Jacques Prévert create a lush world in stunning contrast to the Nazi-controlled France in which they were filmmaking. One of the most beloved French films of all-time, director François Truffaut famously said that he would give up all of his films to have made Children of Paradise, and in a 1995 survey, French film critics called it the best film ever made.

Flo and Marian are a pair of young New York girls looking to nab rich husbands. “Borrowing” a fine set of clothes from their employer, they head straight for the Florida beaches, pretending to be widows. Del Ruth’s hilarious silent comedy likely inspired Some Like It Hot and comes to us with a newly restored print from the Library of Congress.

John Jones (Joel McRea) is an American reporter assigned to Britain to get the low-down on the impending war. What he uncovers is a dastardly plot to undermine the Allies in this white-knuckle spy caper, full of suspense, sex appeal and outright fun. Hitchcock dropped both of his first two American movies in 1940, this and Rebecca, and both were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar.

When stick-up artist “Heliotrope” Harry comes home after escaping the cops, he finds his devious wife, Lilly, in the arms of another. Enraged, Harry shoots his rival, and before he’s caught, leaves his baby girl on the doorstep of a rich, childless couple. While in the big house, he’s kept abreast of daughter Alice’s progress by his former associate, Froggy. But when Lilly finds the girl and seeks revenge, Harry is able to get free and tries to set a trap to keep his daughter safe. One of the earliest productions from David O. Selznick, Forgotten Faces is a newly restored masterpiece of silent melodrama, not available for streaming anywhere!

We’ve been asked to screen Hocus Pocus for years, and it’s finally here! When Salem, Massachusetts teenager Max accidentally resurrects three witches from the seventeenth century, and those witches happen to be comedians Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy, the results is one of the most hilarious (and beloved) pictures from the 1990s!

Lieutenant Aldo Raine is a battle-tested solider in the U.S. Army during World War II. His goal: recruit a commando group of Jewish-American soldiers to do “one thing, and one thing only: kill Nazis!” This is Quentin Tarantino’s World War II, full of blood, brilliant dialogue, great actors, all the while referencing spaghetti Westerns and Italian action films. Inglourious Basterds was a tremendous hit and introduced the world to the amazing Christoph Waltz, who won an Oscar for his slimy performance.

Gladys (Holliday) has been struggling in New York for two long years. After having been fired, she sits in Central Park, where she meets documentary filmmaker Pete Sheppard (Jack Lemmon), who films her for his movie about the everyday people of the city. He’s smitten, and so is she—except in her case, it’s with an enormous billboard overlooking Columbus Circle. Using the thousand bucks she’s saved, she has an ad agency slap her name on it, and off she goes, rocketing to fame almost overnight. This loony cautionary tale is equal parts funny, charming, and romantic, and was Jack Lemmon’s first star turn.

NEW DIGITAL RESTORATIONS! One of the Heights’ most popular events returns for what is sure to another sold-out screening. This year we’re bringing six classic short films in new digital restorations. “Another Fine Mess” (1930), “Men o’ War” (1929), “Going Bye-Bye” (1934), “Perfect Day” (1929), “Dirty Work” (1933), and “Hog Wild” (1930) round out the program. Don’t miss it!

The ribald tale of Korean War combat surgeons "Hawkeye" Pierce (Donald Sutherland), "Duke" Forrest (Tom Skerrit), and “Trapper” John (Elliott Gould), who wreak havoc on their mobile surgical unit stationed right next to the front line, M*A*S*H veers between hilarious hi-jinks and barely contained fury at the utter futility of war. Robert Altman’s thumb in the eye to Army life was the perfect counterculture flick for the Vietnam generation, and has since been regarded as a classic, which spawned one of the most popular television shows of all time. Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival.

Hans Wieland is a brilliant actor, a leading figure in German cinema. When the Nazis pressure him to divorce his Jewish wife, Elisabeth, he refuses. Finally, political pressure becomes too much, and, realizing that he will be arrested, his wife to be sent to a concentration camp, he faces the ultimate test of his love. Based on the real-life story of actor Joachim Gottschalk, Kurt Maetzig’s Marriage in the Shadows was the first movie (produced under Soviet auspices) to confront Germans about their treatment of Jews. A brilliant and heartbreaking film, shot like a noir but filled with the rarefied emotions of a melodrama, this rare screening should not be missed.

One of our most popular features in a stunning new 70mm restoration. WHAT?!? That’s right, North by Northwest, one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most triumphantly entertaining films, has had a mind-blowing 70mm restoration, and we’re bringing it to the Twin Cities. Charming ad man Roger O. Thornhill (or ROT, to his friends) must run for his life when he's mistaken for an American spy by a dastardly criminal organization. Hitchcock urged screenwriter Ernest Lehman to pull out all the stops, resulting in a breathtaking adventure whose insane plot twists work in spite of themselves. Cary Grant was never more charming, Eve Marie Saint never more alluring, and Hitchcock never more assured.

Pete, Delmar and Ulysses (Tim Blake Nelson, John Turturro and George Clooney) escape a chain gang in 1930s Mississippi in the Coen Brothers’ riotous take on Homer’s Ulysses. Featuring some of the best folk musicians of the turn of the century, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a modest hit in its day, has since gone on to be one of the Coen’s most revered classics.

Poor Nina and Robert (Holliday and Jack Lemmon). Married for eight years and phffft!, it’s splitsville. So, Robert crashes at the home of his playboy pal Charlie (Jack Carlson) and Nina nurses her grievances over the phone to her mom. It’s the 50s, just get a divorce already! Too bad Nina and Robert can’t live without one another in this sidesplitting, and tender, comedy of manners. Holliday and Lemmon have incredible chemistry, Carlson is the perfect cad, and Kim Novak is on hand as an ingenue with an eye for our man Robert.

In the sixteenth century, bandits have been invading a small mountain village, depleting it of its rice harvest and leaving its inhabitants in a state of perpetual near-hunger. A group of three brave villagers goes to the nearest town, hoping to entice down-on-their-heels samurai to help defend the village with the promise of rice. What ensues is one of the most thrilling, and emotionally moving, action epics ever made. The Seven Samurai has always been high on list of the greatest films ever made, and is an absolutely entertaining film that leaves its viewers enthralled and devastated. The Heights presents the gorgeous new digital 4K restoration from Janus.

Do we really need to explain this one? Perhaps no movie musical is as beloved as Singin' in the Rain, which has sold out the Heights Theater three times in the last four years! What a wonderful feeling!

Melanie (Tippi Hedren) is courting lawyer Mitch (Rod Taylor). When she goes to visit Mitch at his mother, Lydia's (Jessica Tandy), home in Bodega Bay, she runs into Annie (Suzanne Pleshette), his former lover, who left him because of an overbearing, hateful mother. What does all this have to do with birds? Nothing, until the suppressed anger, jealousy and betrayal erupts in an ornithological mania which drives birds of all kinds to wreak havoc on the people of this small town, and this love triangle in particular. With its insane special effects and stunning violence, for some, The Birds is laughably bizarre; for others, it is a masterly examination on Freudian sexual politics. You be the judge.

Boris Karloff met his match with Elsa Lanchester, who plays the Bride of Frankenstein and sports perhaps the greatest hairdo in Hollywood's long history of great hairdos. Her performance was years ahead of its time, the kind of thing that wins Oscars today and was the perfect foil to Karloff. James Whale attempted to camp up his entry, but the result is a film that many consider superior to the first, more emotional and less stagy than the first, and perhaps the greatest entry of Universal's celebrated horror films.

The kids of the Goon Dock section of a small Oregon town refer to themselves as Goonies. When their neighborhood is threatened with development, they get in their heads to try and find the treasure of “One-Eyed Willy”, in the hopes of saving their homes. One of the rare cases of a hit movie that is also a cult classic, The Goonies has thrilled audiences for four decades.

This brave and biting comedy by Charlie Chaplin was his first sound film, and most successful picture. Released at a time when the U.S. was still in a tenuous truce with Germany, The Great Dictator not only satirized the Fuhrer, but accurately portrayed Hitler's hunger for world domination, and his dangerous policies against the Jews, perhaps the first major American film to do so. The Great Dictator is not only one of the greatest movies of all-time, but perhaps the most important comedy ever made.

Jack Torrence, a recovering alcoholic, retreats to the Overlook Hotel with his wife, Wendy, and son, Danny, in tow, in the hopes of breaking his writer's block. But the hotel is host to a variety of dark secrets, none more disturbing than those in Room 237. The Shining is one of Kubrick's more startling masterpieces, and Jack Nicholson's performance is the stuff of legend.

One of the most popular films of all-time arrives at the Heights Theater! Poor Maria (Julie Andrews) is a nun who is just too free-spirited to do anything right in the convent. So, she’s placed as a governess to the stern Captain von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) and his seven children, who are models of discipline. Thank goodness Maria is there to help them become happy kids again! Director Robert Wise pulled out all the stops making this blockbuster, whose music people have adored for generations. Winner of five Academy Awards.

One of the most beloved French musicals is at once a toe-tapping delight and a heartbreaking anti-war film. Geneviève (Catherine Deneuve, in a star-making role) is the daughter of an umbrella shop owner. Her lover is Guy (Nino Castelnuovo), a hunk of a garage mechanic. Life should be a joy for these young lovers, and is until he’s drafted to fight in the Algerian War. With music by Michael Legrand and an astonishing color palette from cinematographer Jean Rabier, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is an utter delight. Winner of the 1964 Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival

35MM TECHNICOLOR DYE-TRANSFER PRINT!! One of the greatest motion pictures of all-time is one of our most popular events and sells out year after year. As always, we’re screening the rare 35mm Technicolor Dye Transfer print, whose astounding colors must be seen to be believed. Has there ever been a more essential piece of movie magic than the journey of Dorothy and Toto? Never. And the lush Technicolor makes the colors so rich it's like seeing a painting.

Sam Flusky (Joseph Cotten) is a reformed convict in 19th Century Australia, a murderer turned landowner living in luxury with his high-strung, formerly aristocratic wife, Henrietta (Ingrid Bergman). Enter Charles (Michael Wilding), the Governor's greedy cousin, who eyes Sam's land and knows the Fluskys darkest secrets. Hitchcock's lush and lurid costume-drama was panned in its time and was a rare box office failure, but has since been championed as an underseen classic. This one has probably not screened in town since its release over 75 years ago.

NEW 70MM PRINT! Newly retired San Francisco police detective “Scottie” Ferguson (Stewart) is hired by a former college acquaintance to investigate the strange behavior of his wife, Madeleine (Novak). This masterly study of identity and obsession is even more compelling when seen in lush 70mm.

Blaine, Missouri is small town whose local amateur theater, led by the indomitable Corky St. Clair (Guest), plans to put on a show to commemorate the town’s 150th anniversary. Pulling together all the citizens, who battle for choice roles, Corky’s Red, White and Blaine might just be their undoing! Guest’s star-studded mockumentary is hilarious, and features brilliant comic performances from Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Parker Posey, Fred Willard and Guest himself.

To Glensheen devotees and local cinema buffs, this Gothic old dark house suspense film is an absolute must-see! Shot completely on location in Duluth in the winter of 1971, You'll Like My Mother stars Patty Duke, a very sinister Richard Thomas (John Boy from The Waltons), and an utterly chilling Rosemary Murphy as the mother you'll love to cringe from. However, the real star of this film is the glorious Glensheen Mansion, which you'll explore (with a terrified Patty) from the cellar to the attic!