How to Get into Old Movies...Part 9

Part 9: Check Out a Classic Film in Theaters

I've been wanting to write this post for a long time. Back in March, Turner Classic Movies teamed with Fathom Events to bring Casablanca back to theaters. Since then, the two entities have brought multiple films - Singin' in the Rain and The Birds, for instance - back to the big screen. For one reason or another, I had not been able to catch a single one of them.

Until the monster got me...Frankenstein's monster, that is. I was lucky enough to win a pair of tickets (from the amazing blog True Classics) to go see the double feature of 1931's Frankenstein and its sequel Bride of Frankenstein. I am lucky enough to have a girlfriend who enables my appreciation for classic movies and agreed to go with me.

 

Unfortunately for her, she doesn't like horror movies. Actually, when it comes down to it, neither do I. But I wasn't about to turn down this excellent opportunity to see a (free!) classic movie in the theater.

I am going to forego giving an extensive review of the experience, instead deferring to the opinions of two bloggers I trust who also saw the double feature - Cinematically Insane and Out of the Past. As Will from CI said, it was a great experience seeing the films on the big screen and the other people in the theater were extremely reverent of the cinematic gold; however, it was, at times, "immensely frustrating" in that the low quality of the restorations showed their age, a flaw more noticeable on the big screen.

One great thing about these theater screenings is that they are preceded by exclusive interviews - usually hosted by TCM hosts Robert Osborne or Ben Mankiewicz - that are relevant to the movie you are about to watch. The interviews that ran before Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein featured a conversation with Osborne and Boris Karloff's daughter, Bela Lugosi's son and renowned film make-up artist Dick Smith from this year's TCM Film Festival. As somebody who has wanted to attend the Film Festival for a few years now, it was awesome to be able to view a snapshot of the experience.

As a classic film fan, it is no surprise that seeing an old movie in the theater - simulating what it might have been like when the movies first cam out all those years ago - is enjoyable to me. But what would a classic movie amateur get from it?

Well, one great thing about seeing any movie in a theater is that you can't turn it off and you can't walk away from it, allowing you to fully look at a movie and take in all of its high points, as well as its flaws. Also, TCM and Fathom choose the movies that they screen for a reason: they are all great movies that were pivotal in paving the movie-making landscape for future films. In other words, a person who is being introduced to classic movies isn't going to be viewing a stinker, or essentially something that would turn him or her away for good.

For anybody interested, the next upcoming screening is To Kill a Mockingbird on Nov. 15.