Ambler Theater
A 1928 movie house rescued and restored into the anchor of Butler Avenue: first-run indies, documentaries, and repertory picks under a marquee that makes the whole block look good.
Field notes: Four art house theaters, one weekend, 35mm and a sing-along
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Dodsworth
William Wyler's 1936 marriage drama, running as a Deep Focus selection. Sunday afternoon screening at one, part of Hollywood Summer Nights.
Queen Kelly
Erich von Stroheim's troubled 1932 Gloria Swanson picture, rarely booked anywhere. Two showtimes on the Hollywood Summer Nights calendar, 4:15 and 7.
Dick Tracy
Warren Beatty's 1990 comic-strip picture in flat primary colors, projected from a 35mm print. One showing at 7 on a Thursday.
Letty Lynton
A 1932 Joan Crawford picture that almost never screens, running on 35mm with an introduction by TCM writer Hannah Jack. One night, 7 o'clock.
Jazz on a Summer's Day
The 1959 Newport Jazz Festival documentary, screening here as part of the Montco Jazz Festival. Evening start at 7, one showing.
Playtime
Jacques Tati's 1967 comedy of glass towers and office chaos, in the theater's French Film Series. Free if you are a member, 7 pm start.
The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking
Five-dollar Saturday morning family matinee, free for members. The 1988 Pippi film, doors at ten, out in time for the rest of the day.
Rashomon
Kurosawa's 1950 four-versions-of-one-crime picture, on the Reel Rebels calendar and flagged as a Cinema Studies pick. One showing at 7:15.
Blow Out
De Palma's 1981 Philadelphia thriller with John Travolta and a sound recordist who hears too much. Retrograde series, one evening showing at 7.
The Navigator
Buster Keaton's 1924 shipboard comedy, booked for Silent Movie Day with Brett Miller. One showing at 7 on a Tuesday.
Murder by Death
Neil Simon's 1976 detective spoof with a stacked cast, introduced by Flashback Cinema creator John Hersker. Single evening screening at 7.
Alien 3
Fincher's much argued over third Alien, running on a 35mm print to open the Ambler's Spooky Season. Ripley crash lands on a prison planet full of shaved heads and bad news.
Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy
The comedy duo stumble into a tomb, a cursed medallion and a very slow mummy. Rosalie Kicks of MovieJawn introduces the 1955 romp at a Sunday afternoon matinee.
Diabolique
Clouzot's 1955 thriller about a wife and a mistress who plot together, the one Hitchcock wished he had made first. Part of the French Film Series, free for Ambler members.
Bob Dylan: Dont Look Back
Pennebaker's handheld record of Dylan's 1965 England tour, cue cards and all. Sixty years on it still reads as the blueprint for every rock documentary that came after.
James McNeill Whistler
An Art on Screen documentary about the painter behind the portrait everyone calls Whistler's Mother, plus the London and Paris years that made him famous and litigious.
The American Astronaut
Cory McAbee's black and white space western musical, screening on 35mm. Barn dances on asteroids, a fruit thief and original songs. There is nothing else quite like it in town.
The Elephant Man
Lynch's 1980 film with John Hurt as Joseph Merrick, shot in stark black and white. A Reel Rebels pick, and one of the gentlest things Lynch ever put on screen.
The Return of the Living Dead
Punk soundtrack, talking corpses and a graveyard full of trouble, on a 35mm print. The 1985 film that gave zombies their taste for brains, screening in the Retrograde series.
Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
Five dollars gets the family into a Saturday morning screening. Costumed monsters, the Mystery Machine and a plot that runs on trap doors. Free for Ambler Theater members.
The Bad Seed
Patty McCormack as the pigtailed eight year old her mother slowly stops trusting. A 1956 shocker that plays a lot nastier on a big screen than it does at home.
The Cat and the Canary
A 1927 old dark house mystery with a will read at midnight, screened with a live original score from Not So Silent Cinema. Silent film with a band playing in the room.
28 Days Later
Danny Boyle's empty London, shot on video and still unsettling. Cillian Murphy wakes in a hospital to find the city gone quiet. A Cinema Studies pick for Spooky Season.
The Wicker Man
A policeman lands on a Scottish island looking for a missing girl and gets folk songs, May queens and dread instead. The 1973 original, not the one with the bees.
Creepshow
Romero directing Stephen King in comic book panels and lurid color, printed on 35mm. Five stories, one wooden crate, and Ted Danson buried up to his neck in sand.
The Invisible Man
Claude Rains spends most of 1933 as a voice and a set of bandages. James Whale's Universal horror still lands its effects, and the cackling holds up better than expected.
Halloween Night at the Ambler Theater
The Ambler Theater's late-night Halloween screening, separate from its usual movie-night lineup and easily the theater's biggest costume night of the year. Come dressed — the popcorn line is half the fun.
Fallen Angels by Noel Coward
Coward's 1925 comedy about two friends waiting on the same old flame, filmed live on stage and brought to the Ambler screen. Sunday matinee, with a repeat on November 10.
The Trouble with Harry
Hitchcock's Vermont comedy about a body nobody wants to claim, in a new restoration. Shirley MacLaine's first film, autumn leaves everywhere, and a very light touch of murder.
Dead Poets Society
Robin Williams at Welton Academy, and a room full of boys standing on desks. A Reel Rebels screening of the 1989 film that sent a generation to go read Whitman.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Five dollars, Saturday morning, Gene Wilder in purple velvet. The 1971 version with the boat ride that scared everybody. Free for members and short enough for small attention spans.
Love Me or Leave Me
Doris Day as singer Ruth Etting opposite James Cagney as her gangster husband, a much darker musical than the poster suggests. A Deep Focus pick on a Sunday afternoon.
Fallen Angels by Noel Coward
The Tuesday evening screening of Coward's comedy about two wives, one former lover and a great deal of drinking while they wait for him. Filmed live on stage.
Network
Peter Finch, mad as hell, in Sidney Lumet's 1976 satire of television that gets less funny every year. A Cinema Studies pick inside the Reel Rebels series.
Mortal Kombat
The 1995 video game adaptation on 35mm, techno score and all. Retrograde puts it in the eight o'clock slot on a Thursday, which is exactly where it belongs.
Black Angel
Noirvember opens with a 1946 Cornell Woolrich adaptation, a pianist and a wife's killer somewhere out in the dark. First of nine classics the Ambler runs across one weekend.
The Yellow Canary
A 1943 British wartime thriller with Anna Neagle, closing the first night of Noirvember. Nine noir classics run across three days at the Ambler, this one takes the late Friday slot.
The Man with the Golden Arm
Sinatra as a card dealer with a habit, in the Otto Preminger film that broke the production code open over drug addiction. A late morning start on Noirvember Saturday.
Odds Against Tomorrow
Robert Wise's 1959 bank job that falls apart on the racism between the men pulling it. Harry Belafonte and Robert Ryan, with a score from the Modern Jazz Quartet.
Hangover Square
Laird Cregar as a composer who loses time whenever he hears a discordant note. A 1945 gaslit London thriller with a Bernard Herrmann score, in the Saturday teatime slot.
The Man I Love
Ida Lupino sings in a nightclub and gets tangled up with the man who owns it. Raoul Walsh's 1947 picture takes Saturday night of the Ambler's nine film noir weekend.
Young Man with a Horn
Kirk Douglas plays a trumpeter modeled on Bix Beiderbecke, with Lauren Bacall and Doris Day alongside. Sunday morning of Noirvember, and the horn is dubbed by Harry James.
Sweet Smell of Success
Burt Lancaster's gossip columnist and Tony Curtis's press agent, trading dialogue sharp enough to draw blood, shot in a New York that no longer exists. Sunday afternoon of Noirvember.
Humoresque
Joan Crawford bankrolls John Garfield's violinist and neither of them comes out of it well. A 1946 melodrama that closes the Ambler's Noirvember weekend on Sunday night.
The Lovers on the Bridge
Leos Carax's 1991 film about two drifters living on a closed Pont Neuf, with fireworks over the Seine. French Film Series, and free for Ambler Theater members.
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