35mm Dbl Feature: THE STAR WITNESS/FIVE STAR FINAL
THE STAR WITNESS (1931) in 35mm
A few years after winning the first Academy Award® for Best Picture with WINGS, William A. Wellman went to work for Warner Bros., where he would direct 15 pictures over the next three years. This crux of this riveting courtroom crime thriller hinges on witness intimidation. After gangster Maxey Campo (Ralph Ince) guns down two men on the street, he runs right through the Leeds' house attempting to make his getaway, assaulting the family patriarch, Civil War veteran Grandpa Summerill (comedian Charles "Chic" Sale), along the way. Hard-charging District Attorney Whitlock (Walter Huston, THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE) believes he has a whole family of witnesses to work with, but then Campo and his gang go to work with threats, kidnapping and assault. With the family understandably intimidated into silence, it falls to Grandpa to fight the good fight and speak up for justice. DIR William A. Wellman; SCR Lucien Hubbard. U.S., 1931, b&w, 68 min. NOT RATED
35mm print preserved by the Library of Congress.
Followed by:
FIVE STAR FINAL in 35mm
Tasked by his publisher to boost sales, tabloid editor Joseph W. Randall (Edward G. Robinson) commissions a retrospective series on a legendary local love-nest murder from two decades ago. But his “Where are they now?” angle exposes people who have made new lives for themselves, and would prefer not to revisit their past any time soon. Soon the scandal sheet is enjoying record sales, but Randall's muckraking creates a new tragedy with unexpected reach. This fast-paced and hard-hitting pre-Code drama also stars H. B. Warner, Marian Marsh, Aline MacMahon (in her screen debut), Frances Starr and Boris Karloff. DIR Mervyn LeRoy; SCR Byron Morgan, Robert Lord, from the play by Louis Weitzenkorn; PROD Hal B. Wallis. U.S., 1931, b&w, 89 min. NOT RATED
35mm print preserved by the Library of Congress.
AFI Member passes accepted.
Run Time: 160 Minutes
Opening Date: Monday, May 01, 2023
Genre: Crime drama
