DIRECTED BY: Robert Z. Leonard. WRITTEN BY: William Anthony McGuire. WITH: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer, Frank Morgan. 1936. 176 min. USA. B&W. English. 35mm.
THE KING OF COMEDY
The King of Comedy Thu, May 9 | 7:30pm | TMT
From an early stint on The Richard Pryor Show to one- woman stage acts and standup routines to recurring roles on Roseanne , Pose , and American Horror Story , actress Sandra Bernhard has booked just a handful of film roles that truly allow her talents to shine. Bernhard is dangerously electric in her breakout big- screen role as Masha, an Upper West Side obsessive fangirl who teams up with zealous aspiring comic Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro) to kidnap their favorite late-night host (Jerry Lewis). From Masha’s quip about Shavuos to Yiddish vocabulary, writer Paul D. Zimmerman infuses his script with rhythms familiar to that particularly American brand of Jewish humor. DIRECTED BY: Martin Scorsese. WRITTEN BY: Paul D. Zimmerman. WITH: Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, Diahnne Abbott, Sandra Bernhard. 1982. 109 min. USA. Color. English. Rated PG. DCP.
CLUE
What’s Up, Doc? in 35mm with Clue in 35mm Mon, May 6 | 7:30pm | TMT What’s Up, Doc? Modeled after Hawksian farces and classic Looney Tunes and updated for the Me Generation, Peter Bogdanovich’s pitch-perfect screwball comedy finds a fast-talking Judy Maxwell (an effervescent Barbra Streisand) careening into the life of bumbling musicologist Howard Bannister (prime Ryan O’Neal) and his domineering fiancée (Madeline Kahn in her screen debut) as a mix-up over four identical plaid (it was the ’70s!) suitcases unfolds in San Francisco. Though neither Streisand’s nor Kahn’s characters are explicitly Jewish, screenwriter Buck Henry and director/story writer Bogdanovich were born into Jewish families, and the comedic traditions of Yiddish theater, clever Catskills timing, and vaudevillian slapstick abound in one of the most hilarious comedies of its decade. DIRECTED BY: Peter Bogdanovich. WRITTEN BY: Buck Henry, David Newman, Robert Benton. STORY BY: Peter Bogdanovich. WITH: Barbra Streisand, Ryan O’Neal, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars. 1972. 94 min. USA. Technicolor. English. Rated G. 35mm. Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive. Clue From a story by Jewish writers John Landis and Jonathan Lynn, this darkly comedic adaptation of the popular Parker Brothers board game takes a page from the spate of Agatha Christie book-to- screen projects of the 1970s. Convening a murderer’s row of ’80s comedic actors, including Jewish actors Madeline Kahn and Lesley Ann Warren, this cult-favorite whodunit allows Kahn to showcase her impeccable gift of timing as the poised yet untrustworthy Mrs. White, while Warren exercises her career-long comedic chops as Miss Scarlet three decades prior to her lauded Desperate Housewives role. Considered middling upon its release, Clue soon found its adoring audience on home video and through revival screenings. DIRECTED BY: Jonathan Lynn. WRITTEN BY: Jonathan Lynn. WITH: Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd. 1985. 88 min. USA. Color. English. Rated PG. 35mm.
A NEW LEAF
A New Leaf with Crossing Delancey in 35mm Sun, May 12 | 2pm | TMT A New Leaf Daughter of Yiddish theater stars Jack and Ida Berlin, Elaine May began her career in the late 1950s opposite Mike Nichols in their groundbreaking improv comedy team, Nichols and May. After several film roles, May would break further ground directing several movies for major studios, the first of which, A New Leaf , would make her the first woman to write, direct, and star in her own feature. A pitch-black screwball co-starring a hilariously deplorable Walter Matthau as a newly broke socialite, the picture was added to the National Film Registry in 2019 for the massive significance of May’s trailblazing achievement. DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: Elaine May. WITH: Walter Matthau, Elaine May, Jack Weston, George Rose. 1971. 102 min. USA. Color. English. Rated G. DCP.
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