Roll ‘Em

I did it. For the first time since seeing Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights on Tuesday, March 10, 2020 at the Ambler Theater, I went into a movie house to see a film. Appropriately, it was a classic, the 1940 screwball comedy, His Girl Friday, with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. Also, appropriately, I saw it at the HiWay Theater, a Main Street independent movie house in the grand tradition of old time Hollywood.  

The movie did not disappoint, even though I had seen it countless times. The fast-paced dialogue. The spot-on performances by the stars. The great character actors filling out the supporting roles. I knew what was coming and I still laughed out loud. Even though there were very few people in the theater (basically the five of us who went together, and one other couple) it was still wonderful to be sitting in the dark, laughing with those around me. 

Someone asked me if I had ever seen this movie in a theater before, and it really sent me on a nostalgic trip of the venues that I have loved. It’s unlikely I ever saw it in a theater while growing up in Bethlehem. There were no theaters there that showed old movies that I knew of, though I do remember going to a Marx Brothers double feature at a local multi-plex (At the Circus and A Night at the Opera) where I literally (and I do mean literally) fell out of my seat I was laughing so hard (the stateroom scene). 

Maybe it was at the theater in the student union at the University of South Carolina. They showed a different movie every night, either a foreign art film (that was where I discovered Bergman and Truffaut) or old Hollywood. Weekends were recently released films for $1.00. I certainly saw enough movies there, especially during my first two years when I lived in the dorms. I know that is where I first saw Monty Python and the Holy Grail (the second time I literally fell out of my seat with laughter) and Rocky Horror Picture Show (before we started throwing things at the screen). 

Or could it have been the Pittsburgh Playhouse, which was two blocks from where I lived my first year of Law School? This is something they definitely would have shown. It was where I saw Casablanca, and A Clockwork Orange (Singing in the Rain has never been the same). A couple years ago, I snuck into the Playhouse building, which was being used by the University for film studies. It looked totally different, but I was still so glad to visit it once again. I read that since then they tore it down (Noooooo!!!!!)

There is no doubt that His Girl Friday would have been part of a double-feature at the TLA on South Street when I first moved to Philly (now its just music). Probably paired with screwball comedies like Bringing up Baby or My Man Godfrey. I would have been sitting towards the front on the left-hand side. I’ve been back for concerts at the TLA since, and by instinct gravitate to that spot. 

If I hadn’t seen it at any of those theaters, I would have probably seen it as part of the Summer Nights series at the Ambler Theater once I moved out to the burbs. That series was big on James Bond films, and I know I saw the Godfather there, but there was plenty of old Tinsel Town masterpieces as well. I loved going there with my kids to see these films.

What does it say about me that some of the places I remember best in every city I lived are movie houses? They’re all of a style. Small, independent, willing to go beyond the most recent blockbuster. I can still feel the sensation of walking into these venues and seeing the big screen waiting to be lit up. Sinking into a well-worn seat and anxiously anticipating the dimming of the lights. There is nothing like it. 

I was once accused of never having seen a movie I didn’t like. With very few exceptions (don’t get me started on Happy Feet or No Country for Old Men) I stand guilty as charged!!!!!  

6 Replies to “Roll ‘Em”

  1. Ah, movies in college … at Colgate, they were shown in the largest auditorium on campus, in the Olin Science Building. We stood in line next to cases of dead, stuffed birds from the 1880s in the lobby. Two vivid memories: My Fair Lady (the one with Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison) and my new friends from NY City singing along with every word; and – like you – Monty Python and the Holy Grail on Halloween Eve with a couple of hundred of “happy” students in the audience. Like you say, there’s nothing like a collective laugh.

    1. I agree. When I first got to USC I was pretty lost. It was such a big school. The movie theater was my most consistent place of refuge until I started meeting people and making friends.

  2. Interestingly I walked out of No Country for Old Men with Rachel. I found it unwatchable. The only other movie I remember walking out of was Last Tango in Paris. Incredibly boring – Joy has walked out of many.

    1. You didn’t miss anything walking out. I thought No Country for Old Men was a beautifully shot homage to random violence. It really pissed me off when it won Best Picture.

  3. Pretty cool, and nostalgic, view of our movie theater experience. Since you enjoy the visual reference, I got to see my first all nude female form in an almost unheard of ‘The Flesh Eaters’ in a small town downtown movie theater. I wonder if I were a 7yr old seeing that same in my hood AMC, would it be the same? I s’pose so.

    The downtown Art Movie Theater didn’t make it through C-19. Shame. Saw many… there. I heard a commercial movie distributor is looking at the space … Hmmmk.

    It appears times are a changin. Poof! YouTube! On Demand Same Day! Gosh. It kinda makes this whole conversation a subject of a bunch of old guys/gals sittin on the porch.

    BTW: I later learned that the clip of the human being thrown into a vat of ‘Flesh Eaters’ to be removed as a skeleton, was a film of Nazi Conc Camp death. F’n A ! !

    Re-BTW: I’m absolutely positive I can tell you how disgusting Robin Williams ‘Lovelace/Ramon role in ’Happy Feet’ was the bottom of his career & you would find some way to rebut.

    1. Really sorry to hear that your theater closed. Hopefully someone will take it over. We have had that in the Philly area pretty extensively and it has worked out really well. As for The Flesh Eaters, it sounds like one I might add to my list of films that I don’t like, if I ever got to see it. Somehow, I don’t expect that it will be coming to a theater near me anytime soon.

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