LOCAL ENTERTAINMENT:

Baltimore Movie Museum Posts Schedule

SERIES: "Attack! of the B Movies!"

• Wed. Jan. 5--"Mothra" (1961, Honda)
  "Mothra," a fave of all of the Japanese monsters, lives (with some odd inhabitants) on an island used for atomic tests. When a pair of tiny women are kidnapped from the island and displayed in a vaudeville show, Mothra invades Tokyo to save them.


• Wed. Jan. 12--"King Kong" (1933, Cooper and Schoedsack)
  The original! Shooting a movie on a mysterious island, starlet Ann Darrow (the late Fay Wray) is almost sacrificed to the natives' god, King Kong. Captured and brought to New York, Kong (of course) tours the Empire State Building!


• Wed. Jan. 19--"Jason and the Argonauts" (1963, Chaffey)
  Jason assembles a sailing crew of the finest men in ancient Greece to find the Golden Fleece. Special effects genius Ray Harryhausen stages a legendary sword fight between three live actors and seven skeletons.


• Wed. Jan. 26--"Them!" (1954, Douglas)
  Nuclear tests produce gigantic mutant ants, clawing out from mile-deep catacombs to terrorize America! Think twice before squishing that ant! Kill one and two take its place!

Wed. Feb. 2--"Orpheus" (1949, Cocteau)
Poet Orpheus is torn by his love for his wife Eurydice and the mysterious Princess. He follows the Princess to the land of the dead through Cocteau's "mirrored portal." The director's visually poetic style merges the real with imagined in this centerpiece to his Orphic Trilogy.

• Wed. Feb. 9--"Le Million" (1931, Clair)
  An artist, dogged by bill collectors, buys a winning lottery ticket. But the ticket is in his coat. . . which he left at his girlfriend's. . . who gave the coat to a man . . . who sells the coat to an opera singer... This masterpiece profoundly impacted the Marx Brothers, Charlie Chaplin, and the American musical.


• Wed. Feb. 16--The Surrealist Revolution: "Un Chien Andalou" (1928, Dali, Brunel), "Entr'acte" (1923, Clair); "Retour a la Raison" (Return to Reason) (1924, Man Ray)
  Surrealist filmmakers of the 1920s startled and unnerved audiences with their portrayals of the free associations of the unconscious mind. "Un Chien Andalou" is an off-kilter dreamscape, "Entr'acte" is full of Dadaist absurdity, and "Return to Reason" was created with film stock, light and objects, entirely without a camera.

• Wed. Feb. 23--"Man with a Movie Camera" (1927, Vertov) with Trockeneis
  Andy Hayleck, Catherine Pancake, Audrey Chen, Paul Neidhardt, Dan Breen, an all-star team of experimental musicians, offer sonic reaction to Vertov's ground-breaking documentary pioneering the "camera as eye" style of shooting. Instruments include bowed metals, dry ice and voice.


• Wed. Mar. 2--"The Man Who Planted Trees" (1987, Giorno) & "Conquest of the Pole" (1912, Melies) with "Flophouse Martians"
  John Berndt and Melissa Moore play reeds and their own inventions; Bob Wagner percussion and electronics, creating stark sound/image contrasts and a whole new cinema experience! Animated tale of one man's quest to re-forest a desert and one of the first sci-fi films takes us to the arctic!


• Wed. Mar. 9--"Nanook of the North" (1922, Flaherty) with The Anomoanon
  "Nanook of the North" is the most important film you've never seen. Now you can with a brand-new soundtrack by Baltimore folk rock gods The Anomoanon. Actually a dramatization of Inuit hunter Nanook and his family in the harsh conditions of Hudson Bay, Nanook was credited as the first documentary and may be to blame for reality TV!


• Wed. Mar. 16--"Golem" (1920, Wegener) with Yeveto
  Dark, humorous soundtrack! A German expressionist masterpiece, one of the first and most influential horror movies. An astrologer/rabbi foresees doom for the Jews, molding a forbidding clay golem to save his people but events spiral out of control. Official soundtrack cd release party!


• Wed. Mar. 23--"Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1919, Wiene) with Madagascar
  A mad somnambulist commits murder in a small town. An extraordinary expressionist film, as decadent as it is anguished. The fantastic, stylized sets are matched by Madagascar's moody, Eastern-influenced score. Featuring Michael and Anthony Lambright and Justin Lucas on accordions, musical saw, upright bass and ukulele.


• Wed. Mar. 30--"A Trip to the Moon, The Kingdom of the Fairies" (1902, 1903 Melies), "Gertie the Dinosaur" (1909, McCay), "Anemic Cinema" (1925, Duchamp) with Liz Downing and Michael Willis
  Liz Downing and Michael Willis of Radiant Pig use harmony, banjo, pre-recorded sound and guitar flying us through cinema's first sci-fi and animated flicks. A princess is abducted only for her pursuing prince to be shipwrecked. A wizard-like professor and Victorian gentlemen build a rocket to be blasted off by chorus girls. "Gertie the Dinosaur" is the first animated cartoon ever made.

• Sat. Apr. 2--Camm Annual Maryland Movie Panel "Hairspray" (1988, Waters) with an All-Star Panel including Dave Insley, Pat Moran, Lee Gardner and Brenda Richardson
  Now a Broadway hit, Waters' most accessible film blazes with trashy style and razorblade wit. Full-figured hairhopper Tracy Turnblad (Ricki Lake) becomes a regular on the Corny Collins Show, using her star status to push for desegregation and clashing with catty Amber Von Tussle for the title of Miss Auto Show 1963. Set in Highlandtown! Starring Divine, Pia Zadora, Debbie Harry, and Sonny Bono. 8pm. $10, $7 mbrs.


• Wed. Apr. 6--"Polyester" (1981, Waters)
  Divine plays a dissatisfied housewife longing for a little romance. Drive-in owner Tod Tomorrow (Tab Hunter) sweeps Francine off her feet, but he's not all he's cracked up to be. Originally filmed in Odorama, imagine the scents on the Odorama scratch-and-sniff card during the film's theatrical release.


• Wed. Apr .13--"Pink Flamingos" (1974, Waters)
  An illegal lesbian adoption ring and the most famous pile of dog feces in film history... Gleefully depraved, grotesquely hilarious, Waters' take on status, beauty and celebrity made him (in)famous. An all-star Dreamland cast includes David Lochary, Mink Stole, Mary Vivian Pierce, Edie Massey and Divine, defending her title of "filthiest person alive."


• Wed. Apr. 20--"Cry-Baby" (1990, Waters)
  He's a doll. He's a dreamboat. He's a delinquent. Johnny Depp is Cry-Baby and he makes good girls want to go bad. It's the squares vs. the greasers in a rockabilly musical! With Iggy Pop and Ricki Lake.


• Wed. Apr. 27--"Desperate Living" (1977, Waters)
  One of Waters' most outrageous films! Crazy housewife Mink Stole murders her husband with help from her maid (Jean Hill) and escapes to Mortville, the shantytown built by designer Vince Peranio of scavenged lumber and junk. Edie Massey rules the kingdom with an iron fist and assistance from cranky pre-op transsexual Susan Lowe and her sexpot lover Liz Renay. Just $3 if you donate blood to Red Cross today at Creative Alliance. (3pm-8pm, res. req'd).