The Reel San Francisco!

Film Schedule & Descriptions

Sat-Sun, April 16-17

BULLITT

Before Dirty Harry, there was Lt. Frank Bullitt. Steve McQueen's laconic loner is known as much for his sexy turtleneck and sports car as for his savvy police work. Incredible location shots of '60s San Francisco frame one of the most famous car chases of all time, in which Potrero Hill is just around the corner from Fisherman's Wharf. (1968)

(1:00), 5:00, 9:00

Nathaniel Rich (author San Francisco Noir) at Sun. 9pm show.

POINT BLANK

Lee Marvin's tour de force as the ultimate doomed hero Walker, who is betrayed—shot and left for dead—by his wife and best friend transforms this revenge thriller into an existenstial quest that leads from San Francisco to LA with the lovely Angie Dickinson in tow. The script, based on a Donald Westlake novel, was originally all set in SF, but director John Boorman felt the city was too beautiful for the cold, dark picture he had in mind. (1967)

(3:10), 7:10

Sat. April 16 — Late Show — 11:15pm

PSYCH-OUT

It's 1968 and 17-year-old deaf runaway Susan Strasberg comes to summer-of-love Haight-Ashbury looking for her brother Bruce Dern. Hippies Jack Nicholson, Dean Stockwell and Max Julien turn her onto the psychedelic lifestyle in this AIP wonder directed by Richard Rush and produced by (!) Dick Clark. (1968)

11:15pm

Mon-Tue, April 18-19

SAN FRANCISCO

Gambling halls, nightclubs, ambitious showgirls, Nob Hill socialites, and a doozy of an earthquake—all the elements of early 20th century San Francisco are limned in this Anita Loos-scripted romance. Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald and Spencer Tracey are a few of the plucky denizens whose spirits can't be crushed by a mere 8.6 temblor. And of course there's that fabulous song! (1936)

(2:35), 7:00

James Dalessandro (author, 1906) will introduce the Monday 7pm show

FOLLOW THE FLEET

Sailors Fred Astaire and Randolph Scott are on shore leave in San Francisco where they head off to the Paradise (same name as the club in San Francisco) to romance sisters Ginger Rogers and Harriet Hilliard. The exquisite Irving Berlin score includes "Let's Face the Music and Dance," and "Let Yourself Go." (1936)

(12:25) 4:50, 9:15

Wed, April 20

JOY LUCK CLUB

San Francisco-filmmaker Wayne Wang turned San Francisco-author Amy Tan's deeply moving novel into an equally moving film. The story is of four friends, immigrants from pre-revolutionary China and their American-born daughters, their hopes and dreams and generational conflicts. (1993)

(4:00), 8:40

Author Amy Tan in person at 8:40 show

GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER

Stanley Kramer's social message film was pretty controversial in the late '60s when interracial romance was still shocking. Patrician San Franciscans Matt and Joanna Drayton (Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in their last screen appearance together) must cope when their daughter's fiancé turns out to be Sidney Poitier. (1967)

(2:00), 6:30

Thurs-Fri, April 21-22

THE CONVERSATION

Gene Hackman is surveillance expert Harry Caul in this masterpiece of paranoia. Director Francis Coppola's brilliant script is at once an affecting character study and a psychological thriller, as genius sound man Walter Murch's sound montage gets under the skin. A time capsule look at San Francisco in the early '70s when mimes roamed the streets. (1974)

(2:45), 7:00

Walter Murch must go to New York with Sam Mendes' JARHEAD and is sorry to cancel. His assistant on THE CONVERSATION and editor Pat Jackson (APOCALYPSE NOW, THE RIGHT STUFF, THE ENGLISH PATIENT) will introduce the 7:00 showing on Thursday evening.

PETULIA

This artifact of San Francisco in the swinging '60s stars the luscious Julie Christie as a quixotic socialite who pursues and beds recently divorced George C. Scott. And what would '60s San Francisco be without the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company? Directed by Richard Lester. (1968)

(12:40), 4:55, 9:15

Sun, April 24 — 11:30am only (separate admission)

AMARILLY OF CLOTHES-LINE ALLEY

America's Sweetheart Mary Pickford plays Amarilly, a cigarette girl from one of San Francisco's working-class neighborhoods who falls for a swell who frequents her bar. Plus two classic silent shorts set in San Francisco, Charlie Chaplin's IN THE PARK and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's FATTY AND MABEL AT THE WORLD'S FAIR (that's the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition). (1918)

(11:30am)

Sat-Sun, April 23-24

THE MALTESE FALCON

John Huston's directorial debut based on Dashiell Hammett's novel is considered by some the first film noir. Certainly Humphrey Bogart's hardboiled Sam Spade ("when you're slapped, you'll take it and like it.") set the standard for all film detectives that followed. The extraordinary cast includes Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. (1941)

(1:30), 5:10, 8:55

THE MALTESE FALCON (aka DANGEROUS FEMALE)

Ricardo Cortez's Sam Spade is shall we say a little more of a morally ambiguous character than Bogey's. This pre-Code gem doesn't mince words—Sam beds every dame that crosses his path. (1931)

(3:30), 7:00

Hammett in SF tour guide Don Herron introduces Sunday shows

Noir City's Eddie Muller introduces Saturday evening shows

Mon-Tue, April 25-26

OUT OF THE PAST

Jacques Torneur's quintessential noir stars Robert Mitchum as the poor sap who can't outrun his past in the persons of gangster Kirk Douglas and fatale Jane Greer. The streets of San Francisco have never seemed more sinister. (1947)

(2:55), 7:00

SUDDEN FEAR

Wealthy playwright Joan Crawford lives in a San Francisco mansion (2800 Scott Street to be exact), marries her young lover Jack Palance and is set to live happily ever after… Until Gloria Grahame shows up, that is. (1952)

(12:45), 4:50, 8:55

Wed, April 27

CRUMB

San Francisco director Terry Zwigoff's remarkable documentary about Robert Crumb is an intimate portrait of the artist critic Robert Hughes calls "the Breughel of the 20th Century." A darkly funny, haunting film about the prodigiously talented, sex-obsessed Crumb; his troubled family; and our culture. (1994)

(1:05), 4:50, 8:30

Spain Rodriguez, legendary underground cartoonist, will introduce the 8:30 screening of CRUMB. He will be in the lobby to sign his new works before the show along with Ron Turner, founder of Last Gasp, the seminal publisher of underground comix by Rodriguez, R. Crumb and many others.

LENNY BRUCE: PERFORMANCE FILM

Director John Magnuson caught the great Lenny Bruce in his next-to-last appearance at San Francisco's Basin Street West before his untimely death. A fascinating document, this is a rare look at Bruce, an artist persecuted for being ahead of his time. (1967)

(3:25), 7:10

Director John Magnuson in person at 7:10

Thur, April 28

THE SNIPER

1952 San Francisco is the backdrop for this early treatment of the serial killer theme. Arthur Franz is a tortured sex offender parolee with a high-power rifle and Marie Windsor is his first victim. Adolphe Menjou (as Lt. Frank Kafka!) is the policeman in charge of stopping the carnage. Directed by Edward Dymtryk.

(3:10), 7:10

EXPERIMENT IN TERROR

A superb use of San Francisco locations and an amazing score by Henry Mancini frame this suspense thriller about a bank teller (Lee Remick) who's terrorized by extortionist Ross Martin and forced to assist in a robbery. The breathtaking climax takes place at Candlestick Park during a Giants-Dodgers game! Directed by Blake Edwards. (1962)

(12:50), 4:40, 8:50

Fri-Sat, April 29-30

HAROLD AND MAUDE

Hal Ashby's film about an unlikely couple—rich, depressed 20-year old Harold (Bud Cort) and 79-year old free spirit Maude (Ruth Gordon)—became an instant cult film upon its release in 1971 and remains a paean to life's possibilities. Great location work in San Francisco and environs and an enchanting Cat Stevens score. (1971)

(12:00), 3:30, 7:00, 10:30

PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM

One of the early, funny Woody Allen's is actually directed by Herbert Ross! Allen's screenplay has mild mannered film critic (played by Allen) getting romantic advice from the ghost of Humphrey Bogart, his hero. And of course Allen and costar Diane Keaton live in SF—where else would Bogart's hardboiled spirit reside? (1972)

(1:45), 5:15, 8:45

Actress Susan Anspach (FIVE EASY PIECES, MONTENEGRO) will introduce PLAY IT AGAIN SAM 8:45 shows Friday and Saturday, and take Q&A following the 5:15 show on Saturday

Sun, May 1 — 11:30am only (separate admission)

OUTSIDE THE LAW

Lon Chaney delivers a dual performance of dynamic intensity, starring as Ah Wing, a kind-hearted student of Confucian philosophy, and Black Mike Sylva, a murderous rake of the San Francisco underworld, tempting Priscilla Dean to choose between lives of crime and domesticity. Directed by master of the macabre Tod Browning (Freaks, Dracula). Plus shorts, trailers and home movies of Chaney in San Francisco!

Accompanied by Jon Mirsalis live on the piano.

Sun-Mon, May 1-2

VERTIGO

Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece makes the most exquisite use of San Francisco locations, with mystery shrouding the city like fog. Ex-police detective James Stewart is drawn into a psychological vortex as he follows the possessed Kim Novak around the city. Bernard Herrmann's haunting score crowns this work of genius. (1958)

(2:55), 7:00

Author Aaron Leventhal (FOOTSTEPS IN THE FOG) introduces Sunday showings.

WOMAN ON THE RUN

This rare noir stars wisecracking Ann Sheridan, who, with the aid of newspaperman Dennis O'Keefe, is searching for her missing husband. The husband dropped out of sight after witnessing a gangland murder and is, of course, being tracked by the killer. The chase takes them through great '50s San Francisco locations including the bygone Playland at the Beach. (1950)

(1:20), 5:20, 9:25

Noir City's Eddie Muller introduces Sun. 1:20 show.

Tue, May 3

DREAM WITH THE FISHES

The tagline for San Francisco director Finn Taylor's indie feature reads: "An oddball odyssey about voyeurism, LSD and nude bowling!" Which doesn't begin to touch on the eloquence of this beguiling character study starring David Arquette and Brad Hunt. (1997)

(3:25), 7:00

Director Finn Taylor and special guests in person at 7:00

DOPAMINE

What is the nature of attraction? Is love merely the body's neurochemical response to attractive stimuli? San Francisco computer programmer John Livingston's intellectual approach to the question is undermined by the lovely Sabrina Lloyd in this intelligent romantic comedy. Directed by Mark Decena. (2003)

(1:50), 5:20, 9:10

Director Mark Decena and guests at 9:10

Wed, May 4

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS

Director Phil Kaufman's inspired take on the 1950s horror classic casts San Francisco in a creepy, paranoid light as Donald Sutherland and Brooke Adams try to stay a step ahead of the pod people. W.D. Richter's script bristles with '70s details and Kaufman pays homage to the original film with cameos by director Don Siegel and star Kevin McCarthy. (1978)

(1:00), 4:45, 8:30

Director Phil Kaufman introduces 8:30pm show

IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA

Out of primordial depths to destroy the world! Will the scientists and the nuclear sub captain be able to stop the giant octopus before it demolishes the Golden Gate Bridge!!? Special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen lost two of the monster's eight arms to budget constraints in this 1955 marvel.

(3:15), 7:00

Stop motion and special effects wizard Phil Tippett introduces 7:00 show

Thu, May 5

THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK

Director Rob Epstein's heartbreaking film about California's first openly gay politician Harvey Milk won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in1985. It chronicles the social and political climate in the '60s and '70s that led to San Francisco becoming a gay mecca, and the horrible reaction that led to Milk's assassination. (1984)

(3:15), 7:00

Director Rob Epstein's schedule has changed and he must be in New York. In his place will be Jim Rivaldo, a friend of Harvey Milk, political consultant who developed Milk's campaign strategy to run for Supervisor. Rivaldo was instrumental in working on the film's research.

THE COCKETTES

The Cockettes emerged from the cultural soup of San Francisco in the Summer of Love, a group of hippie acid freak drag queens that reigned supreme in the early '70s. This legendary theatrical ensemble is celebrated in Bill Weber and David Weissman's wonderful documentary. (2002)

(1:20), 5:00, 9:00

Co-director Bill Weber and special guests at 9:00

Fri-Sat, May 6-7

DARK PASSAGE

(1:45), 5:35, 9:25

Miguel Pendás, Creative Director of the San Francisco Film Society and a film noir gourmand, whose film noir tours of San Francisco have been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle and on KPIX Evening Magazine, introduces Saturday 9:25 show.

THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI

Orson Welles directs, as well as plays the sap to Rita Hayworth's seductive adulteress in this ravishing thriller. As in all of Welles's films, the camerawork is dazzling, with evocative use made of San Francisco Chinatown, the Steinhardt Aquarium and Playland's Hall of Mirrors. (1947)

(12:00), 3:50, 7:40

Nathanial Rich (author of SAN FRANCISCO NOIR) introduces Friday 7:40 show.

Sun, May 8

GREED

Erich von Stroheim's original cut of Greed clocked in at over nine hours. MGM cut the film to 140 minutes to von Stroheim's disgust—he disowned the version, which lead to a fistfight with Louis B. Mayer. Even truncated, the surviving film—the story of lives undone by sudden fortune—is an unmitigated masterpiece. An incredible look at '20s San Francisco (check out 611 Laguna St.), Oakland and Death Valley. (1924)
(2:30), 7:00

Frederick Hodges returns to the Balboa after his successful performance of TORRENT with Nik Phelps at our Birthday Bash. Hodges will accompany both showings of GREED.

OLD SAN FRANCISCO

Reportedly the film caused a riot in San Francisco's Chinatown in 1927 for its portrayal of opiate-trading, white-slaving Asians. This curiosity features Warner Oland (the future Charlie Chan) and the beautiful Anna May Wong as "A Flower of the Orient." (1927)
(12:45), 5:10, 9:35

Mon-Tue, May 9-10

DIRTY HARRY

Clint Eastwood's Harry Callahan has no patience for the niceties of police work and little respect for authority. But when a job needs to get done in the crime-ridden streets of San Francisco, the brass sends Harry. This is the film that transformed Eastwood from cowboy to cop and made him a superstar. Directed by Don Siegel. (1971)
(1:40), 5:15, 9:00

THE LINEUP

Crazed killers traverse San Francisco, from the Sutro Baths to the Mark Hopkins to the War Memorial Opera House, in search of some lost heroin. Eli Wallach and Robert Keith limn the psychotic duo in Don Siegel's precursor to his later Dirty Harry. (1958)
(12:00), 3:35, 7:15

Music and Film Critic Greil Marcus, author of "Mystery Train," "Lipstick Traces," and most recently "The Manchurian Candidate" in the British Film Institute Classic Films series and of "Like a Rolling Stone — Bob Dylan at the Crossroads", introduces Tues. 7:15 show of THE LINEUP

Wed, May 11

JANIS

This compilation film documents San Francisco icon, the great Janis Joplin in concert with her backup bands—Big Brother and the Holding Company, Kosmic Blues Band, and the Full Tilt Boogie Band. Songs include: "Piece of My Heart," and "Ball and Chain." (1974)
(12:55), 5:05, 9:15

THE LAST WALTZ

Martin Scorsese was on hand when legendary rockers The Band took their farewell bow at the 1976 Thanksgiving concert at Winterland. The first rock concert to be filmed in 35mm features amazing performances by The Band and a few friends, including Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Van Morrison and more! (1978)
(2:50), 7:00