Holiday Film Fun at The Tivoli

One of my favorite traditions of the holiday season is currently underway at the Tivoli Theater in Downers Grove, IL, the town I currently reside in, having moved there in 2003. One of the reasons I moved to Downers Grove was to be close to the Tivoli Theater.

It’s likely odd to most people that I would choose to live in a community because of a movie theater (though likely not odd to regular readers of this blog.) But it wasn’t too much of a move, seeing as I was re-locating one town over from neighboring Westmont, where I lived for 13 years. So I’ve been going to the Tivoli regularly for almost 20 years. I hope I can say that for (at least) another 20 years.

Each year in December the Tivoli runs the five-day Holiday Film Festival. In the past the festival consisted of classic cinema, such as “The Adventures of Robin Hood” (1938), “Top Hat” (1935), “Shane” (1953) and other cinematic gems. The last couple of years however, the festival has focused on seasonal favorites. The selections vary from year to save for annual returns visit of “White Christmas” (1954) and “Christmas Vacation” (1989) which are sellouts year after year. But the other three days are given to different Christmas movies.

This week I enjoyed the great privilege of seeing projected on the big screen “Holiday Inn” (1942) and the sublime “Remember the Night.” (1940). “The Lemon Drop Kid” (1951), which introduced the song “Silver Bells”, was shown on Tuesday evening, the same time it was showing on TCM.

(If it wasn’t for “Christmas Vacation”, the Tivoli could have billed this week as a Paramount Christmas Celebration!)

I’ve written about the Tivoli before, and thought I would repeat what I wrote for latecomers to this blog.

The Tivoli is one of the jewels of the Chicago area. Lovingly restored by the fine folks at Classic Cinemas, a Chicago-area theater chain, the Tivoli is one of the longest-running continually operating movie theaters in the Chicago area.

Designed by the Chicago architecture firm of Van Gunten and Van Gunten, the Tivoli was one of the first theaters in the country to be constructed with sound equipment in mind. Early newspaper ads trumpeted its Vitaphone equipment and local newspapers called it “the wonder theater of suburban Chicago.”

It opened its doors for the first time on Christmas Day in 1928. The first attraction was Howard Hawks’ “Fazil” (1928) starring Charles Farrell, Greta Nyssen, John Boles and Mae Busch. More than 4,000 people turned up on Christmas to attend that first show, a neat trick since the theater only sat 1,390. It’s been running ever since.

A local restaurant has posted on its wall newspaper coverage of the restaurant’s 1955 opening. On the same page is an ad for the Tivoli that week, a double feature of “Not as a Stranger” and “One Desire.” That’s a long double feature but you know what? I would have been as happy as a clam at that double feature.

In addition to showing second-run movies with a sound system and screen size that puts most first-run theaters to shame, the Tivoli also presents live stage shows and concerts. A local dance troupe presents “The Nutcracker” ballet every December. Anderson’s Bookstore, a local independent book store, also hosts author appearances there, including Julie Andrews, a frequent visitor. Kevin Bacon and his band performed at the Tivoli a few years ago.

The theater’s interior is beautiful French Renaissance and remarkably little has changed over the years. Oh, there has been repainting and touch-ups. There’s a new marquee and a new candy counter. They made the spaces between the rows wider, necessitating removing some of the seats. (Current seating now stands 1,012 seats, a few hundred less than there was originally).

But the rest is still the same. Stepping into that beautiful auditorium is like being transported into a genuine movie palace, and when vintage films are shown there the results are breathtaking.

I always feel the time travel tingle when crisp, beautiful black and white images are shown there. I love the fact that a working 1920s-era movie palace is within walking distance of my house.

Recently updated to using digital projection, I believe the Tivoli screens its classic films using DVDs and Blu Rays. It’s beyond thrilling to see these films in this magnificent auditorium.

“Holiday Inn” was a particularly wonderful evening. We got there about 6:30 for a 7:00 start time and the holiday sing-along was already in progress. With a live organist providing musical accompaniment, slides are shown with the lyrics projected on the screen and everyone is invited to sing along with a live singer. (No bouncing ball, alas). This particular crowd was pretty reticent at first, but as the 7:00 start time approached, more people joined in.

The audience was obviously comprised of “Holiday Inn” lovers and I’m glad to say every age group and generations of families were in attendance. I didn’t see one electronic device be turned on the entire film. By the time movie started the auditorium was about three fourths filled and hearty applause greeted the film’s opening titles. Almost every number got applause, with the loudest reserved for Bing Crosby singing “White Christmas” and Fred Astaire’s Fourth of July firecracker dance. There was loud and sustained applause and cheers at the end titles and over the cast list. It was a great experience.

I’ve always felt that “Remember the Night” would be as much a beloved favorite as the other great holiday movies if only more people knew about it. Television screenings were spotty over the years, and despite a VHS release and its recent appearance on DVD, its previous unavailability means it’s not known by too many people. I hope that changes soon. I feel the same way about “The Shop Around the Corner” (1940), the OTHER great Jimmy Stewart Christmas movie that is beyond sublime. If only more people knew about it….

“Remember the Night” was written by Preston Sturges, so you know it’s something special. I’m deliberately skipping over some key plot points, but in a nutshell the movie concerns District Attorney Fred MacMurray who doesn’t want to see shoplifting suspect Barbara Stanwyck spend the Christmas holidays in jail when her case is held over until the New Year. He brings her home to Indiana to spend the holidays with his family on their farm in Indiana. Despite knowing her status, his family accepts her and Fred and Barbara slowly find themselves falling in love with each other.

I loved how the movie mixes equal parts comedy, drama and romance and heartache. Easier said than done, and few movies can switch gears with this much aplomb. If it was easy, everyone could do it. But it isn’t easy, yet it looks effortless here.

Some contemporaries of mine feel like everything that came out of Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s was formula. But there’s a scene in “Remember the Night” that strikes me as something very special, and quite modern. It’s a love scene between the two at Niagara Falls.

They discuss their hopes for a future together (knowing he has to put her behind bars once they return to New York), and the sequence is beautifully written and performed by the two actors. Director Mitchell Leisen puts their faces in darkness, so you can’t see their expressions. Instead we have to listen especially hard to the dialogue and voice inflections. The lack of light brings us into the scene with a shocking degree of intimacy. I was entranced by this scene, as I was the entire movie.

The audience seemed receptive to the movie, and there was rapt attention throughout. I noticed only one person turn on an electronic device at the beginning but it remained off the remainder of the movie. (People who turn on electronic devices in a movie theater should not be allowed to breed.)

The applause was very generous at the end and my friend who went with me who is hardly an old movie fan just loved it.

The Holiday Film Festival is still going on and I can’t wait to see what they offer next year. They have yet to show “Going My Way” (1944) or “The Shop Around the Corner” (1940). I hope to see those on the big screen one day. (They showed “The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945) a few years ago, but not the first Father O’Malley movie.)

Oh, and I didn’t mention the other great thing about the Tivoli. Unlimited refills on any size popcorn and soda.

Trail of Robin Hood

I love the classic Christmas movies as much as the next person, but familiarity with them over the years tends to breed….not contempt, but a mild kind of ennui. I need to take a break from watching titles like “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946) or “Miracle on 34^th Street” (1947) and return to them a few years down the road so I don’t tire of them.

But I still adore Christmas movies and an always on the lookout for new ones to savor. Last year I saw for the first time the delightful “Holiday Affair” (1949) with Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh, which I will be returning to with much happy anticipation.

One title that doesn’t sound like a Christmas movie but is one is “Trail of Robin Hood” (1950), a Republic B-western starring Roy Rogers as a U.S. Soil Conservation worker going after Christmas tree rustlers.

Christmas tree rustlers? Scoff if you must, but it’s a most pleasant 67-minute film that left me thoroughly entertained and brimming with holiday cheer.

Filmed in TruColor, an admittedly lesser though acceptable color process, “Trail of Robin Hood” is set in Republic’s contemporary western fantasy land, where six shooters and buck board wagons share the scene with convertibles and televisions.

In one of his last films Jack Holt plays himself, a retired screen actor and now tree farmer who has earned enough money that he wants to sell Christmas trees to needy families and the local orphanages for 75 cents each, rather than the much higher prices charged by J. Corwin Aldridge (Emory Parnell), a businessman from the big city who possesses a monopoly on Christmas tree sales in the area, save for Holt’s farm.

Aldridge’s daughter Toby (not Dale Evans, but Penny Edwards) volunteers to head down to see what the hold up is with Holt not signing on with her father.

She meets with Roy Rogers and soon throws in with him, especially since Aldridge’s main muscle Mitch McCall (Clifton Young) has gone from stealing Christmas trees from Holt’s farm to acts of vandalism, arson and beating up Holt’s drivers, all in an attempt to cut out Aldridge and keep all the profits to himself.

With the drivers too scared to deliver their wagons of Christmas trees to the orphans, who comes to the rescue but a slew of past and present cowboy stars playing themselves. Riding into town and volunteering to drive the wagons full of Christmas trees are current cowboy stars Rex Allen (Republic’s other singing cowboy), Allan “Rocky” Lane and Monte Hale. Matinee cowboy stars from previous eras include William Farnum, Tom Tyler, Ray “Crash” Corrigan, Kermit Maynard (Ken’s brother) and Tom Keene.

This being a Roy Rogers movie, there are plenty of songs. There are no Christmas standards on hand – I guess Roy felt there was no way he was going to compete with Gene Autry in that field – but the songs are very pleasant. They include such titles as “Get a Christmas Tree for Johnny” and “Every Day is Christmas in the West.”

(You may not have heard of them but they are very likeable, hummable and are infinitely preferable to Paul McCartney’s “We’re Having a Wonderful Christmas Time”, my vote for the most execrable Christmas song of all time. End of aside.)

Director is ace action expert William Witney, a great favorite of Quentin Tarantino. He knows how to keep a good balance between the songs and the action, and anyone bored with the songs still have their fill of horseback chases, rescues from burning buildings and fist fights. Concurrently, those bored with the action have pleasant music interludes to enjoy.

The climax is an exciting one, involving all those great cowboy stars racing their wagons full of Christmas trees across a burning railroad trestle, while on the ground below Rogers and McCall duke it out in the best Republic fist fight tradition.

I don’t think I’m giving anything away that the Christmas trees are safely delivered. Aldridge decides to team up with Holt to provide affordable Christmas trees to everyone. In the last scene it starts snowing and Roy Rogers and Trigger ride off, accompanied by his dog Bullet.

To be sure “Trail of Robin Hood” will never make anyone list of great Christmas movies, but I had a most enjoyable time watching it. I can only imagine how kids in 1950 flocked to see this one, seeing Roy Rogers and Trigger take on a gang of meanies hijacking Christmas trees meant for the local orphans.

I would imagine adults enjoyed it too, and despite its modest pleasures, I look forward to re-visiting this one, along with George Bailey, Kris Kringle, Dudley the Angel, Mr. Matuschek and so many others.

It also made me wonder how many other cinematic Christmas gems are out there waiting to be unwrapped.

3 Godfathers

When one thinks of the classic Christmas movies, John Ford’s “3 Godfathers” (1948) doesn’t normally come to mind, but there’s no reason why it shouldn’t. After all they did celebrate Christmas in the old west and “3 Godfathers” elicits as much good cheer, warmth and hope as other fabled classics.

Despite owning the DVD and having the opportunity to catch it on TCM three times this month, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to catch it on the big screen at the Tivoli Theater in Downers Grove as part of their holiday film series.

It was a fabulous evening.

“3 Godfathers” details what happens when three bank robbers (John Wayne, Pedro Armendariz and Harry Carey, Jr.) stage a holdup in an Arizona town. Chased by a posse and having their water bags shot in the ensuing chase by the town’s marshal (Ward Bond), they make their way across the desert. They lose their horses in a sandstorm and continue the trek on foot.

They come across an abandoned wagon with a dying woman (Mildred Natwick) alone and about to give birth. She asks the men to be the godfather of her child and see to his safety. A baby boy is successfully delivered and the mother dies. The three new godfathers, bereft of horses and short of water, decide the child’s safety is more important than their freedom and decide to bring the child to a town called New Jerusalem. Where is it? Well, there’s a real bright star in the sky over their destination that helps guide them toward the town. And it’s Christmas Eve.

Like a lot of Ford’s films, this offers equal doses of action, humanity, comedy, drama, pathos and a loving sense of community. Thanks to Winton Hoch’s stunning Technicolor cinematography, the famous Lone Pine, California locations never looked lovelier, or when needed, more desolate, than here.

The scenes with the men tending to the baby’s needs are not played for broad comedy, but instead are infused with a gentle humor.

This was the screen debut of Harry Carey, Jr. and the film opens with a touching dedication to his father, who had recently died and had appeared in many of Ford’s silent westerns. Carey Jr. went on to a distinguished career in many westerns and is thankfully still with us, having recently provided an audio commentary to Ford’s classic “Wagon Master” (1950).

Despite being bank robbers, the three are really not bad men. Before robbing the bank, they engage in some good natured ribbing with Bond and his wife (silent screen star and Ford favorite Mae Marsh). Other members of the John Ford Stock Company on hand include Ben Johnson, Hank Worden and Jane Darwell. The film’s composer, Richard Hageman, appears as a piano player in a saloon, playing Christmas carols on Christmas Day.

I was a tad nervous at last night’s presentation, as there was a large number of what appeared to be grandparents accompanies by their young grandkids. Would they be bored and start to get antsy? I needn’t have worried as there was very good audience attention throughout. I’d say there were about 150-200 people there, not packed but more than respectable for a 1948 western. The kids exhibited no restlessness at all. Maybe they had never seen a western before, so it was as alien to them as a new planet in a “Star Wars” movie.

Two nights before the Tivoli had shown “Miracle on 34th Street” (1947) but I left after a few minutes when the image was stretched to fill the whole screen. AARGH, I hate that. I complained the next day and received a very nice call from Chris Johnson, with Classic Cinemas. He was very apologetic and said it should have been projected in the right aspect ratio. He said they would make ensure “3 Godfathers” was screened in the right aspect ratio (square shaped) and it was. What a treat it was!

He said I was the only one to complain and I was surprised at that. Didn’t anyone else notice that Kris Kringle appeared shorter and squatter? A friend of mine has a theory that so many people now have big screen TVs and they want the whole image filled that they don’t even notice. Makes sense to me.

Anyway, if you’re tired of the traditional Christmas classics, and want to give a year’s rest to George Bailey, Ebeneezer or Bing and Rosemary, give “3 Godfathers” a chance. I think you’d be pleasantly surprised.