Universal Pictures: Celebrating 100 Years

8/3/12 to 8/31/12

Join us in celebrating the hundred-year legacy of Universal Pictures, a studio known for challenging the distinctions between fine art and popular entertainment. We present a wide range of Universal's productions, including much-admired classics (All Quiet On the Western Front), beloved horror films (Dracula, The Mummy), suspense films (The Birds), and even a sex farce (Pillow Talk). Here's to another hundred years.

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Past Films

  • High Plains Drifter

    • Friday, August 31 9:05 pm

    Clint Eastwood (U.S., 1973). A mysterious stranger wreaks havoc on a small Western town, but it is unclear whether he is a flesh-and-blood human being or a ghost. As Eastwood remarked on the film, “There is always retribution for your deeds.” (105 mins)

  • Pillow Talk

    • Wednesday, August 29 7 pm

    Michael Gordon (U.S., 1959). A colossal critical and box-office success, the sophisticated bedroom farce Pillow Talk pairs Rock Hudson and Doris Day as two singletons sharing a party line. The film garnered Day her only Oscar nomination, established her as a fashion icon, and became her most identifiable role. (110 mins)

  • Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

    • Sunday, August 26 5:15 pm

    Charles T. Barton (U.S., 1948) Family Fun! The title undersells it: Abbot and Costello don't simply meet Frankenstein's monster, but the whole stable of the Universal horror canon, including Dracula and the Wolf Man. Perhaps the best-reviewed title in Abbott and Costello's long career, the beloved evergreen remains a landmark genre mashup. (83 mins)

  • Do the Right Thing

    • Saturday, August 25 8:30 pm

    Spike Lee (U.S., 1989). Writer-director-actor Lee's third feature, a lively, frequently hilarious but hard-hitting drama, charts mounting racial tensions on the hottest day of the year in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. “The funniest, most stylized, most visceral New York street scene this side of Scorseseland” (J. Hoberman, Village Voice). (120 mins)

  • Francis

    • Sunday, August 19 5 pm

    Arthur Lubin (U.S., 1950) Family Fun! A WWII comedy about a talking Army mule named Francis, this film was the first of seven Francis films that appeared in the 1950s. Donald O'Connor stars as Peter Stirling, an inept second lieutenant who is rescued on the battlefield by the mule at the film's outset, only to be serially committed and released from the mental ward by unbelieving superiors whenever he explains Francis's role in his subsequent adventures. (91 mins)

  • The Birds

    • Saturday, August 18 8:40 pm

    Alfred Hitchcock (U.S., 1963). The Birds does for our fine feathered friends what Psycho did for showers, as a seaside community (Bodega Bay) is terrorized when seemingly normal birds turn suddenly and inexplicably malevolent. Noted for its rapid montage of attack sequences and Bernard Herrmann's score, composed entirely of manipulated bird sounds. (120 mins)

  • Dracula

    • Sunday, August 12 4 pm

    Tod Browning (U.S., 1931) Family Fun! Bela Lugosi's eerie portrayal of the Transylvanian bloodsucker set the bar for all future Draculas in this iconic horror film. Followed by The Mummy (Karl Freund, 1932), with Boris Karloff as an ancient Egyptian priest driven to possess the modern-day incarnation of his long-lost love; an enduring contribution to the pantheon of Universal monsters. (152 mins)

  • All Quiet on the Western Front

    • Wednesday, August 8 7 pm

    Lewis Milestone (U.S., 1930). Director Lewis Milestone won an Academy Award for this film, one of the boldest statements ever made about the cruelty and futility of war. Set in Europe during WWI, the plot follows the disillusionment of idealist young German soldiers as they confront the realities of the battlefield. (143 mins)

  • Never Give a Sucker an Even Break

    • Sunday, August 5 5:30 pm

    Edward Cline (U.S., 1941) Family Fun! In this classic, W.C. Fields plays himself, searching for a chance to promote a surreal screenplay he has written. This zany collection of song, slapstick, and thumbnail sketches will make you “laugh your head off” (NY Times). (70 mins)

  • Imitation of Life

    • Friday, August 3 7 pm

    John M. Stahl (U.S., 1934). The lives of a black maid (Louise Beavers) and a white widow (Claudette Colbert) intersect in a scheme to manufacture pancake batter, in this melodrama from an unfortunately little-known director. Nominated for three Academy Awards, Imitation of Life was named by Time in 2007 as one of the twenty-five most important films on race. (116 mins)