Classics Night

Once a month - for one night only - we present a special Classic film from the past.  All seats are usually $8.00 for Classics Night.

Past Classics Nights have included THE WIZARD OF OZ, BEN HUR, METROPOLIS, THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, THE KING OF HEARTS, DR ZHIVAGO, JULIET OF THE SPIRITS, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, JAILHOUSE ROCK, DR. STRANGELOVE, GONE WITH THE WIND, SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD,  HAROLD & MAUDE, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, CITIZEN KANE, ZORBA THE GREEK, MODERN TIMES, THE GOOD THE BAD & THE UGLY, ON THE WATERFRONT, WHITE CHRISTMAS, Howard Hughes' HELL'S ANGELS, SUNSET BOULEVARD, 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY, INHERIT THE WIND, CASABLANCA, BABY DOLL,  THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, and Sing-a-Long SOUND OF MUSIC.

Silent Film Event -  When it opened in July 1936, Lynwood Theatre was Bainbridge Island's first (and only) talking motion picture house.  So each year on July 5 we present a Silent Film to commemorate the art form which preceded us - with LIVE MUSIC ACCOMPANIMENT by Dennis James, organist extraordinaire.  So far we've delighted audiences with Buster Keaton's THE CAMERAMAN (1928),  THE BLACK PIRATE (1926) with Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin's THE GOLD RUSH (1925), Marion Davies in SHOW PEOPLE (1928) and Rudolph Valentino as THE SON OF THE SHEIK (1926).  With world-renowned accompanist Dennis James at the organ, we bring to life silent classics just as they were presented in the 1920's.
73rd Anniversary Silent Classic  - Sunday, July 5 . . . 1:30 and 7:00 p.m.
With live music accompaniment by Dennis James . . .




 THE CROWD
1928   -  104 minutes

Oscar Nominations  -  Best Director and Best Picture for Unique & Artistic Production

James Murray and Eleanor Boardman
Directed by King Vidor  [WAR & PEACE, THE CHAMP]

THE CROWD (1928) is a genuine, immortal, timeless American silent film masterpiece from Director King Vidor.  This experimental, social commentary film was remarkably different from other feature films of its time because of its non-Hollywood reflection of daily life.  In fact, it's considered one of the first arthouse films made by a major studio.  Talking about this film, MGM production boss Irving Thalberg once said that every so often a studio should make a great movie it knows will lose money.  THE CROWD is about an average Joe's struggles through life starting with his birth on the Fourth of July, 1900.  It shows him in childhood, talking about how he's going to be a big man someday, then it takes up his life as an adult as he tries to make it in New York.   One of the virtues of  THE CROWD is that it's not what you expect -  It's about an everyday guy without much drive or talent who goes through life thinking he's a world-beater.  Miss that point and you miss the beauty of what Vidor does with the film.  What's extraordinary is that what could have come off as a case study instead packs a consistently strong emotional punch.  At the same time, the location filming in New York, rare in its day, gives a flavor of urban life 80 years ago.



With film intro & live music accompaniment by Dennis James

All Seats $12.00
Advance Tickets Available at Lynwood Theatre

Classics Night  - Monday, August 10 . . . Matinee and 7:00 p.m.




 CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF
1958   -  108 minutes

6 Oscar Nominations  -  Best Picture, Director, Actor & Actress, Screenplay & Cinematography

Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives
Directed by Richard Brooks  [ELMER GANTRY, IN COLD BLOOD]

CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF is the powerful, highly-charged story of a neurotic, dysfunctional Southern family with its rivalries, tensions, and avarice.  Its provocative screenplay by Richard Brooks and James Poe was adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name by Tennessee Williams, so you know it's going to sizzle.  Because of strict censorship Production Codes in the late 1950s at the height of Hollywood's concern about film content, all references to homosexuality and four-letter words were deleted, watered down, or obscured from the shocking, original play, and the ending was changed from the original play.   Elizabeth Taylor was deeply affected by the tragic airplane crash death of her husband Mike Todd, only a little over a week into the shooting.  Her role was as the passionate, sexually-frustrated, feline Maggie whose advances and lustful sensuality are thwarted by the unloving temperament of her alcoholic, injured, and apathetic husband Brick, who is still suffering from the suicidal death of his friend Skipper, and is hobbling along with a broken ankle.  The action occurs on the occasion of the 65th birthday of 'Big Daddy' Pollitt (Burl Ives reprising his stage role) - the patriarchal plantation head (who is secretly suffering from terminal cancer), when the greater Pollitt family gathers and inevitably quarrels - greedily - over the granting of the expected inheritance.  You can smell mendacity in the air . . .

Classics Night  - Monday, September  14 . . . Matinee and 7:00 p.m.




 MY FAIR LADY
1964   -  170 minutes

Won 8 Oscars  -  Best Picture, Director, Actor, Music, Costumes & Cinematography

Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison
Directed by George Cukor  [THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, A STAR IS BORN]

MY FAIR LADY is one of the most joyous musicals ever written.  Most of the songs are simply about being happy.  What the story celebrates is not romance but intelligence - about being liberated from ignorance and set free to realize your potential.  This story is so powerful that every age has embraced it; it began as a Greek legend and was retold in Elizabethan and Victorian times and reached its present form as George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion" (1912), with its clear-eyed dissection of the British class system.  When Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Lowe chose Shaw's play as the story for MY FAIR LADY, it must have seemed unlikely material.  Certainly today no one would invest a dime in it.  But by wisely keeping much of Shaw's barbed and articulate dialog and marrying it with wonderful songs, they created a masterpiece.  A chance meeting between two noted British linguists, Prof. Henry Higgins and Col. Hugh Pickering, leads to a wager that will test Higgins' skills.  After they hear a cockney flower girl caterwaul in the street, Higgins proposes to transform the girl, Eliza Doolittle, into a refined Victorian lady with an aristocratic accent.  After some hesitation Eliza agrees to become their test case. Roger Ebert says:  "If you can get anywhere near a theatrical presentation, do try to see it.  Not only don't they make movies like this anymore - they can't.  The movie industry is no longer interested in musicals about adults, let alone adults with ideas."  Well, you CAN see it on the big screen today and tonight only.  Surely, you've become accustomed to our Classics.

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