Sunday October 2, 2005
Sunday November 13, 2005
Sunday January 29, 2006
Sunday March 19, 2006

Films of the current season

Sunday October 2, 2005

College

Buster Keaton goes back to school and stages a hilarious send-up of university life in College. Keaton stars as Ronald, an idealistic freshman who attends Clayton College in pursuit of higher learning, but finds himself instead embroiled in a war of athletics as he fights for the heart of his beloved coed, Mary (Anne Cornwall).

More than he had in any other feature, Keaton stretched the boundaries of solo physical comedy. In a series of unforgettable vignettes, stone-faced Ronald tries his hand as a baseball player, soda jerk, waiter, coxswain, and track star, perfomring each task with a steady determination but with consistently disastrous results. These scenes are epecially amazing because in demonstrating Ronald's athletic inadequacies, Keaton reveals a surprising degree of physical prowess and finesse, particularly during the film's exhilarating climax.

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Sunday November 13, 2005

The Black Pirate

Douglas Fairbanks plays a nobleman who wants to revenge his father's murder, so he boards a pirate vessel disguised as one of the thieving, villainous rapscallions, and sets about achieving his goal. Along the way, he rescues a damsel-in-distress princess (Billie Dove), and mangages to get in a few bloody duels. On the high seas, the athletic Fairbanks provides a no-holds barred, rip-roaring, stunt-filled voyage -- complete with a one-man takeover of a merchant ship.

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Sunday January 29, 2006

Sky High

Tom Mix is an undercover government agent intent on stopping unlawful Chinese immigrants being smuggled into the US via the Grand Canyon. Tom also tries to save a girl who has wandered away from her companions and become lost, but soon discovers her father may be the guy behind the smuggling operation. Shot on location in the Grand Canyon, this film features spectacular scenery and boasts the first ever filmed aerial shots of the Grand Canyon.

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Sunday March 19, 2006

The Kid

The opening title reads: “A comedy with a smile — and perhaps a tear." "The Kid" was director Charlie Chaplin's first full-length film and is considered one of his best. The film co-stars five-year-old Jackie Coogan (better known to modern audiences as Uncle Fester on the "Adams Family" tv show) as a child abandoned in a limousine by his unwed mother. When The Little Tramp finds him, he tries unsuccessfully to find a home for the boy. Obliged to keep him, The Little Tramp teaches the youngster about life on the streets and just as they have bonded and become a family, the boy's mother returns in a bittersweet finale.

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