Archive Treasures at UCLA

There are some excellent series this fall at UCLA's Billy Wilder Theater in Westwood.

For those who enjoy foreign films, A Century of Chinese Cinema starts tonight and runs through December 13th.

One of the series of particular interest to me is Archive Treasure: Remembering Charles Hopkins. Hopkins, who passed away this summer, was the UCLA Archives' first employee and the curator of its long-running Archive Treasures series.

Hopkins will be remembered with a five-film selection of treasures from the UCLA Archives beginning a week from tonight, October 18th, and running through November 24th. All of the films on the schedule were previously shown in the Archive Treasures series when curated by Hopkins, as long ago as 1991.

The series opens on the 18th with APPLAUSE (1929), directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Helen Morgan.

THE SCARLET EMPRESS (1934), starring Marlene Dietrich and directed by Josef von Sternberg, will be shown the next day, on the 19th.

Although it's a challenge for me to get up to Westwood for a movie on a Monday evening, I'm very much hoping to see Frank Borzage's MOONRISE (1948) for the first time at UCLA on October 21st. The movie, which will be shown in 35mm, stars Dane Clark and Gail Russell.

The fourth film in the series is THE CAPTAIN HATES THE SEA (1934) on November 4th, starring Victor McLaglen and directed by Lewis Milestone.

The series concludes with Tyrone Power in NIGHTMARE ALLEY (1947), which I reviewed last year. NIGHTMARE ALLEY costars Coleen Gray and Joan Blondell and was directed by Edmund Goulding.

All of the movies in this series will be preceded by newsreels and shorts from the UCLA Archive.

Coming soon on the UCLA schedule: An Evening With George Chakiris on November 16th, and a series celebrating the work of director Gregory La Cava opens on November 8th with MY MAN GODFREY (1936). I'll have more details on the La Cava series closer to opening night.