10. This is a new digital restoration of The Thief of Bagdad (1924).  It was restored from two 35mm negatives and contains the color tints from the original release prints. This is not a public domain dvd you will be viewing! 9. The costume…

Beware The Blob! (presented by the Pickwick Theatre Classic Film Series) We had 221 people come out on a rainy Halloween night to see the 1958 cult classic The Blob with Steve McQueen. It was great to see so many kids in…

This is not the first time I’ve shown Them! Ten years ago I played an original 16mm print of it at the old LaSalle Bank revival theatre in Chicago during my “Atomic Cinema” series. It was a program that dealt…

  October 24: Park Ridge Public Library 7 PM October 31: Pickwick Theatre 7:30 PM

View of the spacious auditorium from the projection booth… This past Tuesday morning (10/8/13) WGN-TV came out to visit the Pickwick Theatre– home of the new classic film series. This was part of the “Around Town” feature seen on the WGN Morning…

Thank you to the 300+ movie fans who came out and supported us on Opening Night. Our screening of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) received a huge ovation from an audience of young and old. One of the nicest comments we overheard came from…

If you can find it, check out the May 1984 issue (Volume 14 Number 3) of Cinefantastique. There’s a 20-page retrospective article on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea written by Joel Frazier and Harry Hathorne. It’s one of the best “making of” articles on…

A toast to the upcoming Pickwick Theatre Classic Film Series! I have a Nemo-like desire to escape the world at the surface– the movie world where violence and noise vibrate against the walls of every multiplex across the country. Away from that I will take audiences…

On September 26, 2013, we will be showing the definitive screen version of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. However, a lot of people do not realize there was an earlier silent version of the film made in 1916. The…

I thought for this entry I would quote at length from film director Richard Fleischer’s wonderful memoir, Just Tell Me When to Cry (1993). In Chapter VIII, Fleischer offers insightful revelations on working with Walt Disney, hunting and killing sharks, and handling a difficult star like Kirk Douglas. The…