Double Feature: Great Directors – King Vidor and William Wellman “Street Scene” (United Artists, 1931) When Hollywood’s major independent producer Samuel Goldwyn set out to make a motion picture of Elmer Rice’s Pulitzer Prizewinning play “Street
Scene,” he chose noted director King Vidor to helm the production. Vidor was known for his skill at handling social issues in such films as “The Big Parade” (1925), “The Crowd” (1928) and “Hallelujah” (1929). He had been one of the first directors to move the camera after the arrival of talking pictures, which was excellent preparation for adapting the one-set play. Depicting the events of two days in a New York tenement, this Pre-code drama stars Sylvia Sidney in a role that established her as a notable leading lady. Goldwyn hired eight actors from the original stage cast including Beulah Bondi and John Qualen, who would go on to notable careers as character actors. The film had great box office success and brought Goldwyn some of the best reviews of his career. Free, at the Library of Congress Packard Campus Theater located at 19053 Mt. Pony Rd. in Culpeper, VA. No reservations taken.

“Stingaree” (RKO Radio, 1934) Oscar winning screenwriter-director William A. Wellman, considered one of the premier directors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, had a career spanning four decades and multiple genres. “Stingaree” is one of six RKO films of the 1930s previously thought “lost” but rediscovered and restored by Turner Classic Movies. The films were sold out of the RKO library to producer Merian C. Cooper in 1946. Extensive legal negotiations and a search of the world’s film archives allowed TCM to claim the films and create new 35mm prints in association with the Library of Congress and the BYU Motion Picture Archive. Free, at the Library of Congress Packard Campus Theater located at 19053 Mt. Pony Rd. in Culpeper, VA. No reservations taken.