Friday Night Film Talks
Friday Night Film Talks
Let’s go to the movies!
New-York Historical is digging into the archives of the Bernard and Irene Schwartz Classic Film Series to highlight talks you may have missed. Rewatch the films, which are available to rent or purchase online, and enjoy these free, engaging discussions from the comfort of your home. Contact public.programs@nyhistory.org for assistance.
The Cider House Rules
Legal scholars Linda Greenhouse, Robert Post, and Kenji Yoshino introduce the Oscar-winning adaptation of John Irving’s novel about a young man (Tobey Maguire) growing up in a World War II-era orphanage run by a doctor (Michael Caine) who secretly performs abortions. Directed by Lasse Hallström. Starring Tobey Maguire, Charlize Theron, Michael Caine. Recorded February 17, 2017
Linda Greenhouse, a senior research scholar in law at Yale Law School, covered the Supreme Court for the New York Times between 1978 and 2008 and writes a biweekly op-ed column on law as a contributing columnist. Robert Post is Sterling Professor of Law and former Dean of Yale Law School. Kenji Yoshino is Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at NYU School of Law.
Sergeant York (1941)
Military history expert John H. Maurer introduces this Academy Award-winning biopic about one of the most decorated American soldiers of World War I: Alvin York. Directed by Howard Hawks. Starring Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Joan Leslie. Recorded June 9, 2017
John H. Maurer is Alfred Thayer Mahan Distinguished Professor of Sea Power and Grand Strategy at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, and a senior research fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
Coming Home (1978)
Susan Lacy introduces this classic, produced by and starring Jane Fonda, about a deployed Vietnam War captain’s wife who volunteers at a local veterans hospital where she befriends a bitter paraplegic. Directed by Hal Ashby. Starring Jane Fonda, Jon Voight, Bruce Dern. Recorded January 26, 2018
Susan Lacy, a renowned filmmaker and director, is the creator and former executive producer of the award-winning PBS biography series American Masters. In 2013, she made the move from public television to independent filmmaking with the formation of her own company, Pentimento Productions. Dale Gregory is vice president for public programs at the New-York Historical Society.
Marius (1931)
Michael Korda, nephew of Marius director Alexander Korda, introduces this French romantic classic about love and adventure on the shores of Marseilles, where a man is forced to choose between fulfilling his life’s passion and marrying the woman he loves. Directed by Alexander Korda. Starring Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, Orane Demazis. Recorded April 20, 2018
Michael Korda is editor in chief emeritus of Simon & Schuster. His most recent book is Passing: A Memoir of Love and Death.
Woman of the Year (1942)
Kati Marton and Frederick Zollo introduce this Academy Award-winning romance about rethinking gender roles, in which Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy star as colleagues who fall in love despite his traditional family values and her driven career ambitions. Directed by George Stevens. Starring Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn.
Kati Marton, a George Foster Peabody Award-winning journalist and a human rights advocate, is the author of The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel. Frederick Zollo, an American film and theater producer, is a 20-time Tony nominee, who has won the award seven times, best known for his film work on Best Picture Oscar Nominees Mississippi Burning and Quiz Show.
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
Philip Bobbitt introduces this 1939 film about an elderly school teacher reflecting on his extensive career at a boarding school in England, where he experienced love, loss, and war. Directed by Sam Wood, Sidney Franklin (uncredited). Starring Greer Garson. Recorded April 28, 2017
Philip Bobbitt, a leading constitutional scholar, is Herbert Wechsler Professor of Federal Jurisprudence at Columbia Law School.
The African Queen (1951)
Ted Widmer introduces this iconic adventure set at the beginning of World War I. Starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, The African Queen is the story of a straight-laced British missionary and an alcoholic Canadian boat captain who are forced to overcome their differences as they make the treacherous journey down an East African river under imperial German control. Directed by John Huston. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn. Recorded June 2, 2017
Ted Widmer is Distinguished Lecturer at the Macaulay Honors College of the City University of New York. He has directed research centers and libraries, notably at the Library of Congress (the Kluge Center) and Brown University (the John Carter Brown Library). He is also the author of numerous books, including his most recent, Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washington.
Notorious (1946)
Ron Simon and Dale Gregory introduce this Hitchcock thriller staring Cary Grant as a U.S. agent and Ingrid Bergman as the daughter of a Nazi spy, both assigned with infiltrating her father’s group of Nazi friends. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains. Recorded March 10, 2017
Ron Simon is curator of television and radio at the Paley Center for Media. Dale Gregory is vice president for public programs at the New-York Historical Society.
The Searchers (1956)
Stuart Klawans introduces this famous John Ford Western, with John Wayne starring in his iconic role as Ethan Edwards, an embittered veteran who sets out on a quest to rescue his niece from her kidnappers. Directed by John Ford. Starring John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles. Recorded March 17, 2017
Stuart Klawans, an award-winning journalist, has served as film critic for The Nation since 1988.
The Heiress (1949)
Catherine Wyler and Lesley Stahl introduce William Wyler’s classic adaptation of Henry James’s Washington Square, in which a wealthy, naïve young woman falls for a handsome man despite the protests of her overbearing father. Directed by William Wyler. Starring Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift, Ralph Richardson. Recorded April 25, 2014
Catherine Wyler has served as a studio executive, an independent producer, and has held leadership positions at major American cultural institutions, including as Senior Vice President of Production at Columbia Pictures and Director of Cultural and Children’s Programming at PBS. Lesley Stahl has been a correspondent for 60 Minutes since 1991 and is a former CBS News White House correspondent.
Desk Set (1957)
Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn co-star in this romantic comedy as colleagues with conflicting views on the computerization of a TV network’s research division. Directed by Walter Lang. Starring Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn. Recorded December 4, 2015
Ron Simon is curator of television and radio at the Paley Center for Media.
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
In this film noir classic, a forgotten silent film star whose era has passed, lures a young, aspiring screenwriter into sharing her world and her dreams of making a triumphant comeback. Directed by Billy Wilder. Starring William Holden, Gloria Swanson. Recorded November 21, 2014
Antonio Monda is a writer and the Artistic Director of the Rome Film Festival and the international literary festival Le Conversazioni. He is the director of several documentaries as well as the feature film Dicembre, and has curated exhibitions for MoMA, Lincoln Center and the Guggenheim Museum.
Dodsworth (1936)
Walter Huston shines in one of his greatest roles as a middle-aged man whose life changes forever when he takes his vain wife on a trip to Europe. Directed by William Wyler. Starring Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, Mary Astor. Recorded July 12, 2013
Catherine Wyler has served as a studio executive, an independent producer, and has held leadership positions at major American cultural institutions, including as Senior Vice President of Production at Columbia Pictures and Director of Cultural and Children’s Programming at PBS. Susan Lacy is the creator and former executive producer of Thirteen/WNET’s award-winning biography series American Masters.
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
Distinguished historian Andrew Roberts describes the historic events that inspired the story behind Frank Lloyd’s historic drama about mutiny on the HMS Bounty. Directed by Frank Lloyd. Starring Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone. Recorded May 1, 2015
Andrew Roberts is Roger and Martha Mertz Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, Distinguished Lehrman Fellow at the New-York Historical Society, and the author of The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III.
Spellbound (1945)
Celebrated documentary filmmaker Ric Burns introduces Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller in which an amnesiac man accused of murder goes on the run with a psychoanalyst to uncover his true identity. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Starring Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck. Recorded March 6, 2015
Ric Burns is the writer and director of numerous historical documentaries and is the founder of Steeplechase Films, an award-winning production company that has become one of PBS’s most trusted collaborators.
Wuthering Heights (1939)
The tumultuous feelings of a world on the brink of war are reflected in this riveting adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic novel of love and betrayal. Directed by William Wyler. Starring Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier. Recorded April 19, 2013
Catherine Wyler has served as a studio executive, an independent producer, and has held leadership positions at major American cultural institutions, including as Senior Vice President of Production at Columbia Pictures and Director of Cultural and Children’s Programming at PBS. Lesley Stahl has been a correspondent for 60 Minutes since 1991 and is a former CBS News White House correspondent.
Paisan (1946)
Ron Simon and Angela Dalle Vacche present the second film in Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy. Set during the Italian Campaign of World War II, this film powerfully explores the psychological, physical, and economic effects of war. Directed by Roberto Rossellini. Starring Carmela Sazio, Gar Moore, William Tubbs. Recorded June 27, 2014
Ron Simon is curator of television and radio at the Paley Center for Media. Angela Dalle Vacche is a professor of film studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. She is the author of Diva: Defiance and Passion in Early Italian Cinema.
Rebecca (1940)
Award-winning filmmaker, novelist, and critic Antonio Monda introduces Alfred Hitchcock’s psychological thriller starring Joan Fontaine as a new bride struggling with the pervasive memory of her husband’s deceased first wife. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Starring Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders. Recorded May 16, 2014
Antonio Monda is a writer and the artistic director of the Rome Film Festival and the international literary festival Le Conversazioni. He is the director of several documentaries as well as the feature film Dicembre, and has curated exhibitions for MoMA, Lincoln Center and the Guggenheim Museum.
The Gang’s All Here (1943)
Two experts celebrate this classic musical in which a soldier’s budding romance is complicated by his posting in the Pacific...and by his fiancée! Directed by Busby Berkeley. Starring Alice Faye, Carmen Miranda. Phil Baker. Recorded March 22, 2013
Richard Brody began writing for the New Yorker in 1999. He is the author of Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard. Will Friedwald, a music writer for the Wall Street Journal, has written for the New York Times, the Village Voice, and Entertainment Weekly, among others. His most recent book is A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers.
The Letter (1940)
Catherine Wyler, composer Paul Moravec, and acclaimed producer Susan Lacy present William Wyler’s captivating melodrama that opens with a homicide and finds Bette Davis’ character with the smoking gun in her hand. Was it self-defense or cold-blooded murder? Directed by William Wyler. Starring Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson. Recorded March 28, 2014
Catherine Wyler has served as a studio executive, an independent producer, and has held leadership positions at major American cultural institutions, including as Senior Vice President of Production at Columbia Pictures and Director of Cultural and Children’s Programming at PBS. Paul Moravec, an award-winning composer and University Professor at Adelphi University, composed the music for an opera adaptation of The Letter. Susan Lacy is the creator and former executive producer of Thirteen/WNET’s award-winning biography series American Masters.
Strangers on a Train (1951)
Internationally-renowned documentary filmmaker Ric Burns delves into Alfred Hitchcock’s suspenseful thriller about two strangers whose discussion of the perfect murder takes a deadly turn. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Starring Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker. Recorded April 18, 2014
Ric Burns is the writer and director of numerous historical documentaries and is the founder of Steeplechase Films, an award-winning production company that has become one of PBS’s most trusted collaborators.
That Hamilton Woman (1941)
Michael Korda, nephew of the film’s director, Alexander Korda, discusses the great romance of Lady Hamilton and Admiral Nelson and how this film, made with Churchill’s input and encouragement, compares Britain’s struggle against Napoleon to its resistance against Hitler. Directed by Alexander Korda. Starring Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Alan Mowbray. Recorded March 29, 2013
Michael Korda is editor in chief emeritus of Simon & Schuster. His most recent book is Passing: A Memoir of Love and Death.
In a Lonely Place (1950)
Adam Gopnik and Richard Brody discuss one of Bogart’s finest and lesser-known film performances in this postwar film noir murder mystery. Directed by Nicholas Ray. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame. 94 min. Recorded May 17, 2013
Adam Gopnik has been a writer for the New Yorker since 1986. He is the award-winning author of many books, including Paris to the Moon, a series of essays written while he lived in Paris, and A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism. Richard Brody began writing for the New Yorker in 1999. He is the author of Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard.
Indochine (1992)
Historian Lien-Hang Nguyen with Ron Simon and Dale Gregory introduces the Academy Award-winning film, set in colonial French Indochina during the rise of the Vietnamese nationalist movement, that tells the story of a French woman and her adopted Vietnamese daughter. (French with English subtitles.) Directed by Régis Wargnier. Starring Catherine Deneuve, Vincent Perez, Linh Dan Pham. Recorded March 9, 2018
Lien-Hang Nguyen is Dorothy Borg Associate Professor in the History of the United States and East Asia at Columbia University. Ron Simon is curator of television and radio at the Paley Center for Media. Dale Gregory is vice president for public programs at the New-York Historical Society.
M*A*S*H (1952)
Preceding the hit television series, this Oscar-winning satirical black comedy set during the Korean War follows a mismatched group of military personnel at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. Directed by Robert Altman. Starring Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt. Recorded March 2, 2018
Ron Simon is curator of television and radio at the Paley Center for Media. Dale Gregory is vice president for public programs at the New-York Historical Society.
High Noon (1952)
Author Ted Widmer delves into one of the greatest Western dramas of all time, which features Gary Cooper as a brave small-town lawman who prepares for the arrival of a deadly nemesis at high noon. Directed by Fred Zinnemann. Starring Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell. Recorded May 30, 2014
Ted Widmer is Distinguished Lecturer at the Macaulay Honors College of the City University of New York. He has directed research centers and libraries, notably at the Library of Congress (the Kluge Center) and Brown University (the John Carter Brown Library). He is also the author of numerous books, including his most recent, Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washington.
The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933)
Michael Korda, nephew of the film’s director, Alexander Korda, and son of the film’s art director, Vincent Korda, introduces this British biographical dramedy following the exploits of King Henry VIII as he navigates through his infamous multiple marriages. Directed by Alexander Korda. Starring Charles Laughton, Merle Oberon. Recorded October 11, 2019
Michael Korda is editor in chief emeritus of Simon & Schuster. His latest book is Passing: A Memoir of Love and Death.
The Winslow Boy (1948)
Renowned constitutional scholar Philip Bobbitt and former director of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, Betty Sue Flowers introduce this drama that pits the rights of an individual against a powerful establishment. Directed by Anthony Asquith. Starring Margaret Leighton, Sir Cedric Hardwicke. Recorded on May 9, 2014
Philip Bobbitt is a leading constitutional scholar and Herbert Wechsler Professor of Federal Jurisprudence at Columbia Law School. Betty Sue Flowers is the former director of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum and an emerita professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin.
The Shining (1980)
During a long winter, a caretaker and his family find themselves isolated in a hotel haunted by the malevolent spirits of its past occupants. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd. Recorded on January 27, 2017
Ric Burns, New-York Historical Scholar Trustee, is the writer and director of numerous historical documentaries and is the founder of Steeplechase Films, an award-winning production company that has become one of PBS’s most trusted collaborators.
Cabin in the Sky (1943)
Gail Lumet Buckley, daughter of Cabin in the Sky star Lena Horne, and Louise Kerz Hirschfeld, in conversation with Bob Herbert, introduce the musical that follows Little Joe, a chronic gambler given a second chance at life in order to prove himself worthy of heaven. Directed by Vincente Minnelli, Busby Berkeley (uncredited). Starring Ethel Waters, Eddie “Rochester”Anderson, Lena Horne. Recorded March 3, 2017
Gail Lumet Buckley is the author of The Black Calhouns: From Civil War to Civil Rights with One American Family. Louise Kerz Hirschfeld is President of the Al Hirschfeld Foundation. Bob Herbert is an award-winning journalist and the producer and director of the PBS documentary film Against All Odds: The Fight for a Black Middle Class.
Red Dust (1932)
A rubber plantation owner in colonial French Indochina becomes embroiled in a love triangle. Lien-Hang Nguyen, Ron Simon, and Dale Gregory introduce this romantic drama starring Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, and Mary Astor. Directed by Victor Fleming. Starring Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Mary Astor. Recorded November 17, 2017.
Lien-Hang Nguyen is Dorothy Borg Associate Professor in the History of the United States and East Asia at Columbia University. Ron Simon is curator of television and radio at the Paley Center for Media. Dale Gregory is vice president for public programs at the New-York Historical Society.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Legal experts Linda Greenhouse and Robert Post team up to present Frank Capra’s classic political comedy-drama, which showcases Jimmy Stewart at his “everyman” finest. Directed by Frank Capra. Starring James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, and Edward Arnold. Recorded February 21, 2014.
Linda Greenhouse, a senior research scholar in law at Yale Law School, covered the Supreme Court for the New York Times between 1978 and 2008 and writes a biweekly op-ed column on law as a contributing columnist. Robert Post is Sterling Professor of Law and former Dean of Yale Law School.
Lincoln (2012)
Civil War historians Harold Holzer and Edna Greene Medford introduce Steven Spielberg’s historical drama set in 1865, following President Lincoln’s struggle to persuade Congress to pass the 13th Amendment. Directed by Steven Spielberg.Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones. Recorded February 10, 2017.
Harold Holzer, the author, co-author, or editor of more than 50 books on Lincoln and the Civil War era, served as historical consultant for the film Lincoln (2012). His latest book is The Presidents vs. the Press. Edna Greene Medford is associate provost for faculty affairs, professor of history, and former chair of the History Department at Howard University, where she was also interim dean of arts & sciences.
