The American Cinematheque will pay tribute to B-Movies of the past 50 years from Wednesday, November 5th through Sunday, November 9th at the Aero Theater (1328 Montana Avenue at 14th Street in Santa Monica) and the Egyptian Theater (6712 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood).
As Americans began to feel increasingly uneasy about the threat of nuclear war in the years following World War II, Hollywood responded with a series of films in which society’s fears were externalized in the form of alien attacks and radioactive mutations. While the directors of exploitation movies like The Blob and The Deadly Mantis used monster movies for pure sensation and shock value, other filmmakers saw sci-fi’s potential for philosophical inquiry and provocative social comment. Don Siegel helmed the masterpiece of the genre, the original Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, a sophisticated and deeply disturbing classic whose warnings about conformity and mob rule still resonate today. Gordon Douglas’s Them!, meanwhile, used its fantastic tale of giant ants as cover for a sober look at the dangers of nuclear testing. The Aero will show these and other classics, as well as two latter-day variations on the formula (the beloved cult classics Tremors and Critters), in a series filled with glop, goo and alien terror. Plus, Tim Burton’s biopic Ed Wood, the life story of the director of Plan 9 From Outer Space, dubbed “the worst movie ever made.”
And at the Egyptian, Larry Blamire’s The Lost Skeleton Of Cadavra and a Sneak Preview of The Lost Skeleton Returns Again, modern-day send-ups of the genre made in the 21st century! Blamire and his cast and crew will appear for the Skeleton films.
For more information, visit: American Cinematheque
