A Weekend of Silver Screens
As part of Wisconsin's Book Fair the Union Theatre presents a weekend of classic films and a discussion with author Larry Widen and film critic David Luhrssen. Widen's book Silver Screens: A Pictorial History of Milwaukee's Movie Theaters inspired the weekend's selection of films. Ranging from popular silent classic It to screwball comedy to film noir and '50s melodrama, the weekend closes with the recent Thai film Tears of the Black Tiger, a fascinating amalgamation of earlier film styles that retains a stylistic and narrative uniqueness.
7pm - Discussion between Larry Widen and David Luhrssen
Silver Screens: A Pictorial History of Milwaukee's Movie Theaters author Larry Widen is a Milwaukee-based freelance writer and recently became the owner of the Times Cinema. David Luhrssen is arts & entertainment editor of the Shepherd Express and co-founder of the Milwaukee International Film Festival. Widen and Luhrssen discuss Widen's book and the state of Milwaukee film in the past and present.
9pm *FREE*
Libeled Lady (Jack Conway, US, 98 min., 35mm, 1936)
Born and raised in Milwaukee, Spencer Tracy lived on Prospect Avenue and attended Marquette High School . In Libeled Lady, he plays a newspaper editor and the fiancée of Jean Harlow, nicknamed “the Platinum Blonde.” When an heiress sues him for libel, he recruits Harlow and an ex-reporter to bail him out. The result is a fine example of a 1930s screwball comedy.
