We are very excited about our next screening, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers on June 10th.

This movie is a well-crafted noir with a great (Academy Award nominated) story.Although this was director Lewis Milestone’s only venture into the realm of noir, it remains a classic of the genre. The film stars Barbara Stanwyck as the title character, a tough, spoiled, willful heiress married to the local D.A., Walter O’Neil (Kirk Douglas), a weak-willed alcoholic. When old friend Sam Masterson (Van Heflin) suddenly returns to town after many years away, he approaches Walter to ask his help with the case of Toni Marashek (Lisabeth Scott), a friend who has been falsely accused of a crime. Sam is surprised, at first, to learn of Walter’s marriage, knowing both of the parties, but quickly begins to put the pieces together. Martha fears that Sam will reveal what he knows thereby destroying the lives of both she and her husband. Consequently, she begins to plot against Sam, who she also loves in her own twisted fashion. Every element seems perfectly in place in this typically guilt-saturated noir, with superb direction from Milestone, a memorable score by Miklos Rosza, and an outstanding performance by Kirk Douglas in his film debut.

Join us to view this great movie at our June 10th screening!

Tickets are $5 and can be ordered in advance by calling our box office at (805) 381-2747. Tickets can also be purchased at the door!

We look forward to seeing you there!

I wanted to let everyone know that our showing of My Man Godfrey is coming up in just 2 days (Wednesday.) That means 2 more days to preorder tickets by calling our box office (805) 381-2747. We are very excited about this hilarious movie, which we previewed to our staff to great reviews. Many of our staff are coming to watch it a second time!

Remember tickets are only $5 and can be purchased at the door the day of the screening. Our show starts at 7:30, doors open at 7:15!

See you there.

As we get closer to our second screening, I thought it would be fun to whet our appetites with a little trivia. Please join us to screen My Man Godfrey on May 13th at the Hillcrest Center for the Arts. Remember tickets are only $5 and can be reserved by calling our ticket hotline @ (805) 381-2747!

My Man Godfrey Trivia

This was the first film to ever receive four acting nominations at the Academy Awards, and it did so in the year that the supporting categories were introduced.

• A stand-in (Chick Collons) was used when William Powell carries Carole Lombard over his shoulder up the stairs to her bedroom.
• This is the only movie to ever get Oscar nominations for writing, directing and all four acting awards without being nominated for Best Picture. It’s also the only movie to ever get those six nominations and lose them all.
• Premiere voted this movie as one of “The 50 Greatest Comedies Of All Time” in 2006.
• Although stars William Powell and Carole Lombard had been divorced for three years by the time they made this, when offered the part Powell declared that the only actress right for the part of Irene was Lombard.
• Mischa Auer’s character Carlo repeatedly sings “Ochi Chornya” in this movie. Nine years later in And Then There Were None (1945) his character Prince Nikita Starloff begins playing the first few notes of “Ochi Chornya” on the piano before meeting his demise.

Conejo Classic Cinema will be screening the hilarious My Man Godfrey on May 13th at a new time.. 7:30pm.

We will be showing the end of detour at 7pm in case you  missed it for FREE.

As always tickets are only $5 and all proceeds go to the Young Artists Ensemble.

Come join us for a fun night!

You will love it!

see u soon!

Here is some good trivia about our upcoming movie Detour. Just to whet your appetite :

Detour Was the first “poverty row” movie chosen by the Library of Congress for its National Film Registry, in 1992.

Detour was shot in six days in mostly two locations: the hotel room and the car in front of a rear projection screen.

The budget PRC gave director Edgar G. Ulmer for this film was 20,000… So small that the 1941 Lincoln Continental V-12 convertible driven by Charles Haskell was actually Ulmer’s personal car.

With re-shoots out of the question for such a low budget movie, director Edgar G. Ulmer made the decision to place storytelling conventions above continuity.

Detour‘s famous example of this is the reversal of the hitchhiking scenes. In order to parallel the westbound New York to Los Angeles travel of the character with right-to-left movement across the screen, many scenes had to be flipped. This caused the cars to appear to be driving on the wrong side of the road, and the hitchhiker to enter the car on the driver’s side.

Actor Tom Neal’s career came to and end shortly after Detour, after he beat up another actor. He was later jailed for shooting his third wife. He died just after his release.

Some of you may have recognized the new graphic on our banner. This is from My Man Godfrey and yes…it is the next movie for Conejo Classic Cinema!

If you have never seen this movie, you are surely in for a treat. 

This comedy was nominated for 6 Academy Awards and stars the witty Carole Lombard and straight man William Powell in a screwball love story with some truly memorable performances.  In 1999, My Man Godfrey was deemed “culturally significant” by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Here is a snippet about the storyline, and look below for a video sneak  peak.

As always tickets are only $5 you lucky, lucky people!

 In the depths of the Depression, a party game brings dizzy socialite Irene Bullock to the city dump where she meets Godfrey, a derelict, and ends by hiring him as family butler. He finds the Bullocks to be the epitome of idle rich, and nutty as the proverbial fruitcake. Soon, the dramatizing Irene is in love with her ‘protege’…who feels strongly that a romance between servant and employer is out of place, regardless of that servant’s mysterious past…

Conejo Classic Cinema is having its debut! We are showing the classic film noir Detour (1945) on April 1st at 8pm at the Hillcrest Center for the Arts. Now get this… tickets are only $5

Here is a little background on this movie: 

                                                       In flashback, New York nightclub pianist Al Roberts hitchhikes to Hollywood to join his girl Sue. On a rainy night, the sleazy gambler he’s riding with mysteriously dies;

afraid of the police, Roberts takes the man’s identity. But thanks to a blackmailing dame, Roberts’ every move plunges him deeper into trouble.

Shot in only 6 days on a shoestring budget, “Detour” was the first “poverty row” movie chosen by the Library of Congress for its National Film Registry, in 1992.

Check out this clip from  Detour: