Detroit
Movie Palaces
The Film
Programs of the Detroit Film Theatre, Michigan Theater and Redford
Theatre
The Film Programs of the Detroit Film Theatre, Michigan Theater and Redford Theatre
Your Guide to Classic Movie Theater Fun!
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Look What's Coming!
| From Here to Eternity returns February 14 to the Michigan, where it first played September 24, 1953. |
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The acclaimed 2011 Iranian film A Separation screens at the DFT on February 24-26 and March 4. |
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Billy Wilder directs the Oscar-winning The Apartment at the Redford on February 17-18. Video courtesy of Turner Classic Movies |
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Looking Back
September 1931
Step back in time to see what area movie theaters were presenting in September 1931. Film titles are linked to the Internet Movie Database.
For more information about these theaters, see Cinema Treasures or Water Winter Wonderland.
The
Redford took advantage of newer films opening at more prominent show houses
in the Publix theater chain. On Sept. 2 and 3, the Redford showed Confessions
of a Co-Ed, with Sylvia Sidney, also in Street
Scene, which opened at the United Artists theater on Sept. 3.
Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney starred in Smart
Money at the Redford on Sept. 13-15, a few days before Robinson
opened in Five
Star Final at the UA on Sept. 19.
Other
popular films this month at the Redford included Politics,
another pairing of the long-running comedy duo Marie Dressler and Polly
Moran; The
Public Defender, with Richard Dix (co-star of the smash 1931 hit
Cimarron);
and Frank Capra's Dirigible
(with Jack Holt). The Redford also showed Huckleberry
Finn, which the "For the Children" column in the Sept.
13, 1931 Detroit News rated as "particularly suitable"
for children (the column also listed movies that were "not harmful"
for children).
The
fall season of the Michigan opened on Sunday, Sept. 27, 1931 with Joan
Crawford's latest movie, This
Modern Age. Also featured was a live show by silent movie comedian
Harry Langdon, whose film career had declined and who declared bankruptcy
in 1931. A Saturday night at the Michigan on Sept. 12, 1931 included William
Haines' Just
a Gigolo, along with this buffet of entertainment: the talking
comedy Too
Many Husbands, the Looney Tune Ups
'N Downs, clarinetist Ted Lewis in Happiness
Remedy, the travel short Dublin
and Nearby (with Burton Holmes), and Paramount Sound News.
Hard
times continued to pound the entertainment dollar in 1931 Detroit. On
Sept. 4, prices were reduced at the Michigan (in Detroit), the Fisher,
the Paramount and United Artists theaters. Tickets now ranged from 25
cents for the earliest shows to 60 cents for evening shows (children were
always charged 15 cents).
