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 Filmgoing!
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Explore
theater history Gaylord Carter Plays at Redford (May 1981) |
Look What's Coming!
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Get
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Francaise Comedy Film Shorts Series at the DFT
May 31.
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Learn more about the grieving process in the documentary Transforming
Loss at the Michigan
May 30.
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The renovated Redford re-opens with Julie Andrews flying high as Mary Poppins July 12-13. |
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Looking Back
February 1932
Step back in time to see what area movie theaters were presenting in February 1932. Film titles are linked to the Internet Movie Database.
For more information about these theaters, see Cinema Treasures or Water Winter Wonderland.
"Frank
Capra, Director of Hits, wins new laurels by megaphoning the greatest
love story every filmed," read a Feb. 10, 1932 ad in The Ann Arbor
Daily News for Forbidden,
starring Barbara Stanwyck. Both the Michigan and Redford showed this movie,
which "really put Stanwyck on top," wrote David Shipman in The
Great Movie Stars: The Golden Years.
The
month at the Michigan got off to a great start, with a held-over week-long
run of Mata
Hari, starring Greta Garbo and Ramon Novarro. This film later
moved across town to the Wuerth. Other stars that lit up the Michigan's
silver screen were Robert Montgomery (Lovers
Courageous); Marie Dressler (Emma);
James Cagney (Taxi!);
Joan Blondell (The
Greeks Had a Word for Them); William Powell (High
Pressure); and Constance Bennett (Lady
with a Past).
Also
in Ann Arbor, a month-long experiment with German language films at the
Whitney (Main and Ann) ended, after the screening of such films as Zwei
Menschen, Die
vom Rummelplatz, and Der
Weg zur Schande. "The bulk of the support came from (University
of Michigan) faculty individuals and some students," wrote Allison
Ind in The Ann Arbor Daily News (Feb. 23, 1932). "For this
type of trade, the location of the theater is disadvantageous."
The
Redford presented some of the biggest hits of 1931, including Private
Lives (Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery); The
Champ (Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper); and Delicious
(Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell). The newest film entertainment at the
Redford was a Feb. 26-27 double bill of The
Rainbow Trail (George O'Brien) and File
113 (Lew Cody). Another crowdpleaser was Ladies
of the Big House (Sylvia Sidney), one of several movies to appear
on Sundays with vaudeville acts.
At
the Wilson Theater (now the Music Hall), the stage play The Band Wagon
starred Fred and Adele Astaire, along with Frank (The Wizard of Oz)
Morgan. The Shubert showed a Talkie version of the 1925 silent movie The
Big Parade.
