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The Film Programs of the Detroit Film Theatre, Michigan Theater and Redford Theatre

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Looking Back

February 1931/1956/1981

Step back in time to see what our movie palaces were presenting in February 1931, 1956, and 1981. Also included is some interesting history about other area movie theaters and the Detroit Institute of Arts. Film titles are linked to the Internet Movie Database.

* 1931 * 1956 * 1981 *

1931

On Sunday, Feb. 22, the Michigan presented "the one and only Greta Garbo" in her latest MGM film, Inspiration, co-starring Robert Montgomery and Andy Hardy's dad, Lewis Stone. A year earlier, Garbo starred in her first sound film, Anna Christie, while 1932 would bring one of her greatest triumphs, Grand Hotel.

Visitors to the Redford enjoyed a new film about every two days, including Paid, with Joan Crawford. "It was a new role to her - a tough role, a girl ruined by the law - and her success in it caused comment," wrote film historian David Shipman in The Great Movie Stars: The Golden Years.

The auditorium of the Detroit Institute of Arts hosted a free organ concert on Feb. 13 which was part of a series of Friday evening recitals. Every Saturday morning, the DIA presented a "free motion picture for boys and girls."

Prominent Detroit film premieres included Oscar's best picture of 1930/31, Cimarron, at the RKO Downtown (Adams at Grand Circus Park). Charlie Chaplin's silent City Lights ("A Comedy in Pantomime") opened at the United Artists (Bagley at Grand Circus Park).

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1956

The Movie Guide of the Detroit News suggested to husbands, "Make Your Wife Happy, Take Her to a Movie." At the Redford, patrons enjoyed double bills of movies first released in late 1955, including Rebel Without a Cause (James Dean), Artists and Models (Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis), and The Tender Trap (Frank Sinatra and Debbie Reynolds).

Visitors to the Michigan were treated to Walt Disney's live action The Littlest Outlaw (along with a 19-minute cartoon, Johnny Appleseed). The science fiction classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers also opened, with Shack Out on 101 as a second feature.

The DIA hosted the 11th Annual Michigan Artist-Craftsman Exhibition. Visitors also saw a Trompe L'Oeil (French for "To Deceive the Eye") exhibition in which different materials were combined to create unique art objects.

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1981

Susan Stark of the Detroit News reported that the next season of the Detroit Film Theatre would open in August with Francois Truffaut's award-winning The Last Metro. Foreign language film lovers flocked to Akira Kurosawa's Kagemusha at The Towne (Greenfield near 10 1/2 Mile Road).

The Michigan offered "Old-Fashioned Entertainment at an Old-Fashioned Show Palace at Old-Fashioned Prices." February films included Modern Times (1936), Rocky (1976), and the French language The 400 Blows (1959). A Valentine Vaudeville Show included live music, theater performances, and the 1934 film It Happened One Night.

The Redford also put on a Valentine's Day concert. Its two films for February in its four-year old Classic Film Series were Funny Girl (1968) and The Women (1939).

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