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

Your Guide to Classic Movie Theater Fun!

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Looking Back

March 1932/1957/1982

Step back in time to see what our movie palaces were presenting in March 1932, 1957, and 1982. 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.

* 1932 * 1957 * 1982 *

1932

A veteran star of Westerns (Jack Holt) was joined by newcomer John Wayne in Maker of Men, on a Redford double bill with Reckless Living (Ricardo Cortez and Mae Clarke). Buster Keaton played Elmer E. Tuttle in The Passionate Plumber, also starring Jimmy Durante and Polly Moran. Dance Team re-united James Dunn and Sally Eilers, stars of the acclaimed Bad Girl (Redford, Oct. 1931).

Other big name movies at the Redford included The Guardsman (Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne), This Reckless Age (Buddy Rogers), Mata Hari (Greta Garbo, Ramon Novarro and Lionel Barrymore), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Fredric March), Lovers Courageous (Robert Montgomery) and Emma (Marie Dressler). Adding to the film fun were newsreels, novelties, and comedies from Our Gang and Laurel and Hardy.

At the Michigan, Harry Blackstone, "The Greatest Magician The World Has Ever Known," presented "Wonderful Entertainment Of Magic, Mystery, Illusion and Comedy". A Saturday morning series of movies that included Trader Horn and Ambassador Bill was started because "For many years parents have called for more pictures suitable to the juvenile and adolescent mind." (Allison Ind, The Ann Arbor Daily News, March 4, 1932)

Also playing at the Michigan was Arsène Lupin, the first pairing of the brothers Barrymore (John and Lionel). Guest Night on March 21 featured a Clark Gable double bill—his latest movie, Polly of the Circus (with Marion Davies), and Night Nurse (starring Barbara Stanwyck).

The Talkie Time-Table of the March 31, 1932 Detroit News listed Alias the Doctor (at the Michigan), Are You Listening? (Fisher), Sky Devils (United Artists), One Hour with You (Paramount), The Gay Caballero (Fox), The Lost Squadron (RKO Downtown), and Der Wahre Jakob (Little Theater). "A beautiful collection of fine old Spanish textiles and embroideries has recently been received by the Detroit Institute of Arts from the Edsel B. Ford fund," reported the March 13, 1932 Detroit News.

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1957

Big changes came to the Butterfield theater chain in Ann Arbor that included the Michigan. On March 10, the doors closed at the two Main Street theaters—the Orpheum, which finished with Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), and the Weurth, which closed with The Member of the Wedding (1952) and The Juggler (1953). Six days later, the new Campus Theatre opened at 1208 S. University (between Church and Forest) with Kirk Douglas in his Oscar-nominated performance in Lust for Life. A full page ad for the Campus in The Ann Arbor News promised films "from the Cinema Centers of the world" like Diabolique, Rififi and La Strada.

The feature attraction of the month at the Michigan was The Rainmaker, with Burt Lancaster and Katharine Hepburn (Oscar nominee for Best Actress). Other popular movies were Bundle of Joy (Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds) and The Great Man (Jose Ferrer). Dean Martin broke away from Jerry Lewis in his first starring role in Ten Thousand Bedrooms. Cartoons at the Michigan included Wideo Wabbit (Bugs Bunny), The Unbearable Salesman (Woody Woodpecker) and The Truce Hurts (Tom & Jerry). The National Ballet of Canada appeared at the Michigan on March 20.

The Redford enjoyed the rare luxury of newspaper display ads for two Oscar-nominated films, just in time for the Academy Awards show on March 27. Moviegoers enjoyed the melodrama of Dorothy Malone's Best Supporting Actress-winning performance in Written on the Wind. Giant showcased James Dean's Oscar-nominated final role. Other big Redford movies were Hollywood or Bust (Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin) and Top Secret Affair (Susan Hayward and Kirk Douglas). Old movie buffs enjoyed a Spencer Tracy double bill of Northwest Passage (1940) and Boom Town (1940).

In downtown Detroit, The Ten Commandments ruled the Madison for a fourth month, while Oscar's Best Picture Around the World in 80 Days finished its third month at the United Artists. Big Detroit openings included The Iron Petticoat (Bob Hope and Katharine Hepburn) at the Adams; John Ford's The Wings of Eagles (John Wayne) at the Michigan; and Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr) at the Fox.

At the Detroit Institute of Arts, the 12th Annual Michigan Artist-Craftsmen Exhibition included prize-winning displays of a stoneware bowl, an enamel humidor and a black flossa rug. A half-century of American comic strips appeared in the DIA print galleries, including original drawings of the Yellow Kid and Al Capp's Li'l Abner.

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1982

In the Detroit Film Theatre's I Sent a Letter to My Love (1980, France), "Simone Signoret plays Louise [a 50-year-old single woman] with a subdued sense of humor—just watching her wonderful face makes this movie worthwhile," wrote Diane Haithman in the March 12, 1982 Detroit Free Press. Haithman also praised Hanna Schygulla's performance as a World War II-era German nightclub singer in director Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Lili Marleen (1981).

Foreign imports at the DFT also included Heart to Heart (1979, France), The Contract (1980, Poland) and the uncut Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979, Italy). On Sunday evenings, Alfred Hitchcock directed Foreign Correspondent (1940), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941), Suspicion (1941), and Saboteur (1942). The Ernst Lubitsch series at the Afternoon Film Theatre of the Detroit Institute of Arts finished with Cluny Brown (1946), followed by the Japanese films The Man Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (1945), Utamaro and His Five Women (1946) and Gate of Hell (1953).

At the Michigan, the 20th Ann Arbor Film Festival ran March 9-14. Mediatrics sponsored a James Bond Film Festival on March 5-7. The Classic Film Theatre continued its wide variety of films with Seven Samurai (1954), Women in Love (1970), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Red River (1948), and a science fiction double feature of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and THX 1138 (1971). Live entertainment included musical comedian Anna Russell and classical pianist Michael Ponti.

Marilyn Monroe showed why Gentlemen Prefer Blondes at the Redford on March 5-6. Jane Russell also starred in this 1953 comedy that was directed by Howard Hawks. On March 19-20, moviegoers joined the Marx Brothers for A Day at the Races (1937) and A Night at the Opera (1935). Music lovers enjoyed the March 27 concert by organist Hector Olivera, who returns to the Redford on Oct. 13, 2007.

In a March 28, 1982 Detroit Free Press article about repertory film theaters, Jack Mathews wrote about the growing influence of home video: "You can talk about cable and pay TV, VHS, Beta and laser discs all you want, but you'll never convince me seeing movies telescoped onto a screen the size of a frying pan in a living room within earshot of a refrigerator door or an occupied bassinet is anything like seeing them in their natural habitat."

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