CLASSIC FILM SERIES

It’s time for you to add the Harbor Theater Classic Film Series to your winter calendars. This year we present a special film series, “Movies That Were Worthy of the Best Film Oscar,” featuring six classic films that didn’t win the Oscar but have stood the test of time.

Join us for these classic films on the second Thursday and Saturday of each month at 2:00 p.m., from October through March! Tickets are available at the door, with doors opening at 1:30 p.m. for each show. Don’t miss this opportunity to experience these timeless cinematic masterpieces!

All shows are at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are $12 Adults; $8 Members.

DECEMBER 12 & 14, 2024

SUNSET BOULEVARD
(1950)

1 hour 50 minutes

An aging silent film queen refuses to accept that her stardom has ended. She hires a young screenwriter to help set up her movie comeback. The screenwriter believes he can manipulate her, but he soon finds out he is wrong. The screenwriters’ ambivalence about their relationship and her unwillingness to let go leads to a situation of violence, madness, and death.

Director: Billy Wilder
Producer: Charles Brackett
Screenwriters: Charles Brackett, D.M. Marshman Jr., Billy Wilder
Paramount Pictures
“Its performances, music, cinematography and direction continue to awe-inspire even seventy-three years after its release.”
Calum Cooper
In Their Own League
“Billy Wilder’s chillingly cold-blooded satire of Hollywood is one of his finest films — and indeed arguably one of the greatest movies of the period.”
Wendy Ide
Times (UK)
“Smashing drama of the old-fashioned kind, plus elegant perceptive characterization of the modern school, combined to make Sunset Boulevard one of the greatest films of the decade.”
Marjory Adams
Boston Globe

JANUARY 9 & 11, 2025

HIGH NOON
(1952)

1 hour 25 minutes

Former marshal Will Kane (Gary Cooper) is preparing to leave the small town of Hadleyville, New Mexico, with his new bride, Amy (Grace Kelly), when he learns that local criminal Frank Miller has been set free and is coming to seek revenge on the marshal who turned him in. When he starts recruiting deputies to fight Miller, Kane is discouraged to find that the people of Hadleyville turn cowardly when the time comes for a showdown, and he must face Miller and his cronies alone.

Director: Fred Zinnemann
Producer: Stanley Kramer
Screenwriters: John W. Cunningham, Carl Foreman
United Artists, Criterion Collection, Republic Pictures
“This gives us some time-tested staples: Gary Cooper, a pioneer Western town, lawlessness, gun-shootin' and a haunting theme song you've probably heard already. To these add a movie rarity -- a mature point of view.”
Richard L. Coe
Washington Post
“This is a film of integrity and purpose, a revelation of human character and a masterpiece of the story telling art.”
John W. Riley
Boston Globe
“Its insights are primer sociology, and the demonstration of the town's cowardice is Q.E.D. It's a tight piece of work, though -- well directed by Fred Zinnemann.”
Pauline Kael
New Yorker

FEBRUARY 13 & 15, 2025

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
(1962)

2 hours 9 minutes

Scout Finch (Mary Badham), 6, and her older brother, Jem (Phillip Alford), live in sleepy Maycomb, Ala., spending much of their time with their friend Dill (John Megna) and spying on their reclusive and mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley (Robert Duvall). When Atticus (Gregory Peck), their widowed father and a respected lawyer, defends a black man named Tom Robinson (Brock Peters) against fabricated rape charges, the trial and tangent events expose the children to evils of racism and stereotyping.

Director: Robert Mulligan
Producer: Alan J. Pakula
Screenwriters: Harper Lee, Horton Foote
Universal Pictures
“A moving, mature and socially responsible production which emphatically reveals the power and promise latent in Hollywood and made visible only when its unique resources are properly used.”
Allan Morrison
Jet Magazine
“Atticus Finch is a film hero in a way we don't often think about - resilient, caring, empathetic, loving, dignified, and keen to make a better world.”
Matt Neal
ABC Radio (Australia)
“Peck's performance, in tortoiseshell glasses and a cream linen suit, is mesmerizing and serious.”
Kate Muir
Times (UK)
“I got so much more from this story as an adult, and it's a shame that my adolescent stubbornness kept me from the movie for so many years.”
Kevin Carr
7M Pictures

MARCH 13 & 15, 2025

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW
(1971)

R | 1 hour 58 minutes

High school seniors and best friends, Sonny (Timothy Bottoms) and Duane (Jeff Bridges), live in a dying Texas town. The handsome Duane is dating local beauty, Jacy (Cybill Shepherd), while Sonny is having an affair with the coach's wife, Ruth (Cloris Leachman). As graduation nears, both boys contemplate their futures. While Duane eyes the army and Sonny takes over a local business, each boy struggles to figure out if he can escape this dead-end town and build a better life somewhere else.

Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Producer: Stephen Friedman
Screenwriters: Peter Bogdanovich, Larry McMurtry, Larry McMurtry
Columbia Pictures
“An American classic in every sense.”
Matt Brunson
Film Frenzy
“The Last Picture Show is a masterpiece. It is not merely the best American movie of a rather dreary year; it is the most impressive work by a young American director since Citizen Kane.”
Paul D. Zimmerman
Newsweek
“The Last Picture Show is an exceptional and original work, not so much a movie-movie as a film buff's film, an exercise in regret and a reminder of various losses.”
Charles Champlin
Los Angeles Times