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Greetings! The Motor City Cinema Society is sincerely grateful for the reception of last week’s first Television ‘Broadcast’ (no pun intended) and we promise to build on this series so that it becomes your new favorite. This Monday, August 3rd, 2026 we continue with yet another, albeit subtler, type of sub-series of ours with The Wayward Girl (1957)… 

This is the third of four anamorphic (widescreen) prints we will screen this season, and this one in particular is special in that it is the only one in Black & White! As often as we can, we try and show one of these rare gems and so far each (often, like those printed in color) has a variation on the well-known CinemaScope (or: Scope) name. The Wayward Girl, a Republic Picture, will be presented in what it boldly calls Naturama; some of you may remember that when we showed Ghost Diver (another treasure from ’57) it was in RegalScope. 

But this rose, by any name, smells as sweet in our Screening Room because we always project Scope with true anamorphic lenses; truly larger than the standard ‘Flat’ (4:3) image and screen we normally use. We have the capability to make it “easy” on ourselves and theoretically could shrink our widescreen selections to fit inside a squarer frame, but we believe our audience deserves the biggest anamorphic image that we can provide! Come and enjoy this photographic marvel (an image squeezed by a camera then unsqueezed by a projector) with a baffo rarity of a prison melodrama from the fabulous ‘50s.

Not much is readily available about The Wayward Girl, which is part of its charm (and it must not be confused with the 1959 Norwegian film of the same name which stars Liv Ullman). It’s a standard sort of “B Movie” for the era, of the treachery and tragic circumstances of which a young girl, Judy (Marcia Henderson), is the victim. Convicted of a crime she didn’t commit, she learns to cope with a new reality in prison and a colorful cast of characters are featured along the way to her redemption. Many familiar faces of hard-working performers from stage, television, and film are all over this movie, including Barbara Eden (TV’s dreamt of Jeannie) and Peg Hillias (Eunice both on Broadway and in Elia Kazan’s film version of A Streetcar Named Desire), to name two. Along with a smorgasbord of the usual trappings expected of the late ‘50s, a unique undercurrent of classical melodies adds shading to the soundtrack and score.   

Something wonderful about films of yesteryear (in a broad sense - any era that isn’t now) is the lack of runtime homogeny. The Wayward Girl is free of 90/120/180 minute expectancy at ‘only’ 71:00. This provides a great opportunity to showcase two very special short black & white Scope films, one before and one after our feature picture, to help emphasize our formalist approach. 

Before the film, ironically, we will showcase an extremely rare experimental film from Rej Rejayan called The End (1969); after, we will have an encore presentation of Crystal Street Bridge (a favorite of those who have seen us play it before) - also an incredibly rare work, and one which will be the subject of a research and preservation project staring in the weeks to come. 

See you REEL soon!

Greetings, everyone! Last week, the Motor City Cinema Society had a tremendous turnout for George Lucas’ American Graffiti (1973). It was both fun and poignant hanging out with you in ’62 with all of that great film’s glimpses into a bygone era in modern history. This Monday, we’ll take another type of trip ‘back in time’ with Back Alley Broadcast - into the wonderful world of television - from the unique perspective of 16mm film. 

Something The Alley has always championed, even in the days before it partnered with MCCS, is the need to spread awareness of the importance of 16mm in its variety of uses seen in many public and private spheres over the decades; essential areas of entertainment and education since its invention in the 1920s. Unlike unwieldy 70 or diminutive 8, 16mm is the most adaptable of all the film formats and in its prime was indispensable for screenings in theaters and schools, while also a reliable and cherished staple for home viewing as well as in churches, temples, bars, summer camps, or anywhere else a portable projector and reels could be taken, really. 

A prolific area where 16mm also thrived was in television; not shown on film in the same room as the viewer, but instead transmitted into millions of homes through airwaves. And so, we delved into the treasures of Back Alley Cinema’s TV department for this, the first in our newest special program series.  

There are so many limits to what we at MCCS know about the vast galaxy that is broadcasting, but our attempt this week is to create a TV experience that, paradoxically, can never have taken place on TV anyhow. The prints we selected had one prerequisite: they can only be shown if they were originally created for use on the proverbial ‘small screen’. The only other major factor is abiding by a strict time schedule, as a broadcast might have to. All of the items that we will show this Monday fit into their intended time slots (half hour and/or full hour episodes) and all accompanying commercial advertisements (picked by us while acting as a sort of ‘network’, as it were, to more faithfully recreate this type of viewing) will fit within those slots as well. It might be easier, as with our ongoing Odyssey of Rare Animation and Evening of Shorts, to simply present two hours of material in a loose manner, but this is MCCS, and the event must live up to its name!  

One novel thing about what our audience will see is how the material shown is not only compiled in an eclectic way, but formally it is also unadulterated, in a sense. To see it on film is in the manner ‘before’ any of it had once been transmitted and beamed into people’s televisions, at home or elsewhere. As you will see, the quality on film will be superior to that of a transmission (no matter how strong the signal was) and will be shown (projected, of course), larger than first intended, on our screen as opposed to that of a TV Set.  

Much of this event required a certain degree of detective work to execute. For instance, some moments in our reels give away where commercials would have been inserted by handy cards placed for studios that read things as “Place Commercial Here”, but elsewhere we’ve had to infer, by evidence of existing splice material, fade outs, and the like, when and where those helpful indications were missing. 

This new program will shed new light on some of the work that television stations during the film era might have encountered while using 16mm, and honor their work as we pursue research into the world of film on television in the coming months.

So, join us for this most special night and watch some TV - two carefully crafted hours for our own type of closed circuit. We won’t reveal what you will see (because we want you to tune in the old fashioned way) it will be a mixture of both animated and live action subjects in one event - the first of its kind in The Screening Room. If you have to miss any of it, make 

sure you have a way to tape it.    

See you REEL soon! 

Hello, everyone! Last week we had a blast surviving The Redeemer as he wreaked havoc during the terrifying Class Reunion Massacre (1978). Now, we welcome you back for a very different kind of “reunion” as promised in the TV spot we’ve played every week before each feature picture: George Lucas’ masterpiece American Graffiti (1973) is coming to our Screening Room Monday July 20th at 7pm! 

That advertisement and two more spots (from the same television broadcast reel) which will be shown before we finally screen this sensational feature refer to the return it had in theaters in 1978, but that was no mere re-release. There are, in fact, two versions of this film: the one that premiered in theaters in 1973 and this slightly longer one that came out five years later, which included several minutes of additional scenes and Dolby Stereo sound (in select theaters). This is George Lucas, after all, and before it was his signature routine of re-releasing his own films, notoriously like the original three Star Wars “episodes” - all with alterations made every time they came back out in theaters and/or home video. He first enacted this rather unusual practice with Graffiti in ‘78, with the unlimited resources made available to him after changing Hollywood with his unexpected success the year before.

Actually, this is also the second time MCCS will have the privilege of bringing American Graffiti on film to Detroit. In the Spring of 2024 we showed it on 35mm at The Redford Theatre; a gorgeous anamorphic (CinemaScope/ widescreen) Technicolor print of the 1973 (theatrical) version. Now, being the completists that we are, we will also have a 16mm print of the 1978 version in our Screening Room. 

American Graffiti on 16mm is rather a perfect companion to the 35mm print we showed next door. It’s quite natural to see this way, actually, because this film was photographed on 35mm using a cost-effective alternative to authentic anamorphic scope cinematography, the physics and look of which are much like 16mm. With this method of Techniscope, each 35mm frame utilizes half its typical height; two perforations (perfs) instead of the standard four, achieving width by ‘sacrificing’ height. 

So, photographically, Graffiti started as a special format half the size of 35mm, the negatives of which were then optically squeezed for striking anamorphic prints and finally un-squeezed with scope lenses in theaters, as it were. Ours, incidentally, is non-anamorphic and retains much of its special documentary-like feel in ‘letterboxed’ Adapted Scope that likely never was compressed from its original negative.

But, why would George Lucas want his second feature film to look naturalistic and 16mm-like? Well, he did have experience as a documentary cameraman, and moreover intended to explore and celebrate the bygone era of this story’s setting evidently with a sort of pictorial authenticity, to effectively bring the exploits of his own youth to the screen. These are, of course, the uniquely American “mating rituals” involving cars and music, as he has stated: in the time of the 50s and 60s when rhythm & blues, he has emphasized, was the basis for the ever-present and essential rock & roll music and motifs of this anthropological study. 

Lucas was, after all, one of Joseph Campbell’s most prolific students and Graffiti observes human behavior from a certain mythological awareness that drives its story in a novel way.

Its unpolished accessibility and relatively low dramatic ‘stakes’ are akin to Richard Linklater’s 1993 classic Dazed and Confused as well as to the homage that is Licorice Pizza (2021) which aims to emulate (among many things) what P.T. Anderson has referred to as Graffiti’s “finely cut gem” of a plot - when most often people refer to it dismissively as merely “episodic”. On the surface it may seem like just a “hangout film”, but there is much for the indulgent viewer to discover or rediscover in this delightful and brilliant film.

The best way to do just that is with us. Our print of American Graffiti was chemically restored in Italy by a process called ORS, and it’s a one of a kind print you won’t see anywhere else. Before receiving treatment, this Eastman print was dominated by a red cast; its blue, green, and yellow colors, once intact, largely lost to fading, as many Eastman prints made in the 1970s have similarly suffered. Fortunately, there was enough color left “under” the red oxidation of this print to make it enjoyable again, and we’re proud to debut it this Monday for you. 

And believe it or not, Paul Le Mat, who plays John Milner (a fictionalized version of director John Milnius), christened one of its reel cans with his signature, which we’ll have to show everyone Monday.

For more information about our ongoing preservation efforts, and how to support our cause to save and screen film for Detroit, reach out to us and donate today!

See you REEL soon…  

The Motor City Cinema Society welcomes you all back on July 13th for another memorable movie Monday with Class Reunion Massacre (1978; AKA The Redeemer and The Redeemer: Son of Satan).

Here we are, well into summer and as the hot sun keeps shining what could be better but to stay cool inside our air-conditioned screening room while we subject ourselves to some good old-fashioned terror. ‘What is The Redeemer’ one might ask? Well, it’s hard to describe without a proper visual aid. Perhaps a ‘big box’ VHS tape is the best way to conjure up a feeling for what this fantastically off-beat bit of horror has in store. It’s also important to bear in mind that it really helps to see it with the moral support of a group viewing, because there is just something wrong with this movie.  

It is from 1978, after all, and gritty as ever as a product of its era. At times (suddenly, as you will see) so raw it’s actually creepy. Its lack of budget is probably one big factor, with none of the slick 80s commercialism or production value of, say, the ‘typical’ Friday the 13th picture. A lot of it may also have to do with the killer of this film, a proto-slasher portrayed by the remarkable T.G. Finkbinder, an actor whose name has more syllables in it than his filmography has entries. Finkbinder plays a priest who himself inhabits a number of roles - each of which is a homicidal agent of the devil himself, a character whose mythic power transcends any need for exposition, it seems. All that is clear is that a new student comes to town - right out of the water, hand first - and this deadly young boy (evidently the “Son of Satan”?) has an extra thumb (“the mark of the Redeemer”) which is passed onto the priest and drives him to punish a select group of former classmates, each who personifies a sin, as they attend their high school reunion. 

But, it’s the atmosphere, the icky hellishness of the synthesizer-punctuated scenes that really is the most to blame (or credit, as the case may be) for the horrors within this film. Just as well, the blend of occasional realistic acting seemingly out of nowhere commands our attention whether we like it or not. The shower scene with Jeannetta Arnette (the film’s biggest star) perhaps is the most obvious example; so brutal and naturalistically performed that Psycho seems rather hokey. 

To the actors and crew alike, whomever did and did not take this production seriously, we commend them for putting themselves through what must’ve been a grueling shoot for everyone involved nonetheless. Come and enjoy this unforgettable film, in some ways masterfully executed and in many other ways a real hoot, captured with just the right amount of grain and fade in this grindhouse-y gem of a print. 

Oh- and don’t think we’ve forgotten that since our last show there was a national holiday: Independence Day! And since we can’t skip the opportunity to be festive on film, before this week’s feature we will have a very special short in honor of this nation’s birthday; a rare excerpt from a performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Hymn of the Nations (1944) adapted, arranged, and conducted by none other than music legend Arturo Toscanini with the NBC orchestra, led by concertmaster Mischa Mischakoff in New York (just 8 years before he came to Detroit and led the DSO for 16 years) and featuring the Westminster Choir with a tenor solo by Jan Peerce.

Toscanini developed this work while in the U.S. as an exile from his beloved home country of Italy (banished and unable to work freely for years of Mussolini’s dictatorship), updating a composition by Verdi to include anthems reflective of the Allied Powers to the existing medley.     

We will show the spirited last section of this profound artistic statement (including a passage that has been censored since the McCarthy era) to honor its legacy as a testament against fascism in all its forms. 

See you REEL soon!

The Motor City Cinema Society is proud to present Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another in spectacular 70MM! 

For the first time in Michigan this Academy Award winning motion picture will premier ON FILM and we are delighted to bring it to you at Detroit’s Movie Palace, the place to be for 70MM, the historic Redford Theatre - September 4th and 5th, 2026 at 8pm.

One Battle After Another was an enormous success for Anderson with both critics and audiences alike when it was released in 2025, and it is also an historic achievement in contemporary filmmaking. Just as he revived the use of 70MM photography with his landmark 2012 film The Master (the first feature shot entirely with this large format since Kenneth Branagh’s 1996 screen version of Hamlet) as well as the once-popular tradition of 70MM ‘Blow-Ups’ (striking prints onto 70 from 35MM negatives, for superior image and sound quality), Anderson’s new film also gave new life to VistaVision, using a special photographic process which runs 35MM horizontally rather than vertically (just as true IMAX is simply 70MM turned 90 degrees). 

This high resolution widescreen format was the premier choice for such classic films as Vertigo (1958) and The Ten Commandments (1956) in the monumental era of Hollywood. 

VistaVision was last projected in movie theaters with Marlon Brando’s 1961 directorial debut One Eyed Jacks and had not returned until PTA brought it back with 4 VistaVision release prints of One Battle After Another - played on coveted projectors of select fine movie houses in Los Angeles, New York, London, and Boston. Good thing for audiences in the rest of the world, VistaVision is also extraordinarily versatile, lending itself well for printing onto other projectable formats available today. Its brilliant theatrical run so far has also had everything from 35 and 70MM to IMAX, though none of them have come to Michigan...that is, until now! 

We invite you to see this daring adventure starring Leonardo DiCaprio as ex-revolutionary Bob Ferguson, who guards his daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti) from the evil clutches of the sadistic Colonel Lockjaw (Sean Penn), obsessed with erasing her from existence. Also starring Benicio Del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Alana Haim, Tony Goldwyn, and Kevin Tighe. See One Battle After Another, made in the great tradition of Hollywood masterpieces, shown on film - the way nature intended - and support fine film programming in our great city of Detroit. 

See you REEL soon!

Doors at 7pm, Film at 8pm 

$15

The Motor City Cinema Society, Detroit’s All-Film Theater, is honored to bring you the one and only Mommie Dearest (1981) on Monday, June 29th, 2026! 

The second of two biographical pictures we will show this season; another spectacular melodrama, in this vein the encore to Lady Sings the Blues (1972), this film is directed by Frank Perry. With his Oscar-nominated 1962 debut independent feature David and Lisa (with Keir Dulea and Janet Margolin) and others like Monsignor (1982) and Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970) it is yet another memorable entry in his unique and somewhat small cinematic oeuvre, and arguably the most well-known. 

Perhaps his experience as a stage director explains the neutrality of ‘Perry’s’ film, shot as something like a play, with little in the way of technical style. Instead, the cast’s performances are the main focus, of course here led by Faye Dunaway in the extraordinary title role (which originally was given to Anne Bancroft, believe it or not): Hollywood Golden Era star Joan Crawford.  

Mommie Dearest is the controversial adaptation of Crawford’s eldest adopted daughter Christina Crawford’s 1978 book by the same title. It is her testament of abuse and terror in the home of the screen legend. But the book and the film of the book are quite different things, of course. If anyone were an authority on the latter and the ultimate say of the character of Joan Crawford adapted here as a screen personage rather than the ‘real’ Crawford’s Joan Crawford, it would be Dunaway. In a rare segment during an interview from decades ago, she put the situation of the film’s driving force into perspective:

“I do think that Joan Crawford became, in everybody’s minds, the result of a kind of scandal, and she became a monster. People read the book, said: ‘oh, this is what she was really like’. Well, that isn’t all that she was really like. It may not have even been what she was really like. So, it’s important to make some attempt to change that…I think she was an extreme disciplinarian and I think that she lacked gentleness with herself…I think she tended to be very stern because that’s how she was with herself and I think that she wanted [her children] to learn that you have got to work to get something, and I’ve said this before but let me say it again: the story between the mother and the daughter I think is the inevitable tragic misunderstanding between a child of want (which Crawford was) and a child of opulence (which the girl was). Christina…could not understand a child of want... She took everything for granted; she had a Hollywood existence, she had incredibly beautiful dresses, she had…incredibly…wonderful parties and everything…and also I’ve talked to people like Carrie Fisher and other children of that time and they say ‘well…we all had that, that was how it was in Hollywood then’… That was the norm [to Christina]… Joan [alternately] had really worked; alone, too, she essentially didn’t have a man to help her, you know, a mate to share her life with. So, Joan wanted the girl to be grateful and to understand that what she’s got was the result of a lot of work, etc., but she couldn’t. So that inevitable clash set itself up and it was never resolved.”

Joan Crawford removed Christina and her second eldest child from her will in 1976 and died the next year. It may be that Christina Crawford’s book was published so soon after because her recently deceased mother left her without an inheritance, but who’s to say. It may also be a surprise that she renounced the film version of her story, supposedly even remarking that her mother didn’t “deserve” what the film and all its taken liberties did with her legacy. Calling out Dunaway’s performance particularly, having been quoted as saying “ Faye says she [was] being haunted by mother's ghost. After her performance, I can understand why."

The Motor City Cinema Society bids you a most merry Monday with yet another very special bulletin: 

The Newsletter of the Screening of the Print of the Film The Conquest of the Planet of the Apes! 

That’s right – this Monday we’re showing the second of THREE sequels on our terrific program. 

We had Batman ‘return’ to open our season and eventually Superman will fly over to wrap things up, but here we are, halfway through, and delighted as ever to bring you the fourth in the original Planet of the Apes Series. And would you believe it, this is the second of two Roddy McDowall films on our schedule, picked accidentally as a sequential follow-up to last week’s Laserblast (1978)! This time around, Mr. McDowall might seem, well… more enthusiastic, and it’s a fine thing to have him back (somehow more natural in an ape suit). 

Speaking of ‘seconds’, this is also an encore in our screening room for Ricardo Montalban, whom we debuted last year with a gorgeous Technicolor CinemaScope print of Sayonara (1957), in which he adeptly played a Kabuki actor, here returning for his second and final time to this franchise as Armando.

Getting any film made is something of a miracle, considering all the people and resources required for just one, which is generally why this fourth installment in the once Charleton Heston-led franchise is all the more impressive. To recap these in order, they are: Planet of the Apes (1968), Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971), Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972), and finally (until a standalone remake in 2001 and new series reboot in 2011), Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973). In the era of the originals, every year except ’69 had an Apes film for audiences to enjoy. Each was a success and all starred McDowall (twice as Cornelius, twice as Caesar). He returned also for the 1974 television show (as a chimpanzee named Galen) and stuck it out through all 14 episodes of its short-lived existence. 

This screening will be a first in one very interesting respect: the film we’ll be showing you is a rarity; something called an Airline Print. Just as its name implies, this print was struck for use on airplanes. It is a relic from yesteryear when in-flight movies were shown on 16mm film for passengers. Sometimes, swearing and other material is censored from these edited versions, and end credits might be truncated, perhaps for reasons including, but not limited to, weight-relief. 

It is, by necessity, a cropped Pan & Scan print as well, that may also have served some broadcast television use in its day. We are always happy to play a film this way, itself a rare thing in most instances these days – dominated otherwise by what could be called Historically-Informed Exhibition. However, the opening credits (as with many a Flat print) are printed anamorphically compressed to keep the words and names that extend across the whole width of the screen squeezed within its 4:3 aspect ratio, rather than cropped out as with the rest of the picture. 

To give you the most dynamic viewing experience possible, though, we will de-compress that opening sequence and show it in true anamorphic ‘scope’ (widescreen), because we can! We’re somehow ‘allergic’ to showing any scope footage compressed if we can help it, even if it’s just for a brief sequence, as was the case with the spectacular finale of Superman: The Movie - The Extended Television Version (1978/1982). We “could have” just let Christopher Reeve fly by and smile at the audience all stretched and distorted and weird looking, but instead we showed it with the correct lens applied in just the right moment to reveal its original anamorphic glory. Is it crazy? Maybe. But we’re not the ones who printed the movie in both scope and 4:3 in the lab in the first place! 

Our pre-film material will also include something very special this week: a promotional short from the original Planet of the Apes, featuring some of the remarkable efforts of the cast and crew as they created another world on film. 

See You REEL Soon!

The Motor City Cinema Society welcomes you back this Monday June 15th, 2026 with open arms for the second film this season featuring… a killer arm! The sci-fi/horror classic Laserblast (1978). 

Silly as it might seem, but nevertheless true: two weeks ago we brought you The Crawling Hand (1963) in which the severed arm of an astronaut wreaked havoc on a small town. We then took an artful detour with The Crying Game (a genuine masterwork from 1992; the only connection between it and the former being their alliterative titles) and have now come back to the magical land of shlock with one of producer Charles Band’s earlier exploits, about an alien arm-weapon subsuming a young man as he descends into a murderous rampage. Just like with The Crawling Hand, many were acquainted with Laserblast by way of Mystery Science Theater 3000, from the 1996 episode that imbedded it into the awareness of television viewers.

Few would argue with the claim that in the 1970s there are two distinct eras: before and after Star Wars (1977). It’s one of the most notable shifts in film history, including lasting effects on how they were since made and marketed. And, as with any influential work, unfortunately (or fortunately, as the case may be), imitation, the sincerest form of flattery though it be, brought about countless space movies for years to come, most of which were objectively bad. 

Laserblast of course falls into the ‘after’ category, but is an atypical and somehow dark riff on the whole matter, demonstrated best by a curious shot near the end of the film - of a sign that simply reads “Star Wars” on the side of a road which is promptly blown up (take THAT, George Lucas); destroyed by the alien weapon that has possessed Billy Duncan (Kim Milford). To make the situation even more convoluted, Milford was not only in Laserblast in 1978, but also Corvette Summer (which we’ve also played at The MCCS Screening Room). Of course, that film is the Mark Hamill vehicle from the height of his then-new Luke Skywalker fame.

It must be the influence of Charles Band, the godfather-to-be of Full Moon Features, that is most responsible for the bizarre and wonderfully crummy tone that is the ordeal of Laserblast, just as he was later responsible for such attractions as Dollman Vs. Demonic Toys (1993) and Evil Bong 420 (2015). It may or may not be surprising that most any film print of an outrageous Full Moon Feature would fetch a relative small fortune online today. Why? Who knows. But, this is the era of ‘VHS grading’, after all.

But, it is also true that time has done certain favors for Laserblast, and there is much for a viewer to enjoy even without our MST3K friends, including the obvious fun of the bygone era it captures (feathered hair, ascots, Eddie Deezen…), as well as its charming special effects – such as the stop-motion aliens which have a certain sophistication even in their crudeness; they’re definitely hand-made. There is also a sense of practicality in the production of Laserblast, as was the working style of motion pictures of that time. It’s irrefutable that casts and crews worked hard to make such “cheesy” movies as this. These people made films. 

So, come have a ‘Blast’ with us this Monday and enjoy this peculiar film in all its 1978 splendor the best way possible - on a vintage 16mm print with just the right amount of graininess and color fading. See why all movies are beautiful when shown on film, from the Art House to the Grind House.  

The Motor City Cinema Society invites you to a very special 35MM presentation of

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) at the historic Redford Theatre, Detroit’s Movie Palace!

A timeless comedy classic, this film premiered just one year after their groundbreaking

television program Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969-1974) went off the air in England. By its

fourth and final series it was shortened to simply Monty Python and unlike the first three,

Graham Chapman, Carol Cleveland, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin were

temporarily without fellow Python John Cleese for its briefer six episode run.

Once their avant-garde program had finally run its course on British airwaves, all forty-

five of its episodes were nearly erased (slated to be recorded over by the BBC to save money on

tape costs) were it not for Terry Jones personally saving the master copies himself, just as Terry

Gilliam literally had to personally retrieve his animation films used on the show from the trash.

BBC negligence notwithstanding, the show then soon became a success in America as it was re-

establishing itself with an international cult following, and the reunited Python team shifted

focus to the production of a motion picture.

The source material used for the Holy Grail is a reflection of the thorough, educated

approach of the Pythons, as well as of their affection for Arthurian and other legends of the

Middle Ages. For a comedy that is one of the silliest movies ever made, it is also extraordinarily

well researched, with a Pasolini-like pictorial flair for Medieval realism. This degree of

authenticity provided the foundation for their inimitable sense of absurd humor to flower as

only these comedians could, and it is now one of the most celebrated titles of any genre.

Directed by both Terrys (Gilliam and Jones) and funded by the likes of Led Zeppelin, Pink

Floyd, and Jethro Tull, this hilarious film continues to be endlessly quoted (or, parroted?)

inexhaustibly by its zealous fans - for over fifty years! But whether you’ve never seen it a

hundred times, once, or never, we assure you that this brilliant and outrageous picture will

have something special to offer you on 35MM.

Come and join in the adventure of Arthur, King of the Britons, and Sirs Bedivere,

Galahad, Lancelot, and Robin on their quest to find the Holy Grail. SEE why it makes Ben-Hur

look like an epic!

Our season RAGES ON this Monday, June 8 th , 2026 with the second of the four anamorphic

(widescreen) CinemaScope titles on this most eclectic schedule; a gorgeous original print of an

absolute classic, The Crying Game. Written and directed by Neil Jordan (Mona Lisa, et al) and

starring Stephen Rea, Jaye Davidson, Miranda Richardson and Forest Whitacker, it is still the

landmark drama it was when it premiered in 1992 and we couldn’t be more proud to bring it to

you – as we always are when fortunate enough to screen a 90s film.

The contemporary notion of the ‘spoiler’ is typically applied to big blockbusters, perhaps still

something precious for studios and investors to help ensure an audience will come and pay to

see whatever it is that might be compromised if revealed before a movie’s premiere. Though, it

might also be a matter of artistic integrity, and possibly surprising for some that this same

practice kept a tight lid on one of Jordan’s several plot twists in The Crying Game, even after its

debut, in the press and marketing surrounding the production.

We at the Motor City Cinema Society are also going to keep as much as we can private about

what happens in the story of this remarkable film, in the interest of honoring the work of the

cast and crew of The Crying Game. Come and see for yourself why a human story of this

magnitude might not otherwise be accurately conveyed- or worse- ruined, if artificially

attributed ‘shock’ value where it wasn’t intended.

What we can tell you is: this film features no less than three versions of the titular song,

including the original by vocalist Dave Berry, accompanied in that 1964 recording by both “Big

Jim” Sullivan and “Little Jim Pea” (Jimmy Page) on guitars, as well as one performed ‘live’ by

Davidson, and of course the Boy George reinvention produced by the Pet Shop Boys. The choice

to name the picture after this haunting composition is poetic, and much less literal than what

The Soldier’s Wife (its original title) would have evoked, providing a healthful dose of ambiguity

where it might otherwise have been typical.

But there is nothing common about the unique manner with which The Crying Game works as a

film and it is not surprising that it was lauded with many awards at the time of its release,

including an Oscar win for Jordan’s original script, and a Supporting Actor nomination for

Davison (the first for a Black British actor in the history of the Academy), sensationally marking

his debut performance (one of only four he has given). Curious as it might have been for

American audiences and critics to take to a film involving the perils of IRA terrorism, with

something perhaps lost in its trip overseas, but not when one considers its undeniable

humanity, resigning it to the backdrop of a rare love story.

It will all make sense when you come see this film, and know all there is to know about The

Crying Game.

We at the Motor City Cinema Society hope you all had a fine break and welcome you back this Monday where nothing will stop…

THE CRAWLING HAND!

It “demands to live!” At least, according to the trailer it does. On the subject, that sensational advertisement has been in the collection of one of our members a lot longer than this feature print. For nearly twenty years this classic “B” movie promo has occasionally delighted Detroit audiences on a notoriously fun reel of pre-film material which showcases the Official Films short Alligator Thrills and a number of other terrific trailers including the kindred co-production of The Slime People (1963). Incidentally, both are narrated by the same actor and both will play before the main attraction this Monday!

The Crawling Hand was also, of course, one of Mystery Science Theater 3000’s earlier episode features; a Season 2 gem from 1989. In our line of work, MST3K comes up regularly. This is so because the films they’ve watched, which number well into many hundreds (if not, thousands by now), were introduced and/or reintroduced to millions of viewers on their show, brought out of “cheesy” obscurity long before we had the honor of bringing such titles to you. And many people have only ever seen certain MST3K films with the show’s casts - by choice if the film hurt deep enough to not dare another viewing ‘alone’, as it were.

But this certainly isn’t a ‘Manos’ type situation. It’s really a delightful example of a film that simply cannot be made today without the unfortunate and ironic curse of self-aware ‘winking’ at the audience. It’s not a throwback; it is, authentically, what later campy films channel and throw back to. Its ‘flaws’ (no offense to the script co-written by Joseph Cranston, Bryan Cranston’s father) are as honest as its ‘ambition’. 

While it might reek of Brylcreem from its stable of supporting actors like Alan “Skipper” Hale Jr. and Kent Taylor (whose oeuvre features an amazing streak with Al Adamson) in a cast that almost had Burt Reynolds (he was busy pretending to be Brando on The Twilight Zone that same year, anyhow), this is nevertheless a beautiful black & white photochemical print. It is definitely what it known as an original (generally defined as made from a 35mm negative). Prints such as this can help demonstrate just how well a 16mm print can retain the sophisticated appearance that is truthful to the look of 35 if made correctly from strong source material. 

You’ll see why many instances of talking heads and other connecting tissue linking scenes of a disembodied hand terrorizing a small town might stand on their own as gorgeous images from a bygone era, as you’ll just as well hear its crisp soundtrack bring those scenes to life with not only sound, but music! In addition to the film’s score, The Crawling Hand features (just as in the trailer) The Rivingtons’ hit The Bird’s The Word, before it was later imitated by The Trashmen with Surfin’ Bird.   

See You Reel Soon!

Our season continues this Monday May 18th, 2026 with the daringly emotional film Nanami:

First Love (1968). This nearly 60-year-old feature was made by Susumu Hani, a Tokyo-born

director who stopped making films over 40 years ago, but is still living - at a remarkable 97 years

of age. Also known as Nanami: The Inferno of First Love, it is our first time showing a Japanese

language film and one of the absolute rarest titles we’ve ever had the honor to show you.

In 2021, this film was screened at the Japanese Avant Garde and Experimental Film Festival in

London, England (for the first time there since its original release in the late 60s). A quote from

one of its hosts may help explain just how rare a viewing of this movie is:“...the 16mm print you’re about to watch comes from [the Japanese Foundation’s] Tokyo archive.

It is, to our knowledge, the only English-subtitled print that is uncut in existence”.

While it is most likely that there are more than one, no one actually can say with certainty

whether that’s a true statement or even if, since ours is uncut, this is the same exact print which

played at the JAEFF that has somehow made its way to us for this screening. It really is a

mystery, like other things about Nanami, like: why is the title abbreviated on our print (and was

that also the case at its London screening)? When, if ever, has this film been shown publicly in

the U.S. before now?

Such questions surrounding the history and proliferation of some of the fine films we show our

audiences is becoming more and more our primary focus as we research and preserve the

precious prints we work with. But we invite you to abandon these concerns, at least for the

duration of the film, and also to let go of any preconceived ideas about the ‘risqué’

connotations of the X rating, in order to appreciate the unique cinematic voice of Susumu Hani.

Like so many filmmakers as-yet and to-be rediscovered, his inclusion into canon helps to better

define the term ‘world cinema’ as it continues to broaden with discoveries such as this.

Nanami is a sophisticated and refined work which in its simplest sense is just a tragic love story -

between young Shun and the titular Nanami - but its flair is in its unconfined depictions of

sexuality, humanity, and trauma, captured marvelously by superbly honest characterizations

and a photographic style that is often atmospheric and dreamy as well as plainly direct and

documentary-like, featuring many virtuosic sections of photomontage and other techniques.

We are proud to present this treasure of a film with a gorgeous original print that you’ll

remember for a very long time.

The Motor City Cinema Society welcomes you to the most baffo season we’ve ever presented, starting at 7pm this Monday May 5th, 2026. 

Our first film is something we love to try and show as often as possible these days- a sequel! Batman Returns (1992, starring Michael Keaton, Michelle Pfeiffer, Danny DeVito and Christopher Walken) - Tim Burton’s spectacular follow-up to his tremendously successful Batman (1989). This time TWO of the most notorious of Rogues’ Gallery villains threaten Gotham City and challenge the Caped Crusader like never before. Catwoman and The Penguin (formerly Selena Kyle and Oswald Cobblepot, respectively), with the help of corrupt profiteer Max Schrek, unleash a destructive and poisonous combination of terrorism and demagogic politics as they vie for power. 

Keaton is, of course, the only starring member of the cast to return to this franchise, and DeVito always seemingly had it in-the-bag, first hearing about ‘having’ the role while shooting The War of the Roses (1989). But how Pfeiffer became Catwoman was quite a different type of situation. Annette Bening first was given the part, but had to bow out due to becoming pregnant (with husband Warren Beatty’s child). Then, after several, perhaps extreme, attempts by Sean Young to win the part (including appeals before television cameras and sneaking into studio offices) while given the opportunity to audition was instead declined in favor of Pfeiffer. 

Batman Returns is Burton’s last hurrah with the Dark Knight mythos, going out in an over-the-top ‘Richard III’ fashion, according to DeVito’s own description of the size of his character’s portrayal. But then, Joel Schumacher soon took on the mantle of the Gotham he started, even retaining regulars Michael Gough (Alfred Pennyworth) and Pat Hingle (Commissioner Gordon) in an otherwise very much different direction with Batman Forever (1995) and Batman and Robin (1997). 

Join us as we screen a very beautiful and crispy print of this comic book classic! It will look, sound and ‘feel’ just like a viewing in a neighborhood theater of it did back in ’92.