I used to love this theatre before its conversion, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, into a cinema-cafe'. I do not find watching a movie here now a good experience: sub-standard projection and sound, awkward mobile seating on a flat floor, insufficiently darkened auditoriums (I guess seeing what you eat is more important than seeing the movie!) The former manager-projectionist Ralph was a true professional, and watching movies at the Castle in those days used to be an enjoyable experience. I’m happy the theatre is open and functioning, but I wish the place were better.
Cinema 2 (Cinema II) was where Pontecorvo’s THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS opened to great acclaim in 1967. It was put into the Beekman, a substantially larger theatre, after that. The movie is currently getting a major re-issue, because of its relevance to events in Israel/Palestine and Iraq.
The policy on Cinema Treasures seems to be to give a venue its latest name. Amusing hypothesis: if before the Roxy Theatre closed, it had been a porno theatre for a few weeks under the name “Pussycat Palace”, would it have to be listed here as “Pussycat Palace” rather than the Roxy???
I fully agree, but then the World should not be listed as the Embassy 49th Street either because it was a major art house under that name for many decades and “Embassy 49th Street” only for a relatively brief time also.
In June of 1979, as an adjunct to the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, there was a retrospective of the films of Roberto Rossellini. Many of the screenings took place at the Garden Theatre. I had come down from Rhode Island to see all of what was shown and grew to love both the city and this wonderful theatre.
I went to the 68th Street Playhouse many times over the years. The film I remember most that premiered here (in 1984) was the Danish ZAPPA, directed by Bille August, a potent story about adolescent turmoil. Despite fine reviews, ZAPPA was not a commercial success and seems to have completely disappeared from the planet.
This theatre has dependably excellent projection and 70mm capability in the large auditorium, and they sporadically do revival series of selected films in 70mm. Memory: as a teenager in 1960 I went to the Coolidge Corner for the first time ever to see Francois Truffaut’s THE 400 BLOWS. It made an indelible impression on me. It’s a shame that the original entrance and part of the lobby were turned into a commercial space, so that one has to go in through a thoroughly banal-looking side entrance carved out of a wall. Uggh!
For the record, a showing I attended last Sunday of the 1929 silent PICADILLY was shown in an incorrect 1:1.66 aspect ratio, causing heads and bottom of frame to be sliced off. When I protested at the end of the first showing, it was still not corrected by the second showing. The Brattle has proper lenses, aperture plates, and maskings to show films on this type in a 1:1.33 ratio(actually even that’s too wide for this silent). Very bad indeed!
I drove by yesterday. The theatre is closed. In one of the poster windows is a leftover poster from CATCH ME IF YOU CAN. Does anyone have any information on whether there are any current plans for this theatre?
I saw many imports there during the 60s. Several that come to mind are THE SILENCE by Bergman, Fellini’s 8 ½, Petri’s THE TENTH VICTIM, Jacobsen’s A STRANGER KNOCKS, De Sica’s MARRIAGE ITALIAN STYLE with Loren and Mastroianni. The theatre sometimes day/dated with the Park Square Cinema.
What great experiences I had watching APOCALYPSE NOW and the revival of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA in that empyrean. At the Ziegfeld on Sunday, October 15, 1972, I was the first person in line for the opening of FELLINI’S ROMA; so I bought the first ticket sold in America for that film! The night before I had seen the world premiere of Bertolucci’s LAST TANGO IN PARIS (untrimmed)at the New York Film Festival. After the Fellini film I went to Truffaut’s TWO ENGLISH GIRLS at the Fine Arts on 58th Street. Good weekend!
Many decades ago the theatre was known as the Wakefield Opera House and then, for a very long time, the Community Theatre. The venue might very well function as a showcase for foreign and independent American films that do well at the Avon in Providence but are never booked at the Entertainment Cinemas.
Your reference to the Cine Roma (a.k.a. Broadway Cine Roma) is interesting, since I didn’t know it was the same theatre as the Republic. Was the policy of showing films from fascist Italy ill-advised because they could not sustain the house or because they shouldn’t have been shown? Most of the films from fascist Italy,with very few exceptions, were non-political genre pieces, adventures, soap operas, vapid light comedies, musicals…as the 1978 Museum of Modern Art series showed. Films from the Soviet Union shown at various New York theatres from the 1920s on were often propaganda-saturated. During the war years, films from Italy (Germany and Japan too, of course) were banned. Those prints that were in the U.S. were confiscated and stored by the government at a military base..
In some of their newspaper ads of the 1950s they adopted folksy commentary. Of RAINTREE COUNTY, a film of tepid critical success, the management wrote: “Held Over 2nd Smash Week. The public is the final arbiter of entertainment and they endorse this great motion picture.” The Gilbert Stuart referred to itself in its ads as “The little theatre off Riverside Square.” It was a very likable place.
Thank you very much. On a visit to New York in 1959 I remember walking by the Bryant and noticing that they were running a revival double bill of OPEN CITY and PAISAN. I am interested in, in addition to movie theatres in general, those that may have played European films, and especially Italian movies. The Bryant doesn’t seem to be listed. Perhaps I’ll add it. On the topic, do you happen to know if the Cinema Giglio in Little Italy was the same place as the Canal Theatre?
Loew’s State did not normally play foreign-language films, but they did run the Italian TOMORROW IS TOO LATE in 1952 in a subtitled print to enormous business (Variety: ‘Tomorrow’ Smash 45G). It was a lovely but now forgotten movie featuring Pier Angeli and Vittorio De Sica and dealt with the sexual awakening of adolescents. The movie went on to play art houses around the country, and in a dubbed version was even shown at drive-ins.
I used to love this theatre before its conversion, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, into a cinema-cafe'. I do not find watching a movie here now a good experience: sub-standard projection and sound, awkward mobile seating on a flat floor, insufficiently darkened auditoriums (I guess seeing what you eat is more important than seeing the movie!) The former manager-projectionist Ralph was a true professional, and watching movies at the Castle in those days used to be an enjoyable experience. I’m happy the theatre is open and functioning, but I wish the place were better.
Yes, they definitely were.
Yes, Mr. Coles, I too knew Roger personally and I loaned my 16mm print of Rossellini’s DESIDERIO, from my private collection, for that series.
Cinema 2 (Cinema II) was where Pontecorvo’s THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS opened to great acclaim in 1967. It was put into the Beekman, a substantially larger theatre, after that. The movie is currently getting a major re-issue, because of its relevance to events in Israel/Palestine and Iraq.
The policy on Cinema Treasures seems to be to give a venue its latest name. Amusing hypothesis: if before the Roxy Theatre closed, it had been a porno theatre for a few weeks under the name “Pussycat Palace”, would it have to be listed here as “Pussycat Palace” rather than the Roxy???
I fully agree, but then the World should not be listed as the Embassy 49th Street either because it was a major art house under that name for many decades and “Embassy 49th Street” only for a relatively brief time also.
In June of 1979, as an adjunct to the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, there was a retrospective of the films of Roberto Rossellini. Many of the screenings took place at the Garden Theatre. I had come down from Rhode Island to see all of what was shown and grew to love both the city and this wonderful theatre.
Roberto Rossellini’s numbing GERMANY YEAR ZERO opened here in September, 1949.
I went to the 68th Street Playhouse many times over the years. The film I remember most that premiered here (in 1984) was the Danish ZAPPA, directed by Bille August, a potent story about adolescent turmoil. Despite fine reviews, ZAPPA was not a commercial success and seems to have completely disappeared from the planet.
This theatre has dependably excellent projection and 70mm capability in the large auditorium, and they sporadically do revival series of selected films in 70mm. Memory: as a teenager in 1960 I went to the Coolidge Corner for the first time ever to see Francois Truffaut’s THE 400 BLOWS. It made an indelible impression on me. It’s a shame that the original entrance and part of the lobby were turned into a commercial space, so that one has to go in through a thoroughly banal-looking side entrance carved out of a wall. Uggh!
Some comments on this theatre can be found in the entry for the Little Carnegie Playhouse, which was located a block from the Angelika 57.
For the record, a showing I attended last Sunday of the 1929 silent PICADILLY was shown in an incorrect 1:1.66 aspect ratio, causing heads and bottom of frame to be sliced off. When I protested at the end of the first showing, it was still not corrected by the second showing. The Brattle has proper lenses, aperture plates, and maskings to show films on this type in a 1:1.33 ratio(actually even that’s too wide for this silent). Very bad indeed!
The Cable Car Cinema is a SINGLE SCREEN THEATRE, NOT A TWIN. Above information should be corrected. The theatre seats 125.
Since there is so much discussion here of the Lincoln Art/Angelika 57/Bombay/Biograph, I’m adding that theatre as a new posting under “Angelika 57”.
I drove by yesterday. The theatre is closed. In one of the poster windows is a leftover poster from CATCH ME IF YOU CAN. Does anyone have any information on whether there are any current plans for this theatre?
It was located at the end of the trolley line that ran up Pocasset Avenue and a brief stretch of Dyer Avenue.
The space where the theatre had been became a medical lab.
I think this theatre popped up in the 1970s, carved out of a parking garage building. I saw Ingmar Bergman’s CRIES AND WHISPERS there in 1973.
I saw many imports there during the 60s. Several that come to mind are THE SILENCE by Bergman, Fellini’s 8 ½, Petri’s THE TENTH VICTIM, Jacobsen’s A STRANGER KNOCKS, De Sica’s MARRIAGE ITALIAN STYLE with Loren and Mastroianni. The theatre sometimes day/dated with the Park Square Cinema.
What great experiences I had watching APOCALYPSE NOW and the revival of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA in that empyrean. At the Ziegfeld on Sunday, October 15, 1972, I was the first person in line for the opening of FELLINI’S ROMA; so I bought the first ticket sold in America for that film! The night before I had seen the world premiere of Bertolucci’s LAST TANGO IN PARIS (untrimmed)at the New York Film Festival. After the Fellini film I went to Truffaut’s TWO ENGLISH GIRLS at the Fine Arts on 58th Street. Good weekend!
Many decades ago the theatre was known as the Wakefield Opera House and then, for a very long time, the Community Theatre. The venue might very well function as a showcase for foreign and independent American films that do well at the Avon in Providence but are never booked at the Entertainment Cinemas.
Your reference to the Cine Roma (a.k.a. Broadway Cine Roma) is interesting, since I didn’t know it was the same theatre as the Republic. Was the policy of showing films from fascist Italy ill-advised because they could not sustain the house or because they shouldn’t have been shown? Most of the films from fascist Italy,with very few exceptions, were non-political genre pieces, adventures, soap operas, vapid light comedies, musicals…as the 1978 Museum of Modern Art series showed. Films from the Soviet Union shown at various New York theatres from the 1920s on were often propaganda-saturated. During the war years, films from Italy (Germany and Japan too, of course) were banned. Those prints that were in the U.S. were confiscated and stored by the government at a military base..
In some of their newspaper ads of the 1950s they adopted folksy commentary. Of RAINTREE COUNTY, a film of tepid critical success, the management wrote: “Held Over 2nd Smash Week. The public is the final arbiter of entertainment and they endorse this great motion picture.” The Gilbert Stuart referred to itself in its ads as “The little theatre off Riverside Square.” It was a very likable place.
Thank you very much. On a visit to New York in 1959 I remember walking by the Bryant and noticing that they were running a revival double bill of OPEN CITY and PAISAN. I am interested in, in addition to movie theatres in general, those that may have played European films, and especially Italian movies. The Bryant doesn’t seem to be listed. Perhaps I’ll add it. On the topic, do you happen to know if the Cinema Giglio in Little Italy was the same place as the Canal Theatre?
Loew’s State did not normally play foreign-language films, but they did run the Italian TOMORROW IS TOO LATE in 1952 in a subtitled print to enormous business (Variety: ‘Tomorrow’ Smash 45G). It was a lovely but now forgotten movie featuring Pier Angeli and Vittorio De Sica and dealt with the sexual awakening of adolescents. The movie went on to play art houses around the country, and in a dubbed version was even shown at drive-ins.