Film Archives | Towner Art Gallery

Film Screening: Psycho, 1960

Sun 3 Sep | 2.30pm

Secretary Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), is on the lam after stealing $40,000 from her employer in order to run away with her boyfriend and is overcome by exhaustion during a heavy rainstorm. Traveling on the back roads to avoid the police she stops for the night at the ramshackle Bates Motel and meets the polite but highly strung proprietor Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), a young man with an interest in taxidermy and a difficult relationship with his mother.

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Film Screening: Imitation of Life, 1959

Sun 10 Sep | 2.30pm

Lora Meredith (Lana Turner), a white single mother who dreams of being on Broadway, has a chance encounter with Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore) a black widow. Annie becomes the caretaker of Lora's daughter, Suzie (Sandra Dee), while Lora pursues her stage career. Both women deal with the difficulties of motherhood: Lora's thirst for fame threatens her relationship with Suzie, while Annie's light-skinned daughter, Sarah Jane (Susan Kohner), struggles with her African-American identity.

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Film Screening: On the Waterfront, 1954

Sun 17 Sep | 2.30pm

Dockworker Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) had been an up-and-coming boxer until powerful local mob boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) persuaded him to throw a fight. When a longshoreman is murdered before he can testify about Friendly's control of the Hoboken waterfront, Terry teams up with the dead man's sister Edie (Eva Marie Saint) and the streetwise priest Father Barry (Karl Malden) to testify himself, against the advice of Friendly's lawyer, Terry's older brother Charley (Rod Steiger).

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Film Screening: True Grit, 1969

Sun 24 Sep | 2.30pm

After hired hand Tom Chaney (Jeff Corey) murders the father of 14-year-old Mattie Ross (Kim Darby), she seeks vengeance and hires U.S. Marshal "Rooster" Cogburn (John Wayne), a man of "true grit," to track Chaney into Indian territory. As the two begin their pursuit, a Texas Ranger, La Boeuf (Glen Campbell), joins the manhunt in hopes of capturing Chaney for the murder of a Texas senator and collecting a substantial reward. The three clash on their quest of bringing to justice the same man.

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Film Screening: Madame X, 1966

Sun 1 Oct | 2.30pm

Holly Parker (Lana Turner) is married to high-powered diplomat Clay Anderson (John Forsythe), but finds that her attention wanders when he's away. She starts an affair with a wealthy bachelor (Ricardo Montalban), but her life unravels when he dies unexpectedly. Her mother-in-law (Constance Bennett) advises Holly to leave Clay and their baby and start a new life. Years later, when a petty criminal (Burgess Meredith) tries to blackmail Holly, who is now a prostitute, things get even worse for her.

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