Student Pick !
We have come to expect the truth from The Word, but Hawks, and Raymond Chandler before him, busted through all that with The Big Sleep, whose population is at least fifty percent liars. Hawks’s classic is the only film to approach the gallows humor and abrasive romanticism of Chandler’s novel, with Bogart at his best as Marlowe, and Bacall as the fast-talking barker who invites him into an impossibly intricate web of blackmail and murder. Even Chandler couldn’t explain one of the killings, which in any case take a back seat to Marlowe’s more pressing task: unraveling the enigmatic psychologies of his enemies and so-called friends. We present the film in a 1945 prerelease version. Judy Bloch
Written by William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, Jules Furthman, from the novel by Raymond Chandler. Photographed by Sidney Hickox. With Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely, Elisha Cook Jr. (116 mins plus 16 mins epilogue, B&W, 35mm, From UCLA Film and Television Archive, permission Warner Bros.)
Howard Hawks: The Measure of Man
“What one loves most about Hawks, finally, is the aliveness of so many of his people.”—Robin Wood
This series, which began in January and continues through mid-April, celebrates the work of one of the most-loved directors of classical Hollywood cinema, Howard Hawks (1896–1977). Our second installment of films includes many of his best works from the forties, fifties, and sixties, such as To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep, both starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, and three masterful Westerns: Red River, often cited as one of the finest Westerns from the forties; Rio Bravo, a favorite of many leading critics and filmmakers; and the late-period El Dorado. We also present several restored and studio vault prints of Hawks’s most liberating comedies, including Ball of Fire, with an ensemble cast led by Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper; I Was a Male War Bride, featuring Cary Grant and Ann Sheridan; Monkey Business with Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers; plus the gaudy and glorious classic Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, starring Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell.
Hawks’s oeuvre has had and continues to have a broad influence on the history of cinema, in large part because of the remarkable unity of his style. We are grateful to the many studios and archives that have generously loaned 35mm prints for this major retrospective.
Susan Oxtoby, Senior Film Curator
Howard Hawks: The Measure of Man is timed to coincide with a UC Berkeley undergraduate course on Hawks taught by Marilyn Fabe of the Department of Film and Media. We wish to thank the following individuals and institutions for their assistance with this major retrospective: Regina Schlagnitweit, Austrian Film Museum; Rob Stone, Library of Congress; Anne Morra and Mary Keene, The Museum of Modern Art; Daniel Bish, George Eastman House; Todd Wiener and Steven Hill, UCLA Film and Television Archive; May Haduong, Academy Film Archive; Fleur Buckley, BFI/NFTVA; George Watson, BFI Distribution; Kristen MacDonald, Film Reference Library, TIFF Bell Lightbox; Grover Crisp, Sony Pictures; Paul Ginsburg, Universal; Caitlin Robertson, 20th Century Fox;
Theater Admission Prices
Single Feature
$5.50 BAM/PFA Members, UC Berkeley Students
$9.50 Adults (18-64)
$6.50 UC Berkeley faculty, staff, and retirees
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Youth (17 & under
Additional Feature $4.00 All Patrons
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