A pharmaceutical Fountain of Youth unleashes long-suppressed impulses in cautious chemist Cary Grant and sensible wife Ginger Rogers in this slapstick fable. Reprising elements of Bringing Up Baby, the film recalls Hawks’s own screwball prime while turning the stars into the kind of kids they probably never were. Even as it revels in the characters’ infantile adventures, the script pits young-as-you-feel bromides against the sheer horrors of immaturity. Grant’s character puts it pretty succinctly: “Maladjustment, near idiocy, and a series of low comedy disasters, that’s what youth is. I don’t see how anyone survives it.” Juliet Clark
Written by Ben Hecht, I. A. L. Diamond, Charles Lederer, from a story by Harry Segall. Photographed by Milton Krasner. With Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Charles Coburn, Marilyn Monroe. (97 mins, B&W, 35mm, From 20th Century Fox)
(In conjunction with) 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; Kent Youngblood, MGM; and Marilee Womack, Warner Bros. Archival and restored prints presented with support from the Packard Humanities Institute.
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
Non-UC Berkeley students
Senior citizens (65 & over)
Disabled persons
Youth (17 & under
Additional Feature $4.00 All Patrons
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