“From Hitler to Hollywood” Film Series, September 3 through October 1

Wednesday, September 3, through Wednesday, October 1

The Last Picture House, 325 East Second Street, Davenport IA

With the five featured classics including Academy Award winners, iconic entertainments, and works that have inspired no end of unforgettable lines and scenes, Davenport's German American Heritage Center teams up with the city's The Last Picture House to present the “From Hitler to Hollywood” film series, a celebration of cinematic talent and industry boasting Wednesday screenings September 3 through October 1.

In the "From Hitler to Hollywood" showcase, audiences are invited to step into the dramatic world of Golden Age Hollywood, where the silver screen became a beacon of hope and resistance. As the Nazi regime took hold in Germany, more than 800 filmmakers, directors, actors, technicians, and artists, fled persecution and found refuge in Los Angeles. United by their love of cinema and a determination to survive, these exiles became a vibrant creative community, supporting each other through hardship and forging new pathways in American film.

Scheduled titles in the “From Hitler to Hollywood” series include:

Sunset Boulevard (Wednesday, September 3, 6 p.m.): A 1950 American dark comedy noir directed by Billy Wilder and co-written by Wilder, Charles Brackett, and D. M. Marshman Jr. It is named after a major street that runs through Hollywood, Sunset Boulevard stars William Holden as Joe Gillis, a struggling screenwriter, and Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, a former silent-film star who draws him into her deranged fantasy world, where she dreams of making a triumphant return to the screen. Erich von Stroheim plays Max von Mayerling, her devoted butler, and Nancy Olson, Jack Webb, Lloyd Gough, and Fred Clark appear in supporting roles. Praised by many critics when first released, Sunset Boulevard was nominated for 11 Academy Awards (including nominations in all four acting categories) and won three. It is often ranked among the greatest movies ever made, and in 1989, it was included in the first group of films selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. In 1998, it was ranked number 12 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 best American films of the 20th century, and inspired a multiple Tony-winning musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

The Big Heat (Wednesday, September 10, 6 p.m.): A 1953 American film noir crime film directed by Fritz Lang starring Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, and Jocelyn Brando, The Big Heat about a cop who takes on the crime syndicate that controls his city. William P. McGivern's serial in The Saturday Evening Post, published as a novel in 1953, was the basis for the screenplay, written by former crime reporter Sydney Boehm, and the film was selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2011. Critic Roger Ebert added the film to his personal canon of "Great Movies," and on the review aggregator Web site Rotten Tomatoes, 95 percent of 74 critics' reviews are positive, the film's critical consensus reading: "Presented with stark power by director Fritz Lang, The Big Heat is a delightfully grim noir that peers into the heart of darkness without blinking."

Shanghai Express (Wednesday, September 17, 6 p.m.):

A 1932 American pre-Code film about a group of train passengers held hostage by a warlord during the Chinese Civil War, Shanghai Express was directed by Josef von Sternberg and stars Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook, Anna May Wong and Warner Oland. The screenplay was written by Jules Furthman, based on a 1931 short story by Harry Hervey, and the movie was the fourth of seven films that Sternberg and Dietrich created together. Shanghai Express is particularly memorable for its stylistic black-and-white chiaroscuro cinematography, and even though Lee Garmes was awarded the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, according to Dietrich, it was von Sternberg who was responsible for most of the film's signature look. A box-office and critical success, Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a "freshness" rating of 96 percent, and in the February 2020 issue of New York Magazine, Shanghai Express was included among "The Best Movies That Lost Best Picture at the Oscars."

From Here to Eternity (Wednesday, September 24, 6 p.m.): A 1953 American romantic war drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann and written by Daniel Taradash, From Here to Eternity is based on the 1951 novel of the same name by James Jones. It deals with the tribulations of three United States Army soldiers, played by Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, and Frank Sinatra, stationed on Hawaii in the months leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Deborah Kerr and Donna Reed portray the women in their lives, while the supporting cast also includes Ernest Borgnine, Philip Ober, Jack Warden, Mickey Shaughnessy, Claude Akins, and George Reeves. The film won eight Academy Awards out of 13 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor (Sinatra), and Supporting Actress (Reed), and in 2002, From Here to Eternity was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Casablanca (Wednesday, October 1, 3 & 6 p.m.): A 1942 American romantic drama directed by Michael Curtiz, Casablanca was filmed and set during World War II, and focuses on an American expatriate (Humphrey Bogart) who must choose between his love for a woman (Ingrid Bergman) and helping her Czech resistance-leader husband (Paul Henreid) escape from the Vichy-controlled city of Casablanca to continue his fight against the Nazis. The screenplay by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch is based on Everybody Comes to Rick's, an unproduced stage play by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison, and the supporting cast features Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Dooley Wilson. Casablanca won the Academy Award for Best Picture, while Curtiz was selected as Best Director and the Epsteins and Koch were honored for Best Adapted Screenplay. Consistently ranking near the top of lists of the greatest films in history, the United States Library of Congress selected the film on its inaugural list of works preserved in the National Film Registry, and Roger Ebert wrote: "If there is ever a time when they decide that some movies should be spelled with an upper-case M, Casablanca should be voted first on the list of Movies,"

For screenings in the German American Heritage Center's "From Hitler to Hollywood" series at The Last Picture House, guests are asked to check in at the German American Heritage Center table in the lobby upon entering the venue. Admission is $15 per film or $50-60 for a complete five-film pass, guests will choose their seats upon arrival, and proceeds from ticket sales will go to Heritage Center programming, with $1 from every Twin Span draft beer purchase also going to the museum. For more information, call (563)322-8844 and visit GAHC.org.