The Melbourne Cinémathèque & ACMI present
The Great McGinty
When
Wed 2 Mar 2022
Update
Cinémathèque’s Preston Sturges season will take place at The Capitol with ACMI Cinemas currently closed due to urgent building works. There is no box office at The Capitol, so new memberships must be purchased online or at the ACMI Tickets and Information Desk, which will remain open until 7:30pm on screening nights. We apologise for any inconvenience and look forward to welcoming Cinematheque members back to the ACMI Cinemas soon.
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This extremely intelligent, biting political satire about a tramp (Brian Donlevy) manipulated into the governorship is as relevant today as when it unexpectedly launched Sturges’ stellar, if brief career as the preeminent Hollywood writer-director, justly winning him an Academy Award for original screenplay. Sturges’ restless visual style, breakneck speed and rapid-fire dialogue, seen here in their prototype form, went on to influence generations of filmmakers. The film is also populated by a characteristically colourful menagerie of stock players including Akim Tamiroff and William Demarest.
Screens with
Program
"This Cockeyed Caravan": the Comic Universe of Preston Sturges
Sullivan's Travels (1941) – Wed 2 Mar at 7pm
The Great McGinty (1940) – Wed 2 Mar at 8.45pm
Christmas In July (1940) – Tues 8 Mar at 7pm
Hail the Conquering Hero (1944) – Tues 8 Mar at 8.20pm
The Palm Beach Story (1942) – Wed 16 Mar at 7pm
Unfaithfully Yours (1948) – Wed 16 Mar at 8.40pm
About the program
Preston Sturges (1898-1959) was the great shooting star of 1940s Hollywood cinema. Brought up by an itinerant mother who travelled to Europe to follow the likes of Isadora Duncan and Aleister Crowley, Sturges came to prominence in a burst of creativity and success on Broadway in the late 1920s before a ten-year stint as a jobbing and well-paid screenwriter for various studios including Paramount...
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About Melbourne Cinémathèque
Australia's longest-running film society screens significant works of international cinema in the medium they were created, the way they would have originally screened.
Melbourne Cinémathèque is self-administered, volunteer-run, not-for-profit and membership-driven.
