What we’re about
People often ask me, "What IS a Classic Movie?". Well, one thing for sure is that it doesn't HAVE to be made before you were born AND it doesn't HAVE to be in B&W. It MAY be both but, on the contrary, it may have come out in 2023 at Christmastime, like Alexander Payne's The Holdovers. A Classic Movie is a GREAT *movie that stands the test of time but may not be truly appreciated in its own time, like **Frank Capra's *It's a Wonderful Life (1946).
MISSION STATEMENT: Let's get together and watch GREAT movies of ALL eras & genres on The Big Screen AND at small events at members’ homes!
Our goal is not JUST seeing the best movies of both the past AND today, but making time afterward to talk about them and perhaps even becoming Film Friends.
There will also occasionally be events related to other areas of the Arts and local culture.
And each year we have an Oscars Party!
Although based in Fenton, MO, we will host events throughout the Metropolitan area, on BOTH sides of the Mississippi AND Missouri Rivers, including both St. Charles County and Edwardsville, IL!
We are looking for an ACTIVE membership, which for us means you'll attend at least ONE event each year.
Please submit a recent "selfie" profile photo when you join so we can easily recognize you at our doorsteps and in public places. Profile photos are most effective when they include only one human being and when that human being is not wearing sunglasses =OR= a hat.
I hope you'll also consider supporting my wife, Shirley's, plant-based eating group: https://www.meetup.com/plant-based-stl/
Established Monday, 11/19/2018!
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Denzel Washington in DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS [35MM] (1995) @ The Hi-Pointe!The Hi-Pointe Theatre, St. Louis, MO
General Admission - $11
Student/Senior - $8
******************************************************************************
If you're NOT a Student/Senior, you can save at least $3/movie by becoming a Cinema St. Louis member.
MORE INFO: https://cinemastlouis.org/membership
******************************************************************************
Read the book. Watch the movie. Discuss them both!
Books will be ready for pick up at The Novel Neighbor.
Please visit The Novel Neighbor for Movie Book Club registration and details.
Note: registration in the book club is not necessary to see the film.
******************************************************************************
Coming SOON!
https://hipointetheatre.org/coming-soon/April 2025
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fGWELuGqRRVSO3SOswFMiEIKo8TUEI2p/view***
ADVANCE TICKETS:
This process does NOT get you a specific seat in the theater. If you believe an event like this might sell out though, have at it. It does allow you to make a convenient additional donation to Cinema St. Louis, if you're so inclined.
https://hipointetheatre.org/movies/devil-in-a-blue-dress-35mm/
[Includes Trailer]***
PARKING:
The Hi-Pointe has its own parking in various places behind the theater, but in 45 years of going there, I have never used it.
After 6PM M-F, after 12PM Saturday, and ALL DAY SUNDAY, there’s plenty of FREE parking right next door HERE:
Lindell Bank
6900 Clayton Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63139
314-645-7700***
After the movie, we will gather in the lobby for lively, provocative, and insightful conversation--OR as close as we can come to that, anyway--HA!
******************************************************************************
About the Movie
In late 1940s Los Angeles, Easy Rawlins is an unemployed black World War II veteran with few job prospects. At a bar, Easy meets DeWitt Albright, a mysterious white man looking for someone to investigate the disappearance of a missing white woman named Daphne Monet, who he suspects is hiding out in one of the city’s black jazz clubs. Strapped for money and facing house payments, Easy takes the job, but soon finds himself in over his head.
About the book
The first novel by “master of mystery” (The New York Times) Walter Mosley, featuring Easy Rawlins, the most iconic African American detective in all of fiction. Named one of the “best 100 mystery novels of all time” by the Mystery Writers of America, this special thirtieth anniversary edition features an all new introduction from the author.
The year is 1948, the town is Los Angeles.
Easy Rawlins, a black war veteran, has just been fired from his job at a defense factory plant. Drinking in his friend’s bar, he’s wondering how he’ll manage to make ends meet, when a white man in a linen suit approaches him and offers him good money if Easy will simply locate Miss Daphne Money, a missing blonde beauty known to frequent black jazz clubs. Easy has no idea that by taking this job, his life is about to change forever.
“More than simply a detective novel…[Mosley is] a talented author with something vital to say about the distance between the black and white worlds, and with a dramatic way to say it” (The New York Times).
About the author
Walter Mosley is the acclaimed author of more than forty books, including the internationally bestselling Easy Rawlins series. His best known Easy Rawlins novels include Devil in a Blue Dress, A Red Death, White Butterfly, Black Betty, and Little Yellow Dog. He is also the author of the collection of stories Always Outnumbered. Always Outgunned featuring Socrates Fortlow, which was the basis for an HBO feature film. A former president of the Mystery Writers of America, he was named a grand master by the organization in 2016. He has served on the board of directors of the National Book Foundation and is a recipient of the PEN American Center Lifetime Achievement Award. A native of Los Angeles, he now lives in New York City.NOTE: This movie has a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_in_a_Blue_Dress_(film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_in_a_Blue_Dress
https://www.scripts.com/script/devil_in_a_blue_dress_98 - MAE WEST & CARY GRANT in "I'm No Angel" (1933) @ ARKADIN CINEMA & BAR/$7Arkadin Cinema & Bar, St. Louis, MO
General Admission - $7
5228 Gravois Avenue | St. Louis, MO 63116
Microcinema in the Heart of Bevo!
https://arkadincinema.com/events/
******************************************************************************
PLENTY of Public Parking a block closer to the Bevo Mill @ Walsh/Duke & Gravois!
******************************************************************************### Presented by Forbidden Hollywood
Forbidden Hollywood is a monthly series hosted by STL film critic Katie Carter celebrating the Pre-Code films of the early 1930s, when movies were wild, racy, transgressive, and tons of fun.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Code_Hollywood
******************************************************************************
After the movie, we will gather for lively, provocative, and insightful conversation--OR as close as we can come to that, anyway--HA!
******************************************************************************
In 1933’s I’M NO ANGEL, the second of two pre-Code movies that she wrote as well as starred in, the voracious and voluptuous Mae West plays Tira, a sideshow dancer who accumulates fame—and men—with her popular lion taming act. Reteaming her with her She Done Him Wrong costar Cary Grant, I’M NO ANGEL centers West in a denser, more radically feminist plot that plays up her intelligence and sexual adventurousness while tackling the institutions that seek to take away women’s agency. A comedy sprinkled with risqué music numbers and witty one-liners— including some of West’s most iconic quotes, like “when I’m good, I’m very good, but when I’m bad, I’m better”—I’M NO ANGEL is credited with saving Paramount from bankruptcy, and with being one of the key factors that eventually led to the strict enforcement of the Production Code.Sharp, seductive and emotionally guarded Tira (Mae West) is a lauded and much-adored circus performer. Her newest suitor, a married New York City socialite named Kirk Lawrence (Kent Taylor), showers her with gifts. Kirk's cousin, Jack Clayton (Cary Grant), goes to Tira to try and convince her to end the affair. The two fall for one another, but when love and happiness risk taking Tira from the stage, her boss plots to break off the engagement and shackle her to the circus forever.
NOTE: This movie has a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
https://arkadincinema.com/event/mae-west-in-im-no-angel-1933-presented-by-forbidden-hollywood/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_No_Angel
https://www.scripts.com/script/i'm_no_angel_10551 [Includes Trailer] - David Lynch's THE STRAIGHT STORY [35MM] (1999) @ The Hi-PointeThe Hi-Pointe Theatre, St. Louis, MO
General Admission - $11
Student/Senior - $8
******************************************************************************
If you're NOT a Student/Senior, you can save at least $3/movie by becoming a Cinema St. Louis member.
MORE INFO: https://cinemastlouis.org/membership
******************************************************************************
Coming SOON!
https://hipointetheatre.org/coming-soon/April 2025
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fGWELuGqRRVSO3SOswFMiEIKo8TUEI2p/view***
ADVANCE TICKETS:
This process does NOT get you a specific seat in the theater. If you believe an event like this might sell out though, have at it. It does allow you to make a convenient additional donation to Cinema St. Louis, if you're so inclined.
https://hipointetheatre.org/purchase/141644/
***
PARKING:
The Hi-Pointe has its own parking in various places behind the theater, but in 45 years of going there, I have never used it.
After 6PM M-F, after 12PM Saturday, and ALL DAY SUNDAY, there’s plenty of FREE parking right next door HERE:
Lindell Bank
6900 Clayton Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63139
314-645-7700***
After the movie, we will gather in the lobby for lively, provocative, and insightful conversation--OR as close as we can come to that, anyway--HA!
******************************************************************************
A retired farmer and widower in his 70s, Alvin Straight learns one day that his distant brother Lyle has suffered a stroke and may not recover. Alvin is determined to make things right with Lyle while he still can, but his brother lives in Wisconsin, while Alvin is stuck in Iowa with no car and no driver’s license. Then he hits on the idea of making the trip on his old lawnmower, thus beginning a picturesque and at times deeply spiritual odyssey.- Richard Farnsworth as Alvin Straight
- Sissy Spacek as Rose Straight
- Harry Dean Stanton as Lyle Straight
- Everett McGill as Tom
- John Farley as Thorvald Olsen
- Kevin Farley as Harald Olsen
- Max the Wonder Dog as Farm Dog[8]
NOTE: On Rotten Tomatoes, this movie has a 95% on the Tomatometer and a 91% on the Popcornmeter.
https://hipointetheatre.org/movies/the-straight-story/ [Includes Trailer]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Straight_Story
https://www.scripts.com/script/the_straight_story_18946 - Stanley Kubrick's BARRY LYNDON [35MM] (1975) @ The Hi-Pointe!The Hi-Pointe Theatre, St. Louis, MO
General Admission - $11
Student/Senior - $8
******************************************************************************
If you're NOT a Student/Senior, you can save at least $3/movie by becoming a Cinema St. Louis member.
MORE INFO: https://cinemastlouis.org/membership
******************************************************************************
Coming SOON!
https://hipointetheatre.org/coming-soon/April 2025
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fGWELuGqRRVSO3SOswFMiEIKo8TUEI2p/view***
ADVANCE TICKETS:
This process does NOT get you a specific seat in the theater. If you believe an event like this might sell out though, have at it. It does allow you to make a convenient additional donation to Cinema St. Louis, if you're so inclined.
https://hipointetheatre.org/purchase/141646/
***
PARKING:
The Hi-Pointe has its own parking in various places behind the theater, but in 45 years of going there, I have never used it.
After 6PM M-F, after 12PM Saturday, and ALL DAY SUNDAY, there’s plenty of FREE parking right next door HERE:
Lindell Bank
6900 Clayton Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63139
314-645-7700***
After the movie, we will gather in the lobby for lively, provocative, and insightful conversation--OR as close as we can come to that, anyway--HA!
******************************************************************************
Stanley Kubrick bent the conventions of the historical drama to his own will in this dazzling vision of a pitiless aristocracy, adapted from a novel by William Makepeace Thackeray. In picaresque detail, BARRY LYNDON chronicles the adventures of an incorrigible trickster (Ryan O’Neal) whose opportunism takes him from an Irish farm to the battlefields of the Seven Years’ War and the parlors of high society. For the most sumptuously crafted film of his career, Kubrick recreated the decadent surfaces and intricate social codes of the period, evoking the light and texture of 18th century painting — with the help of pioneering cinematographic techniques and lavish costume and production design, all of which earned Academy Awards. The result is a masterpiece — a sardonic, devastating portrait of a vanishing world whose opulence conceals the moral vacancy at its heart. (TCM)“One of the most beautiful of all Stanley Kubrick’s films, originally released in 1975, this slyly savage tale of social climbing in the 18th century is also arguably his funniest…. This is a masterclass in cinematography — famously, Kubrick used nothing but natural light in all but a few scenes.” —Wendy Ide, The Guardian
NOTE: On Rotten Tomatoes, this movie has a 78% on the Tomatometer and a 92% on the Popcornmeter.
https://hipointetheatre.org/movies/barry-lyndon-35mm/ [Includes Trailer]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Lyndon
https://www.scripts.com/script/barry_lyndon_1068
![Denzel Washington in DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS [35MM] (1995) @ The Hi-Pointe! cover photo](https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/b/8/8/4/event_527507236.webp "Denzel Washington in DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS [35MM] (1995) @ The Hi-Pointe!")
![David Lynch's THE STRAIGHT STORY [35MM] (1999) @ The Hi-Pointe cover photo](https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/4/0/6/b/event_527656491.webp "David Lynch's THE STRAIGHT STORY [35MM] (1999) @ The Hi-Pointe")
![Stanley Kubrick's BARRY LYNDON [35MM] (1975) @ The Hi-Pointe! cover photo](https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/3/f/5/8/event_527656216.webp "Stanley Kubrick's BARRY LYNDON [35MM] (1975) @ The Hi-Pointe!")
