For those of you who want to get out of the sun in relative comfort, check out what's happening at a few of our classic movie houses.
Beat The Weekend Heat Inside Chicago's Classic Movie Houses
Last Minute Plans: A Night To Remember
See A Night to Remember tonight at the Portage Theater.
Northwest Chicago Film Society Announces Summer Schedule
The new season, running April 25 - August 29 at the Portage Theater, includes some unusual film noir as well as a whole slate of films about the Great Depression.
City Seeks Landmark Status For Portage Theater
The Portage seeks acknowledgment from the city, in the form of official landmark status, to stave off attempts by an Albany Park church to acquire and renovate the 92-year-old movie theater in northwest Portage Park.
Pencil This In: Fred Anderson Tribute At Waterhole Lounge; Man Of The West At The Portage Theater
Starting 8 p.m. tonight at Waterhole Lounge (1400 S. Western Ave.) Velvet Dreams Productions will celebrate the life and works of Fred Anderson.
Is The Portage Theater Under Threat?
The Chicago Tabernacle of Albany Park has filed for a special use permit which would allow them to operate the historic theater as a church.
Pencil This In: Howard Hawks' Twentieth Century At Portage Theater
Widely considered to be one of Howard Hawks' best comedies, Twentieth Century stars a scenery-chewing John Barrymore as Broadway producer Oscar Jaffe, who makes the questionable decision of casting a lingerie model (played by Carole Lombard) in his latest play.
Pencil This In: The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes At The Portage Theater
Billy Wilder's 1970 film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes tells two separate stories involving the legendary detective.
Sullivan's Travels a Humorous Look at Depression-era Hollywood
The Northwest Chicago Film Society and portoluz will screen the 1941 Preston Sturges Depression-era screwball comedy Sullivan's Travels 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Portage Theater in a newly restored 35 mm print from Universal Pictures.
Santa Sangre's Coming to Town
Pity the careless moviegoer who sees "Santa" on the Portage Theater marquee this Saturday and somehow finds his or herself in the aisles as the the first images of Santa Sangre flash onto the screen. Awakenings probably do not come much ruder.
Terror In The Aisles Transforms Friday into Horror/Comedy Gold
Tomorrow night's Terror in the Aisles was on our calendar already, but is now a must-see with the addition of An American Werewolf In London and an appearance by its star, David Naughton.
Do This: Portage Theater Treasure Hunt
Go see both versions of The Mummy at the Portage tonight, meet Svengoolie and have a chance to see the "Han Shot First" version of Star Wars in January for free.
Northwest Chicago Film Society Unveils Fall Schedule
Unspooling at the Portage Theater, the forthcoming lineup includes treasures from Powell & Pressburger, Ida Lupino, Fritz Lang, Frank Tashlin, and many more.
Summer Chills Arrive With Terror In The Aisles
As we can personally attest after escaping there on a 99 degree day last week, the air conditioning at the Portage Theater works just fine. It's also one of the few places where one can enjoy a cold beer while watching a flick. And if you need a third reason to find sanctuary from the heat within the beautiful old theater, an evening of chills should put you over the top, as the eighth incarnation of Terror in the Aisles returns on August 6, bringing a little something for everyone.
Silent Summer Film Fest Celebrates Cinema's Earliest Sirens
This year's edition of the Silent Film Society of Chicago's annual summer film festival pays tribute to the early leading ladies of film.
A Hitch For Hitch At Doc Films
We were all psyched to tell you about Doc Film's planned screening of Alfred Hitchcock's Under Capricorn tonight, which features several ten-minute-long takes replete with gymnastic camera moves and delirious Technicolor Ingrid Bergman. And a shrunken head. But we've just learned there's been a snag.
Pencil This In
Today in "Pencil This In:" an obscure Louis Jordan film gets a new life at the Portage Theater.
Feel-Good Literary Events For The Weekend
Things are finally picking up in terms of spring weather, so why not get out of there and spread some literary goodness around?
Northwest Chicago Film Society Launches Screenings Tomorrow
Last month, Rob posted an update of the former Bank of America Cinema's transformation into the Northwest Chicago Film Society. We wanted to remind you that the reconstituted organization's screenings begin tomorrow night with a screening of Douglas Sirk's Written on the Wind at the Portage Theater. The film is about alcoholic playboy and oil tycoon scion Kyle Hadley (Robert Stack) who marries Lucy Moore (Lauren Bacall). But Hadley's poor but hard-working best friend, Mitch Wayne (Rock Hudson) also pines for Lucy. Meanwhile, Kyle's sister Marylee (Dorothy Malone) is a cat on a hot tin roof who wants to scratch Mitch's post.
Curtains For Bank Of America Cinema This Saturday
Last Saturday night we headed out into the wind-driven sleet and caught the westbound Irving Park bus. At Cicero/Milwaukee we disembarked. Having some time to kill, we had dinner at Hong Kong Loo and then did some window shopping around the corner at Sears. And then, at 7:30, we walked over to 4901 West Irving Park Road to catch Mickey One, the second-to-last screening at the Bank of America Cinema, where movies have been shown since 1972.
Bank of America Cinema Makes It Official, Ends Run (For Now) 12/18
The programmers at Bank of America Cinema sent out an update on their facebook page last week once again confirming Time Out Chicago's reports that their current run at the Portage Park theater will end after the December 18 screening of Babes in Toyland.
This Week in Horror Movies: Halloween Havoc at Portage Theater
For the third consecutive year, the Portage Theater gives us a treat during the final week of October and the countdown to the 31st with their "Halloween Havoc," showing two scary movies per night starting tonight through Thursday, with a four-movie marathon capping things off on Friday. They've put together a solid assortment of horror films, mixing masterpieces with lesser films that are, if not classics, then adjacent to the classics.
Portage + Caligari + Organ + Theremin = One Good Tuesday Night
Ninety years after its release, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is regarded as one of the first horror films to reach a wide audience, one of the most well-known silent movies of all time, and a benchmark of early German expressionism. Tomorrow night's screening of the film isn't the first time the Silent Film Society of Chicago has featured it in a program. What makes this screening stand out is the score being performed by Jay Warren (the photoplay nom de guerre of SFSC President Dennis Wolkowicz) and theremin accompaniment from Professor J. Pierce.
Movie Roundup: Early May Edition
There's a whole lot of movie events happening so we do our best to round up the cream of the crop.
Bloody January, Part 2
Need more evidence that wintertime in these parts is enough to make Chicagoans feel homicidal? Here you go: our city has two festivals of horror movies occurring more or less simultaneously. Horrorfest III runs at Piper's Alley through Wednesday, and next weekend the Horror Society presents B-Movie Madness at the Portage Theater. The lineup boasts four horror flicks that definitely fall on the wacky, schlocky end of the spectrum.
The Dude Abides
Ah, the Coen Brothers. They've given us many memorable tales of kidnapping, murder, and betrayal. But none has grown in cult status quite like The Big Lebowski. Since it's theatrical release (10 years ago yesterday!), and despite its subsequently tepid box office gross, the film has become a huge hit on DVD and has even inspired it's own yearly get-together, known as Lebowski Fest. The Fest gives all the Dude enthusiasts a chance to come together for a screening of the movie, costume contests, White Russians, and, yes, lots and lots of bowling, giving everyone a chance to scream "OVER THE LINE!"

