Classic Hollywood: American Cinematheque celebrates Oscars real and imagined
The American Cinematheque’s “A Tribute to the Oscars” this month at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica isn’t a commemoration of the Academy Awards but a celebration of famous characters — real and fictional — named Oscar.
On Thursday, the Aero pays homage to writer Oscar Wilde with MGM’s 1945 adaptation of his sole novel, “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” starring Hurd Hatfield and an Oscar-nominated Angela Lansbury, and 1944’s fantasy-comedy “The Canterville Ghost,” based on Wilde’s first published short story and starring Charles Laughton and Margaret O’Brien.
Volker Schlöndorff’s Oscar-winning 1979 film “The Tin Drum” revolves around a boy named Oskar Matzerath (David Bennent) who refuses to grow up. And the series concludes Feb. 27 with Howard Hawks’ 1934 screwball comedy “Twentieth Century” with Carole Lombard and John Barrymore as producer Oscar Jaffe, and 1968’s “The Odd Couple,” with Jack Lemmon as Felix Ungar and Walter Matthau as Oscar Madison. For more information, go to www.americancinemathque.org.
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