A recently-added feature to the site is the Great Toronto Theatres Map, highlighting all the movie houses we’ve profiled or mentioned since 2007. There’s plenty more to come! Continue reading The Great Toronto Theatres Map
Since last week’s post showcased a burlesque act and a juvenile delinquent flick at the Casino Theatre, I thought I’d share this marquee-blazing shot of So Young So Bad at the Bloor Cinema, then the Midtown, in late 1950. Despite the alluring tagline, the film’s a bit of a doozy, but it does feature an early appearance by fiery Silent Toronto-fave Rita Moreno. When So Young So Bad opened, similar fare was shown across the street at the Bloor (now Lee’s Palace), which closed in 1957; you could catch the fancier stuff at the Alhambra (demolished), slightly east of Bathurst. … Continue reading So Young So Bad, Disappearing Doors at the Bloor
Classics From the Vault at the Fox Theatre is back for a fourth month and this time we’re bringing you a genuine Bogie double bill! Thursday, September 30, 7PM. THE BIG SLEEP (1946) Directed by Howard Hawks Screenplay by William Faulkner Starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall 114 mins. Preceded by an assortment of cartoons, shorts and trailers. Stuff you’ve likely never seen! The second film in our Classics From The Vault lineup directed by Howard Hawks, The Big Sleep stars Humphrey Bogart as hard-nosed private investigator Philip Marlowe. Called on to the mansion of a wealthy client and tasked to … Continue reading Classics From The Vault presents The Big Sleep!
by Eric Veillette In its continuing efforts to offer specialty programming, Toronto’s Revue Cinema, NOW Magazine’s favourite rep cinema, presents Classics From The Vault, a new series featuring little-seen classics from the 1930s and 1940s. Screening Wednesday, Nov. 18 (7 p.m.) is director Lewis Milestone’s Rain (1932). Set in the South Pacific, it features rising star Joan Crawford as Sadie Thompson, a tough-talking, hard-drinking prostitute who spells certain destruction for a missionary (Walter Huston) seeking to redeem her soul. This was the second film adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s short story, the first being Sadie Thompson (1928), a silent starring … Continue reading Classics From The Vault presents Joan Crawford in “Rain”
I present a fang-tastic ad for a Hammer Dracula triple-bill. Back before you could see Cats or some other Broadway schmaltz at the Elgin, some lucky film-goers spent an afternoon in September of 1978 watching Taste the Blood of Dracula, Dracula Has Risen From the Grave and Dracula A.D. 1972. If Hammer wasn’t your thing (really?), there were plenty of other sights and sounds to take in that weekend: Nazi zombie flick Shock Waves opened at the Imperial Six: kids could see The Cat from Outer Space at the Bayview Village Cinema (“Children $1.50 Anytime,” says the ad): Omen II … Continue reading Dracula Triple-Bill at the Elgin!
Get Your Man, a Paramount Picture starring Clara Bow and Charles “Buddy” Rogers, premiered at Toronto’s Uptown Theatre on December 24, 1927. The duo had already appeared together in Wings earlier that same year. The film was your typical mixed-up 20s farce, with Bow trying to win Rogers’ heart. The only problem is that Rogers has been bethrothed to a family friend since childhood, and they’re now set to be married. The film originally ran for 60 minutes; Unfortunately, the print held by the Library of Congress is missing the second and third of six reels, so until the remnants … Continue reading Clara Bow at the Uptown Cinema
by Eric Veillette In 2007, I moved into an apartment in the Forest Hill area, kitty-corner to what was once the flagship cinema of the Famous Players theatre chain: The Eglinton. It closed down in early 2002, when Famous Players refused to comply with an Ontario Human Rights Commision directive to make the theatre wheelchair accessible. Although dedicated as a Heritage Site by the city, preserving the original facade, it has since become an upscale event hall. Coming home at night is always a joy, as the original, brilliant marquee, still in place, shines brightly to onlookers heading east and … Continue reading The Eglinton Theatre
Silent Toronto is hoping to inject a little classic horror into Toronto’s October film calendar, so we present our first-annual Halloween Creepy Classics Film Event! WHAT IS IT? A special 16mm screening of the Halperin Bros. classic White Zombie. WHEN IS IT? Monday, October 27. Doors open at 7:30, and please arrive early – seating is limited! Admission is only $8.00! Show will start at 8:30! WHERE IS IT? Cine-Cycle! Located down the lane behind 129 Spadina (near Richmond), Cine-Cycle is a bicycle repair shop by day and micro-cinema by night! A snack bar will be available, and owner Martin … Continue reading Creepy Classics presents White Zombie!
The Downtown Theatre by Hal Kelly “Going to the movies is my hobby. I go to other theatres, but the Downtown is my favorite. I like westerns, especially ones with Audie Murphy, but ANY good action or adventure picture usually gives me my money’s worth.” – Irvine Exley, 55, war pensioner The Downtown Theatre was located one short block south of Dundas at the north east corner of the largely vacant Yonge and Dundas Square right across from the Hard Rock Café. The closest thing to movie theatre in those parts now is that craptacular celluloid-free, all digital AMC 24 … Continue reading The Downtown Theatre
by Eric Veillette With the construction of the city of Toronto’s latest and tallest skyscraper set to begin at the south-east side of Yonge and Bloor, it’s safe to say that intersection will never be the same. Not that it’s anything to write home about at the moment, either; when walking west on Bloor, you’re hit with Yorkville shops selling designer wear and other overpriced junk. But in the late 1940s, the only thing people were lining up to see on that street was the city’s latest and possibly most luxurious movie house, The University. Dubbed “Famous Players Finest Post-War … Continue reading The University Theatre
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