Festival of film classics features favorite female stars

Your humble  Virginian-Pilot movie and theater critic will host the fifth annual festival of classic films, beginning Monday, July 7, with Katharine Hepburn in "The Philadelphia Story."

Also featured will be Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly, Alan Ladd and Gary Cooper.

There is only one place where you can see these stars and these films on the big screen in a theater setting - the way they were meant to be seen. That place is the Naro Expanded Cinema this summer.

The festival began five years ago when I agreed to host a one-time event to share some of my favorite movies. It was a surprising success, and restaurants in Ghent saw their usually dead Monday nights filled with movie lovers.

I programmed a festival to feature the collaboration of author Ernest Hemingway and actress Ava Gardner and followed with a festival featuring the films of actress Jennifer Jones and her producer-husband, David O. Selznick.

For the most part, the films have featured "Mal's Favorite Women" or, rather, performances I thought should be seen in a theater, featuring Melina Mercouri, Simone Signoret, Bette Davis and many others. On the final night, the audience votes to choose the best performances.

This year's scheduling is something of "Mal's Favorite Women - Part III," featuring Ava Gardner in her Oscar-nominated performance in "Mogambo,' the tragic Jean Seberg in "Bonjour Tristesse" and Melina Mercouri in the crime-heist thriller "Topkapi." To add variety, there are my two favorite Westerns, "Shane" and "High Noon." The festival will close Aug. 25 with "The Last Picture Show."

Thom Vourlas, co-owner of the Naro, said that finding theatrical prints of the chosen films has been difficult. A screening of "Mogambo," which co-stars Clark Gable and Grace Kelly, has been delayed for five years because a print couldn't be found. The print to be screened of "Bonjour Tristesse," Vourlas said, is the only print in existence.

While most of the films are available on DVD or video tape, the studios have refused to re-release them in theaters. Consequently, theatrical prints are scarce.

I don't fancy myself as any kind of public speaker, but the prospect of getting these films into a theater makes me become brave - again. These films are a relief from the usual comic-book action repeats dominating the commercial theaters this summer. The public deserves a choice.