B-Movies Invade the Wexner Center This Summer

Six nights of double features through August; ticket packages available

Back by popular demand, the Wexner Center’s summer B-movie series returns after a four-year break with the loud and lurid, sexy and scary B-Movie Hootenanny. Kicking off July 6, this 12-film series features youth gone wild, mad science gone awry, monsters gone crazy, gangsters on the lam, and more. Each evening includes hilarious B-movie trailers from the collection of Wexner Center projectionist Bruce Bartoo.

A free outdoor reception hosted by the Wexner Center’s 12 1⁄4 Circle and sponsored by CD101, Barley’s Brewing Company, and C-BUS Magazine will take place on July 13, after the screening of the folk and country music extravaganza Hootenanny Hoot. A free outdoor screening of Monster on the Campus follows the reception.

Unless otherwise noted, tickets to each double feature are $6 for the general public, $4 for Wexner Center members, students, and senior citizens and go on sale May 22 to Wexner Center members and June 5 to the general public. Ticket packages will also be available: 6 films for $24 for the general public and $18 for Wexner Center members, and will be available at 614-292-3535 or at the Wexner Center ticket office. Visitors can also purchase a $50 membership to the Wexner Center and receive complimentary tickets to all screenings. All films screen in the Wexner Center Film/Video Theater, unless otherwise noted.

The schedule follows:

Thursday, July 6 / 7 pm | 2nd film 8:40 pm

I Saw What You Did (William Castle, 1965) and Guns, Girls, and Gangsters (Edward L. Cahn, 1959)

In I Saw What You Did (82 mins.) two girls get more than they bargained for when their crank phone call connects them to a man who’s just murdered his wife. Featuring Joan Crawford in a supporting role, the Castle-directed flick is surprisingly gimmick-free. Directed by B-movie vet Eddie Cahn, Guns, Girls, and Gangsters (70 mins.) stars Mamie Van Doren as a Las Vegas singer who finds herself entangled in an armored car robbery.

Thursday, July 13 / 7 pm | 2nd film begins at dusk

Hootenanny Hoot (Gene Nelson, 1963) and Monster on the Campus (Jack Arnold, 1958)

Free outdoor reception hosted by the Wexner Center’s 12 1⁄4 Circle follows screening of Hootenanny Hoot; Monster will be screened outdoors

Featuring performances by Johnny Cash, Judy Henske, and Sheb Wooley, Hootenanny Hoot (91 mins.) follows a slick New York TV producer who tries to cash in on the hootenanny craze sweeping the country. Directed by Jack Arnold (Creature from the Black Lagoon), Monster on the Campus (77 mins.) features a college professor who turns into a murderous caveman after experimenting on a presumably extinct fish. Monster on the Campus will screen outdoors on the Wexner Center plaza at dusk (admission to Monster is free).

Thursday, July 20 / 7 pm | 2nd film 8:40 pm

The Human Vapor (Ishiro Honda, 1960) and Return of the Fly (Edward Bernds, 1959)

Directed by Godzilla creator Ishiro Honda, The Human Vapor (81 mins.) follows a man transformed by an experiment into a ruthless, bank-robbing super-criminal. Note: this is the English-dubbed version. Starring Vincent Price, The Return of the Fly (80 mins.) finds the son of the original film’s scientist attempting his father’s teleportation experiments only to meet with the same horrible results.

Thursday, July 27 / 7 pm | 2nd film 8:40 pm

Live Fast, Die Young (Paul Henreid, 1959) and Running Wild (Abner Biberman, 1955)

Directed by Casablanca star Paul Henreid, Live Fast, Die Young (82 mins.) features two runaway sisters from a dysfunctional home trying to pull their lives back together after one sister turns to crime. A young cop goes undercover in a small town to bust up a gang of car thieves in Running Wild (81 mins.). Starring Mamie Van Doren, William Campbell, and Keenan Wynn.

Thursday, August 3 / 7 pm | 2nd film 8:40 pm

The Girl in the Kremlin (Russell Birdwell, 1957) and The Million Eyes of Sumuru (Lindsay Shonteff, 1967)

Zsa Zsa Gabor plays dual roles (one as Joseph Stalin’s nurse and mistress) in The Girl in the Kremlin (81 mins.). In the film, Stalin’s death was just a ruse to allow the dictator to have his face surgically altered and move to Greece with a fortune in Russian money. Young actress Natalie Darryl actually has her head shaved in the film’s hair-raising opening minutes. In the cult favorite The Million Eyes of Sumuru (95 mins.), Frankie Avalon and George Nader star as secret agents charged to stop the villainess Sumuru (Bond girl Shirley Eaton from Goldfinger) who plans to replace the world’s leaders with her scantily-clad army of women. Filmed at the legendary Shaw Brothers studios, the movie also stars Klaus Kinski.

Thursday, August 10 / 7 pm | 2nd film 8:40 pm

The Vicious Breed (Arne Ragneborn, 1954) and The Flame (Arne Ragneborn, 1956)

Billed as “the young Swedish Orson Welles,” Arne Ragneborn directed and acted in this double-feature of risqué Swedish pics. Tackling subjects such as homosexuality, prostitution, and juvenile delinquency on the “most intellectual level,” The Vicious Breed (82 mins.) was compared to The Blackboard Jungle without the pulled punches. Billed as “the first motion picture to depict prostitutes with an adult, rational, realistic and unpuritanical perspective,” The Flame (69 mins.) features a woman who takes to the street to support her unemployed boyfriend.

EVENT SUPPORT

The July 13 reception is made possible with the support of CD101, Barley’s Brewing Company, and C-BUS Magazine.

Community partners for the B-Movie series are Betty’s and Surly Girl Saloon.

SEASON SUPPORT

Major support for film/video season is generously provided by Abercrombie & Fitch.

Significant contributions are made by the Rohauer Collection Foundation.

Additional funding is provided by the Corporate Annual Fund of the Wexner Center Foundation and Wexner Center members.

OTHER SUMMER FILM HIGHLIGHTS

In addition to B-Movie Hootenanny, the Wexner Center will continue to screen a wide selection of new and classic independent, foreign, and documentary films this summer, including the local premieres of Lars von Trier’s Manderlay on June 15 and Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly on June 27; the trenchant new documentary Our Brand is Crisis on June 30–July 1; Clean, Olivier Assayas’ latest on July 7–8; a new 35mm print of Carol Reed’s overlooked masterpiece The Fallen Idol on July 21–22; and Cristi Puiu’s film festival hit The Death of Mr. Lazarescu on July 28–29. Click to www.wexarts.org/fv for more information including screening times and in-depth descriptions.