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Thu, May 02, 2019
Vintage B-movies and classic blockbusters offer a refreshing break in a season of remakes and sequels
Sick of sequels? Had enough of superheroes? The Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University provides a respite from the usual summer movie fare with a roster of local exclusives that includes visiting filmmaker appearances, a program of two series spotlighting vintage films made outside the Hollywood system, and, to launch the summer season, the return of Wex Drive-In to the Wexner Center Plaza—with new attractions and pre-show activities.
The only outdoor movie series in Central Ohio to present all films in 35mm starts Tuesday, June 18 with the 1976 dystopian scifi hit Logan’s Run. It continues Tuesday, July 16 with Steven Spielberg’s 1993 dino thriller Jurassic Park, and concludes Tuesday, August 20 with a witchy cult favorite, 1996’s The Craft. As always, admission is free and chairs and blankets are encouraged.
New for 2019, the Wex has partnered with regional artists to create limited edition T-shirts for each film. The Logan’s Run shirt will be designed by Robert Beatty of Lexington, Kentucky; Columbus’s Will Fugman will assume design duties for Jurassic Park; and Deerjerk, a.k.a. Bryn Perrott of Morgantown, West Virginia, will design the tee for The Craft.
Seventh Son Brewing will return to Wex Drive-In as beer provider, along with Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams and their free Street Treats for Wex members. Also new this year, members can enjoy free popcorn and a chance to win raffle prizes, and all guests can participate in lawn games and trivia contests. Food trucks will be on hand for each screening and fans of Heirloom Café can preorder meals for pickup before the show.
Indoors, the Wex Film/Video Theatre will screen two repertory series that present some of the earliest work by American independent film studios, all under the banner B-Movie Mania: A Low Budget Summer. (Scroll down for a complete list of titles.)
July will be dedicated to Forbidden Fruit: The Golden Age of the Exploitation Picture. The program offers features and shorts from low-rent showmen who took advantage of the limitations placed on Hollywood with the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code, beginning in the mid-1930s.
When the major studios were forced by the Code to adopt more wholesome ways of telling stories, independent producers worked on the fringes of the industry to sate moviegoers’ thirst for sex, drugs, and other adult pursuits. Their films were made on the cheap with unknown actors and a reliance on stock footage and given titles designed to grab viewers with one glance at a theater marquee. Infamous movies such as Marihuana: Weed with Roots in Hell and Mom and Dad, the best-known work in the “sex hygiene” subgenre, will be presented throughout the month in new restorations supported by Kino Lorber, Something Weird, and the Library of Congress.
August brings Down and Dirty in Gower Gulch: Poverty Row Films Preserved by UCLA. Comprising a half-dozen features and an assortment of shorts from the 1930s and ‘40s, the series of films highlights the numerous indie studios that populated a stretch of Gower Street in Los Angeles known as “Poverty Row.”
Though they were mainly notorious for churning out low-budget movies to fill the second half of double features, these studios also provided work for now-legends like director Edgar G. Ulmer (Detour). Included in this series are the 1933 horror film The Vampire Bat and Ulmer’s treatise on the perils of STDs from the same year, Damaged Lives.
In addition to the series on view this summer, there are contemporary works for movie lovers to enjoy, including some with their creators in attendance. French filmmaker Marie Losier will visit the Wex July 26-27 with her latest, Cassandro, the Exotico, a documentary about an openly gay luchador. And Ohio native Eric Mahoney will be on hand for screenings August 9-10 of Brainiac: Transmissions After Zero, his new doc about the late, much-loved, Dayton-based band Brainiac.
Upcoming Film/Video programs at the Wex will also support what’s happening in the center’s galleries. In conjunction with the exhibition Barbara Hammer: In This Body, the Film/Video Theater will host programs of Hammer shorts on June 6, June 13, and June 20, and The Box will screen Hammer’s No No Nooky T.V. June 1-30.
Film/Video Support Support for the Wexner Center’s Film/Video season is provided by the Rohauer Collection Foundation.
Support for the Film/Video Studio Program is provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Support for arts access at the Wexner Center is provided by Cardinal Health Foundation and Huntington Bank.
The Wexner Center receives general operating support from the Greater Columbus Arts Council, the Ohio Arts Council, The Columbus Foundation, and Nationwide Foundation.
Generous support is also provided by the Corporate Annual Fund of the Wexner Center Foundation and Wexner Center members.
Wex Drive-In
All movies start at sundown on the Wexner Center Plaza. In the event of rain, screenings will be moved indoors to Mershon Auditorium.
Tues, June 18: Logan’s Run
Tues, July 16: Jurassic Park
Tues, August 20: The Craft
B-Movie Mania: A Low-Budget Summer
Part 1, Forbidden Fruit: The Golden Age of the Exploitation Picture
Fri, July 5 | 7 pm Mom and Dad (William Beaudine, 1945)
Sat, July 6 | 7 pm Program Introduced by Bret Wood, series curator and coauthor of Forbidden Fruit: The Golden Age of the Exploitation Film. Narcotic (Dwain Esper & Vival Sodar’t, 1933) Preceded by Seventh Commandment trailer (1932) Marihuana: Weed with Roots in Hell (Dwain Esper, 1936)
Thu, July 11 | 7 pm Sex Madness (Director Unknown, 1938) Preceded by The March of Crime (Volume 1 & 2) (1936)
Thu, July 18 | 7 pm Test Tube Babies (W. Merle Connell, 1948) Preceded by How to Take a Bath (1937) and How to Undress (1938)
Thu, July 25 | 7 pm She Should’a Said ‘No!’ (Sam Newfield, 1949)
Part 2, Down and Dirty in Gower Gulch: Poverty Row Films Preserved at UCLA
Thu, August 1 | 7 pm The Vampire Bat (Frank R. Strayer, 1933) Preceded by Jack Frost (Ub Iwerks, 1934)
False Faces (Lowell Sherman, 1932) Preceded by Snow White (Dave Fleischer, 1933)
Thu, August 8 | 7 pm Damaged Lives (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1933) Preceded by Dancing on the Moon (Dave Fleischer, 1935)
Strange Illusion. (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945) Preceded by Grampy’s Indoor Outing (Dave Fleischer, 1936)
Thu, August 15 | 7 pm The Sin of Nora Moran (Phil Goldstone, 1933) Preceded by Balloon Land (Ub Iwerks, 1935)
Mamba (Albert S. Rogell, 1930) Preceded by Me and the Boys (Victor Saville, 1929)
Images: thumbnail from The Craft; 2017 Wex Drive-In screening of Gimme Shelter; still from Marihuana: Weed with Roots in Hell; hi-res images for all summer film titles available on request
