- Jackie Coogan and Charlie Chaplin in The Kid
At the end of next week the historic Patio Theater will close for an indefinite period, as the owners claim they’re unable to afford repairs to the building’s air-conditioning. (Heather Cherone recently posted a full report on the situation at DNAinfo.) But the Portage Park venue will host two more events before then. Next Wednesday at 7:30 PM, the Northwest Chicago Film Society will present the rarely revived Michael Curtiz crime drama The Strange Love of Molly Louvain (1932). Christina Rice, biographer of the film’s star, Ann Dvorak, will introduce the screening (and she’ll be at the Pickwick Theatre the following night to introduce a revival of Howard Hawks’s Scarface, which also features Dvorak). Tonight at the Patio the Silent Film Society of Chicago will screen Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid with a full orchestra performing Chaplin’s 1971 score. J.R. Jones writes about that event in one of the medium-length reviews in this week’s issue. In the other, I dive into the subtext of the new horror film Oculus.
