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is the local classics film society which exhibits on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month* at

Dear Friend of FOCUS:

We are seeking your opinion.

We have been toying with the idea of changing the day of the week in which we show our films from Saturday nights to ____night. Our reason is simply that we are hoping to encourage more people to attend the screenings of these vintage films and are wondering if another evening other than a weekend night would be more convenient.

Please let us know your thoughts either by responding to this email or by calling Hank at 414-258-6492. We have some fascinating titles coming up and we'd like more people to come and enjoy them.

Looking forward to your reply!

Hank and Dan

January 28, 2012: NOTHING TO LOSE (1952)
If you've even heard of this film, you're one in a thousand! However, for those looking for something rare AND well done, we offer this excellent British comedy called TIME GENTLEMEN, PLEASE (in England) and NOTHING TO LOSE (in the USA). The Prime Minister of England is set to visit the idyllic village of Little Hayhoe, where 100% employment is the norm. Excitement is keen until the stuffy Town Council realizes that their employment rate is actually 99.9%...an old Irish wastrel who hates work and enjoys his Pub visits will be a great embarassment. So they connive to whisk him into the old alms-house where he will be out of sight. And that's when the fun begins. A joyous comedy every bit as bright as the more famous Ealing films.
Starring Eddie Byrne, Raymond Lovell, Dora Bryan, Hermione Baddeley and Sid James. Screenplay by Peter Blackmore, from the RJ Minney novel. Music by Antony Hopkins. Photographed by Wilkie Cooper. Directed by Lewis Gilbert. A Group 3 Production.

February 11, 2012: THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL (1934)
We're bringing back this wonderful swashbuckler again due to many requests. Raymond Massey's villain is one of the truly great performances in cinema, his famous sneer enough to curdle the blood. Beautiful Merle Oberon adorns her role as only she could do and Leslie Howard makes his performance the best Pimpernel of them all. And for your added enjoyment...Daffy Duck, Sylvester and Porky Pig in THE SCARLET PUMPERNICKEL, directed by Chuck Jones.
Starring Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon, Raymond Massey, Nigel Bruce and Anthony Bushell. Screenplay by Lajos Biro. Music by Arthur Benjamin. Visual Effects by W. Percy Day and Peter Ellenshaw. Photographed by Harold Rosson. Produced by Alexander Korda. Directed by Harold Young.

February 26, 2012: TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942)
A group of hapless Polish actors stuck in Warsaw as the Germans invade have to hatch a plan to outwit the Gestapo. Here is the blackest of black comedies, Ernst Lubitsch's magnificent TO BE OR NOT TO BE. Assailed at the time as being in bad taste it has since been recognized as one of the finest screen comedies ever produced. An illustrious cast includes Carole Lombard (her last film), Robert Stack and Lionel Atwill and, as that great, great Polish actor Joseph Tura, Jack Benny. Not to be missed is a magnificent performance by the truly great actor, Sig Ruman as the dreaded Colonel Erhardt.
Screenplay by Edwin Justus Mayer. Photographed by Rudy Mate. Music by Werner Heymann (and Miklos Rozsa). Directed by Ernst Lubitsch.

A masterpiece from the firm directorial hand of Fritz Lang, based on the novel by Graham Greene. "A watchable , well-detailed little thriller on Hitchcock lines," is how film historian Leslie Halliwell describes this one and he couldn't be more right. Ray Milland plays a recently-released patient from a hospital who wins a cake at a village fair and finds himself suddenly caught up in a web of various intrigues. A great film.

Starring Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds, Carl Esmond, Dan Duryea and Erskine Sanford. Screenplay by Seton I. Miller, from the Graham Greene novel. Music by Victor Young. Photographed by Henry Sharp. Directed by Fritz Lang.

Here is a taut thriller from producer Mark Hellinger. A truck driver loses his brother in an accident, and in an attempt to improve his lot becomes involved with a scheming murderess. Terrific performances, fine writing and directing and fast pacing make this more than a memorable movie; it is in fact a classic.

Starring George Raft, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino and Alan Hale. Screenplay by Jerry Wald and Richard Macaulay, from the novel by A.I. Bezzerides. Photographed by Arthur Edeson. Directed by Raoul Walsh.

There are many who fondly remember the terrific Peter Sellers comedy THE MOUSE THAT ROARED. Here is the excellent sequel to it, THE MOUSE ON THE MOON. With a cast like Ron Moody, Terry Thomas and Margaret Rutherford, you can be assured of having a grand time at the movies. That most unnoticed of European countries, the duchy of Grand Fenwick, discovers that its home-made wine makes excellent rocket fuel and so in order to finagle more money from the world powers into its faltering economy the country announces its very own moon shot. A joyous comedy directed exuberantly by Richard Lester.

Starring Margaret Rutherford, Ron Moody, Bernard Cribbins, David Kossoff, Terry-Thomas and Michael Crawford. Screenplay by Michael Pertwee. Photographed by Wilkie Cooper. Music by Ron Grainer. Produced by Walter Shenson. Directed by Richard Lester.

Alfred Hitchcock was exactly thirty minutes too late. When he phoned the publishers offering to buy the book for his next film he was informed that another directed had beat him to the punch by one-half hour. That director was Henri-Georges Clouzot. Here is horror and suspense indeed as we follow the story of a sadistic headmaster's wife - and mistress - as they conspire to murder him. Says Leslie Halliwell: "Highly influential, suspenseful and scary." Indeed it is, and it is also one of best French films ever made. The print will be in French, with English subtitles.

Starring Simone Signoret, Vera Clouzot, Charles Vanel and Paul Meurisse. Screenplay by Henry-Georges Cluozot and G. Geronimi, based on the novel by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. Photographed by Armand Thirard. Music by Georges Van Parys. Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot.

Of all the "modernized" Holmes films produced by Universal in the 1940s this one is one of the best. Based on Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Musgrave Ritual" it concerns a series of weird murders at a convalescent home for retired officers. Beautifully photographed with all the "film noir" stops pulled out it is a not-to-be-missed story with cinema's definitive interpreter of the master detective.

Starring Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Hillary Brooke, Gavin Muir and Halliwell Hobbes. Screenplay by Bertram Millhauser, from the Conan Doyle story "The Musgrave Ritual". Photographed by Charles Van Enger. Music by Hans Salter. Directed by Roy William Neill.

As we have said in the past, the B pictures produced by RKO in the 1940s, especially their mysteries, were often much better than other studios' A pictures. And THE FALCON IN MEXICO is no exception. Suave and dapper Tom Conway plays the elegant amateur sleuth who winds up south of the border in order to find out the secret that lies behind a mysterious painting. Winning performances by a good cast, a witty script, fine direction and a charming music score are some of the delights of this nice little picture.

Starring Tom Conway, Mona Maris and Nestor Paiva. Sscreenplay by George Worthing Yates, from the story by Michael Arlen. Photographed by Frank Redman. Original music by Leigh Harline (with additional library music by Bernard Herrmann, Franz Waxman and Roy Webb). Produced by Maurice Geraghty. Directed by William Berke. From RKO Radio.

And, as a co-feature, we present the very first three-strip Technicolor film ever made,

After years of experimentation the Technicolor corporation perfected their famous process, and to test it out Pioneer Pictures and RKO Radio collaborated on this short subject, as a showcase for the new process. And the colors just drip off the screen. Dazzling color effects of a richness that hasn't been seen since the sad demise of this superb process. The FOCUS Film Society has secured a completely restored three-strip imbibition Technicolor print of this famous short subject which we will present prior to THE FALCON IN MEXICO. Enjoy!

Starring Steffi Duna, Don Alvarado, Paul Porcasi, Chris-Pin Martin with Edwardo Durant and his Rhumba Band. Photographed by Ray Rennahan. Technicolor Consultant Natalie Kalmus. Production Designed by Robert Edmond Jones. Written and Directed by Lloyd Corrigan. An RKO Radio Picture.

to introduce a new audience to films that are little-known to most followers of films;