Film
Double Feature: The Mad Genius + Alias the Doctor
- 4:30PM
- 7:30PM
The Mad Genius (1931)
Directed by Michael Curtiz
With John Barrymore, Marian Marsh
81min
A crippled puppeteer (Barrymore, reprising his deranged Svengali persona) kidnaps a boy and manically molds him into a famous ballet dancer—until the young man falls for a pretty ballerina (Marsh), resulting in a seriously gruesome night at the ballet. This triumph of high-expressionist style—bizarro, Caligari-esque doorways and staircases abound—from Warner Bros. maverick Curtiz stars a pre-Frankenstein Boris Karloff as Russia’s meanest dad.
Alias the Doctor (1932)
Directed by Michael Curtiz
With Richard Barthelmess, Marian Marsh
61min
A selfless surgeon (Barthelmess) must assume his loutish brother’s identity in order to save his patients’ lives. Curtiz reteamed with Mad Genius art director Anton Grot to transform this shoulda-been-forgettable medical melodrama into a stylistic riot of arch-modernist set design, looming, outsized shadows, and disorienting camera angles.
Tue, Mar 12 at 7:30pm
BAM Cinema Club members the Movie Buff II level and above are invited with a guest to the double feature screening of The Mad Genius + Alias the Doctor.
RSVP to Membership@BAM.org
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