Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the Movie Palace

Long-overdue documentary on a worthy subject: what became of those grand movie palaces first built in America's larger cities in the 1920s? Writer-director April Wright first takes us back to the movies themselves, to the arcades and the nickelodeons, before D. W. Griffith came along and started filming actual stories. Realizing that large crowds needed to see these then-silent pictures on a big screen, the theater moguls of history began building bigger and more lavish places for people to catch their favorite stars, Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin. Once movie companies got involved and attached themselves to theater chains, the competition heated up (although this exclusive arrangement was eventually squashed by Congress). As a teenager living near Tucson in the early-1980s, I had the great privilege to see several movies in an enormous mid-'60s palace named the El Dorado (I always joke I missed 15mns of "Pennies From Heaven" because I was awestruck standing in the most elaborate men's room I'd ever seen!). The El Dorado is now torn down, as are most of the lush, plush theaters talked about here--and the photographs of decaying balconies and murals is heartbreaking. Film historian Leonard Maltin and a handful of theater restoration experts talk about their favorite picture palaces with a mixture of sentiment and nostalgia, plus a determination to keep what few landmarks there are up and running. But, as one interviewee remarks, "It's not enough to just restore a movie theater--you have to keep it going by breathing life into it." An expensive proposition, indeed. This was April Wright's follow-up of sorts to 2013's "Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the American Drive-in Movie"; she keeps the narrative moving fast, with names, dates and places going by at such a quick clip you need a scorecard to keep track of the many historical personalities involved. However, it's also a well-researched and entertaining document with dozens of rare and wonderful photos of vintage buildings and movie marquees. *** from ****