2024 Retrospective

The Lady with the Torch

Musicals, noir films, westerns, screwball comedies, war movies. Locarno77 celebrates 100 years of Columbia Pictures, boasting a tribute both to beloved classics and unheralded gems produced at the Hollywood studio between the dawn of sound and the late 1950s.

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Address Unknown

Director: William Cameron Menzies

USA  ·  1944  ·  35 mm  ·  Black and White  ·  72'  ·  o.v. English

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All the King's Men

Director: Robert Rossen

USA  ·  1949  ·  DCP  ·  Black and White  ·  110'  ·  o.v. English

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Bitter Victory

Director: Nicholas Ray

France, USA  ·  1957  ·  DCP  ·  Black and White  ·  102'  ·  o.v. English

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Brothers

Director: Walter Lang

USA  ·  1930  ·  35 mm  ·  Black and White  ·  63'  ·  o.v. English

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Craig's Wife

Director: Dorothy Arzner

USA  ·  1936  ·  35 mm  ·  Black and White  ·  74'  ·  o.v. English

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Disorder in the Court

Director: Preston Black

USA  ·  1936  ·  35 mm  ·  Black and White  ·  17'  ·  o.v. English

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Girls Under 21

Director: Max Nosseck

USA  ·  1940  ·  35 mm  ·  Black and White  ·  63'  ·  o.v. English

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Gun Fury

Director: Raoul Walsh

USA  ·  1953  ·  DCP  ·  Color  ·  83'  ·  o.v. English

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Gunman's Walk

Director: Phil Karlson

USA  ·  1958  ·  DCP  ·  -  ·  95'  ·  o.v. English

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If You Could Only Cook

Director: William A. Seiter

USA  ·  1935  ·  35 mm  ·  Black and White  ·  71'  ·  o.v. English

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It Should Happen to You

Director: George Cukor

USA  ·  1954  ·  DCP  ·  Black and White  ·  87'  ·  o.v. English

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Let Us Live

Director: John Brahm

USA  ·  1939  ·  35 mm  ·  Black and White  ·  68'  ·  o.v. English

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Man's Castle

Director: Frank Borzage

USA  ·  1933  ·  DCP  ·  Black and White  ·  79'  ·  o.v. English

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Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

Director: Frank Capra

USA  ·  1936  ·  DCP  ·  Black and White  ·  115'  ·  o.v. English

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Murder by Contract

Director: Irving Lerner

USA  ·  1958  ·  35 mm  ·  Black and White  ·  80'  ·  o.v. English

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My Sister Eileen

Director: Richard Quine

USA  ·  1955  ·  DCP  ·  Color  ·  108'  ·  o.v. English

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My Sister Eileen

Director: Alexander Hall

USA  ·  1942  ·  35 mm  ·  Black and White  ·  97'  ·  o.v. English

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Mysterious Intruder

Director: William Castle

USA  ·  1946  ·  35 mm  ·  Black and White  ·  61'  ·  o.v. English

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None Shall Escape

Director: André De Toth

USA  ·  1944  ·  DCP  ·  Black and White  ·  85'  ·  o.v. English

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Pest From the West

Director: Del Lord

USA  ·  1939  ·  35 mm  ·  Black and White  ·  19'  ·  o.v. English

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Pickup

Director: Hugo Haas

USA  ·  1951  ·  35 mm  ·  Black and White  ·  78'  ·  o.v. English

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Picnic

Director: Joshua Logan

USA  ·  1955  ·  DCP  ·  Color  ·  115'  ·  o.v. English

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Ride Lonesome

Director: Budd Boetticher

USA  ·  1959  ·  DCP  ·  Color  ·  73'  ·  o.v. English

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Sahara

Director: Zoltan Korda

USA  ·  1943  ·  35 mm  ·  Black and White  ·  98'  ·  o.v. English

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The Big Heat

Director: Fritz Lang

USA  ·  1953  ·  35 mm  ·  Black and White  ·  89'  ·  o.v. English

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The First Time

Director: Frank Tashlin

USA  ·  1952  ·  35 mm  ·  Black and White  ·  89'  ·  o.v. English

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The Glass Wall

Director: Maxwell Shane

USA  ·  1953  ·  35 mm  ·  Black and White  ·  80'  ·  o.v. English

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The Killer That Stalked New York

Director: Earl McEvoy

USA  ·  1950  ·  35 mm  ·  Black and White  ·  76'  ·  o.v. English

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The Last Frontier

Director: Anthony Mann

USA  ·  1955  ·  35 mm  ·  Color  ·  98'  ·  o.v. English

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The Talk of the Town

Director: George Stevens

USA  ·  1942  ·  DCP  ·  Black and White  ·  118'  ·  o.v. English

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The Undercover Man

Director: Joseph H. Lewis

USA  ·  1949  ·  DCP  ·  Black and White  ·  85'  ·  o.v. English

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The Walking Hills

Director: John Sturges

USA  ·  1949  ·  35 mm  ·  Black and White  ·  78'  ·  o.v. English

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The Whole Town's Talking

Director: John Ford

USA  ·  1935  ·  DCP  ·  Black and White  ·  93'  ·  o.v. English

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Three Wise Girls

Director: William Beaudine

USA  ·  1932  ·  35 mm  ·  Black and White  ·  69'  ·  o.v. English

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Together Again

Director: Charles Vidor

USA  ·  1944  ·  35 mm  ·  Black and White  ·  100'  ·  o.v. English

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Twentieth Century

Director: Howard Hawks

USA  ·  1934  ·  DCP  ·  Black and White  ·  91'  ·  o.v. English

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Umpa

Director: Archie Gottler

USA  ·  1933  ·  DCP  ·  Black and White  ·  16'  ·  o.v. English

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Under Age

Director: Edward Dmytryk

USA  ·  1941  ·  35 mm  ·  Black and White  ·  59'  ·  o.v. English

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Vanity Street

Director: Nicholas Grinde

USA  ·  1932  ·  35 mm  ·  Black and White  ·  67'  ·  o.v. English

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Wall Street

Director: Roy William Neill

USA  ·  1929  ·  35 mm  ·  Black and White  ·  68'  ·  o.v. English

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Washington Merry-Go-Round

Director: James Cruze

USA  ·  1932  ·  35 mm  ·  Black and White  ·  79'  ·  o.v. English

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Women's Prison

Director: Lewis Seiler

USA  ·  1955  ·  35 mm  ·  Black and White  ·  80'  ·  o.v. English

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You Nazty Spy!

Director: Jules White

USA  ·  1940  ·  DCP  ·  Black and White  ·  18'  ·  o.v. English

During its golden age, Columbia Pictures produced some of American cinema’s most iconic films across a panoply of varied styles and popular genres. In 1924, the relatively small-scale motion picture company Cohn-Brandt-Cohn rebranded itself as Columbia Pictures. This new studio would eventually feature, as its masthead, the Lady with a Torch, the Statue of Liberty-like female figure draped in the American flag that has become recognizable to film lovers everywhere.

As Columbia Pictures, the studio struck gold, producing a major string of successes and becoming, over the next decade, an integral part of the Hollywood ecosystem. Its first years of blockbuster success were dominated by the twin figures of filmmaker Frank Capra and studio president and head of production Harry Cohn, a figure known both for his canny commercial instincts and tyrannical personality. With its large, multi-faceted Retrospective, curated by Ehsan Khoshbakht, the Festival will attempt to disentangle the knotty myths that surround Columbia Pictures and present a richer and more complex portrait of a studio worth celebrating.

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Think the fast-talking career women of screwball comedies or think existentialist cowboys, prophetic anti-fascist quickies or unsettling ‘problem pictures’. Sony's generosity means we will bring to Locarno new restorations of films by John Ford and Phil Karlson, among many other gems. Once upon a time there was a brilliant exchange between art and commerce, between the system and the artist, and this Retrospective will celebrate that.

The Locarno Retrospective presents the studio in all its glory, shining a light on lesser-known genre filmmakers like Max Nosseck, Seymour Friedman or William A. Seiter, as well as celebrating major auteurs like Howard Hawks, Frank Borzage, Dorothy Arzner, Fritz Lang, George Stevens and John Ford. Treasured stars like Rita Hayworth, Jean Arthur, Orson Welles, Rosalind Russell, Cary Grant, Boris Karloff, the Three Stooges, Richard Burton, and William Holden will also make an appearance. It is to this varied spectrum of artists, performers, and beloved figures of fun that the festival pays tribute.


Retrospective Books


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