Sunday Afternoons at the Paradise

Season 77 is lovingly dedicated to our dear friend and longtime board member Frances Blau. Our 10-programme Sunday Matinée Series is sponsored by Susan Murray in honour of Richard Blum and John Butler.

Please save these dates and visit us regularly for further updates on the films, added shorts, and to purchase tickets:

2025

Sunday, March 30th @ 1:30 p.m. Purchase your tickets here!

THE GOOD FAIRY (1935), directed by William Wyler, starring Margaret Sullavan, Herbert Marshall, Frank Morgan, Reginald Owen, Eric Blore, Beulah Bondi, Alan Hale, Cesar Romero

In 1930s Budapest, naïve orphan Luisa Ginglebuscher becomes an usherette at the local movie house, determined to succeed in her first job by doing good deeds for others and maintaining her purity. Luisa’s well-meaning lies get her caught between a lecherous businessman, Konrad, and a decent but confused doctor, Max Sporum. When Luisa convinces Konrad that she’s married to Max, Konrad tries everything he can to get rid of the baffled doctor.

Writer Preston Sturges and director William Wyler team up for this classic comedy that serves up an enticing blend of humour, heart, and charm.

Fresh from an orphanage and brimming with naive optimism, Luisa (Margaret Sullavan) takes a job as an usherette at a grand Budapest cinema. Her kind-hearted nature leads her to play “fairy godmother” to a struggling lawyer (Herbert Marshall) by pretending to be his wealthy wife. What starts as a whimsical act of charity soon spirals into a series of comic misadventures, romantic entanglements, and misunderstandings.

Celebrated for Sturges’ sharp dialogue and endearing characters, and Sullavan’s enchanting performance, this wonderful gem absolutely lights up the screen and is more than worth a trip to the cinema!

BECKY SHARP (1935), directed by Rouben Mamoulian, starring Miriam Hopkins, Frances Dee, Cedric Hardwicke, Billie Burke, Alison Skipworth, Nigel Bruce, Alan Mowbray

The first feature length film to use three-strip Technicolor film. Adapted from a play that was adapted from William Makepeace Thackeray’s book “Vanity Fair”, the film looks at the English class system during the Napoleonic Wars era.

Join us for a rare big screen presentation of this dazzling adaptation of the 1849 novel Vanity Fair, the first feature-length movie shot in full Technicolor. Set in Napoleonic-era England, Becky Sharp (Miriam Hopkins) is a cunning and ambitious governess who schemes her way through high society, using charm and wit to rise above her humble beginnings. As she navigates a world of privilege and hypocrisy, Becky’s relentless pursuit of status and power leads to both triumphs and betrayals.

At once a lavish costume drama and sharp critique of social ambition and class distinctions, the film is a feast for the eyes that uses the Technicolor process to stunning dramatic effect. But don’t take our word for it, see it for yourself!

Sunday, April 6th @ 1:30 p.m. Purchase your tickets here!

Blackmail {Sound Version} (1929), directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Anna Ondra, Charles Paton, Donald Calthrop, John Longden, Sara Allgood

London, 1929. Frank Webber, a very busy Scotland Yard detective, seems to be more interested in his work than in Alice White, his girlfriend. Feeling herself ignored, Alice agrees to go out with an elegant and well-mannered artist who invites her to visit his fancy apartment.

Director Alfred Hitchcock was just starting to hit his stride with this film – his first talkie – about a woman who finds herself entangled in a web of deception and fear after a night out turns deadly. When a self-defense killing threatens to ruin her life, a cunning blackmailer seizes the opportunity to exploit her desperate situation. As the police close in and tensions rise, she must navigate a perilous path to freedom.

This suspenseful tale is a riveting blend of danger and psychological tension, with Hitchcock’s prodigious mastery of cinema on full display, and the film becoming a classic in its own right.

Foreign Correspondent (1940), directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders

American crime reporter John Jones is reassigned to Europe as a foreign correspondent to cover the imminent war. When he walks into the middle of an assassination and stumbles on a spy ring, he seeks help from a beautiful politician’s daughter and an urbane English journalist to uncover the truth.

Step into the shadowy world of espionage,  spies, assassinations, and double-crosses with Alfred Hitchcock’s pulse-pounding adventure set on the eve of World War II. When an eager American journalist (Joel McCrea) is sent to Europe to cover the looming threat of war, what begins as a routine assignment quickly plunges him into a deadly conspiracy and intrigue. As he races to expose the truth, he must navigate perilous encounters and unravel a plot that could change the course of history.

Widely recognized as one of Hitchcock’s finest movies of the 1940s, the film boasts breathless pacing and some of the director’s most suspenseful and stunning set pieces. Catch this one to see Hitch at the top of his game.

More dates to save in 2025:

Sunday, May 11
Sunday, June 15
Sunday, July 13
Sunday, August 17