Shown here in the thriller ‘Rear Window,’ the brief but legendary film career of actress Grace Kelly will be the subject of a tribute by the Utah Theatre during the month of April (Image courtesy of Facebook).
LOGAN – After screening a couple of Biblical epics to honor the Easter holiday, the Utah Theatre will devote the rest of April to a month-long celebration of the movies of Grace Kelly.
The life and brief film career of Grace Kelly was a genuine American Cinderella story. The lovely and talented actress made 11 films between 1951 and 1956, when she retired from Hollywood to become real-life royalty by marrying Prince Rainer III of Monaco.
During that period, she earned an undying reputation as an iconic star of the Golden Age of Hollywood Filmmaking, winning two Oscars and three Golden Globe Awards.
The Utah Theatre will present a selection of Ms. Kelly’s best movies in April, beginning with High Society on April 8 and 10.
Ms. Kelly co-stars with songsters Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra in this chatty and amusing musical remake of the 1940 screwball comedy The Philadelphia Story. The film centers on a jazz musician (Crosby) trying to win back the affection of his ex-wife (Ms. Kelly), who is preparing to marry another man.
High Society gives Ms. Kelly a chance to demonstrate a flair for comedy in a career mostly dedicated to dramatic films. The movie’s cast includes Celeste Holm, John Lund, Louis Calhern and cameo appearances by jazzman Louis Armstrong.
Ms. Kelly is perhaps best-known for films she made with master director Alfred Hitchcock and Rear Window is one of the best of those movies. The Hitchcock film co-stars James Stewart as a wheelchair-bound professional photographer and Ms. Kelly as his flirtatious society girlfriend. Amid much bantering conversation, they find and solve the murder of one of Stewart’s neighbors while spying through the rear window of his apartment.
The 1954 mystery co-stars Wendell Cory, Thelma Ritter and newcomer Raymond Burr as the villain. Rear Window will be shown on April 12 and 13 at the Utah Theatre.
Ms. Kelly continued her reign as Hitchcock’s favorite heroine in To Catch a Thief, a 1955 romantic thriller in which the director brilliantly highlighted the sights and sounds of the French Riviera. Cary Grant stars as a retired cat burglar who has to save his reformed reputation by catching an impostor preying on wealthy Riviera tourists, including an oil-rich heiress played by Ms. Kelly.
The Utah Theatre will screen To Catch a Thief on April 15 and 17.
Ms. Kelly owed her stardom to the next film on the Utah’s schedule, the tense 1952 western High Noon, superbly directed by Fred Zinnemann. As the young, idealistic new wife of a town marshall, Ms. Kelly shares the screen with Gary Cooper, whose sense of duty is tested when he must decide to face a gang of killers alone or run away.
The Oscar-winning western was notable for being filmed in gritty black-and-white and in real-time. High Noon will be presented on April 19 and 20.
Ms. Kelly won an Oscar as best actress in 1955 for her performance in a non-glamorous role in the next film on the Utah’s schedule, The Country Girl.
Based on a 1950 stage drama by Clifford Odets, she plays the long-suffering wife of Bing Crosby, a has-been actor whose alcoholism threatens the last chance he has been given to resurrect his career. The Country Girl, which co-stars a young William Holden, will be shown on April 22 and 24.
Finally, the local Grace Kelly film fest will conclude with another Hitchcock thriller, Dial M for Murder.
Ms. Kelly plays an unfaithful wife who is targeted for murder by her ex-tennis pro husband (Ray Milland) in an intricately plotted scheme that goes deliciously awry. Dial M for Murder will be shown on April 26 and 27.
Also on the Utah’s schedule for April will be the epics Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments, both starring Charlton Heston. Ben-Hur is slated for April 1 and 3, while The Ten Commandments will be screened on April 5 and 6.
Curtain times for all movies at the Utah Theatre will be 7 p.m.
The Utah Theatre is located at 18 West Center Street in downtown Logan.