Elaine!

Movie Classics at the Oakland Paramount has got to be the best entertainment bargain in the Bay Area. For $5, you can enter the luxurious interior of the Paramount Theatre for a theater organ recital, a newsreel & cartoon, a chance to win a door prize, & a feature film. I went Friday night to see The Graduate, & it was an even better bargain when the woman in line ahead of me gave me her extra ticket. The organist appropriately included Simon & Garfunkel tunes in his performance. The 1966 newsreel included an appeal from General Westmoreland, urging us to buy war bonds. A certain Miss Guided, in a shiny gold dress, spun the Dec-O-Win wheel. Even though my movie companion talked a doorperson into giving us an extra raffle ticket, we did not win a prize.

It was fun seeing The Graduate again. The audience applauded the movie's famous lines & shouted "Turn around!" when Dustin Hoffman drove his red Spider across the top level of the Bay Bridge to get to Berkeley. I kept thinking it would have been great to see a gag reel afterward of The Graduate parodies from The Simpsons.

§ The Graduate (1967)
Mike Nichols, USA, 106 minutes

Paramount Movie Classics
Friday, June 21 @ 8:00 Pm