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Producer Martin Ransohoff started out in television and, after an incredible success story with the original "The Beverly Hillbillies" beginning in 1962, graduated to producing hit motion pictures the same year with BOYS’ NIGHT OUT and THE WHEELER DEALERS. A string of critically acclaimed and successful movies came in their wake, including THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY, THE SANDPIPER, THE CINCINNATI KID, THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS, DON’T MAKE WAVES, ICE STATION ZEBRA, CATCH-22, 10 RILLINGTON PLACE, SAVE THE TIGER, SILVER STREAK, THE WANDERERS and JAGGED EDGE, to name just a few of his many hits! He was also partly responsible for helping to launch the careers of such actresses as Tuesday Weld, Ann-Margret and Sharon Tate. Join us for some of producer Martin Ransohoff’s favorite films. He’ll be here in-person for two out of the three evenings!

THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY, 1964, Warner Bros., 115 min. Director Arthur Hiller and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky skewer the cynical marketing of heroics during wartime. A gung-ho military PR officer (James Coburn) takes seriously the order of an insane general (Melvyn Douglas) to chronicle the first sailor to die landing on D-Day’s Normandy Beach, all to create a "Tomb of the Unknown Sailor." Decidedly unheroic James Garner is stationed in Britain, has just started an affair with beautiful and opinionated Julie Andrews and gets saddled with the job by Coburn. Producer Martin Ransohoff’s favorite from amongst his many films. "Chayefsky's scabrously funny script brims with snappy, crackling dialogue." -- Nick Schager, Slant Magazine; "Under Arthur Hiller's brisk direction of Mr. Chayefsky's script, which includes some remarkably good writing with some slashing irreverence…a comedy that says more for basic pacifism than a fistful of intellectual tracts. It also is highly entertaining, and it makes a good case for pure romance." – Bosley Crowther, The New York Times Trailer

SAVE THE TIGER, 1973, Paramount, 100 min. Dir. John G. Avildsen (ROCKY). Los Angeles garment businessman Jack Lemmon suffers a devastating intersection of midlife crisis and disillusionment with what he sees as moral decline in changing times. His deepening trauma pushes him to the edge as he considers desperate and illegal measures to salvage his tanking fashion enterprise. Lemmon won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance. Co-starring Jack Gilford, Patricia Smith. "…a virtuoso piece of movie acting. Jack Lemmon holds the movie together by the sheer force of his performance as Harry; he makes this character so convincing that we're fascinated…" – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times Trailer Discussion in between films with producer Martin Ransohoff and director Arthur Hiller.

ICE STATION ZEBRA, 1968, Warner Bros., 148 min. Reportedly Howard Hughes’ favorite film, action auteur John Sturges (THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, THE GREAT ESCAPE) and producer Martin Ransohoff adapt Alistair MacLean’s Cold War suspense novel into an all-star epic. Rock Hudson is the captain of a U.S. submarine transporting mysterious British agent Patrick McGoohan and Soviet defector Ernest Borgnine to the Arctic weather station Zebra. Having received a distress call from the station after a Russian spy satellite landed in the area, both the Americans and Soviets are in a race to find it. But unbeknownst to Hudson and his crew, there is a traitor on board who will stop at nothing to sabotage the mission. This was reportedly one of Howard Hughes’ all-time favorite films. Trailer

JAGGED EDGE, 1985, Sony Repertory, 108 min. Director Richard Marquand (EYE OF THE NEEDLE) and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (BASIC INSTINCT) create a well-oiled, complex engine of suspense that keeps us guessing till the very last shot. Did Jeff Bridges murder his heiress wife in their San Francisco beach house? Or was it someone else? Bridges convinces attorney Glenn Close, who no longer takes criminal cases, to defend him, and Close finds herself gradually falling in love with her client. Making matters more contentious, there is evidence to support both Bridges’ guilt and innocence, and Close is afraid D.A. Peter Coyote may be suppressing exculpatory evidence. Robert Loggia was Oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role as investigator Sam Ransom. "Supremely effective." – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times Trailer

THE CINCINNATI KID, 1965, Warner Bros., 102 min. Dir. Norman Jewison. Steve McQueen is perfectly cast as an ambitious young gambler poised to triumph over master poker player Edward G. Robinson at a high stakes game in Depression-era New Orleans. Adapted from the Richard Jessup novel by Ring Lardner, Jr. and Terry Southern, this suspenseful character study features a rogues gallery of greats including Ann-Margret, Tuesday Weld, Rip Torn, Karl Malden, Joan Blondell and Cab Calloway. Trailer Discussion in between films with producer Martin Ransohoff and actor Robert Loggia (JAGGED EDGE).