Celebrate the Thanksgiving holidays with three double bills from some of the craziest comic masters of the past half century – Mel Brooks, Jacques Tati and Monty Python.

YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, 1974, 20^th Century Fox, 105 min. Director Mel Brooks’ hilariously abby-normal homage to 1930’s monster movies was a huge hit with American audiences – one of the strangest, funniest, most brilliantly conceived comedies since the heyday of the Marx Bros. Gene Wilder (who co-wrote the script) stars as Dr. Frankenstein ("That’s Frankensteen.") struggling to breathe life into tap-dancing monster Peter Boyle, with demented help from hunchback assistant Marty Feldman, lusty Teri Garr, neurotic girlfriend Madeline Kahn and Frau Blucher herself, Cloris Leachman. "The biggest problem we had in doing Young Frankenstein was that we had to do so many takes because we couldn't stop laughing." - Teri Garr.

HIGH ANXIETY, 1977, 20^th Century Fox, 105 min. Director Mel Brooks spoofs Hitchcock’s SPELLBOUND, but there are countless other references as well, including nods to NORTH BY NORTHWEST, VERTIGO, THE BIRDS, PSYCHO and more. Brooks stars as Dr. Richard Thorndyke, the newly-arrived administrator of the Psychoneurotic Institute, suddenly beset by all manner of madmen and mayhem. Many memorable laughs as well as co-stars Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman, Cloris Leachman and Dick Van Patten.

Friday, November 23 – 7:30 PM

Jacques Tati Holiday Double Feature:

MR. HULOT’S HOLIDAY (LES VACANCES DE MONSIEUR HULOT), 1953, Janus Films, 85 min. Dir. Jacques Tati. Tati’s first film as Monsieur Hulot, one of cinema's great comic personas, finds the irascible Frenchman going to a resort town for a vacation and chaos predictably ensues. A warm and whimsical hymn to the joys of life and the funny little things continually happening around us we often fail to notice. Both films in French with English subtitles.

THE BIG DAY (JOUR DE FETE), 1947, Janus Films, 79 min. Jacques Tati’s feature debut as director is a priceless showcase for his comedic talents as he plays a mailman attempting to streamline delivery in his small town. But he soon finds his attempts at modernization and a coincidental Bastille Day celebration don’t mix. Tangible proof that Tati remains -- along with Chaplin, Keaton and the Marx Brothers -- as one of the pantheon comic geniuses of the 20^th Century. Originally filmed in Thomson-Color, a tentative French alternative to Technicolor, JOUR DE FÊTE was shot simultaneously in black-and-white as a precaution. Eventually, trouble with the new color process led Tati to release this second, backup version. The film proved a commercial and critical success, yet that didn't stop Tati from returning to the film in the mid-1960’s, re-editing the picture, remixing its soundtrack and even shooting new footage for it. Until a 1995 "restoration" of the film's intended, original color version carried out by Tati's daughter Sophie Tatischeff and cinematographer François Ede, the 1964 JOUR DE FÊTE was the sole version in circulation.

Saturday, November 24 – 7:30 PM

Monty Python Double Feature!

MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL, 1975, Rainbow Releasing, 91 min. Dirs. Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones. Python's $250,000 epic features Graham Chapman as King Arthur, John Cleese as Sir Lancelot the Brave and Eric Idle as Sir Robin The-Not-Quite-So-Brave. From the limb-impaired Black Knight, the immortal Knights who say Ni, killer rabbits, the Black Beast of Aarrgghh, and the extremely rude Frenchman, HOLY GRAIL is one of the most beloved and quoted cult classics.