Get out of the house on the third Wednesday evening of each month and enjoy films on the big screen with us!

The Drill Hall Film Society screens classic films at an affordable price in comfortable tiered seating in our air-conditioned theatre. Grab a delicious snack and beverage from the bar, and be part of our lively film discussions after each show.

Become a Film Society subscriber for just $60 and gain entry to 11 films/year (or $50 if you’re a Drill Hall Theatre Company associate member). Casual guest rates cost $10/film.

Renewals due in July.

Contact Sonia on 0406 090 260 or email on [email protected] for more information or to become a member.

Wednesday 21st May @ 7pm

The best film ever made about the construction of the Panama Canal, was shot in 1941 but then laid down, like a fine wine or an expiring body, for three years, until the original play finished its Broadway run. The producers fretted about backing a film they couldn’t immediately profit from, and director Frank Capra would complain about missing out on three of the war’s box-office boom years, but in 1941 absolutely nobody worried that the film would age badly or that audiences would lose interest in Cary Grant, and such complacency was fully justified because here we all are enjoying one of the funniest black farces ever made.

Frank Capra was drawn to the novelty of a movie without a message. During the thirties, he had become closely identified with a kind of populist social commentary. This time, he just wanted to have fun. He would later recall that Grant “had a ball” on Arsenic, although in fact Grant fussed about the sets and quarrelled with the Australian costume designer Orry-Kelly, his former roommate, now Warners’ chief costume designer.

Grant was embarrassed by his Mortimer. He claimed the broadness was the problem. “I simply cannot do this kind of frenetic comedy,” he complained to Capra. When younger, he had closely studied comedians such as Stan Laurel and Harry Langdon, who were more like the still centres of slapstick chaos. Having built up a reputation for suavity, the former Archibald Leach might have been disconcerted by the prospect of spending a whole movie in a state of perspiring panic. We can defend Grant’s and Capra’s bold choices, asking, “What’s a man supposed to do when he finds bodies buried all over his maiden aunts’ house? Arch an ironic eyebrow?” The playing is entirely appropriate to a character in such circumstances in a farce, even if it is not Grant’s most urbane performance.

Much of the film’s freneticism comes from Capra playing the dialogue of one group over the actions of someone else, so we get two stories at once. Delicate work, as it’s self-evident that you should tell only one joke at a time. Capra somehow keeps multiple comic balls in the air simultaneously using multiple cameras, staggering the payoffs so they don’t crush one another.

Wednesday 18th June @ 7pm

Director Frank Oz’s ebullient film adaptation of the smash Off-Broadway musical—itself based on a 1960 Roger Corman B horror movie — developed an instant cult following for its gleefully macabre tale of star-crossed skid-row lovers (the incomparable Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene) brought together and nearly torn apart by a giant, human-eating plant from outer space. But the film that reached theatres differed from Oz and songwriters Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s original vision, chiefly in a newly invented happy ending added after test audiences rejected the stage version’s darker, apocalyptic finale.

Although the producers wanted a happy ending, unlike the original stage version, a very elaborate ending was shot using miniatures and visual camera effects. This was before Computer Generated Imagery.

Now, this hilarious political satire has been digitally restored to its original director’s cut, featuring 20 minutes of never-before-seen footage including the full original ending. At this point, it’s pretty obvious that capitalism really can be monstrous. It really will just eat everybody. It’s so blunt, without a hint of subtlety. But does anyone go see a horror comedy satire musical hoping for subtlety? Or do you go because you want to see giant alien plants murdering the planet?

What a treat!