Jennifer Jones was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1919. As a child she toured with her parents in vaudeville. In 1939, she went to Hollywood, and after a few minor roles, David O. Selznick discovered her, fussed obsessively over her career, and eventually married her. In her first major role she won the Oscar for Best Actress for The Song of Bernadette (1943). In addition to her success in sensuous and tempestuous roles like Pearl Chavez in Duel in the Sun, she excelled in delightful comic roles like Cluny Brown and Beat the Devil, as well as appealing mature roles like Han Suyin in Love is a Many-Splendored Thing. The fourteen pictures in our program demonstrate that Selznick's obsesssion with Jennifer Jones was not misplaced.
Tickets for the double feature are $7.00 for adults, $5.00 for seniors (65 and over) and young people (18 and under). Gift Certificates worth four general admissions can be purchased for $24. You can always enjoy the Mighty Wurlitzer theatre organ before and after the 7:30 show. Our Gallery offers exhibits of original posters and other items. Please note that cell phones and food (other than candy, popcorn, and drinks) are not allowed in the theatre.
The Stanford Theatre is dedicated to bringing back the movie-going experience of Hollywood's Golden Age. Great classic films were not made to be watched on a video screen in your living room. They depend on a larger-than-life image, and the shared reactions of a real audience.
The Stanford Theatre first opened in June of 1925. For decades nearly every important Hollywood picture played there on its first release. The people of Palo Alto saw them all for the very first time in this theatre.
In 1987 the Packard Foundation bought the theatre and restored it to its original condition. It quickly became America's most popular classic movie house. More people saw Casablanca there on its 50th anniverary in 1992 than at any other theatre in America.
The non-profit Stanford Theatre Foundation is dedicated to the preservation and public exhibition of films from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Note: This is an unofficial posting of the Stanford Theatre schedules, from published information. This site is in no way connected with the Stanford Theatre nor the Stanford Theatre Foundation. Please check out the official site at http://www.stanfordtheatre.org in case this schedule isn't quite up-to-date! Programs are subject to change. For information, call (650) 324-3700.
(Showtimes in parentheses are for the Saturday and Sunday screenings.)
Jennifer Jones, William Holden, Torin Thatcher, Isobel Elsom, Murray Matheson, Virginia Gregg, Richard Loo.
A war correspondent (William Holden) covering the Korean War falls in love with a Eurasian doctor (Jennifer Jones). This intensely romantic film was beautifully filmed on location in Hong Kong. The title song was a popular hit.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Aug 31, 1955; last played June 2008
Jennifer Jones, Robert Stack, Robert Douglas, Kipp Hamilton, Peggy Knudsen.
The geography teacher in a small New England town has made a big difference in the lives of her pupils.
"Sentimental, warm, and wonderful." Leonard Maltin
first played at the Stanford Theatre Nov 29, 1955; first showing by the Stanford Theatre Foundation
Jennifer Jones, William Eythe, Charles Bickford, Vincent Price, Lee J. Cobb, Anne Revere, Gladys Cooper.
Jennifer Jones won an Oscar for her first major film role, in which she plays Bernadette Soubirous, the French peasant girl whose vision of "a beautiful lady" (the Virgin Mary) led to the founding of the shrine at Lourdes.
Alfred Newman's score (which also received an Academy Award) contains some of his loveliest music and perfectly complements the innocence and spirituality of Bernadette.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Apr 9, 1944; last played May 1995
Jennifer Jones, James Mason, Van Heflin, Louis Jourdan, Christopher Kent, Gene Lockhart.
Flaubert's tragic tale of the narcissistic and passionate adulteress. Some consider this film a minor masterpiece; all agree that the famous waltz sequence is a dazzling example of Minelli's cinematic genius.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Nov 3, 1949; last played May 2006
Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ann Richards, Cecil Kellaway, Gladys Cooper.
A soldier writes love letters for an unworthy friend to send to his girl back home. When his friend dies (after marrying the girl), the soldier can declare his own love for her; but there are mysterious circumstances, and the bewildered girl has developed amnesia.
This lovely film has romance, suspense, and a surprise ending. Jennifer Jones was nominated as Best Actress.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Nov 16, 1945; first showing by the Stanford Theatre Foundation
Jennifer Jones, David Farrar, Cyril Cusack, Esmond Knight, Sybiul Thorndike.
One of Jennifer Jones' great performances, as a bare-foot country girl, torn between a sensual squire and a gentle parson. Filmed in Shropshire, with the true feeling of a remote and superstitious rural community.
last played Dec. 1992
Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, Lionel Barrymore, Lillian Gish, Walter Huston, Herbert Marshall, Charles Bickford, Harry Carey, Joan Tetzel, Tilly Losch, Butterfly McQueen, Scott McKay, Otto Kruger, Sidney Blackmer, Charles Dingle.
The Legion of Decency deplored this delirious, erotic, Technicolor western, in which Jennifer Jones drives various men to frenzy. Critics called it "Lust in the Dust."
Gregory Peck, in an atypical role, is the smoldering villain who can't stay away from her. Their final. deadly encounter is one of the most flamboyant and notorious finales to a classic Hollywood movie.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Sep 15, 1954; last played June 2003
Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ethel Barrymore, David Wayne, Lillian Gish.
In this fantasy, which cost nearly as much as Gone With the Wind to make, a painter meets an otherwordly little girl in Central Park, who turns out to come from another time. Those who can suspend their pedestrian disbelief will find this a haunting and beautiful story.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Nov 28, 1992; last played Apr 2009
Jennifer Jones, Charles Boyer, Richard Haydn, Una O'Connor, Peter Lawford, Helen Walker, Reginald Gardiner, Reginald Owen, C. Aubrey Smith, Sara Allgood, Ernest Cossart, Florence Bates, Billy Bevan.
An English maid and plumber's niece who doesn't know her place meets a charming Czech political refugee writer.
This delightful story pairs Jennifer Jones and Charles Boyer (and various silly but loveable British characters). This was the last complete film directed by Ernst Lubitsch, and it has the simplicity and gentle humanity of a mature artist.
"A lovely, easy-going comedy, full of small surprising touches." Pauline Kael
first played at the Stanford Theatre July 27, 1946; last played Nov 2005
Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida. Robert Morley, Peter Lorre, Edward Underdown, Ivor Barnard, Bernard Lee, Marco Tulli, Mario Perroni, Alex Pochet, Aldo Silvani, Giulio Donnini, Saro Urzi, Juan de Landa, Manuel Serano, Mimo Poli.
A cast of unconventional characters seeks an elusive plot of land in Africa, which supposedly contains uranium. This "screwball noir" (shot on location in Italy) was neglected on its first release but now is regarded as a cult classic.
"It succeeded in some original (and perhaps dangerously marginal) way by finding a style of its own." Pauline Kael
first played at the Stanford Theatre Jan 31, 1998; last played Nov 2009
Laurence Olivier, Jennifer Jones, Miriam Hopkins.
A country girl comes to Chicago and eventually becomes a famous actress, while the once prosperous man who loves her is reduced to pathetic destitution.
David Raksin refers to this as his "silent movie" score.
"She was at her best, seemingly inspired and supported by Olivier." David Thomsen
first played at the Stanford Theatre Aug 26, 1952; last played May 1995
Jennifer Jones, John Garfield, Pedro Armendariz, Gilbert Roland.
John Huston's seldom shown film about a Cuban underground group in 1933.
first showing by the Stanford Theatre Foundation
Claudette Colbert, Joseph Cotten, Jennifer Jones, Shirley Temple, Agnes Moorehead, Monty Woolley, Lionel Barrymore, Guy Madison, Robert Walker, Hattie McDaniel, Nazimova, Albert Basserman, Gordon Oliver, Keenan Wynn, Craig Stevens.
Set entirely on the home front, this movie about WW II was a fond portrait of the women left at home, one of the greatest films Hollywood ever made. Claudette Colbert is very touching as the mother of Jennifer Jones and Shirely Temple, helping her daughters grow up while their father is away at war. The glorious Monty Woolley provides the necessary vinegar to balance Joseph Cotten's amiability.
David O. Selznick wrote the script himself and lovingly produced it with his own trademarked aura of quality. Some of us prefer this film even to his Gone With the Wind.
"The film rings out like a song of America. It's a panorama with a heartbreak that will reach the theatres." Ben Hecht
first played at the Stanford Theatre Dec 14, 1944; last played Nov 2005
Gregory Peck, Jennifer Jones, Fredric March, Marisa Pavan, Lee J. Cobb, Ann Harding.
A New York advertising executive has problems both at the office and at home.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Apr 29, 1956; first showing by the Stanford Theatre Foundation