Back Street

press release: USA | 1932 | 35mm | 89 min.

Director: John M. Stahl; Cast: Irene Dunne, John Boles, ZaSu Pitts

Beautiful and benevolent, Ray (Dunne) falls in love with a wealthy married man (Boles) and agrees to be his “back street” mistress. Thrice has Universal adapted Fannie Hurst’s best-selling novel, but only the first lands with an elemental force, thanks to Stahl’s empathetic and unadorned style, Karl Freund’s masterful command of light and shadow, and Dunne, who plays life-altering yearning with formidable restraint.

Sunday Cinematheque at the Chazen: It’s a Universal Picture

This lineup of movies released by Universal Pictures from 1928-1936 shows how one of the smallest of the major studios, under the leadership of head honcho Carl Laemmle, Jr., held their own with a variety of fun and fast-paced features that delivered innovation in a number of genres: melodramas, comedies, thrillers, war stories, musicals and horror movies. Our series partly focuses on Universal’s top-flight, best-known directors like William Wyler, John Stahl and James Whale, but you will also have a chance to discover the expressive and riveting work of Edward L. Cahn, Paul Fejos, and others. As a bonus, many of the features will be preceded by animated preludes starring Universal’s top cartoon star of the day, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Special Thanks to Dave Kehr, whose series of Universal discoveries curated for New York’s Museum of Modern Art and Bologna’s Il Cinema Ritrovato provided significant inspiration.

Admission free for all screenings, seating limited. No admission 15 minutes after scheduled start times.