WEST PLAINS, Mo.– Missouri State University-West Plains is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and this milestone will serve as the theme of the annual film series hosted by the University/Community Programs (U/CP) Department during the month of February.
This is the 14th year for this free, weekly event, organizers said, adding the films will be shown at 6 p.m. Thursday evenings in the West Plains Civic Center theater. All of the films selected were released during 1963, the year Missouri State-West Plains offered its first classes to area residents.
“In recognition of the year the Missouri State-West Plains campus was established, the film series committee decided to choose films from that era,” said U/CP Director Brenda Malkowski. “Please join us as we celebrate Missouri State-West Plains’ 50th anniversary with the showing of four films originally released in 1963!”
The series begins Feb. 7 with the showing of Bye Bye Birdie. Considered one of the most captivating musical shows of the 1960s, the film features Dick Van Dyke, Janet Leigh and Ann-Margret in one of her first feature rolls. It tells the story of an Elvis Presley-style rock singer who travels to a small Ohio town to make his “farewell” television performance and kiss his biggest fan before he is drafted. This film, rated G, launched the career of Van Dyke, who was born in West Plains Dec. 13, 1925.
The series continues Feb. 14 with the award-winning Lilies of the Field. In an Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning performance, Sidney Poitier portrays unemployed construction worker Homer Smith, who finds himself stranded at a remote desert farm when his car overheats during his trip west. Believing the incident “divine intervention,” the group of nuns running the farm convince him to help build their church before he moves on. In addition to Poitier’s awards, the film won a Golden Globe for Best Film Promoting International Understanding. The film is unrated.
On Feb. 21, Charade takes center stage. Stanley Donen directs this Hitchcockian-style story of international intrigue featuring Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant and Walter Matthau. Hepburn stars as a woman who returns from holiday to discover her husband has been murdered and is one of five men who are wanted by the CIA for stealing $250,000 in gold from the government during World War II. To make matters worse, the money seems to be missing, and so are all of her possessions. When her husband’s partners in crime come calling for the money, a man she met on holiday (Grant), who changes his name every 15 minutes, offers to help her find it. Thus begins an elaborate charade in which nothing is as it seems. The film is unrated.
The series will conclude Feb. 28 with the showing of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. In this madcap comedy adventure directed by Stanley Cramer and starring Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle and Ethel Merman, a recently released convict is eager to reach the $350,000 he hid in a California park…too eager, in fact, as he crashes his car off the cliff of a winding road. Witnesses from four nearby vehicles try to help the dying man, but he, instead, reveals to them where he’s hidden the money. When they fail to agree on sharing the cash, they embark on a rambunctious race across the state to see who reaches it first. The film is rated G.
Each film showing will be followed with a discussion session facilitated by a Missouri State-West Plains faculty member or someone familiar with the film.
For more information about the annual film series, call the U/CP Department office at 417-255-7966.