“Filmed on Location” is the theme of the Waupaca Area Public Library’s seventh annual February Film Series.
Set to kick off at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 5, the series opens with with the 1952 railroading movie, “Denver and Rio Grande.”
All four February films will feature introductions by Dr. Jack Rhodes and will be free and open to the public. No reservations are needed. Free popcorn, soft drinks, and theater treats will be provided.
Rhodes explained that this year’s theme was chosen to “chase away the winter blues during one of our bleakest months.” He said that each movie “represents an escape from winter to a region of romance and adventure.”
All four films are in color and represent, according to Rhodes, some of Hollywood’s best examples of classic light entertainment.
The opening movie, “Denver and Rio Grande,” will also do double duty, Rhodes said, as the February entry in the library’s First Thursday Film Series.
Shot on location in the mountains of southwestern Colorado, the film provides a fictionalized retelling of the battle between the title railroad and its chief rival to lay tracks through the famous Royal Gorge and thus gain access from Denver to the states and markets farther west.
Directed by Byron Haskin and stunningly photographed by Ray Rennahan, who is best known for “Gone with the Wind,” “Denver and Rio Grand” stars Edmond O’Brien, Sterling Hayden, Laura Elliot, and Dean Jagger.
The remaining films in the February Series will be:
• Feb. 12 – “Summertime” (1955), filmed in Venice and starring Katharine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi.
• Feb. 19 – “Charade” (1963), filmed in Paris and starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn.
• Feb. 26 – “River of No Return” (1954), filmed in the Canadian Rockies and starring Marilyn Monroe and Robert Mitchum.