I have loved Seattle’s Grand Illusion Cinema for almost as long as it’s been there, and it’s been there since the 1970s. It’s hard to even estimate how many hundred times I’ve climbed the staircase, to see how many movies. And I’ve loved almost all them, because the Grand Illusion specializes in good movies, not just movies.
Blue Velvet, Nosferatu, Rashomon, Suspiria, The Third Man, Videodrome, Wings of Desire, so many movies I’ve seen at the Grand Illusion, including of course, The Grand Illusion …
The building will soon be demolished for ‘development’, and the last show will be Cinema Paradiso on Friday night, 1/31/2025. I’m not going. It’s sold out, same as all the features showing this week.
My last picture show at the Grand Illusion was a sci-fi Saturday Secret Matinee on 1/25, presented by the Sprocket Society. The ‘secret’ is that you don’t know what the movie’s going to be until you get there, and of course, I had popcorn and a blast.
It started with an introduction by Dr Sprocket, telling us what we’d be seeing. I don’t know who Dr Sprocket it; he’s someone involved with the Sprocket Society, and he introduces all their screenings, but he’s a man of mystery and has never introduced himself when I’ve been there. He was a little choked up to be emceeing his last show at the Grand Illusion, and I was a little choked up to be there, too.
During the introduction, someone in the crowd accidentally spilled their Coke on the aisleway carpet, and Doc Sprocket ran for paper towels and helped a few other folks swoosh up the mess. But at this point, the theater’s last few days, why worry about stains on the carpet?
The Purple Monster Strikes (1945) is a 15-chapter serial, and we saw chapter 12. Coming in late, so to speak, I had no idea what was going on, but I’m pretty sure I’d be just as bewildered if I’d seen every chapter. It was definitely fun, though.
It’s from Republic Pictures, famed for staging realistic fights in their movies, and like their Captain America (seen at the Grand Illusion a few weeks ago), the fights were truly impressive. I’m still kinda wondering how they did the fight scenes without great danger or damage to the cast.
So there’s an undercover space invasion underway, with spy stuff and fist fights and a tough guy and three strong female characters. One of them is named Marcia, and she’s a Martian — Marcia the Martian.
Wikipedia says The Purple Monster Strikes was later re-edited and released as D-Day on Mars (1966), slimmed down from 209 minutes to 140. I’m thinking that might be fun, but also realizing I’ll probably be dead before seeing all the movies already on my watchlist.
Astronomeous (1928) is a seven-minute Felix the Cat short, originally silent, but later re-released with sound, and we saw it with sound. Felix and a gaggle of other cats go to Mars, with amusing and flickering black-and-white animation. It’s spacey and silly and OK.
Mars and Beyond (1957) is a peculiar but beautiful short, that originally aired as an episode of The Magical World of Disney. The episode was almost an hour, but what we were shown had been edited down to about ten minutes of luscious animation, showing what was hoped to be our sci-fi future — spaceships and alien life and bizarre botany from other worlds. The imagery is beautiful, like looking out a porthole in the USS Enterprise, but it’s plotless, with no dialogue or narration, and seeing the longer, unedited version might’ve put me to sleep.
The main feature turned out to be Earth vs the Flying Saucers (1957), which I’d seen before, and recently. That’s one of the risks of going to these ‘secret’ shows, but I have the advantage of being senile, so I’d forgotten the movie almost entirely.
Spacemen arrive, and the Earthers open fire, which seems true to the way things would happen. The aliens want to take over the world, of course, but they’re pragmatic about it. They demonstrate their superior technology, and ask Earth to surrender, to avoid the bloodshed and destruction of a war. I’d at least consider white-flagging it, but our stalwart American military ain’t having no talk of surrender.
The movie’s pacing is slower than the genre norm. Until the halfway point, there’s more techno-talk than action, but it’s never a snooze. With a better leading man than Hugh Marlowe, this might’ve been a classic, but even with him it’s pretty good.
Ray Harryhausen did the special effects, most of which hold up fine more than half a century later. When the space aliens blasted the White House to smithereens, someone from the seats shouted, “I sure hope Trump was home!” which was greeted with laughter and applause.
The interiors of the alien ship were based on descriptions by George Adamski, who wrote three books about purportedly being abducted by aliens.
Directed by Fred Sears, fresh from The Giant Claw and The Night the World Exploded.
When the lights came up, the near sell-out crowd wandered out the doors, and I descended the long stairway at the Grand Illusion for the last time. I’m going to miss that place, but the collective that runs the theater is looking for a new building, and I’ve donated to the cause.
To beat long lines at the john after Grand Illusion shows, I’ve always peed at the Jack-in-the-Box down the street. As I stood there doing my business, it occurred to me that I’d never used the restroom at the Grand Illusion. They must have one, but I’ve never seen it, don’t even know where it is, and now… I never will.
1/28/2025
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