Retro Matinee Movie at Little Art Theatre
To Kill A Mockingbird
Sunday, July 19
3 p.m.

“To Kill A Mockingbird (1962) is a much-loved, critically-acclaimed, classic trial film. It exhibits a dramatic tour-de-force of acting, a portrayal of childhood innocence (told from a matured adult understanding), and a progressive, enlightened 1960s message about racial prejudice, violence, moral tolerance and dignified courage.

“The Academy Award winning screenplay was faithfully adapted by screenwriter Horton Foote from the 1960 novel of the same name by Harper Lee — who had written a semi-autobiographical account of her small-town Southern life in Monroeville, Alabama, her widower father/attorney Amasa Lee, and its setting of racial unrest. [This was Lee’s first and sole novel — and it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1960.] The poor Southern town of deteriorating homes was authentically re-created on a Universal Studios’ set. Released in the early ’60s, the timely film reflected the state of deep racial problems and social injustice that existed in the South.

“The film begins by portraying the world of play of a tomboyish six year-old girl named Scout (Mary Badham) and her ten year-old brother Jem (Phillip Alford), and their perceptions of their widower attorney father Atticus (Gregory Peck). They also fantasize about a ‘boogeyman’ recluse who inhabits a mysterious house in their neighborhood. They are abruptly brought out of their insulated and carefree world by their father’s unpopular but courageous defense of a black man named Tom Robinson (Brock Peters) falsely accused of raping a Southern white woman.

“Relationships formed during filming would last for the remainder of Gregory Peck’s life. He received the pocketwatch of Harper Lee’s father; he became the surrogate father to Mary Badham; and Brock Peters delivered Peck’s eulogy after his death in June of 2003.”

from http://www.filmsite.org/toki.html