BAMcinématek Presents: The Scoundrel

Part of the BAMcinématek series Selections by Elliott Stein

Mon, Jun 18 at 4:30, 6:50*, 9:15pm
*Q&A with Lionel Stander’s daughter, Bella Stander

Directed by Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur
With Noel Coward, Julie Haydon

(1935) 78min, 35mm

This sardonic Golden Age dramedy boasts an eye-popping pedigree: Noel Coward’s film debut (as a reviled dead publisher whose spirit roams in search of a single “true” mourner), a rare directorial stint by canonical Hollywood scribe Ben Hecht, the lone feature film role (and a brutally self-parodizing one, at that) of New York Times theater critic and Algonquin Round Table charter member Alexander Woollcott, and the feature debut of beloved character actor (and blacklist survivor) Lionel Stander, kicking off his colorful 60-year career.