I'll Have Some General Custer Grits, a Milkybar, and a Quickie Burger with My Movie

My wife and I are not global tourists, but we were fortunate enough to spend three weeks in Great Britain back in the 1980s--when airfares were cheap and our bodies were young. Armed with nothing more than our BritRail passes and backpacks, we trekked from London to Straford-Upon-Avon to York and deep into Scotland. The highlight of our trip was a visit with Leslie Halliwell, author of The Filmgoer's Companion--but that's another story. This one is about the movie theatres we encountered across the big pond.

We saw our first London film, Personal Services starring Julie Walters, at the Empire 4 in Leicester Square. A large urban theatre, the Empire sold tickets for 4 to 5 pounds, which was probably around $8. Patrons reserved seats on a computer (maybe that was done in NYC or L.A. back home...but not where we lived). The lobby included a bar--not just a snack bar, but one served that alcoholic beverages. There was a Baskin-Robbins in the lobby as well as a video gift shop. There were snacks aplenty, but with unusual names like General Custer Grits (I think they were pork rinds), Quickie-burgers, and Milkybars.  Interestingly, there were no loos (I mean...restrooms) in the lobby--they were located inside the auditorium.

The Empire 4 was a nice enough theatre...although 25 minutes of commercials prior to the feature seemed excessive (especially back then). The bottom line is that it was pretty much a big city movie theatre, not unlike, I suspect, what one would have found in Chicago, New York, or L.A. at the time.

In Bath, we found a movie house with much more ambiance: the appro-priately named Little Theatre. Its exterior, consisting  of whitish stone and old-fashioned framed movie posters, lacked the pizzazz of the ornate movie palaces. But it possessed its own distinct charm, helped immeasurably by its delightful fare of non-mainstream films. Of course, our movie-going experience may have been enhanced by the film we saw there: Claude Berri's tragic classic Jean de Florette. I'm glad to report that the Little Theatre in Bath is still flourishing today and has amassed 411 fans on Facebook.

I confess that I can't recall much about the movie theatre in Edinburgh where we saw John Boorman's Hope and Glory. I just remember that it seemed like the perfect film to see during our visit to Great Britain. When we returned to London at the end of our trip, we were lucky enough to catch Manon des Sources, the sequel (second half is perhaps a better description) to Jean de Florette. Again, the movie dominated its surroundings.

We didn't see a film at the Leicester Square Theatre, but I couldn't pass on the opportunity to snap this photo of its marquee with a statue of the Little Tramp in the foreground.

In the end, we didn't visit any elaborate showcases of cinematic splendor. However, we did get to experience watching a movie in another country, albeit one that speaks the same language. That left us with some great memories which come flooding back whenever we see those movies again. I haven't seen Jean de Florette in a few years, but just thinking of it makes me yearn for a Milkybar!