UNPRECEDENTED FILM EVENT TO START HERE THIS WEEK

“Nothing Sacred” (1937) is one of the classic American film comedies, the one in which Fredric March and Carole Lombard trade punches so famously.

If it’s news to you that it was shot in gorgeous three-strip Technicolor, that’s not surprising: Not since its original release has it been shown the way it was intended. For decades it has been available only in fuzzy black-and-white or two-color Cinecolor prints, but now you’ll be able to see this timeless William Wellman-Ben Hecht satire on newspaper sensationalism in its original pastel hues, which show to full advantage the inimitable Lombard’s blond beauty.

A rejuvenated “Nothing Sacred” is just one of 70 important films that will be shown as part of “50 Years of Film From the Museum of Modern Art,” a celebration of the Manhattan museum’s half-century of pioneering efforts in restoration and preservation. As a film offering, it is unprecedented in scope, a two-month citywide festival presented as a cooperative effort by four local institutions. They are:

--The new American Cinematheque, which joins with the UCLA Film Archives in launching the MOMA retrospective at the James A. Doolittle Theater (formerly the Huntington Hartford) Friday at 8 p.m. with D. W. Griffith’s “Way Down East” (1920). A live chamber orchestra will accompany the Griffith film, shown in its most nearly complete form since its original release. Programs at the Doolittle through Nov. 6 will serve as an introduction to the widely varied kinds of films in the collection.

--The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which will present 29 feature films from Nov. 8 through Dec. 28 in the museum’s Bing Theater on Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 p.m. and at Friday matinees at 1 p.m.

--The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which will host the world premiere of the restored wide-screen 1930 Raoul Walsh Western “The Big Trail,” starring John Wayne, in its Samuel Goldwyn Theater on Nov. 18 at 8 p.m.

--The UCLA Film Archives, which devotes its Tuesday evenings (at 7:30) in Melnitz Theater to a 14-film Salute to the American Independent Narrative Film, 1950-1975 starting on Nov.12 and continuing through Dec. 3, resuming after the holidays on Jan. 14 through Feb. 11.

“Nothing Sacred” screens at 8 p.m. Sunday at the Doolittle (and at the Bing Theater on Dec. 13 at 1 and 8 p.m.). The other features to be shown at the Doolittle are Hitchcock’s “Notorious” (Saturday at 8 p.m.), William Wyler’s highly esteemed film of Sinclair Lewis’ “Dodsworth” (Sunday at 2 p.m.). There will be a free seminar on preservation at the Doolittle Sunday at 5 p.m., with UCLA’s Robert Gitt and MOMA’s Peter Williamson and Joe Gartenberg participating.

Two of Joris Ivens’ comprehensive 1976 China documentaries will screen Monday at 8 p.m. and Cineprobe: The Experimental and the Avant-Garde, next Tuesday at 8 p.m. The Doolittle screenings will conclude Nov. 6 with an evening of familiar and esteemed Jean Renoir films, the 42-minute “A Day in the Country” (1936), Jacques Rivette’s 60-minute 1967 documentary, “Jean Renoir, the Boss” and “The Rules of the Game” (1939). Mrs. Jean Renoir will be present.

The County Museum offering looks to be an embarrassment of riches, ranging from the famous to the obscure. Not only will there be the chance to see in as pristine form as possible such cornerstones of the cinema as Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation,” “Intolerance” and “Orphans of the Storm” but such rarities as the 1915 “The Whirl of Life” with famed dancers Vernon and Irene Castle--and the late Ruth Gordon. “All Quiet on the Western Front” and Griffith’s first talkie, “Abraham Lincoln,” will be shown in the first near-complete prints struck in more than 30 years.

In addition to “Nothing Sacred” and “Notorious” there will be a generous offering of David O. Selznick productions, including “Duel in the Sun” with newly restored color. There will be two Ophuls films: “Letter From an Unknown Woman” and “Caught”; a silent Lubitsch, “The Marriage Circle”; Howard Hawks’ “Scarface”; John Ford’s “My Darling Clementine,” and much, much more.

The UCLA Film Archives will lead off Nov. 12 at 7:30 p.m. with two films of youth, “Little Fugitive” (1953) and Francois Truffaut’s 18-minute 1957 short--never mind that it’s not American!--”Les Mistons” (“The Mischief-Makers”). There will be such venturesome ‘50s and ‘60s offerings as Adolfas Mekas’ “Hallelujah the Hills,” Paul Bartel’s “The Secret Cinema,” Lionel Rogosin’s “On the Bowery,” Martin Scorsese’s very fine first feature, “Who’s That Knocking on My Door?” and Jim McBride’s ingenious fake cinema verite, “David Holzman’s Diary.”

For full program and ticket information: the James A. Doolittle Theater (213) 462-0055; the County Museum of Art’s Bing Theater (213) 857-6201; the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (213) 278-8990, ext. 215; UCLA Melnitz Theater (213) 825-2345 or 825-2345.