BEST BETS Thursday 7/27

6:15pm

Movies

William Friedkin’s 1971 police action classic “The French Connection,” highlighted by the car chase under the El in New York City, is next up in the AFI Associates Classic American Film Screening Series held at Arnie Morton’s the Steakhouse on La Cienega Boulevard. The film, a winner of five Academy Awards, including best picture, best director and best actor, stars Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey and Roy Scheider. The evening raises money for the American Film Institute and includes dinner and a post-screening discussion with Friedkin, moderated by Tom Hatten.

* AFI Associates Classic American Film Screening Series’ screening of “The French Connection,” Arnie Morton’s the Steakhouse, 435 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles. 6:15 p.m. $100. (323) 856-7665.

8pm

Movies

The Silent Movie Theatre hosts a salute to the Thanhouser Film Co., one of the leading independents in the rebellion against the Motion Picture Patents Trust, associated with Thomas Edison. Thanhouser produced and distributed more than 1,000 silent films worldwide between 1909 and 1918. Ned Thanhouser, the grandson of the company’s founders, will present a brief history and introduce three films: two shorts, “Only in the Way” (1911) and “The Evidence of the Film” (1913), plus a five-reel feature, “The Unfortunate Marriage” (1917), starring Florence LaBadie, the company’s most prominent player. The New Rochelle, N.Y., enterprise was eventually purchased by the Mutual Film Corp. and was later known as the Thanhouser Film Corp.

* Thanhouser Film Co. Screenings, Silent Movie Theatre, 611 N. Fairfax Ave., L.A. 8 p.m. $6 to $8. (323) 655-2520.

8pm

Pop Music

Enigmatic and given to frequent turnover of personnel (some of whom ended up with the more mainstream Foo Fighters), Seattle’s Sunny Day Real Estate has managed to remain a fixture in the alternative-rock landscape. After years with indie-rock flagship label Sub Pop, they’re now with Laguna Beach-based Time Bomb Records, which is distributed by the very non-indie BMG. “The Rising Tide” is their first album under the new regime.

* Sunny Day Real Estate, with No Knife, Palace, 1735 N. Vine St., Hollywood. 8 p.m. $18.50. (323) 462-3000. Also Friday at the Troubadour, 9081 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, 8 p.m. $20. (310) 276-6168.

Freebies

The Korean-language comedy “Gun and Gut” screens with English subtitles at the Korean Cultural Center, 5505 Wilshire Blvd., L.A., 7 p.m. (323) 936-7141.

Grammy-nominated trumpeter Bobby Rodriguez leads his Latin Jazz Orchestra at the Santa Monica Pier, 7:30 p.m. (310) 458-8900.