Memorable films, memorable night

When the American Film Institute announced it was going to screen 11 of the most memorable movies in Hollywood history -- each one introduced by the film’s star or director -- on one historic evening to honor the organization’s 40th anniversary, tickets sold out the first day.

So no celebrity was left holding a bag of unsold tickets, which could have been hard on the ego. But then came the next dicey issue for the event at 7 p.m. Wednesday: Which star would get the biggest venue, the Cinerama Dome, and which others would suffer the indignity of having their films screened in smaller theaters at the ArcLight complex in Hollywood?

Would “The Sound of Music” draw a bigger crowd than “Bonnie and Clyde”? Would “Rocky” be slighted if more people attended “When Harry Met Sally”? Would audiences flock to “The Birds,” leaving “Star Wars” adrift in space?

The first solution proved easy enough. The star who would get the biggest theater is a Hollywood legend: “We selected ‘Spartacus’ for the Cinerama Dome to honor Kirk Douglas,” said Bob Gazzale, president-elect of the AFI. The AFI then determined where the other films would screen through the time-honored tradition of drawing straws. That’s not as random as it might seem, though, Gazzale said. The other theaters at the ArcLight “are all about the same” size anyway. Easing the crunch, the list of films was whittled to 10 when a cancellation by Morgan Freeman forced the group to drop “The Shawshank Redemption” (ticket-holders can exchange for another screening as space allows or can be refunded).

So while Douglas is reminiscing about his 1960 film in the Cinerama Dome, Jack Nicholson will be speaking elsewhere about his 1975 film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Next,” while Clint Eastwood will be addressing another crowd about his 1992 western, “Unforgiven,” in another theater. Other stars and directors include Tippi Hedren on Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 fright film, “The Birds”; Julie Andrews on the 1965 musical “The Sound of Music”; Warren Beatty on his 1967 period gangster film, “Bonnie and Clyde”; Sylvester Stallone on his 1976 boxing yarn, “Rocky”; George Lucas on his 1977 sci-fi blockbuster, “Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope” (special edition); Billy Crystal and director Rob Reiner on their collaboration on the 1989 romantic comedy “When Harry Met Sally”; and Angela Lansbury on the 1991 animated Disney musical “Beauty and the Beast.”

“There were so many films to choose from,” Gazzale said. “Our goal was kind of a fireworks display of classic films.”