Kenneth Turan's picks: 'The Smiling Lieutenant' and 'Roxanne'

By Kenneth Turan

March 27, 2013 12 AM PT

This intriguing double bill with a theme programmers call “Secret Sweeties” is a chance to see 35-millimeter versions of rarely screened films, one old and one new, with the lion’s share of the proceeds going to a great cause. That would be UCLA’s student chapter of the Assn. of Moving Image Archivists, an organization devoted to film preservation and restoration that programs a monthly series called “Something Old, Something New.”

The old film is Ernst Lubitsch’s 1931 “The Smiling Lieutenant,” a racy pre-Code musical starring Claudette Colbert and Maurice Chevalier. “Roxanne” is Fred Schepsi’s 1987 Steve Martin/Daryl Hannah-starring version of “Cyrano de Bergerac.”

See both films for only $8 on Friday starting at 7:30 p.m. at the New Beverly, 7165 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles. What a deal.