The Rio’s monthly Classic Matinees take place on the first or second Wednesday of the month. There is an interval for every film, and extra seating is provided in the foyer. We are delighted that thanks to funding from the Bridge House Trust we are able to offer free admission. We are also able to offer free tea and cake! Please come along and enjoy a film and a chat!

These screenings are also open to everyone else at normal weekday matinee ticket prices.

70th Anniversary Celebration

On Saturday 18 December 1937, a "super cinema in miniature", the Classic, opened in Dalston. Over the following years, the Classic changed hands several times but is still standing as Hackney's last remaining cinema, better known since 1979 as the RIO CINEMA. Retaining all its Art Deco charm, it is Grade II listed by English Heritage. To commemorate this anniversary, the Rio Cinema is staging a special celebration, free for the Over 60’s, complete with free tea and cake and a Christmas reffle. This extraordinary event will recreate the same programme of films shown on that opening night 70 years ago.

The Live Ghost (U)

(US 1934) dir. Charley Rogers 21m. Digital
Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Walter Long.

When a grumpy sea captain has trouble manning his ship because of rumours it's haunted, he employs Laurel and Hardy to help him hire a crew – but this only adds to his troubles!

+ The Spectacle Maker (U)

(US 1934) dir. John Farrow 21m. Digital.
Nora Cecil, Harvey Clark, Cora Sue Collins.

A parable about magic glasses set in 17th Century Germany, shot in magical Technicolor.

+ Boys Will Be Boys (U)

(UK 1935) dir. William Beaudine 80m.
Will Hay, Gordon Hacker, Jimmy Hanley, Davy Burnaby.

Will Hay plays is a teacher in prison who, through a forged recommendation, gets himself a headmastership at a boy’s public school – and tangled up in an elaborate jewel robbery! This is the first screen appearance of Hay in his famous schoolmaster role.

• Wed 9 Jan 2.30

ALL ABOUT EVE (U)

(US 1950) dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz 138m.
Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Gary Merrill, Hugh Marlowe, Gregory Ratoff, Barbara Bates, Marilyn Monroe, Thelma Ritter.

“In 1950, the movies recognised stardom as a pathological disorder. Exhibit A was Sunset Boulevard, exhibit B – All About Eve. Set in the Broadway jungle rather than among the ‘sun-burnt eager beavers’ of Hollywood, Joseph L Mankiewicz’s film dissects the narcissism and hypocrisy of the spotlight as sharply as Wilder’s, but pays equal attention to the challenges of enacting womanhood. All About My Mother (not to mention Showgirls) would be unimaginable without it. Anne Baxter is Eve Harrington, the wide-eyed stage-door hanger-on who insinuates her way into the world of Bette Davis’ sacred monster, Margo Channing; butter-might-just-melt meets gin-hold-the-tonic. The fan who makes an audience of the stars, Eve is soon attracting her own admirers, as well as barbs worthy of Mankiewicz’s ’30s newsroom pedigree. Edith Head’s costumes stress the antagonism: Eve enters in a sexy-modest trenchcoat-and-trilby combo, and could anyone but Davis pull off a ball gown with pockets? Meanwhile, the real threat – Marilyn Monroe – sits at the party’s edge, shining, angling for another drink.” (Ben Walters, Time Out)