Popcorn's On Us: July Movie Schedules at Aster's Senior Centers
There's something special about watching a great film in good company. Every week at Aster's senior centers, we set aside time for exactly that — a free movie, a free bag of popcorn, and an afternoon with friendly faces. Whether you're a lifelong film lover or just looking for something fun to fill a Tuesday or Thursday afternoon, July's lineup has something for you.
The Mesa Downtown Senior Center hosts movies every Thursday starting at 12:30 PM.
The Red Mountain Senior Center hosts movies every Tuesday starting at 12:30 PM.
All showings are free with popcorn provided. Seating is limited, so RSVP in advance — online, by phone, by email, or in person at the center.
Here's what's playing this month.
MESA DOWNTOWN SENIOR CENTER
Thursdays | 12:30 PM
July 2 — Oklahoma! (1955) | Rated G
The month kicks off with one of the most beloved American musicals ever put to film. Set in the Oklahoma Territory just before statehood, this Rodgers and Hammerstein classic follows the romance between Laurey (Shirley Jones) and cowboy Curly (Gordon MacRae), complicated by the menacing presence of their family's hired hand, Jud Fry (Rod Steiger). A second love story runs alongside it, following Laurey's friend Ado Annie and cowboy Will Parker, whose courtship is threatened by the arrival of a charming traveling peddler.
The 1955 film adaptation was the first ever shot in the Todd-AO 70mm widescreen format, giving the wide-open Oklahoma landscapes a sweep and grandeur that still impresses today. It won Academy Awards for Best Sound Recording and Best Scoring of a Musical Picture, and in 2007 was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Songs include "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'," "People Will Say We're in Love," and the rousing title number. It's a joyful, sweeping piece of American cinema — a perfect way to start the summer.
July 9 — McLintock! (1963) | Rated G
John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara together on screen are a force of nature, and this comedy western gives them plenty to work with. Loosely based on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, the film is set in 1895 and follows George Washington "G.W." McLintock, a wealthy cattle baron whose estranged wife Katherine returns after two years away, demanding both a divorce and custody of their daughter. Meanwhile, newly arrived settlers, government officials, and a group of Comanches are all at odds with one another — leaving McLintock to somehow keep the peace while his domestic life spirals into chaos.
Filmed in Technicolor and Panavision and produced by Wayne's own Batjac Productions, the film was a box-office success and remains one of Wayne's most beloved comedies. The chemistry between Wayne and O'Hara — their fourth and final pairing — gives the film a lively, good-natured energy, and the film's famous large-scale brawl scene is worth it.
July 16 — Big Jake (1971) | Rated PG-13
A grittier entry in the Wayne canon, Big Jake pairs old-school Western toughness with a surprisingly modern sense of violence and urgency. Set in 1909 near the Mexico-United States border, the film begins when the brutal Fain Gang attacks the McCandles family ranch, kidnapping Jacob "Little Jake" McCandles and leaving behind a ransom note for one million dollars. Martha McCandles, convinced there is only one man tough enough and smart enough for the job, sends word to her long-estranged husband, Big Jake, to retrieve the boy.
Wayne's own son Patrick plays one of Big Jake's grown sons, while Christopher Mitchum — son of Robert Mitchum — plays another, making the film something of a real-life family reunion. The story is set at an interesting historical hinge point, where the sheriff pursues the kidnappers in newfangled automobiles while Jake saddles up the old-fashioned way — a small but effective reminder that one era was ending and another beginning.
July 23 — The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975) | Rated G
After a couple of intense Westerns, July lightens the mood considerably with this beloved Disney comedy that became the studio's highest-grossing film of the entire 1970s. A slick gambler named Russell Donovan (Bill Bixby) is tricked into taking custody of three orphaned children who promptly discover a massive gold nugget — setting off a chain of events involving the entire town of Quake City and a pair of magnificently incompetent outlaws.
Those outlaws, played by Don Knotts and Tim Conway — marking their first screen pairing together — are two bumbling former members of the Stillwell Gang who were ousted by their own boss for shooting him in the leg. Their schemes to steal the gold go about as well as you'd expect. A wholesome, funny Western comedy with a warm heart underneath all the slapstick.
July 30 — Cowboys & Aliens (2011) | Rated PG-13
July closes with something completely different: a big-screen genre mashup that puts two of Hollywood's most iconic stars into Stetsons and asks what would happen if the Wild West had an alien problem. The film follows an amnesiac outlaw (Daniel Craig), a wealthy cattleman (Harrison Ford), and a mysterious traveler (Olivia Wilde) who must set aside their differences to save a group of townspeople abducted by alien invaders.
Directed by Jon Favreau and produced with Steven Spielberg as executive producer, the film is set in the 1870s Southwestern United States, where the small, hard-scrabble town of Absolution lives under the iron-fisted rule of Colonel Dolarhyde — until an alien attack forces residents, outlaws, and even the local Native American tribe to unite against a common enemy. It's big, loud, and entertaining — a fun note to end the month on.
RED MOUNTAIN SENIOR CENTER
Tuesdays | 12:30 PM
July 7 — Midnight (1939) | Not Rated
Red Mountain's July opens with a hidden gem of Hollywood's golden age — a screwball comedy that film historians have long called one of the best of its kind. Written by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder, the film follows Eve Peabody (Claudette Colbert), an unemployed American showgirl stranded in Paris with nothing but an evening gown and no money, who persuades a soft-hearted Hungarian taxi driver (Don Ameche) to drive her around the city in search of work.
When no nightclub will hire her, Eve devises a better plan: posing as a wealthy Hungarian countess, she crashes Parisian high society and finds herself commissioned by an eccentric millionaire (John Barrymore) to seduce a French playboy away from the millionaire's not-so-loyal wife. The complications multiply from there. Described as a topsy-turvy Cinderella story with a cynical bite, the film is a sophisticated blend of fairy-tale escapism and sharp social observation. In 2013, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Wonderful performances all around, and one of the most underrated comedies of the decade.
July 14 — Vertigo (1958) | Rated PG
One of the most discussed films ever made, Vertigo is Alfred Hitchcock at his most personal and psychologically intense. James Stewart stars as a former San Francisco police detective who has retired after a rooftop incident left him with a crippling fear of heights and vertigo. He is hired as a private investigator to follow the strange and erratic wife of an old acquaintance.
As Scottie investigates, he becomes entangled in a complex and unsettling mystery that challenges his perceptions of reality, identity, and obsession. What begins as a surveillance assignment deepens into something far stranger and more troubling — a study of grief, fixation, and the lengths to which a person will go to hold onto something already lost. Initially received without great enthusiasm, Vertigo is now commonly ranked among the greatest films ever made, and its signature camera technique — zooming in while pulling the camera back — remains one of cinema's most imitated visual inventions.
July 21 — Gigi (1958) | Rated G
The winner of nine Academy Awards including Best Picture, Gigi is one of the last great musicals of Hollywood's golden age — lavish, witty, and set against the glittering backdrop of turn-of-the-century Paris. Based on a novella by French author Colette, the film follows young Gigi (Leslie Caron), who lives in genteel poverty with her grandmother while receiving regular lessons in manners and elegant conduct from her great-aunt — the two women quietly grooming her for a life among the wealthy class.
When the suave and bored Gaston (Louis Jourdan), one of Paris' most eligible bachelors and a longtime family friend, begins to see Gigi differently, her grandmother and aunt push the two toward an arrangement that suits social convention — but neither Gaston nor Gigi is quite willing to play the parts assigned to them. The score by Lerner and Loewe is among the most celebrated in musical history, and the chemistry between Caron and Jourdan carries the film's charm effortlessly. A classic.
July 28 — The Philadelphia Story (1940) | Not Rated
July closes at Red Mountain with one of the sharpest, funniest, most perfectly cast films ever made. Katharine Hepburn stars as Tracy Lord, a formidable Philadelphia socialite whose imminent wedding is thrown into delightful chaos when her charming ex-husband (Cary Grant) arrives at the family estate accompanied by a tabloid reporter on assignment to cover the event (James Stewart).
A fast-talking screwball comedy as well as a tale of regret and reconciliation, the film features Stewart in his only Academy Award-winning performance. The dialogue is crackling, the performances are perfectly tuned, and the interplay among Hepburn, Grant, and Stewart is the kind of on-screen chemistry that simply doesn't happen by accident. The film broke a box-office record at Radio City Music Hall upon release and was later selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry — and it's just as fun to watch today as it was in 1940. An ideal way to close out a great month of movies.
Plan Your Visit
Movies at both centers begin at 12:30 PM, and free popcorn is provided at every showing. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis for those who RSVP — so don't wait too long.
To RSVP or learn more, contact the Senior Center:
Mesa Downtown Senior Center — Thursdays | cbs@asteraz.org | 480-962-9612 | or RSVP in-person at 247 N Macdonald St, Mesa, AZ, 85201
Red Mountain Senior Center — Tuesdays | cbs@asteraz.org | 480-218-2221 | or RSVP in-person at 7550 E Adobe St, Mesa, AZ, 85207
We hope to see you at the movies.
