Stephanie Sack’s Late Summer Cult Film Series in Chicago Links the Unknown Man of Shandigor, Alice, Sweet Alice and Creature From the Black Lagoon to Local History
CHICAGO, IL — Chicago cult-film programmer Stephanie Sack is spending late summer connecting the city to an unusually wide range of screen oddities, from a Swiss Cold War spy satire to 1970s horror and a Universal monster classic.
Her four-program series runs from Aug. 20 through Sept. 10 at the International Museum of Surgical Science and the Logan Theatre, with seven films spread across the two venues.
A Swiss spy satire opens the run and points back to Chicago film history
The first stop is the museum’s Scalpel Summer finale on Thursday, Aug. 20, with Jean-Louis Roy’s 1967 film The Unknown Man of Shandigor. The restored screening is being presented by Deaf Crocodile, and Sack will be joined afterward by writer and podcaster Chris Sienko.
Beyond its Cold War premise, the film has a Chicago link through actor Ben Carruthers, who also appeared in Fearless Frank, the 1967 independent feature starring a young Jon Voight that was shot in Chicago.
The screening begins at 7 p.m. at the International Museum of Surgical Science, 1524 N. Lake Shore Drive.
Giallo Gelato returns to Logan Theatre with three 1976 titles
The next night, Sack takes the series to the Logan Theatre for the third edition of Giallo Gelato and its second year at that venue. This year’s theme, Giallo Gelato 2026: Mondo Giallo, features three films from 1976, all playing at 11 p.m. Aug. 21 through 23.
Narciso Ibáñez Serrador’s Who Can Kill a Child? screened at the 1976 Chicago International Film Festival under the title Island of the Damned, while Alfred Sole’s Alice, Sweet Alice returns 50 years after Chicago audiences saw it as Communion. That film won a Silver Medal at the festival before changing titles several times and building a stronger reputation over time.
Robert Loerzel, author of The Uptown: Chicago’s Endangered Movie Palace, will introduce Alice, Sweet Alice on Saturday, Aug. 22. The weekend closes with Pupi Avati’s The House with Laughing Windows, shown in a recent 4K restoration. All three screenings are at 2646 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Wexler, Liberace and Svengoolie add more Chicago layers before the series wraps
The museum series resumes on Thursday, Sept. 3, with Tony Richardson’s 1965 black comedy The Loved One. Chicago-born cinematographer and co-producer Haskell Wexler worked on the film, and the cast also includes Liberace, whose Chicago following grew through appearances at the Palmer House’s Empire Room starting in the 1940s.
That screening is presented with Chicago-based Inclusive Funeral Care, whose representatives will discuss modern funeral and end-of-life services. Doors open at 6 p.m., and the film starts at 6:30 p.m.
The series ends Thursday, Sept. 10, with a restored digital 2-D presentation of Creature from the Black Lagoon as the museum marks its 72nd birthday. Chicago-born screenwriter Arthur A. Ross helped shape the screenplay, and the creature has long been familiar to local TV viewers through Rich Koz and Svengoolie.
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