Martin Scorsese Handpicked These 16 Key B-Movies and Westerns for Unique MoMA Series

The two-part retrospective "Martin Scorsese Presents Republic Rediscovered: New Restorations from Paramount Pictures" returns in August.

Among Martin Scorsese’s directing projects-in-progress are a new television show (“The Caesars”), plus films based on an Oklahoma murder mystery (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) and the life of the 26th U.S. president (“Teddy”). He will also soon reunite with actors who delivered their most-acclaimed performances opposite his lens: “Casino” veteran Sharon Stone will star in a Scorsese film that’s still under wraps, while Robert De Niro’s ninth collaboration with the director — Netflix’s “The Irishman” — will be the priciest film of Scorsese’s career (reported budget: $140 million).

Still, the Oscar winner (“The Departed”) has set aside spare time for his signature cause: film preservation.

In his hometown next month, MoMA will host the second-half of its exhibition,“Martin Scorsese Presents Republic Rediscovered: New Restorations from Paramount Pictures.” The defunct studio Republic Pictures churned out 3,000 films and series, all of which are now property of Paramount. In January, Paramount’s chairman and CEO, Jim Gianopulos, announced that his company had preserved more than 800 of the films. For the MoMA retrospective, which commenced in February and was underwritten by the museum’s Annual Film Fund, Scorsese selected a collection of his 30 favorites, restored by Paramount and his own Film Foundation.  

“From the ’30s through the ’50s, the different studio logos at the head of every picture carried their own associations and expectations,” he said in a statement. “And for me, the name Republic over the eagle on the mountain peak meant something special. Republic Pictures was what was known as a ‘poverty row’ studio, but what their pictures lacked in resources and prestige they made up for in inventiveness, surprise, and, in certain cases, true innovation.”

Here are the 16 Republic films Scorsese selected for the series’ conclusion:

“Three Faces West,” directed by Bernard Vorhaus (1940)

“Strangers in the Night,” directed by Anthony Mann (1944)

“I, Jane Doe,” directed by John H. Auer (1948)

“Moonrise,” directed by Frank Borzage (1948)

“Wake of the Red Witch,” directed by Edward Ludwig (1948)

“Surrender,” directed by Allen Dwan (1950)

“Champ for a Day,” directed by William A. Seiter (1953)

“Fair Wind to Java,” directed by Joseph Kane (1953)

“Laughing Anne,” directed by Herbert Wilcox (1953)

“Hell’s Half Acre,” directed by John H. Auer (1954)

“Make Haste to Live,” directed by William A. Seiter (1954)

“The Outcast,” directed by William Witney (1954)

“A Man Alone,” directed by Ray Milland (1955)

“A Woman’s Devotion,” directed by Paul Henreid (1956)

“Come Next Spring,” directed by R.G. Springsteen (1956)

“Flame of the Islands,” directed by Edward Ludwig (1956)

“Martin Scorsese Presents Republic Rediscovered: New Restorations from Paramount Pictures, Part 2,” run from August 9 — 23. View the full schedule here.