ROCKLAND — The Strand Theatre’s 2023 film series “100 Years of Movies” wraps up in December with two lesser-known 1940s holiday classics. Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is sponsoring the December screenings, and the films will be hosted in person by TCM film presenter, and Strand Theatre Board Member, Alicia Malone.

The Shop Around the Corner (1947) will be presented on Sunday, Dec.10, at 2 p.m. In this romantic comedy, Alfred Kralik (James Stewart) and Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) are employees at Matuschek and Company, a general store in Budapest. Klara and Alfred are constantly at odds with each other, butting heads and disagreeing on almost everything. Both are enamored of their respective pen pals, who serve as welcome distractions in their lives. Little do they know, they are each the other's pen pal and, despite outward differences, have unwittingly fallen in love through their letters. Their true identities are finally discovered on Christmas Eve.

It Happened on 5th Avenue (1940), a heartwarming comedy set in New York City during the Christmas season, will be screened on Sunday, Dec. 17, at 2 p.m. In the film, Victor Moore plays Aloysius T. McKeever, a genial homeless man whose clever resourcefulness has sustained him for years. Every winter when millionaire businessman Michael J. O'Connor (Charles Ruggles) vacates his Fifth Avenue mansion until springtime, Aloysius moves in and lives like a king until O'Connor's return. Aloysius usually operates alone, but this time out he begins taking in an unplanned assortment of other down-on-their-luck guests who soon turn the O'Connor mansion into a high-end flophouse. Complications arise when O'Connor's rebellious daughter Trudy (Gale Storm) comes home unannounced without revealing her true identity. When she falls in love with one of the "guests", Jim (Don DeFore), she persuades her stubborn father to come to the house incognito and meet the man she intends to marry.

“100 Years of Movies” has been part of the Strand Theatre’s yearlong celebration of its 100th anniversary in 2023. 

Tickets are $8/General Admission, $7/Strand Members, and will be available at the box office 30 minutes prior to show time.

For more information, visit www.rocklandstrand.com or call (207) 594-0070 EX 3.

The Strand Theatre is located at 345 Main St., Rockland.