When the new film "Darkest Hour" opens this week in Mid-Missouri, Fulton's most passionate Churchill scholar will be speaking about it.
On Thursday at the Missouri Theatre in Columbia, the special evening showing will be introduced by Timothy Riley, director and curator of the National Churchill Museum, which resides on the campus of Westminster College. The special showing is sponsored by the Ragtag Cinema.
Riley also will introduce the film before the 7 p.m. showing Friday at B&B Cinema 8 in Fulton.
"The National Churchill Museum at Westminster College is pleased to help celebrate the general release of 'Darkest Hour,'" Riley said of the Columbia event. "We are grateful to Ragtag Cinema for organizing what promises to be a wonderful evening."
How to buy
Tickets to Thursday's event are $9.50 for adults, $7.50 for seniors and children, and $5.50 for Ragtag members. Advance tickets may be purchased at the Ragtag box office or at ragtagcinema.org.
Tickets the day of the event can be purchased from noon-5:30 p.m. at the Ragtag box office and starting at 6 p.m. at the Missouri Theatre. Tickets purchased at the Missouri Theatre will be cash-only transactions.
The doors will open at 6 p.m., and the film showing will begin at 7 p.m.
Due to improvements in progress at the Ninth Street entrance, patrons will enter the Missouri Theatre through the Locust Street doors on the north side of the theatre. Any ticketholders requiring a wheelchair ramp should call the Ragtag box office at 573-441-8504 prior to the date.
Those saving their ticket stub from this showing or any showing nationwide will also receive $1 off admission at the National Churchill Museum.
Already shown in Fulton
The National Churchill Museum hosted a special red carpet advance screening Oct. 26 in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury on the Westminster campus.
Starring Academy Award nominee Gary Oldman as Sir Winston Churchill, "Darkest Hour" retells the dramatic and inspiring story of four weeks in 1940 during which the newly-appointed British Prime Minister demonstrated a courage of leadership that changed the course of world history. With the fall of France imminent, Nazi forces advancing to invade Britain and Allied troops cornered on the beaches of Dunkirk, the fate of Western Europe hinged on Churchill's decisions as Britain faced its darkest hour.
Oldman has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award, and there is buzz regarding an Oscar nomination.
The National Churchill Museum is the only North American institution fully devoted to immortalizing the life and work of Winston Churchill, who visited Fulton in 1946.