Catch Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn and more on the big screen courtesy of the Pittsburgh Classic Movie Club

The holiday season is a perfect time to bask in nostalgia. It’s a period of reflection that may make some wistful for the trappings of days gone by — including their favorite movies.

If you’ve been jonesing to revisit some of your favorite films from as far back as the 1940s, the Pittsburgh Classic Movie Club hears you and is here for you. After a successful summer of hosting outdoor classic movie screenings in Bridgeville and Marshall, the club is back with its fall classic movie series at the Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall in Munhall.

It kicked off its fall series last week with a showing of the 1941 Humphrey Bogart noir “The Maltese Falcon.” Going forward, Pittsburghers will be able to check out free screenings of the 1941 Alfred Hitchcock thriller “Notorious,” starring Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, on Nov. 28; the Audrey Hepburn-starring 1964 musical “My Fair Lady” on Dec. 14; and the 1940 romantic comedy “The Shop Around the Corner,” starring Indiana, Pa., native Jimmy Stewart, on Dec. 21.

These screenings are sponsored by the Hilt & Helm Pittsburgh Fencing Club and assisted-living organization Community LIFE. The Pittsburgh Classic Movie Club is asking attendees to bring a nonperishable food item that will be donated to the Homestead-based Rainbow Kitchen food pantry.

“Not only are we helping the community by showing classic films, but we’re also helping local families in need and a very good charity out there trying to help Homestead families,” said Wendy Whittick, co-president of the Pittsburgh Classic Movie Club.

This summer’s festivities reminded Whittick just how much passion Pittsburghers have for classic movies. She said that the Bridgeville screenings of movies such as 1942’s “Casablanca” and 1959’s “Some Like It Hot” regularly drew audiences of about 40. Their showing of 1939’s “The Wizard of Oz” attracted 70 moviegoers, according to to Whittick.

She credited folks showing up and enjoying themselves earlier this year for why the Pittsburgh Classic Movie Club has grown from approximately 50 members prior to last summer to about 100 members now. “The Maltese Falcon” screening last week was viewed by about 50 people, Whittick said, which further proved to her that Western Pennsylvanians share a real passion for classic movies.

“It’s surprising and not surprising,” Whittick said. “It’s surprising because we’re not a big city like New York or Chicago, where I’d expect there to be more interest in this sort of thing. But it’s not surprising to me because Pittsburgh comes out for their community.”

Whittick hopes to be back in Bridgeville next summer for more movies in the park and, if all goes well, do more events with the Carnegie of Homestead. She’s also in the early stages of trying to organize a screening of the 1945 romantic drama “Brief Encounter” at Downtown’s Harris Theater.

In terms of the selection process for the fall series, Whittick said that they always try to choose films from directors and featuring actors who still resonate in 2022. A Hitchcock film starring Grant fit that bill perfectly, though Whittick is curious how their audience will react to a slightly offbeat offering like “Notorious.”

“My Fair Lady” was also an easy choice given that it stars film legend Hepburn. It helped the Classic Movie Club reach its goal of keeping its December slate “a little bit lighter” and is, in Whittick’s estimation at least, “just a really fun musical.”

“The Shop Around the Corner” was picked because Whittick wanted to include a Christmas movie that wasn’t “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Stewart’s local ties and the fact that “The Shop Around the Corner” happens to be her mother’s favorite movie sealed the deal.

For Whittick, Classic movies are “a piece of nostalgia from another era” whose true charm is in their relative simplicity. She said that folks who came out to the Pittsburgh Classic Movie Club’s “Wizard of Oz” screening talked about how watching that film brought back lovely memories of their childhood. There were also plenty of younger patrons at that screening, which Whittick hopes will be the case during the fall classic movie series.

“If we share them with future generations, we can keep bringing them back,” she said. “That’s my hope — to perpetrate the continuation of classic films in the community.”