The club meets 6-9 p.m. Wednesdays at the Gober Party House, 1516 W. Ave. H in Temple. Admission is free.

Wednesday: “Casablanca”

June 18: “Rear Window”

June 25: “To Kill a Mockingbird”

July 2: “Jaws”

July 9: “It Happened One Night”

July 16: “Double Idemnity”

July 23: “Bridge Over the River Kwai”

July 30: “Cool Hand Luke”

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“Follow the yellow brick road, follow the yellow brick road.”

It’s almost a guarantee that you finished singing the rest of the classic “Wizard of Oz” song before continuing anymore of this article.

If you did, then the Temple Movie Club is for you. If you didn’t, the Temple Movie Club is for you too.

The club premiered Wednesday with a viewing of the aforementioned “Wizard of Oz” and continues, for now, until the end of July.

All the films featured in the club will be from the American Film Institute’s 2007 list of the top 100 American movies.

“Our goal is to cover great films,” said James Stafford, marketing coordinator for Temple Parks and Recreation. “The movies start in 1930s and work up to the 70s. We really wanted to try and have a good representation of great movies.”

The idea for the movie club was dreamed up while doing what most people do all the time, talk about their favorite movies.

“It started almost as a joke,” Stafford said. “Someone mentioned they had never seen ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’ We got to talking and decided we needed to have something like a class to help teach people about great movies.”

Stafford explained that growing up he had to learn that there were great movies out there despite his personal beliefs.

“I didn’t want to watch (films) that were older than me,” Stafford said. “‘Star Wars’ and ‘E.T.,’ that’s where it all began.’

Luckily, his mom introduced him to Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” and the Audrey Hepburn film “Wait Until Dark” and “that was it for me,” Stafford said.

In fact, Stafford is now enamored with all things movies, making him the perfect leader for the movie club.

“I think it’s a miracle,” Stafford said. “When you walk out (of a theater) and the light from the sun hits you. I enjoy being in a totally different place.”

The bottom line for the movie club is to let people get reacquainted with films they haven’t seen in a while and to introduce new viewers to Hollywood’s cinema standards.

“These are movies that I want to make sure that my kids will see,” Stafford said.

--rrenfrow@temple-telegram.com