<<< April 7 - 16, 2006 >>>

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Some films in this series will be presented at the Aero Theatre April 13 – 16.

No, your eyes are not decieving you! It may not seem like that much time has passed, but it’s already our Eighth Annual Festival of Film Noir. As each twelve months go by, we think that we’re going to be hard-pressed to still unearth enough hard-to-see, suspenseful, doom-laden masterworks. Yet each year we’re surprised at all the glittering, rare noir gems that we’re able to pry out of forgotten vaults and warehouses (King Vidor’s RUBY GENTRY and BEYOND THE FOREST, Vincent Sherman’s THE DAMNED DON’T CRY, Jacques Tourneur’s NIGHTFALL, Mitchell Leisen’s NO MAN OF HER OWN and Felix Feist’s ultra-rare THE MAN WHO CHEATED HIMSELF, to name but a few in this season’s crop). And that’s not even counting the endless, sought-after noirs where just no screenable prints are available – at least, not yet! Miraculously, films that we once believed we’d probably never be able to show are now occasionally surfacing in new prints – this time out, there’s Gordon Douglas’ BETWEEN MIDNIGHT AND DAWN, Jean Negulesco’s NOBODY LIVES FOREVER and Ted Tetzlaff’s THE WINDOW (the latter two funded by The Film Noir Foundation). We’ll also be showing Fay Lellios’ excellent documentary, THE LONG HAUL OF A.I. BEZZERIDES, a celebration of the life of A.I. Bezzerides; novelist, screenwriter of several noirs (including KISS ME DEADLY and THIEVES’ HIGHWAY), contemporary of William Faulkner and John Fante, and the last of the proletariat poets. We’ll also be welcoming hardboiled writer extraordinaire, James Ellroy (L.A. CONFIDENTIAL) as our in-person guest to discuss the L.A.-based, opening night film, CRIME WAVE, with moderator/ noir expert, Eddie Muller. And at the Aero Theatre, a program of Noir Greatest Hits from our past (including GUN CRAZY, CRISS CROSS and THE PHANTOM LADY). Pull up your collar, hunker down in your seat and prepare to escape into another uneasy age as the lights go down. For more on film noir from our series programmer Eddie Muller click here.

Legendary tough guys and femme fatales collide in The Film Noir Classic Colleciton Volume Three, debuting Summer 2006 from Warner Home Video. The Collection includes five classics, all new to DVD and all digitally remastered: Border Incident, His Kind of Woman, Lady in the Lake, On Dangerous Ground and The Racket. The American Cinematheque will be giving away some of Warner Home Video’s previous Noir DVD releases to new Cinematheque members!

Friday, April 7 – 7:30 PM

L.A. Noir Double Feature!

CRIME WAVE, 1954, Warner Bros., 74 min. Dir. Andre de Toth. One of the best noir thrillers to come out of Hollywood in the 1950’s stars Sterling Hayden as a righteously PO’d cop making life miserable for a small-time ex-con who wants to go straight but can’t shake his old gang. Director de Toth and cameraman Bert Glennon work black magic with a tiny budget and 14-day shooting schedule, capturing noctural Los Angeles at the peak of its pulpish allure. The colorful cast includes Gene Nelson, Phyllis Kirk, Ted de Corsia, Charles Bronson, and Timothy Carey. NOT ON DVD.

Brand New 35mm Print! BETWEEN MIDNIGHT AND DAWN, 1950, Columbia (Sony), 89 min. Dir. Gordon Douglas. Noir stalwarts Edmond O’Brien and Mark Stevens portray a pair of LAPD prowl car cops hoping for an easy night in the City of Angels, dealing with nothing more serious than sparring over the affections of sexy-voiced radio dispatcher, Gale Storm. Guess again. Before sun-up there will be a prison break, a murder, numerous beatings, and an incredibly tense climax with a kid used as a human shield. The model for just about every TV cop show ever made! NOT ON DVD. Discussion in between films with novelist, James Ellroy.

THE DAMNED DON’T CRY, 1950, Warner Bros., 103 min. Dir. Vincent Sherman. This one gets our vote as the ultimate Joan Crawford noir. Ethel Whitehead (who else?) leaves behind her grubby life in the oil fields to parade her shapely stuff in NY’s garment jungle. After hooking up with a mob accountant, there’s no stopping her rise to power and glory — until she gets caught between the warring affections of gangsters David Brian and Steve Cochran. The script is really a thinly-veiled noir version of Crawford’s own relentless climb to showbiz success!

Saturday, April 8 – 8:30 PM

King Vidor Double Feature:

RUBY GENTRY, 1952, Disney, 82 min. Dir. King Vidor. Now that Douglas Sirk’s florid Fifties melodramas have been canonized as great cinema, isn’t it time to reconsider King Vidor’s even more overheated noir-stained soap operas? The director pulls out all the stops in this sexually-charged (nee hysterical) tale of a boondocks babe (Jennifer Jones) bent on destroying all the men folk who have used her and cast her aside. "She Wrecked a Whole Town…Man by Man…Sin by Sin!" Screenplay by Sylvia Richards (Mrs. Buzz Bezzerides). With Charlton Heston and Karl Malden.

BEYOND THE FOREST, 1949, Warner Bros., 96 min. Dir. King Vidor. As legend has it, Bette Davis begged not to play the role of Rosa Moline, the restless hellcat who’ll do anything to get out of her miserable hometown. But, trapped like Rosa, she chooses the same course—tear the place apart. Conventionally considered a "camp classic," but actually a much better movie than it’s given credit for. Love her, hate her, laugh at her or cry for her—Davis’s Rosa Moline is one of the most memorable characters in Hollywood history. Also starring Joseph Cotten, David Brian, and Ruth Roman. NOT ON DVD.

Sunday, April 9 – 4:30 PM

Dark Vision Of A Bygone Los Angeles!!

ANGEL’S FLIGHT, 1965, 77 min. Dirs. Raymond Nassour and Ken Richardson. A Super Rarity! Listen up lovers of Los Angeles Noir! Be here for an unprecedented screening of this long-lost, locally-made feature. This oddball noir-horror-crime hybrid concerns a psychically scarred stripper (Indus Arthur) who turns homicidal whenever she gets horny. The real attraction is the seedy splendor of pre-development Bunker Hill and the focus on the famed funicular trolley that gives the film its title. Shown off of digital format, as 35mm and 16mm prints no longer exist! Starring and produced by the original "Marlboro Man," William Thourlby. NOT ON DVD. Discussion following film with writer, Dean Romano.

Sunday, April 9 – 7:00 PM

Anne Bancroft Double Feature:

THE NAKED STREET, 1955, Columbia (Sony), 84 min. Dir. Maxwell Shane. Here’s one you won’t see anywhere else — a virtually forgotten mid-Fifties crime meller, never on VHS or DVD. Crime boss Anthony Quinn won’t allow his pregnant sister (Anne Bancroft) to give birth while her no-count boyfriend (Farley Granger) languishes in stir on a murder rap. So he strong arms witnesses into recanting their testimony and gets Lothario sprung, so as to make an honest woman out of little sis’. Don’t worry, things turn desperate, not domestic. NOT ON DVD.

DON’T BOTHER TO KNOCK, 1952, 20^th Century Fox, 76 min. Dir. Roy Ward Baker. Marilyn Monroe has perhaps her finest dramatic role in this "one night in the big city" drama. A lovelorn airline pilot (Richard Widmark) hopes to reunite with his chanteuse girlfriend (Anne Bancroft) at a Manhattan hotel. Once jilted, he blithely decides to rebound with a comely babysitter (MM) working in the hotel. Uh oh, this babysitter is buggy — not surprising, when your uncle is played by Elisha Cook, Jr.

Wednesday, April 12 – 7:30 PM

Double Feature:

THE LONG HAUL OF A.I. BEZZERIDES, 2005, 61 min. Dir. Fay Lellios. Filled with humor and defining experiences in both his own life and in the lives of some of his closest friends, William Faulkner and Robert Aldrich, as well as on his late wife, screenwriter Silvia Richards, Mr. Bezzerides offers colorful reflections as to why he and his typewriter unabashedly need to keep creating honest characters, worlds, and stories. Through recently discovered boxes of photographs, film clips, the haunting music by Fugazi, interviews (including Jules Dassin, Mickey Spillane and Barry Gifford) and testaments to his progressive creativity from other writers, Fay Lellios’ straight-ahead documentary gives us a start in discovering this 97-year-old proletariat storyteller, and the meaning of his favorite phrase by Carl Jung, "There can be no birth of consciousness without pain."

THIEVES HIGHWAY, 1949, 20^th Century Fox, 94 min. Tough-as-nails Richard Conte returns from the war to find his trucker-father crippled by a shady "accident" and heads for San Francisco to take his revenge on corrupt produce broker Lee J. Cobb. Complicating matters even more, he must choose between cool blonde WASP Barbara Lawrence and earthy European refugee Valentina Cortese. Director Jules Dassin’s leftist leanings (which would lead to his ouster from Hollywood) found their most subtle outlet in this fabulous noir, written by A.I. Bezzerides (ON DANGEROUS GROUND, KISS ME DEADLY). Discussion in between films with director Fay Lellios.

Thursday, April 13 – 7:30 PM

Sneak Preview! DARK ARC, 2005, 99 min. Dan Zukovic follows up his tremendous 1998 debut, THE LAST BIG THING, with a mysterious comedy about love, lust, art and the power of the charged image (those that burn into your mind’s eye) that is equal parts film noir intrigue, pop culture send-up, brain-teaser and visual feast. "A bizarre blend of art, sex and opium... plays like a candy-colored version of David Lynch." -- IFC News Discussion to follow with writer/director/actor Dan Zukovic.

Friday, April 14 – 7:30 PM

Brand New 35mm Print! NOBODY LIVES FOREVER, 1946, Warner Bros., 100 min. Dir. Jean Negulesco. John Garfield is a shady ex-GI hooked up in a plot to bilk a war widow (gorgeous Geraldine Fitzgerald). When he falls for her, the gang wants them both dead. Director Negulesco ladels atmospherics onto the script by crime specialist W. R. Burnett (LITTLE CEASAR, THE ASPHALT JUNGLE), who here turns in one of his lighter, more romantic efforts. Featuring a terrific supporting cast that includes Walter Brennan, Faye Emerson, and George Tobias. Presented in a brand new 35mm print funded by The Film Noir Foundation. NOT ON DVD.

THE HOUSE ON TELEGRAPH HILL, 1951, 20^th Century Fox, 93 min. Dir. Robert Wise. A WWII refugee (Valentina Cortese) steals the identity of a dead camp-mate so she can escape to an affluent life in San Francisco. But in no time, suspicions mount and things take a dark and deadly turn in her mansion overlooking the bay. Has she stumbled into a viper’s nest — or is her war-scarred mind playing tricks on her? Evocative art direction and great location filming highlight this "woman in jeopardy" thriller. With Richard Basehart and William Lundigan.

UNDERWORLD U.S.A., 1961, Columbia (Sony), 99 min. Dir. Samuel Fuller. One of Samuel Fuller’s toughest pictures, this is a crime thriller that feels more like a war movie. Released from prison, career crook Tolly Devlin (Cliff Robertson) vows revenge on the three hoods who years earlier beat his father to death. To enact his vengeance, Tolly works both sides of the law, a lone wolf playing his own angles in the battle between the mob and the FBI. One of Fuller’s most airtight scripts provides the blueprint for this unrelenting masterpiece. Spot-on performances from Beatrice Kay, Dolores Dorn, Roger Ehmhardt, and Richard Rust. NOT ON DVD.

Saturday, April 15 – 8:30 PM

Double Feature:

NIGHTFALL, 1956, Columbia (Sony), 78 min. Dir. Jacques Tourneur. One of the last true noirs of the classic era, this often-overlooked gem, based on a novel by noir legend David Goodis, features terrific direction from Tourneur and stunning cinematography by Burnett Guffey. Aldo Ray plays an artist whose life goes permanently haywire when fate interrupts a winter hunting trip. From then on it’s life on the run, dozens of double-crosses, psychotic killers on his trail, lots of de rigeur flashbacks, and a young Anne Bancroft decked out in sequins and lace. NOT ON DVD.

NO MAN OF HER OWN, 1950, Paramount, 98 min. Dir. Mitchell Leisen. We’re proud to present the resurrection of one of the best "soap noirs" of all time. You know, "women’s pictures" that are really 100-proof noir at the core. In this, the first adaptation of Cornell Woolrich’s classic novel, I Married A Dead Man, Barbara Stanwyck survives a train wreck and decides to impersonate an affluent young newlywed killed in the crash. But can she dupe her new mother-in-law (the superb Jane Cowl) and her rotten-to-the-core ex-lover (Lyle Bettger)? Hokey and melodramatic, yes, but Stanwyck and director Leisen will make you believe every second of it. NOT ON DVD.

Sunday, April 16 – 6:30 PM

Double Feature:

THE MAN WHO CHEATED HIMSELF, 1950, 20^th Century Fox, 81 min. Dir. Felix Feist. Unscreened for more than 50 years! San Francisco cop Lee J. Cobb’s fling with a married society dame (Jane Wyatt) goes to hell when he covers up her husband’s killing. Things get even more complicated when Cobb’s brother (John Dall), an inquisitive rookie dick, starts fishing around. A nifty thriller from underrated director Felix Feist, shot on location in San Francisco. 20^th Century Fox, print courtesy of UCLA Film & Television Archive. NOT ON DVD.

NIGHT EDITOR, 1946, Columbia (Sony), 68 min. Dir. Henry Levin. A cop and his married socialite lover witness a brutal murder while necking in Lover’s Lane. He gets a guilty conscience. She gets turned on. They’re doomed. One of the best and raunchiest "B" noirs ever, featuring several strange and unforgettable set pieces. Starring redoubtable William Gargan as the libidinous lawman, and hot-to-trot Janis Carter as one of the frostiest femme fatales of the forties. NOT ON DVD.