Friday, Feb 1— 3D NOIR!
MAN IN THE DARK
D: Lew Landers. 1953, Colombia [Sony], 70 min.
7:30 PM
Strap yourselves in as NOIR CITY presents the first screening in decades of this long-lost noir, in fully restored 3-D and glorious black-and-white! Pinched by the cops after pulling off a big heist, crook Steve Rawley (Edmond O'Brien) undergoes an experimental operation to eliminate his criminal urges. It also makes him forget where he hid the loot — much to the consternation of his old gang and his itchy-fingered girlfriend (Audrey Totter). Fortunately, clues pop up (literally!) in Rawley's dreams, and soon he's leading the crooks and cops on a careening hunt for the money, culminating in a spectacular chase through Santa Monica's creepy old Pacific Ocean Amusement Park!
PREMIERE 4K DIGITAL RESTORATION!!
NOT ON DVD
INFERNO
D: Roy Ward Baker. 1953, 20th Century-Fox [Ray Zone], 83 min.
9:00 PM
It's the essential NOIR CITY plot: illicit lovers hatch a "foolproof" scheme to bump off the woman's rich, domineering husband. But what if the husband, left for dead in the scorching desert, doesn't die? What if that husband, crippled but hell-bent on revenge, is played by the indomitable Robert Ryan? Watch as unmerciful nature takes on unbreakable man in amazing 3-D and stereophonic sound! Toss in titantic, titian-tressed Rhonda Fleming as the deceitful, voluptuous vixen, and you've got perhaps the best 3-D movie of the original Hollywood stereo-optic craze!
BRAND NEW DIGITAL RESTORATION!!
NOT ON DVD
Saturday, Feb 2 — Cornell Woolrich Triple Bill!
STREET OF CHANCE
D: Jack Hively. 1949, Paramount [Universal], 74 min.
1:00, 6:00 PM
Finally! The very first adaptation of a Woolrich suspense novel returns to the big screen in a brand-new 35mm print! A man loses his memory after being struck by a falling beam, and as he struggles to piece his life together he realizes he's lived the preceding year as another person! Is it all a tortured twist of fate or a sinister, calculated plot?
NOT ON DVD!
THE WINDOW
D: Ted Tetzlaff. 1949, RKO [WB/UCLA/FNF], 73 min.
4:20, 9:15 PM
A young boy in a New York tenement witnesses a murder but no one, not even his own parents, believes him, except his upstairs neighbors . . . the killers! A fantastic cast helps make this the best adaptation ever of a Woolrich story, and one of the greatest suspense films of all time.
FNF 35mm PRESERVATION!
THE CHASE
D: Arthur Ripley. 1946, Warner Bros., 86 min.
2:35, 7:30
One of the strangest films of the 1940s is at long last restored to its original bizarre glory! Drifter Chuck Scott (Robert Cummings) is hired as a chauffeur by shady operator Eddie Roman (Steve Cochran), but soon realizes that his boss is a crazy crook. What's an honest guy to do? Obviously: fall in love with the boss's sexy French wife (Michele Morgan) and help her escape to Havana! That's the set-up for a dreamily hypnotic noir in which nothing is quite what it seems—even the supposed rules of conventional storytelling. As close as any Hollywood film of the era came to presaging the dark and dreamy world of David Lynch.
NOT ON DVD!
Sunday, Feb 3 — B-NOIR MARATHON!
SMOOTH AS SILK
D: Charles Barton. 1946, [Universal, 64 min.
12:30 PM
Actress Paula Marlowe (Virginia Grey) is thrilled when her attorney fiancé (Kent Smith) helps an affluent playboy beat a manslaughter rap . . . since the defendant's uncle is bankrolling her new show. But when Miss Marlowe gets cozy with any man who furthers her career, her fiancé has a final curtain planned for her.
NOT ON DVD!
MARY RYAN, DETECTIVE
D: Abby Berlin. 1949, Columbia [Sony], 68 min.
1:50
NOIR CITY favorite Marsha Hunt is a scrappy (but always stylish) policewoman sent undercover to infiltrate a ring of jewel thieves and fences in this sly and fast-paced cop-caper. The first in a proposed series of adventures for the resourceful Mary Ryan, aborted when Hunt ran afoul of the red-baiters. Presented in a sparkling new 35mm print!
NOT ON DVD!
STRANGE IMPERSONATION
D: Anthony Mann. 1946, Republic [UCLA], 68 min.
3:20 PM
There's no point in trying to summarize the plot. More craziness is stuffed into these 68 minutes than would fit in a dozen features. Scientists in love. Sexy extortionists. Laboratory explosions. Plastic surgery. Confused identities. Hysteria. Sunglasses. B-movie insanity marshaled crisply and evocatively by director Anthony Mann.
FLY BY NIGHT
D: Robert Siodmak. 1942, Paramount [Universal], 74 min.
4:45 PM
An encore screening of a berserkly fun B-movie. A man suspected of murder goes on the run with the sexy artist (Nancy Kelly) who's his only alibi. This lighthearted B-budget variation on Hitchcock's The 39 Steps shows Robert Siodmak as a fledgling master in his own right.
NOT ON DVD!
SEPARATE EVENING ADMISSION
Sunday Night, Feb 3 — MORE B-NOIR
NIGHT EDITOR
D: Henry Levin. 1946, Columbia [Sony], 66 min
7:30 PM
A cop (William Gargan) and his married socialite lover (Janis Carter) 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 raunchiest and best B movies of the 1940s!
HIGH TIDE
D: John Reinhardt. 1947, Monogram [UCLA/FNF], 74 min.
9:00 PM
NOIR CITY 11 concludes with the resurrection of a lost B classic, featuring one of the wildest flashback devices ever! A crusading newspaper editor (Lee Tracy) gets more than he bargained for when he hires a private dick (Don Castle) to protect him from riled-up gangsters. As witty and moody as any B-noir of the era, now finally back in circulation in glorious 35mm thanks to the Film Noir Foundation!
WORLD PREMIERE 35mm FNF RESTORATION!!
Copyright © 2012. Website design: Ted Whipple/Incite Design; poster and logo design: Bill Selby; poster and NOIRCITY photos: David M. Allen
