FILM NOIR AND NEO-NOIR ON TV
Turner Classic Movie Channel
All times are PST. See TCM.com to confirm dates and times.
Saturday, February 6, 3:00 AM
CROSSFIRE(1947): In this seminal noir, an upright district attorney, Robert Young, investigates a seemingly motiveless murder. Robert Mitchum and Robert Ryan play a couple of GIs caught up in the case. Dir: Edward Dmytryk
Richard Widmark Double Feature
Wednesday, February 10, 5:00 PM
5:00 PM
KISS OF DEATH (1953): Sam Fuller’s esteemed noir revolves around an amoral sneak thief, Richard Widmark, who steals a girl of ill repute’s purse containing microfilm. He soon finds himself in the crossfire between the Feds and the Commies, but he’s only out for himself. Thelma Ritter steals the show as his friend, a small time grifter trying to make enough dough for her dream funeral. Dir. Sam Fuller
7:00 PM
PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET (1941): The soon to be queen of the noirs, Joan Crawford, starred in this suspenseful drama as a facially scarred blackmailer who’s given a new outlook on life after plastic surgery. Can she adjust to a normal life and stop her ex-accomplice’s nefarious plan to murder his nephew? Dir: George Cukor
Friday, February 12, 9:00 AM
MILDRED PIERCE (1945): Joan Crawford won an Oscar for her performance as a woman who builds herself up from grass widow to successful restaurateur in a desperate effort to win the love of the most ungrateful brat in the history of cinema, her daughter Veda, brilliantly played by Ann Blyth. Based on the James M. Cain story. Dir: Michael Curtiz.
Friday, February 12, 10:30 PM
CHINATOWN(1974): A private eye, Jack Nicholson, unwittingly sets up an innocent man for murder, and then joins his widow, Faye Dunaway, to unearth the corruption behind the crime in this beautiful but hopeless neo-noir set in a morally bankrupt 1930s Los Angeles. Dir: Roman Polanski
Tuesday, February 16, 7:15 AM
KEY LARGO(1948): A returning veteran, Humphrey Bogart, tangles with a ruthless gangster, Edward G. Robinson, during a hurricane while falling for his dead war buddy’s widow, Lauren Bacall. Claire Trevor steals the film with, and won an Oscar for, her performance as the gangster’s alcoholic and emotionally abused girlfriend. Dir: John Huston
Thursday, February 18, 1:15 AM
THE NAKED CITY(1948): A step-by-step look at a murder investigation on the streets of New York. Barry Fitzgerald plays the compassionate cop on the trail of a murder in this groundbreaking police procedural. Watch for noir regular and radio’s Sam Spade, Howard Duff as the murdered girl’s sleazy boyfriend. Dir: Jules Dassin
Friday, February 19, 12:30 AM
JOHNNY EAGER(1942): A handsome racketeer, Robert Taylor, seduces the DA's daughter. Lana Turner, for revenge, but then falls in love with her. Edward Arnold plays the DA. Sharp eyed viewers will recognize this as one of the films used in Carl Reiner’s noir parody Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982). Dir. Mervyn LeRoy
Friday, February 19, 2:30 AM
IN COLD BLOOD(1950): Film Noir meets Hollywood Gothic meets biting satire in this piece of perfection. A failed, and drowned, screenwriter, William Holden, tells us how he fell into a mercenary romance with a faded silent-film star, Gloria Swanson who probably would have told us a rather different story. Dir: Billy Wilder
Friday, February 19, 11:15 PM
THE BLUE DAHLIA (1946): A veteran, Alan Ladd, fights to prove he didn't kill his cheating wife. His shell-shocked war buddy, William Bendix, and a new love interest, Veronica Lake try to help him find the real culprit. Dir: George Marshall
Monday, February 22, 3:00 PM
SUNSET BOULEVARD(1946): A spunky secretary, Lucille Ball, helps her private eye boss, Mark Stevens, when he's framed for murder. Clifton Webb and William Bendix add considerably to the fun as the two heavies of the piece. Dir. Henry Hathaway
A Graham Greene/Carol Reed Brit Noir Double Feature
Wednesday, February 24
5:45 AM
THE FALLEN IDOL (1948): This brilliant film, adapted by Graham Greene form his own story, centers on a wealthy but neglected child who thinks the servant, Ralph Richardson, he idolizes has committed murder. This film succeeds both as a suspense story and as an insightful drama where a child must navigate an often morally ambiguous and potentially dangerous adult world. Dir: Carol Reed
7:30 AM
THE THIRD MAN(1949): This fantastic film about a naive American, Joseph Cotten, investigating the death of his friend, Orson Welles, in post-World War II Vienna never loses its impact no matter how many times you watch it. “Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock” Dir: Carol Reed
Thursday, February 25, 5:00 PM
THE KILLERS (1946): Expanded from the Hemmingway short story, two professional killers come to a small town looking for The Swede, Burt Lancaster. An insurance investigator, Edmond O'Brien, unravels the tangled skein of events that lead up to the hit. Ava Gardner plays the woman who led the Swede to his doom. Dir. Robert Siodmak
Fox Movie ChannelTimes are PST. See their website to confirm dates and times. Monday, February 1, 6:00 AM DON’T BOTHER TO KNOCK (1952): In this gritty little noir, the boyfriend, Richard Widmark, of a hotel lounge singer, Anne Bancroft, tries to get back at her for dumping him, by picking up a beautiful hotel guest, Marilyn Monroe. Unfortunately for him, she’s not what she seems, and bit by bit he realizes the truth and the danger he’s in. Dir. Roy Baker Monday, February 1, 7:30 AM DANGEROUS CROSSING (1953): Adapted from John Dickson Carr’s radio play "Cabin B-13" for the series Suspense, a bride’s, Jeanne Crain, husband, Carl Bentz, disappears on board a luxury liner in the mid-Atlantic. She desperately searches to find him and to prove his very existence, since his name has vanished off the passenger list. Michael Rennie plays the sympathetic ship’s doctor whom she tries to convince of her sanity. Dir. Joseph M. Newman Sunday, February 7, 7:30 AM MURDER, INC.(1960): A true account of the infamous gangster organization of the 1930s and its number one hit man played by Peter Falk. Falk made his film debut in this noir and earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his efforts. Dir: Burt Balaban and Stuart Rosenberg Monday, February 8, 6:00 AM CRY OF THE CITY(1948): A cop-killer, Richard Conte, escapes from a hospital after a sleazy lawyer, Berry Kroeger, tries to implicate his sweetheart, Debra Paget, in his crimes. A New York police lieutenant and the criminal’s former best friend, Victor Mature, walks a tightrope as he him. Dir. Robert Siodmak Wednesday, February 10, 11:00 AM THE DETECTIVE(1968): Based on the Roderick Thorp’s novel, a New York cop, Frank Sinatra, uncovers a world of sex, drugs and corruption as he investigates the murder of the gay man, the son of a politically connected department store magnate. Dir. Gordon Douglas Tuesday, February 16, 3:00 AM LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN(1945): A jealous woman, Gene Tierney, will stop at nothing to destroy anyone that she perceives as a threat to her being first in her husband’s affections. The truth begins to dawn on her husband, Cornell Wilde, after a tragic “accident”. When she realizes that he no longer loves her, she designs the ultimate revenge. Dir. John M. Stahl Tuesday, February 16, 5:00 AM NIGHTMARE ALLEY(1947): Tyrone Power gives the performance of a lifetime in a change-of-pace role as a carnival con man that masters a mind-reading act, after killing the act’s originator and seducing his wife. He then teams up with an unethical psychiatrist to scam wealthy clients, an excellent adaptation of the highly disturbing novel by William Lindsay Gresham. Dir: Edmund Goulding Tuesday, February 16, 7:00 AM PANIC IN THE STREETS(1950): A policeman, Paul Douglas, and a doctor, Richard Widmark, race against time to find two gun-happy hoodlums, Zero Mostel and Jack Palance, who are somewhere in the streets of New Orleans carrying the pneumonic plague. Score by Alfred Newman and cinematography by Joseph MacDonald. Director: Elia Kazan Tuesday, February 16, 5:00 PM NIGHT AND THE CITY(1992): In this updated version of the classic 1950 Jules Dassin film of the same name starring Richard Widmark and Gene Tierney, Robert De Niro plays a shyster trying to promote a boxing match. Jessica Lange co-stars as the bar owner’s wife who finds herself embroiled in his scheme. Not sure why anyone would remake such a great film. Dir. Irwin Winkler Tuesday, February 23, 4:30 AM THIEVES' HIGHWAY(1949): A war-veteran, Richard Conte, wants to avenge the fleecing and crippling of his truck-driver father by an amoral produce kingpin, noir favorite Lee J. Cobb. Jack Oakie gives a stand-out performance as a rival truck driver in the vet’s way. Dir: Jules Dassin Tuesday, February 23, 6:30 AM VICKI(1953): In this remake of H. Bruce Humberstone’s I Wake Up Screaming (1941), a woman, Jeanne Crain, hunts for the murderer of her sister, Jean Peters. She joins forces with a corrupt cop’s prime suspect, her sister’s publicity man and her secret love, Elliott Reid, to find the real killer. Both films were adapted from the novel by Steve Fisher. Director: Harry Horner Tuesday, February 23, 10:00 AM COMPULSION(1959): Gritty courtroom drama based on the true life case of Leopold and Loeb. The pair considered themselves Nietzschean supermen, above both law and morality, and tried to prove it by murdering a fourteen year old boy. They did not get away with their “perfect murder” and retained Clarence Darrow as their counsel. Names were changed in the film to protect the guilty. Bradford Dillman and Dean Stockwell play the killers, Orson Welles plays the lawyer. Dir. Richard Fleischer Friday, February 26, 12:30 PM THE SEVEN-UPS(1973): Roy Scheider stars as Buddy one of a band of elite but ruthless cops called The Seven-Ups in this 70s neo-noir. When his partner gets killed he discovers a criminal conspiracy to kidnap mobsters and a mole in their group. Dir: Philip D'Antoni Saturday, February 27, 6:00 AM SOMEWHERE IN THE NIGHT(1946): An amnesiac army veteran John Hodiak, returns from WWII trying to discover his lost identity and learns that he may be a murderer. He goes to L.A. with a reconstructed face, a 'Dear John' letter from his ex-wife, and a letter of credit from a friend 'Larry Cravat.' Taylor heads to Los Angeles to track down his friend and his own identity. A singer, Nancy Guild, and a night club owner, Richard Conte, try to help him. Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz Saturday, February 27, 8:00 AM SLATTERY'S HURRICANE(1949): While trying to atone for his sins by taking on a suicide mission, flying into a hurricane to report its exact location to the Navy, an ex-war hero, Richard Widmark, recalls his recent past. He has pursued his ex-flame, Linda Darnell, despite her marriage to an ex-Navy buddy, John Russell, and his relationship with a vulnerable drug addict, Veronica Lake in an outstanding performance. Based on the novel by Herman Wouk. Dir. Andre Detoth Sunday, February 28, 1:00 AM COLD AROUND THE HEART(1997): Kelly Lynch plays the femme fatale in this neo-noir. She betrays her lover and partner in crime, David Caruso, after they pull a jewel heist. She pushes him out of the getaway car and, not surprisingly, he hunts her down to revenge himself. Dir. John Ridely |