*All times are PT. Please check your local listings to confirm dates and times.
Friday, May 1, 1:00 PM – 4:30 PM
1:00 PM
GILDA (1946): A gambler (Glenn Ford) discovers an old flame (Rita Hayworth) in South America, but she's married to his new boss (George Macready), and… um… friend—homoerotic noir at its best. If that weren’t enough, there’s Hayworth’s incredibly steamy rendition of “Put the Blame on Mame” Whoof! Dir. Charles Vidor
3:00 PM
THE BIG HEAT (1953): In this seminal noir, a police detective (Glenn Ford) whose wife was killed by the mob teams with a gangster's moll (Gloria Grahame) to bring down a powerful racketeer (Alexander Scourby). Lee Marvin steals the film as Grahame’s abusive boyfriend and eventual object of her revenge. Dir. Fritz Lang
Friday, May 1, 7:15 PM
SPELLBOUND (1945): A beautiful psychiatrist (Ingrid Bergman) shields an equally beautiful amnesic (Gregory Peck) who’s pretending to be the new doctor at the sanatorium that she works at. Can she help him recover his memory and find out what happened to the doctor he’s impersonating? This David O. Selznick production features a dream sequence by Salvador Dali. Composer Miklós Rózsa won an Oscar for his score. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
Saturday, May 2, 9:00 PM & Sunday, May 3, 7:00 AM
DRUNKEN ANGEL (1948): Against all odds, an alcoholic doctor (Takashi Shimamura) and a tuberculosis stricken young gangster (Toshiro Mifune) form a friendship in a small town plagued by bad sanitation and the Yakuza. Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Sunday, May 3, 7:15 PM
THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1946): Drifter Frank (John Garfield) takes a job with roadside diner owner Nick Smith (Ceil Kellaway). Frank begins a torrid affair with Nick’s younger and extremely sexy wife (Lana Turner). Betrayal, murder, perversion of the law, and divine justice follow. Based on the novel by James M. Cain. Dir. Tay Garnett
Tuesday, May 5, 3:45 PM
I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943): Producer Val Lewton’s take on Jane Eyre focuses on naïve nurse Betsy Connell (Frances Dee) who is brought to the Caribbean by plantation owner Paul Holland (Tom Conway) to tend to his catatonic wife (Christine Gordon). His alcoholic brother (James Ellison) blames Paul for his wife’s condition. In one of the most uncomfortable scenes in cinematic history, a Calypso singer (Sir Lancelot) reveals an embarrassing family secret. Betsy is determined to cure her charge and comes to believe that she is a zombie. Dir. Jacques Tourneur
Thursday, May 7, 9:15 PM
NO NAME ON THE BULLET (1959): Audie Murphy gives arguably his best performance in this noir Western as John Gant, a Civil War vet and hired killer with an interesting method of getting away with murder. He provokes the target into drawing a gun on him first. When he arrives in a small town, everyone with a secret in their past believes that he is after them. While waiting out his prey, counting on their growing paranoia from his reputation preceding him, he befriends the town doctor (Charles Drake) who wants to understand what makes him tick. The role was quite the departure from Murphy's usual heroic cowboy but in some ways was closer to the man who was the most decorated solider of WWII. Author Don Graham named his biography of Murphy after the film due to the parallel in Murphy’s life to Gant’s: the dichotomy of a quiet, unassuming manner and a deadly prowess as a soldier, most of his friends getting killed in the war, and the effect on his life from post-war PTSD. Dir. Jack Arnold
Saturday, May 9, 9:00 PM & Sunday, May 10, 7:00 AM
THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS (1946): Years after a murder drove them apart, an heiress (Barbara Stanwyck) tries to win back her lost love, Sam Masterson (Van Heflin). Her scion husband (Kirk Douglas), a four-star sot, objects. Lizbeth Scott plays the down on her luck girl that falls for Sam and further complicates things. Writer John Patrick earned an Oscar nod for Best Writing, Original Story. Dir. Lewis Milestone
Saturday, May 9, 11:15 PM
BORN TO KILL (1947): This utterly bizarre film noir details the torrid affair between a killer (Lawrence Tierney) and the narcissistic woman (Claire Trevor) who witnessed his crime. He marries her sister and things really heat up between the amoral pair. Based on James Gunn’s novel Deadlier Than the Male. Dir. Robert Wise
Sunday, May 10, 9:15 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. A marriage of convenience, adultery and murder ensue. At least Mildred has the greatest best friend ever, a wisecracking Eve Arden. Based on the James M. Cain story. Dir. Michael Curtiz
Monday, May 11, 6:45 AM
MURDER, MY SWEET (1944): The film that graduated Dick Powell from romantic musical lead to noir tough guy. Raymond Chandler’s detective and knight errant, Philip Marlowe's (Powell) search for a singer named Velma, leads him through a tangled web of blackmail and murder. Along the way, he finds himself embroiled with a wealthy man’s unscrupulous gold-digging wife (Claire Trevor) and the stepdaughter that despises her (Anne Shirley). Mike Mazurki gives a standout performance as the mentally challenged and extremely physically powerful ex-con that hires Marlowe to find Velma. “Cute as pants.” Dir. Edward Dmytryk
Tuesday, May 12, 3:00 AM – 5:00 PM
3:00 AM
THE BREAKING POINT (1950): This film faithfully retells the story of Hemingway's To Have and Have Not. Charter-boat skipper Harry Morgan (John Garfield) will do anything to save his boat from creditors, even smuggling illegal aliens. Things get ugly when he attempts to double cross a gangster that hires him to spirit away a group of thieves hot off a racetrack heist. Patricia Neal co-stars as the sultry moll who tries to seduce the married Morgan. Dir. Michael Curtiz
4:45 AM
BORDER INCIDENT (1949): Mexican and American policemen (Ricardo Montalban and George Murphy) combine efforts to try to crack down on the illegal immigration racket. Simply stunning cinematography by the great John Alton and some truly brutal violence makes this a rare sample of agrarian noir. Watch for noir icon Charles McGraw in a supporting role playing the heavy’s henchman. Dir. Anthony Mann
6:30 AM
MYSTERY IN MEXICO (1948): Insurance detective Steve Hastings (William Lundigan) investigates a fellow agent's (Walter Reed) disappearance. He teams up with the missing agent's sister (Jacqueline White), to track down the brother and a small fortune’s worth of jewels. Their search leads them to nightclub owner John Norcross (Ricardo Cortez) and his sometimes girlfriend, singer Dolores Fernandez (Jacqueline Dalya). Filmed on location in Mexico City and Cuernavaca. Dir. Robert Wise
7:45 AM
THE BIG STEAL (1950): Seduction and murder follow the theft of an Army payroll. An army lieutenant (Robert Mitchum) accused of robbery pursues the real thief on a frantic chase through Mexico aided by the thief's ex-girlfriend (Jane Greer). Dir. Don Siegel
9:00 AM
THE HITCH-HIKER (1953): In this gripping suspense piece, a murderous madman (William Talman) on the lam from the law kidnaps two businessmen (Edmond O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy) on a hunting trip. Noir siren Ida Lupino both directed and co-wrote the film, which was produced by The Filmmakers, the independent production company she founded with her then husband Collier Young. Dir. Ida Lupino
10:15 AM
JEOPARDY (1953): A suburban housewife (Barbara Stanwyck) on holiday in rural Mexico with her son and husband, desperately seeks help. Her husband is trapped in pilings on the shore of the ocean, and the tide is coming in. She encounters an escaped criminal (Ralph Meeker) and will do anything in exchange for his aid. “How long has it been since you talked to a woman?” Dir. John Sturges
11:30 AM
SECOND CHANCE (1953): A crooked boxer (Robert Mitchum) falls for a gangster's moll (Linda Darnell) who is on the lam in Mexico. Jack Palance menaces them. Dir. Rudy Maté
1:00 PM
HIS KIND OF WOMAN (1951): In this self-parodying noir, Robert Mitchum plays a drifter who accepts an offer for a job in Mexico that proves to be too good to be true. A beautiful singer posing as an heiress (Jane Russell) and the target of her con, a hammy Hollywood actor (Vincent Price), complicate matters for him. Dir. John Farrow
3:15 PM
OUT OF THE PAST (1947): In this quintessential film noir, small town gas station owner Jeff Bailey’s (Robert Mitchum) past catches up with him when a stranger passing through town recognizes him. He tells his girlfriend Ann Miller (Virginia Huston) about his previous via flashback, of course. Jeff was a private eye falls for the gangster’s moll (Jane Greer) that he’s supposed to find for her lover Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas). She’s allegedly stolen $40,000 from Whit and he wants her and the dough back. As in all good noirs, nothing is really as it seems. Watch for future noir siren Rhonda Fleming as a duplicitous secretary. Based on Geoffrey Homes’ excellent pulp novel Build My Gallows High and shot by legendary cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca. Dir. Jacques Tourneur
Thursday, May 14, 4:30 AM – 8:00 AM
4:30 AM
THE PHENIX CITY STORY (1955): Based on a true story, two crusading lawyers, a father and son (John McIntire and Richard Kiley), take on the corrupt machine running a Southern town at great personal cost. Dir. Phil Karlsen
6:15 AM
WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS (1956): The owner of a big city news conglomerate dies, leaving it to his ne’er-do-well son (Vincent Price). Said son decides to create a competition among the heads of each department: Dana Andrews, George Sanders, Thomas Mitchell and James Craig. Whoever can discover the identity of the “Lipstick Killer” terrorizing the city will be the new executive editor. Ids Lupino gives a memorable performance as a cynical reporter in cahoots with Sanders. Dir. Fritz Lang
Thursday, May 14, 9:30 AM
BADLANDS (1973): After a charismatic James Dean wannabe (Martin Sheen) kills her dad, a baton-twirling teen (Sissy Spacek) decides to join him on a shooting spree through Montana's Badlands. It’s loosely based on the Starkweather-Fugate killings of the 1950's which also inspired Bruce Springsteen’s album Nebraska and the key back story in Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners (1996). Dir. Terrence Malick
Thursday, May 14, 9:30 AM – 3:00 PM
11:15 AM
BLANCHE FURY (1948): In this British Technicolor crime drama, genteel but poor Blanche Fury (Valerie Hobson) becomes the governess for Lavinia, granddaughter of her rich uncle Simon. Desiring position and security, she marries her insipid cousin Laurence (Michael Gough). Dissatisfied with the marriage, she begins an affair with Philip Thorn (Stewart Granger), the illegitimate and only son of the former owner of the estate, Adam Fury. They conceive a plan to murder her husband and uncle, leaving evidence to blame local gypsies, whom her uncle had antagonized in the past. Adapted from 1939 novel by Joseph Shearing. Dir. Marc Allégret
1:00 PM
MADELEINE (1950): Madeleine Smith (Ann Todd), a beautiful Glasgow socialite stood trial in 1857 for the murder of her lover, Emile L'Angelier who had attempted to blackmail her into marriage. Her trial was much publicized in the newspapers of the day and was labeled "the trial of the century." Dir. David Lean
Thursday, May 14, 9:00 PM – Friday, May 15
9:00 PM
GUMSHOE (1971): In this loving tribute to the detective genre, a Liverpool nightclub emcee and budding comic, Albert Finney, tries to turn private eye and gets mixed up in a smuggling case. All in the hopes of writing a book like Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon. Dir. Stephen Frears
10:45 PM
THE LAST OF SHELIA (1973): Movie producer Clinton Greene (James Colburn) hopes to solve the mystery surrounding his wife's death the year before by inviting the suspects aboard his yacht and engaging them in an elaborate mystery game. He assigns everyone a secret that they are not to share with anyone. Every day for the next six days, they will call into a port where they will be given clues to discover one person's secret. The game takes a deadly twist when a murder takes place. The guests comprise: Richard Benjamin, James Mason, Joan Hackett, Raquel Welch, Dyan Cannon, and Ian McShane. Co-writers Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins used to host murder mystery parlor games. Guests included producer and director Herbert Ross, who encouraged them to write a script based on this type of party. Dir. Herbert Ross
Friday, May 15, 1:00 AM
AFTER THE THIN MAN (1936): In this delightful follow up to The Thin Man, Nick (William Powell) and Nora (Myrna Loy) return to their home in San Francisco determined to rest up from their previous New York adventures, but Nora’s snooty family unintentionally embroils them in a murder mystery. Joseph Calleia, Sam Levene, George Zucco and a young Jimmy Stewart add to the fun. Writers Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett received a Best Writing, Screenplay Oscar nomination. Dir. W. S. Van Dyke
Saturday, May 16, 4:00 AM
THE GREAT SINNER (1949): In the famous casino resort town of Wiesbaden, Germany, during the wild, decadent days of the 1860s, beautiful, reformed gambling addict Pauline Ostrovsky, (Ava Gardner) watches over talented writer Fedja (Gregory Peck) whose obsessive love for her and his near-ruination from gambling has resulted in physical collapse. She ruminates, in flashback, how the pair came to this point. Based on the. Melvyn Douglas, Walter Huston, Ethel Barrymore, Frank Morgan and Agnes Moorehead round out the all-star cast for this lavish MGM (uncredited) adaptation of Dostoevsky’s novel The Gambler. Dir. Robert Siodmak
Saturday, May 16, 9:30 PM & Sunday, May 17, 7:00 AM
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951): Childlike but charming psychopath Bruno (Robert Walker) suggests that he and Guy (Farley Granger), a tennis player with political ambitions, crisscross murders. Unfortunately, Guy realizes too late that Bruno wasn’t joking. Guy’s unwanted wife shows up murdered and he has no alibi. Screenplay by Raymond Chandler and Czenzi Ormonde, based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith. D.P. Robert Burks’ outstanding work earned an Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
Friday, May 16, 11:30 PM
DIAL M FOR MURDER (1954): A man (Ray Milland) hires a friend to murder his wealthy wife (Grace Kelly). His plan goes awry when she stabs the would-be-murderer. Then he decides he can still get rid of her, by eroding her self-defense claim. Her ex-lover (Robert Cummings) tries to save her. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
Sunday, May 17, 9:15 AM
HUMORESQUE (1946): Noirish romance about an equally talented and narcissistic classical musician (John Garfield) from the New York slums who falls in love with wealthy neurotic (Joan Crawford) with expectedly problematic results. Crawford’s performance as a self-destructive alcoholic raises the level of the film beyond its melodramatic script. Dir. Jean Negulesco
Monday, May 18, 11:00 AM
DOUBLE WEDDING (1937): We know it’s not noir, but we know many of you love Powell and Loy. Margit (Myrna Loy) who has definite ideas on how to organize her and everyone else’s lives tries to break up her younger sister's relationship to the free-living artist Charlie (William Powell). Charlie’s not actually involved with the sister, but strings Margit along because he is interested in her. Dir. Richard Thorpe
Monday, May 18, 5:00 PM
DEAD MEN DON’T WEAR PLAID (1982): Edited by Bud Molin, this loving parody of film noir is partly a collage film, incorporating clips from 19 classic noirs. Juliet Forrest (Rachel Ward), daughter of scientist and cheesemaker John Forrest, asks private investigator Rigby Reardon (Steve Martin) to investigate her father's death. Film noir shenanigans ensue with a host of Hollywood greats including Humphrey Bogart, Joan Crawford, Brian Donlevy, Kirk Douglas, Ava Gardner, Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Burt Lancaster, Fred MacMurray, Edmond O'Brien, Vincent Price, and Barbara Stanwyck. Director of photography Michael Chapman studied the angles and lighting popular among '40s film noir, conducting six months of research with Technicolor to try to match the old film clips with his new footage. Legendary costume designer Edith Head designed the film’s costumes, this was her final project, and the film is dedicated to her. Dir. Carl Reiner
Wednesday, May 20, 3:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Here are the noirs...
6:00 AM
THEY LIVE BY NIGHT (1949): Nicholas Ray’s fiercely romantic noir about a young innocent, Farley Granger who gets mixed-up with hardened criminals and a violent escape after serving an unjust prison sentence. Cathy O'Donnell plays the girl who becomes his lover in an ill-fated romance. Based on the Edward Anderson novel Thieves Like Us. Dir. Nicholas Ray
8:00 AM
A WOMAN’S SECRET (1949): In this woman’s picture mixed with humor and some noir elements Gloria Grahame plays the ditzy but sly singer Esterllita who is shot at the opening of the film, presumably by her agent and mentor Marian (Maureen O’Hara). The police arrest Marian. But did she do it? The film employs a series of flashbacks to portray the events leading up to the crime prior to the resolution of the mystery. Director Ray and Grahame would later marry and work together on the seminal film noir, In a Lonely Place (1950). Dir. Nicholas Ray
9:45 AM
BORN TO BE BAD (1950) A coterie of affluent San Franciscans is turned inside-out by the appearance of Christabel Caine (Joan Fontaine), a sweet and demure waif who turns out to be "about as helpless as a wildcat." In short order, she replaces her cousin (Joan Leslie) in the affections of a millionaire philanthropist (Zachary Scott) while carrying on a torrid affair with a bohemian novelist (Robert Ryan). Dir. Nicholas Ray
1:30 PM
ON DANGEROUS GROUND (1952): Robert Ryan gives an emotionally charged performance as a city cop on the verge of a breakdown. After nearly killing a suspect, he’s sent out to the country to find the murderer of a young woman. There he encounters the blind sister (Ida Lupino) of the main suspect. Can he overcome his personal demons and connect with her? Added bonus: “John Ford Players” Ward Bond and Olive Cary portray the murdered girl’s parents. Dir. Nicholas Ray
3:00 PM
PARTY GIRL (1958): Don’t miss this great Nick Ray film, not available on DVD, a gritty bringing down the racket story featuring an interesting love story between a beautiful showgirl (Cyd Charisse) and a gangster’s mouthpiece (Robert Taylor) set in Chicago during the mob infested nineteen twenties. See if you can see spot the scene Brian De Palma stole for The Untouchables. Dir. Nicholas Ray
Glenn Ford stars in The Big Heat on May 1
Toshiro Mifune stars in Drunken Angel on the May 4-5 edition of NOIR ALLEY presented by Eddie Muller
Val Lewton's I Walked with a Zombie on May 5
Audie Murphy stars in noir western No Name in the Bullet on May 7
Eddie Muller presents The Strange Life of Martha Ivers on the May 9-10 edition of NOIR ALLEY
Dick Powell stars in Murder, My Sweet screening May 11
James Mitchell and Ricardo Montalban in Border Incident on May 12
Frank Lovejoy and Edmond O'Brien in The Hitch‑hiker on May 12
Linda Darnell Jack Palance in Second Chance on May 12
Out of the Past screens May 12
The Phenix City Story on May 14
Valerie Hobson stars in Blanche Fury on May 14
Ann Todd in David Lean's Madeleine on May 14
Albert Finney in Gumshoe on May 14
The Last of Sheila on May 14
Robert Siodmak's The Great Sinner screens May 16
Eddie Muller presents Strangers on a Train on the May 16-17 edition of NOIR ALLEY
Joan Crawford stars in Humoresque on May 17
Steve Martin in Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid on May 18
Farley Granger stars in They Live by Night on May 20
A Woman's Secret screens May 20
Robert Ryan and Ida Lupino in On Dangerous Ground on May 20
Cyd Charisse stars in Party Girl on May 20