*All times are PT. Please check your local listings to confirm dates and times.
Wednesday, April 1, 5:00 PM
LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME (1955): Engrossing musical bio (from an Oscar-winning story by Daniel Fuchs) of Jazz Age singer Ruth Etting (Doris Day), whose life and career were dominated by gangster Marty 'The Gimp' Snyder, (James Cagney). Ruth’s musical advisor Johnny Alderman (Cameron Mitchell) attempts repeatedly to persuade Ruth to leave her abusive relationship. Dir. Charles Vidor
Thursday, April 2, 6:00 AM
BACKGROUND TO DANGER (1943): An American (George Raft) gets caught up in wartime action in Turkey. Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre add to the fun. A little piece of trivia, Raft had an earlier chance to act with that duo; he turned down first dibs on John Huston’s The Maltese Falcon (1939) and Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca (1942). He also turned down an earlier chance to work with director Raoul Walsh on High Sierra (1941). What might have happened? Dir. Raoul Walsh
Saturday, April 4, 3:30 PM
KIND LADY (1951): Ethel Barrymore stars as a wealthy art collector who takes in a young painter and his ill wife. When another couple (Angela Lansbury and Keenan Wynn) shows up, things get ugly, and she finds herself held captive in her own home. Walter Plunkett and Gile Steele received Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White for their work on the film. Dir. John Sturges
Saturday, April 4, 10:15 PM Sunday, April 5, 7:00 AM
T-MEN (1948): Director Anthony Mann and cinematographer John Alton— king of chiaroscuro —pull out all the stops in relating the intensely exciting and shockingly brutal tale of U.S. Treasury agents, led by the redoubtable Dennis O'Keefe, going undercover to infiltrate a cadre of counterfeiters. Great character bits from Charles McGraw and Wallace Ford in a vivid script by crime scribe John C. Higgins. One of the most artfully arresting visual spectacles of the original film noir era! The film earned an Oscar nomination for Best Sound, Recording. Dir. Anthony Mann
Tuesday, April 7, 3:15 PM
MARLOWE (1969): Raymond Chandler’s detective and knight errant, Philip Marlowe (James Garner) probes the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles in search of a woman's missing sister. The case leads Marlowe to an exotic dancer (Rita Moreno), a blackmailed television star (Gayle Hunnicutt) and a dangerous gangster (H. M. Wynant). Screen legend Bruce Lee has a memorable cameo. Dir. Paul Bogart
Wednesday, April 8, 4:15 AM – 9:00 AM
4:15 AM
DECOY (1946): One of the most notorious "B" films of all-time! Jean Gillie plays a deliriously nasty femme fatale in this unhinged caper about a man (Frank Armstrong) brought back from the dead to lead his gang to buried loot. Dir. Jack Bernhard
5:45 AM
IMPACT (1949): A woman’s (Helen Walker) plot to kill her wealthy husband (Brian Donlevy) goes awry and her lover is killed instead, and the authorities misidentify the body as the husband’s. So, hubby goes into hiding, so that she’ll fry for murder. Things get complicated when he falls for a sweet and beautiful widow (Ella Raines). Dir. Arthur Lubin
7:45 AM
BLONDE ICE (1948): A society reporter (Leslie Brooks) kills a series of wealthy husbands (hers not other people’s) for fame and money, then tries to frame her lover (Robert Paige). Based on the 1938 novel Once Too Often by Elwyn Whitman Chambers. Dir. Jack Bernhard
Wednesday, April 8, 9:15 AM – 5:00 PM
9:15 AM
TENSION (1950): A cuckolded husband (Richard Basehart) plans the perfect murder in order to kill his wife's lover. Then he finds true love with an understanding neighbor (Cyd Charisse) and decides against implementing his plot. Unfortunately, he becomes the prime suspect when somebody else kills his previously intended victim. Audrey Totter shines as his devious mate. Dir. John Berry
11:00 AM
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
1:15 PM
THE LETTER (1940): Bette Davis gives a masterful performance as a married woman claiming self-defense in the murder of a fellow Britisher on her husband’s rubber plantation in Malay. This succeeds both as a film noir and an incisive look into colonialism. Herbert Marshall gives a deeply empathetic performance as the loving husband. Watch for Victor Sen Yung as a solicitous lawyer’s clerk. Based on a play by Somerset Maugham, dramatized from his own short story. Nominated for seven Oscars: Best Picture; Best Actress in a Leading Role, Bette Davis; Best Actor in a Supporting Role, James Stephenson; Best Director, William Wyler; Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, Tony Gaudio; Best Film Editing, Warren Low; Best Music, Original Score, Max Steiner. Dir. William Wyler
3:00 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
Thursday, April 9, 3:15 AM
POSTMARK FOR DANGER (1955): When a journalist dies and the woman (Terry Moore) who was supposedly killed in the car accident with him reappears, his artist brother (Robert Beatty) takes up his investigation of a smuggling ring. Director Guy Green went on to direct the excellent Hammer Studios, Brit Noir The Snorkel (1958). Dir. Guy Green
Thursday, April 9, 10:30 AM – 3:15 PM
10:30 AM
SABOTAGE (1936): This early Hitchcock thriller, based on Joseph Conrad’s novel The Secret Agent, concerns an undercover detective pursuing a terrorist ring plotting to set off a bomb in London. When the detective's cover is blown, a pulse-pounding cat and mouse chase ensues. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
12:00 PM
THE VERDICT (1946): Scotland Yard Superintendent George Edward Grodman (Sydney Greenstreet) is fired after an investigation he headed ends in the execution of an innocent man. He teams up with artist Victor Emmric (Peter Lorre) to solve a new murder to ruin his arrogant replacement (George Coulouris). Dir. Don Siegel
1:30 PM
GREEN FOR DANGER (1946): In this taught Brit noir, a Scotland Yard inspector (Alistair Sim) investigates two deaths at a rural English hospital during. Trevor Howard and Sally portray two of the suspected hospital staff. WWII. Dir. Sidney Gilliat
3:15 PM
LURED (1947): In this period noir, Scotland Yard enlists the help of brassy American dancer Sandra (Lucille Ball) to find and trap the serial killer responsible for her friend’s murder. The victim was quitting the dance hall because she was going off with a man she met through a personal advertisement. Through the personals, Sandra meets an eccentric artist (Boris Karloff) and a charming playboy (George Sanders). Is one of them the killer? Dir. Douglas Sirk
Thursday, April 9, 10:00 PM – Friday, April 10
10:00 PM
BLOOD SIMPLE (1984): In the Coen brother’s debut, a paranoid Texan bar (Dan Hedaya) owner hires a private detective (M. Emmett Walsh) to investigate his younger wife (Frances McDormand) and his employee (John Getz) whom he believes to be having an affair. Murder and madness follow. Dir. Joel Coen
11:45 PM
BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967): In this critically acclaimed and deeply influential classic, the legendary bank robbers and lovers (Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway) embark on a crime spree during the Depression era Dust Bowl of the 1930s and become folk heroes. Their crimes quickly spiral from petty theft to bank robbery, but tensions between the couple and the other members of their gang—getaway driver C.W. (Michael J. Pollard), Clyde's older brother Buck (Gene Hackman) and Buck's wife, Blanche (Estelle Parsons). The film won two Oscars, Estelle Parsons for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and Burnett Guffey for Best Cinematography, an additional eight nominations. Dir. Arthur Penn
1:45 AM
THE GETAWAY (1972): In this first big screen adaptation of Jim Thompson’s novel, a husband (Steve McQueen) and wife (Ali McGraw) meet a series of misadventures after a bank heist and the wife’s shooting of the mastermind of the robbery who double crossed them. Stars McQueen and McGraw fell in love during the shooting of the film. Walter Hill penned the screenplay. Dir. Sam Peckinpah
Friday, April 10, 6:30 AM
DARK PASSAGE (1947): Adapted from a story by David Goodis, this noir follows convicted wife murderer Vincent Parry’s (Humphrey Bogart) escape from jail and subsequent hunt for the real killer of his wife. Sympathetic stranger Irene (Lauren Bacall) encounters him during his jail break and aids him. Agnes Moorehead steals the show as Irene’s shrewish friend who knew Vincent and his wife prior to the murder. Dir. Delmer Daves
April 11, 3:00 PM – 9:15 PM
3:00 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
5:00 PM
GET CARTER (1971): A must-see brutal neo-gangster-noir. Ruthless gun-for-hire Carter (Michael Caine) searches for the truth behind his brother's death in the seedy underbelly of Newcastle. The director went on to make another great gangster revenge picture thirty years later with Clive Owen called I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead (2003). Dir. Mike Hodges
Saturday, April 11, 9:15 PM & Sunday, April 12, 7:00 AM
BAD BLONDE a.k.a. The Flanagan Boy (1953): In this Brit Noir from Hammer studios, gullible boxer Johnny Flanagan (Tony Wright) finds himself involved with his backer’s wife (Barbara Peyton). When she tells him that she’s pregnant, will he do as she wants and kill her husband? In this era it was common for British productions to cast B-tier American stars to get distribution in the U.S. Based on The Flanagan Boy. by Max Catto. Dir. Reginald LeBorg
April 11, 11:00 PM
THE BAD SEED (1956): “What will you give me for a basket of kisses?” Based on the stage play adapted from the brilliant novel by William April, Army wife Christine (Nancy Kelly) suspects that her seemingly perfect little girl Rhoda (Patty McCormack) is a ruthless killer. Eileen Heckart shines in her Oscar nominated supporting role as the alcoholic mother of one of Rhoda’s victims. This truly terrifying film will make you look twice at all cute little blonde girls. Kelly and McCormack as well as cinematographer Harold Rosson were nominated for Oscars as well as Heckart. Dir. Mervyn LeRoy
Sunday, April 12, 1:15 AM
BAD BOY (1949): Marshal Brown (Lloyd Nolan), superintendent of the Variety Club's Boys' Ranch and his wife (Jane Wyatt) attempt to reform newcomer Danny Lester (Audie Murphy). The film was produced in association with Variety Clubs who took a more progressive approach to teenage criminals than the prison system. This was Audie Murphy’s third film and his first lead. The Texan theater owners who helped finance the film insisted on his casting. The most decorated soldier of WWII turned actor would find fame later playing heroic roles in Westerns later including three with Dan Duryea. Murphy gets to show a darker side combined with charisma and eventually vulnerability. He would do it again in two of his Westerns, Anthony Mann’s Night Passage and his best film, the Noir Western No Name on the Bullet. Dir. Kurt Neumann
Thursday, April 16, 11:00 AM
DEAD RINGER (1964): In this late era noir, Bette Davis stars as twins, the rich and mean Margaret and the other poor and put-upon spinster Edith meet after many years at the funeral of Margaret’s husband Frank. Edith snaps when she discovers from Margaret why Frank dumped her and married Margaret instead. Edith shoots her sister, takes her place and tries to make “Edith’s” death look like a suicide. Edith's boyfriend, police sergeant Jim Hobbson (Karl Malden) and Margaret's lover Tony (Peter Lawford) soon complicates things. Dir. Paul Henreid
Sunday, April 18, 11:30 AM – 3:00 PM
11:30 AM
CROSSFIRE (1947): In this seminal noir, an upright district attorney (Robert Young) investigates a seemingly motiveless murder. As he digs further the prime suspect (George Cooper) seems less and less likely to have done it and an ugly motivation begins to appear. Robert Mitchum and Robert Ryan play a couple of GIs caught up in the case, one trying to clear the suspect and the other trying to frame him. Gloria Grahame earned a best supporting actress nomination for her role as an embittered taxi dancer. Dir. Edward Dmytryk
1:15 PM
EXPERIMENT PERILOUS (1944): A chance meeting on a train with a stranger leads psychiatrist Huntington "Hunt" Brailey (George Brent) into the orbit of a beautiful married woman (Hedy Lamarr) whom he believes is in danger and whose husband (Paul Lukas) claims that she’s insane. Dir. Jacques Tourneur
Saturday, April 18, 9:00 PM & Sunday, April 19, 7:00 AM
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
Sunday, April 19, 3:30 PM
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
Wednesday, April 22, 7:30 AM – 3:00 PM
Stagecoach plays directly after and you should watch her in that too!
7:30 AM
BORDERLINE In this lighthearted thriller, two undercover agents (Claire Trevor and Fred MacMurray) whom each believe the other to be part of a narcotic ring, try to find a way to bust the gang while fighting their growing feelings for each other. Raymond Burr brings both humor and menace to his “heavy” role. Dir. William A. Seiter
9:00 AM
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. Dir. Robert Wise
11:00 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 name 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
1:00 PM
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 her Oscar winning performance as the gangster’s alcoholic and emotionally abused girlfriend. Dir. John Huston
Saturday, April 25, 4:30 am
I LOVE YOU AGAIN (1940): Cheap, stuffy small town businessman Larry Wilson (William Powell) gets conked in the head and when he regains his consciousness remembers that he is in fact con man George Carey who has been suffering from amnesia. Carey decided to go back to his small town as Wilson and fleece the Community Chest and Anti-Vice crusade. When he encounters the wife he married during his amnesiac period as Wilson, who is desperate to divorce him due to boredom, things take a turn. Why? Well, she is played by Myrna Loy. Note: not a noir but our followers love Powell and Loy, so we always give a heads up when their films play. Dir. W. S. Van Dyke II
Saturday, April 25, 11:00 AM
BERLIN EXPRESS (1948): A multinational group of travelers find themselves thrown together to thwart the assassination of a prominent pacifist scientist by defiant Nazis bent on destabilizing post-war Germany. This improbable but intelligent thriller is a true rarity: a shot-on-location look at the resistance Allied powers faced reorganizing the vanquished German citizenry in the aftermath of WWII. Robert Ryan (the laconic American) and Merle Oberon (trying a sketchy French accent) head a cast comprising representatives of each Allied Zone: Britain, France, the Soviet Union and the United States. Although spiced with shadowy noir dramatics (lensed by Oberon’s husband, Lucien Ballard), the film’s most fascinating aspect is its time capsule view of global geopolitics in the rapidly closing window between the Marshall Plan and the building of the Berlin Wall. Dir. Jacques Tourneur
Saturday, April 25,12:45 PM
THE BAD SEED (1956): “What will you give me for a basket of kisses?” Based on the stage play adapted from the brilliant novel by William March, Army wife Christine (Nancy Kelly) suspects that her seemingly perfect little girl Rhoda (Patty McCormack) is a ruthless killer. Eileen Heckart shines in her Oscar nominated supporting role as the alcoholic mother of one of Rhoda’s victims. This truly terrifying film will make you look twice at all cute little blonde girls. Kelly and McCormack as well as cinematographer Harold Rosson were nominated for Oscars as well as Heckart. Dir. Mervyn LeRoy
Sunday, April 25, 11:00 PM – Monday, April 26, 3:00 AM
11:00 PM
I CONFESS (1953): In Quebec, a priest (Montgomery Clift) hears the confession of a murderer and then finds himself accused of the crime. He can’t break the sanctity of the confessional and must find another way to clear himself. To complicate matters his ex-sweetheart (Anne Baxter), who still loves him, was being blackmailed by the victim. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
1:00 AM
THE WRONG MAN (1956): In this gritty documentary style noir, victims of a robbery misidentify a musician (Henry Fonda) for the culprit, destroying the lives of him and his wife (Vera Miles). This film was based on the true story of Manny Ballestro and used extensive locations shooting in New York City. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
Tuesday, April 28, 8:00 AM – 11:45 AM
8:00 AM
OUT OF THE FOG (1941): A racketeer (John Garfield) terrorizes a small fishing community and seduces a tailor’s daughter (Ida Lupino). The tailor and his friend must figure out how to fight the racketeer to keep their only solace, their fishing boat, from being destroyed in an “accident” and to save the daughter from throwing her life away on the racketeer. Dir. Anatole Litvak
9:45 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
Tuesday, April 28, 9:00 PM
ONCE A THIEF (1965): French superstar Alain Delon's first leading role in an English-language film highlights this ultra-hip 1960s heist yarn, shot entirely on location in San Francisco. The debonair Delon plays an ex-con settled into domestic semi-bliss with wife Ann-Margret, but when dogged cop Van Heflin puts the finger on him for a job he didn't pull, Delon has no choice but to throw in with his brother Jack Palance (!!!) on an actual robbery. Based on a novel by local mystery man Zekial Marko, who also acts in the film and provides exceptional '60s-hipster dialogue. Dir. Ralph Nelson
Thursday, April 30, 12:45 PM
THE UNFAITHFUL (1947): Pulp writer David Goodis penned the screenplay for this clever reworking of Somerset Maugham’s The Letter. Married Chris Hunter (Ann Sheridan) kills a man in self-defense. Her lawyer (Lew Ayres) soon discovers the murdered man was the woman’s lover. Not surprisingly, this creates tension between her and her husband Bob (Zachary Scott) who was away fighting the in The Pacific when she strayed. Eve Arden plays Bob’s worldly-wise cousin who gives him some much-needed tough love. The story transcends its noirish trappings, to reveal a fine drama about wartime marriage and infidelity. Highly recommended. Dir. Vincent Sherman
Doris Day stars in Love Me or Leave Me on April 1
Eddie Muller presents T-Men on the April 4-5 edition of NOIR ALLEY
Bruce Lee and James Gardner in Marlowe on April 7
Decoy starring Jean Gillie screens April 8
Ann Todd in Madeleine screening April 8
Back seat driver? The Postman Always Rings Twice on April 8
Terry Moore stars in Postmark for Danger on April 9
Oskar Homolka and Sylvia Sidney in Hitchcock's Sabotage on April 9
Peter Lorre and Joan Lorring in The Verdict on April 9
Lucille Ball in Lured on April 9
Frances McDormand in Blood Simple on April 10
Steve McQueen in The Getaway on April 9
Bogart takes a cable car in late 40s San Francisco — Dark Passage on April 10
Michael Caine stars in Get Carter on April 11
Eddie Muller presents Bad Blonde on the April 11-12 edition of NOIR ALLEY
Audie Murphy stars in Bad Boy on April 12
Edward Dmytryk's Crossfire screens April 18
Eddie Muller presents His Kind of Woman on the April 18-19 edition of NOIR ALLEY
Barbara Stanwyck and Ralph Meeker in Jeopardy on April 19
Claire Trevor stars in Born To Kill on April 22
Robert Ryan and Merle Oberon in Berlin Express on April 25
Montgomery Cliff in I Confess on April 25
Henry Fonda is The Wrong Man screening April 26
Alain Delon in English: Once a Thief on April 28
Ann Sheridan stars in The Unfaithful on April 30