FILM NOIR AND NEO NOIR IN THE THEATERS

Noir City Invades the Nation’s Capitol

The Film Noir Foundation, aided and abetted by The AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, will cover Washington D.C. with its mantle of darkness October 17th through November 4th with the capitol’s first ever, NOIR CITY. The AFI Silver Theatre will host the event. The programming consists of an interesting mix of critically acclaimed film noirs and of lesser known, but equally good, film noirs. The festival includes a special tribute to actor Farley Granger who will attend a screening of the Hitchcock classic, Strangers on a Train.

Sat, Oct 25, 7:00pm
IN PERSON: FARLEY GRANGER!
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN(1951) Dir: Alfred Hitchcock

Sat, Oct. 25, 3:00pm; Sun, Oct. 26, 6:45pm;
Mon, Oct. 27, 7:00pm; Wed, Oct. 29, 9:15pm
THEY LIVE BY NIGHT(1948) Dir. Nicholas Ray

Sun, Oct. 26, 3:15pm; Mon, Oct. 27, 9:00pm
SIDE STREET(1950) Dir: Anthony Mann

Fri, Oct. 17, 4:45pm, 7:00pm, 9:15pm;
Sat, Oct. 18, 4:45pm, 9:30pm; Sun, Oct. 19, 9:40pm
DOUBLE INDEMNITY(1944) Dir: Billy Wilder

Thu, Oct. 23, 9:15pm; Fri, Oct. 24, 5:30pm;
Sun, Oct. 25, 5:00pm; Mon, Oct. 27, 5:30pm ;
Tue, Oct. 28, 5:30pm
DETOUR(1945) Dir: Edgar G. Ulmer

Sat, Oct. 25, 9:45pm; Sun, Oct. 26, 1:00pm;
Tue, Oct. 28, 7:00pm
SUNSET BOULEVARD(1950) Dir: Billy Wilder

Sat, Oct. 25, 5:00pm; Sun, Oct. 26, 6:45pm;
Tue, Oct. 28, 9:15pm
THE 3RD VOICE(1960) Dir: Hubert Cornfield

Sat, Oct. 25, 1:00pm; Sun, Oct. 26, 8:30pm
TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY(1951) Dir: Felix Feist

Sat, Nov. 1, 1:00pm; Sun, Nov. 2, 1:00pm
THE PROWLER(1951) Dir: Joseph Losey

Sat, Nov. 1, 3:00pm; Mon, Nov. 3, 7:00pm
RAW DEAL(1948) Dir: Anthony Mann, with

THE GRAND INQUISITOR (2008) Dir: Eddie Muller

Sun, Nov. 2, 3:00pm; Tue, Nov 4, 9:05pm;
Wed, Nov. 5, 6:30pm
KISS OF DEATH(1947) Dir: Henry Hathaway

Tues, Nov. 4, 7:00pm; Wed, Nov. 5, 9:15pm
NIGHT AND THE CITY(1950) Dir: Jules Dassin

The current issue of The Noir City Sentinel, the Film Noir Foundation’s newsletter, features full details on the festival. To receive The Sentinel, all you need to do is sign up for the Foundation mailing list, click here, and make a nominal donation in any amount.

Heavy Weather Ahead

It’s time again for Seattleites to buy their tickets for a one way ride to desperation and despair. The Seattle Art Museum’s annual fall noir series, Night Wind: The Film Noir Cycle., screens at 7:30 every Thursday night, Oct. 2 through Dec. 4. Don't get stranded on the side of the road, going nowhere, pick up your full series pass by either emailing or calling the SAM Box Office at 206.654.3121. Single-film tickets are sold day of show at the auditorium (cash only). Be warned, if you want to try to get in the day of show, go early—this series sells out faster then a double-crossing dame. Tickets are also available through Scarecrow Video 206.524.8554.

Cool Drinks of Water

Gloria Grahame, Nina Foch, Cleo Moore, Rochelle Hudson, Lizabeth Scott and Evelyn Keyes — the oh so bad they’re damn good ladies of Columbia Studios never quite achieved the star status of their sisters at the bigger studios, like Joan Crawford and Barbara Stanwyck. However, The UCLA Film and Telision Archive is partially redressing that wrong with their series, Cool Drinks of Water: Columbia’s Noir Girls of the ‘40s and 50’s running Sep. 26 — Oct. 18. Each year the archive picks a selection of both well remembered and forgotten classics newly restored from the Sony/Columbia library to screen. This year will showcase six film noir double features of movies not available on DVD. Go here for details, courtesy of the The UCLA Television and Film Archive:

Wed, Oct. 8, 2008, 7:30pm
MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS(1945) Dir. Joseph Lewis

DARK PAST (1949) Dir. Rudolph Maté

Sun, Oct. 12, 2008, 7:00pm
ONE GIRL'S CONFESSION (1953) Dir. Hugo Haas

OVER-EXPOSED (1956) Dir. Lewis Seiler

Fri, Oct. 17, 2008, 7:30pm
DANGEROUS BLONDES(1943) Dir. Leigh Jason

THE KILLER THAT STALKED NEW YORK(1950) Dir. Earl McEvoy

Sat, Oct. 18, 2008, 7:30pm
GIRLS UNDER 21(1940) Dir. Max Nosseck

ISLAND OF DOOMED MEN(1940) Dir. Charles Barton

Murder in the Heartland

The UMCK Department of Communication Studies are partnering with the Tivoli Theater in Kansas City to present a series of classic film noirs. All screenings are at 7pm. on Thursdays at the Tivoli Theater. Admission is $3 (free for UMKC students and staff). For full details click here.

Thu, Oct. 9, 7:00pm
Double Indemnity (1944) Dir: Billy Wilder

Thu, Oct 16, 7:00pm
The Lady From ShanghaiDir: Orson Welles

Thu, Oct. 30, 7:00pm
the third man(1949) Dir. Carol Reed

Thu, Nov. 6, 7:00 pm
LAURA(1944) Dir. Otto Preminger

Thu, Nov. 13, 7:00pm
ALPHAVILLE(1965) Dir. Jean-Luc Godard

In Other Film News

French director Claude Chabrol is up to his old noirish tricks again with his newest film, A Girl Cut in Two. A beautiful young girl, in typical French fashion, finds herself fatally attracted to a boorish middle aged author. Her involvement with another man, young and attractive, leads to a violent conclusion. Chabrol based his screenplay on the infamous Gilded Age murder of Madison Square Garden architect Stanford White which was also the base for the Joan Collins 1955 potboiler, The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing.

Claude Lelouch’s Roman De Gare is another French thriller with noir overtones in art house release. Director Lelouch plays with the crime genre and the audience’s expectations of it to create a cleverly and tightly plotted film. Dominique Pinon and Fanny Ardant star as an unlikely couple caught up in a deadly game. Lelouch derived the title from the name given to pulp fictions sold in French train stations.

Also currently playing the art house circuit, and of interest to film noir fans, is Peter Askin’s documentary Trumbo. Trumbo details the life and political struggles of blacklisted Hollywood screenwriter, Donald Trumbo from Hollywood royalty to political outcast to Oscar winner. Noir fans will be familiar with Trumbo for his screenplays for The Prowler and Gun Crazy.

Upcoming on DVD

On October 7th, Universal will release a two disc DVD set of Orson Welles' Touch of Evil that includes all three versions of the film: the preview, the theatrical and the restored. This anamorphic edition will include a copy of Welles' legendary fifty-eight page memo to Universal's head of production detailing his vision of how the film should be edited. Welles wrote the memo after watching the version that the studios wanted to, and did, release. In 1998, editor Walter Murch, using the memo for his guide, re-edited the film to realize Welles' version. This stylish and convoluted noir unwinds the story of a crooked police chief, Orson Welles, who attempts to frame an innocent man to protect his own criminal interests. Charlton Heston portrays an earnest lawyer trying to stop him inadvertently putting his bride, Janet Leigh, in great danger.

Also on the 7th, Criterion presents Jean Pierre Melville’s Le Deuxième Souffle (1966) starring Lino Ventura and Paul Meurisse in another thoughtful, transcendent and noirish heist and pursuit film from the genius who brought you Le Cercle Rouge. Criterion will also put out on the same day, Melville’s labyrinth noir Le Doulos (1964) starring Jean-Paul Belmondo.

Warners gives Lawrence Kasden’s steamy neo-noir Body Heat, co-staring William Hurt and Kathleen Turner, its Blu Ray debut the same day.

On the 14th, Criterion will release John Cassavetes’ obscure neo-noir masterpiece, Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976).

Sony Pictures and Martin Scorsese’s The Film Foundation have combined forces to bring a series of classic films to DVD under the “Collector’s Choice” banner. The sets will include previously unreleased titles from Sony’s catalog, newly restored and remastered with commentaries and introductions by Hollywood professionals influenced by the films. Their first effort will be The Films of Budd Boetticher, a boxed set of five Westerns to be released on Nov. 4. The set includes The Tall T, Decision at Sundown, Buchanan Rides Alone, Ride Lonesome and Comanche Station, released theatrically between 1957 and 1960, and will feature introductions and commentary from Scorsese, Clint Eastwood and Taylor Hackford. The Sony and Film Foundation duo plan further classic DVD releases including film noir collections.

VintageFilmBuff.com has given film noir Siren Ann Savage her due with their release of Apology for Murder - 7 Savages - The Official Box Set. This three DVD box set of seven Savage films includes the film noir, Apology for Murder. In this noir, heavily indebted to Double Indemnity, Savage plays the beautiful and scheming young wife to a much older man. Reporter Kenny Blake, Leave It to Beaver’s Hugh Beaumont, falls under her spell. She persuades him to help her get rid of her husband, trouble ensues.

Keep us posted on noir news and events in your area! Email Anne Hockens, Film Noir Foundation news and events editor.