18th ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF FILM NOIR Returns!!

Jul 22 to Jul 31
Friday to the following Sunday!

1940s to 1980s - 10 days of 5 double features in the dark amongst friends & strangers! - NO MATINEES

Yeppers, the big 18 deviously delightful years now (not counting the dang Pandemic!) since our first cinematic diving down into this enticingly darkened corner of film fests! As the tradtion goes, we'll be projecting ten amazing nights of  film noir programming onto cinema screen that spans nearly 50 years of tantalizingly bent tales on being crooked, shifty and not quite on the level!  And that's FIVE double features, friends - that means five opportunities to get the 2 movies for the price of only one deal!

Fri & Sat July 22 & 23:  HITCHCOCK NOIR!

SABOTEUR (3:45, 8pm)

A riveting wartime thriller following an innocent man who suddenly finds himself in a very deadly situation. After aircraft factory worker Barry Kane (Robert Cummings) witnesses his plant's firebombing by a Nazi agent, he finds himself falsely accused of sabotage and killing his best friend. To clear his name, Kane begins a relentless cross-country chase that takes him from Los Angeles to Boulder Dam and New York's Radio City Music Hall. The suspense builds to a climactic finale atop the Statue of Liberty that has become one of the most iconic scenes ever filmed by the Master of Suspense.  [Dir. Alfred Hitchcock - 1942 - 109m]  VIEW A TRAILER

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I  CONFESS (6PM)

Master filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock directs screen legend Montgomery Clift in this story where a priest hears a murderer's confession and implicates himself in the crime.  Also starring Karl Malden.  [Dir. Alfred Hitchcock - 1953 - 95m]  VIEW A TRAILER 

Sun & Mon July 24 & 25:  LIVING IN THE BIG CITY NOIR!

THE BIG NIGHT (4:15, 7:45)

An early Joseph Losey picture written by Ring Lardner Jr. of a young man (a quite effective John Drew Barrymore) zigzaging through the sordid vortex of downtown Los Angeles while seeking vengeance on the man that beat his father.   [Dir. Joseph Losey - 1951 - 75m]  VIEW AN INTRO BY NOTED NOIR HISTORIAN EDDIE MUELLER!

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CRIME WAVE (6PM)

Sterling Hayden wears a badge and a scowl as he's sure parolee Gene Nelson won't go straight. Will events prove him right? Andre de Toth directs and Charles Bronson (as Charles Buchinsky) joins the cast of this stylish hunt for a cop killer on L.A.'s mean streets.  Look for a great wacko Timothy Carey!  [Dir. Andre de Toth - 1954 - 75m]  VIEW A TRAILER

Tues & Wed July 26 & 27:  BRITISH NOIR!

IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY (4pm, 8pm)

Terrifically black & white photographed story of escaped convict Tommy Swann (John McCallum) attemping to hide out at the home of his former lover Rose (Googie Withers), who has since married.  Featured in Time Out’s 100 Best British Films list & often considered one of the greatest achievements of 1940s British cinema!  [Dir. Robert Hamer - 1947 - 92m]  VIEW A TRAILER

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BRIGHTON ROCK (6pm)

A superb British thug underworld noir film centering on the activities of a gang of assorted criminals and, in particular, their leader – a vicious young hoodlum known as "Pinkie" – the film's main thematic concern is the criminal underbelly evident in inter-war Brighton.  Co-written by Graham Greene from his novel, featuring Sir Richard Attenborough & Hermione Baddeley.   [Dir. John Boulting - 1948 - 92m] VIEW AN INTRO BY NOTED FILM HISTORIAN EDDIE MUELLER!

Thurs & Fri July 28 & 29:  ENCHANTRESS NOIR!

STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT (4:30, 8:15pm)

The first film-noir directed by legendary filmmaker Anthony Mann (T-Men, The Naked Spur) - A Marine sergeant (William Terry) stationed overseas falls in love with a woman only through correspondence. On the train back home, he meets a beautiful young doctor (Virginia Grey) who's starting a new practice in the same small town. Once in town, he finds his pen pal's place of residence, but to his surprise he only finds the girl's mother (Helen Thimig) living at the old mansion with her servant (Edith Barrett) - The old woman informs him that her daughter has gone away and will return shortly, but asks him to stay at the mansion until her return. This gothic and haunting mystery in the tradition of Hitchcock's Rebecca was beautifully shot Reggie Lanning (Hoodlum Empire).  [Dir. Anthony Mann - 1944 - 56m] 

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GILDA (6pm)

Gilda, are you decent?  Rita Hayworth (The Lady from Shanghai) tosses her hair back and slyly responds, Me? in one of the great star entrances in movie history. Gilda, directed by Charles Vidor (Cover Girl), features a sultry Hayworth in her most iconic role, as the much-lusted-after wife of a criminal kingpin (Paths of Glory s George Macready), as well as the former flame of his bitter henchman (3:10 to Yuma s Glenn Ford), and she drives them both mad with desire and jealousy. An ever-shifting battle of the sexes set on a Buenos Aires casino s glittering floor and in its shadowy back rooms, Gilda is among the most sensual of all Hollywood noirs.   [Dir. Charles Vidor - 1946 - 110m]  VIEW A TRAILER

Sat & Sun July 30 & 31:   CARL FRANKLIN NOIR!

ONE FALSE MOVE (3:45, 8:15)

A truly outstanding yet somehow overlooked gem of a crime flick featuring a great Bill Paxton, Cynda Williams, Michael Beach, Jim Metzler & Billy Bob Thornton!   Los Angeles drug dealers, two men and a woman, flee for the girl's hometown in Arkansas after becoming embroiled in murder. [Dir. Carl Franklin - 1992 - 109m]   VIEW A TRAILER

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DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS (6pm)

An awesomely stylish, intelligent detective period noir giving a rich, shadowy shape to post-WWII Black America!  From a Walter Mosely novel, featuring fantastic performances by Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle, and others, a war hero takes an under the table job finding a missing socialite resulting in an uncovering of a corrupt rich white elite culture!  [Dir. Carl Franklin - 1995 - 101m]  VIEW A TRAILER