“Dive into this rich six-week series and understand why ‘B’ and ‘Noir’ are sacred terms in the church of cinephilia.
– J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

“A belt-busting retro of generous double (sometimes triple) whammies...
there're more ultra-gritty, forgotten bad dreams here than the average noiriste can possibly tolerate in one spring!”
– Michael Atkinson, The Village Voice. Click here to read entire review

“Never mind the big name noir staples you’ve seen a hundred time over.
If you’re hankering for a fix of the truly hardboiled pulp fiction, check out the nuggets usually relegated to the bottom of the bill.
Whether it’s an established classic or a low-budget obscurity, each of these films hits you like a hot kiss from a bruised fist.”
– Time Out New York

“May be the most important repertory event of the year, and it transmits a very clear message:
that the Poverty Row clip joint was a more treacherous and richer place to hang your hat than Casablanca.”
– Ed Gonzalez, Slant

MAY 5/6 FRI/SAT (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

KISS ME DEADLY

(1955, ROBERT ALDRICH) Orgasmically panting Cloris Leachman’s nighttime encounter with Ralph Meeker’s “bedroom dick” Mike Hammer leads him on a search for a mysterious box. (approximately 106 minutes)
1:00, 4:40, 8:20

“Crazy, clashing expressionism! Tracks the sleaziest private investigator in American movies through a nocturnal labyrinth to a white-hot vision of cosmic annihilation.”
– J. Hoberman, Village Voice.

“Cold War paranoia doesn’t get any more gripping than in this tough-as-nails Mike Hammer thriller.”
– Time Out New York

“Blisteringly nihilistic noir in which star Ralph Meeker embodies Mickey Spillane's legendary P.I. with brute force savagery...
Aldrich's sadistic, fatalistic masterpiece is impossible to forget.”
– Nick Schager, Slant

THE KILLING

(1956, STANLEY KUBRICK) Ex-con Sterling Hayden puts together the usual suspects — including sniveling Elisha Cook Jr., a chess-playing wrestler and trigger-happy Timothy Carey — to pull off a racetrack heist. 27-year-old Kubrick zigzags through a dizzying series of time shifts, as the inevitable ironic twist awaits. A key “inspiration” for Reservoir Dogs. Co-written by pulp titan Jim Thompson. (approximately 85 minutes)
3:00, 6:40, 10:20

“A bona fide masterpiece, still one of the best heist gone wrong ficks ever made, with a towering performance by Sterling Hayden and a great, bleak finale.”
– Time Out New York

MAY 7 SUN (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

THE SET-UP

(1949, ROBERT WISE) Unheralded “real time” experiment, as aging boxer Robert Ryan turns down an invitation to take a dive, then pays the price. (approximately 72 minutes)
1:10, 4:30, 7:50

“Wise’s harsh and merciless noir, based on Joseph Moncure March’s famous narrative poem,
is among the greatest fight movies ever made. Robert Ryan is impeccable as a third-rate, washed-up palooka.”
– Elliott Stein, The Village Voice

“The sweaty, stale-smoke atmosphere of an ill-ventilated small-time arena brought to vivid, throbbing life.”
– New York Times.

THE CAPTIVE CITY

(1952, ROBERT WISE) On the run, editor John Forsythe stops to record his story before getting to the Kefauver Commission in D.C.: a divorce action leads to a major bookie, leads to murder between speeding car and brick wall, leads to realization of rampant corruption. Rich semi-doc noir photography by legendary DP Lee Garmes. (approximately 91 minutes)
2:40, 6:00, 9:20

“Crisp… genuine and disturbing.” – The New York Times

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MAY 8 MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

THUNDER ROAD

(1958, ARTHUR RIPLEY) Back from the Korean War to take over the family’s moonshine business, quadruple threat Robert Mitchum (also producer, co-scripter, title song groaner) finds himself contending with T-Man Gene Barry and big city boys who want to muscle in. (approximately 92 minutes)
1:00, 4:35, 8:15

THE WELL

(1951, LEO POPKIN & RUSSELL ROUSE) A five-year-old black girl disappears and the last man to see her, white drifter Harry Morgan, is connected to a town bigwig — race riot here we come. But what if she’s fallen down a well? Taut, suspenseful thriller nominated for screenplay and editing Oscars. (approximately 86 minutes)
2:50, 6:25, 10:05

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MAY 9 TUE (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

THE TALL TARGET

(1951, ANTHONY MANN) On board Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration-bound train, freelancing NYC cop Dick Powell (character name John Kennedy!) teams up with Union officer Adolphe Menjou to foil an assassination plot — or does he? (approximately 78 minutes)
2:50, 6:20, 9:50

“A noir mini-masterpiece.
Sinewy camera movement, elegantly modulated rhythms, and arresting paranoia.”
– Fernando F. Croce, Slant

“Ingenious and inventive... dashes along at a furious pace.”
– Time Out (London).

REIGN OF TERROR

(1949, ANTHONY MANN) “Don’t call me Max,” hisses Richard Basehart’s Robespierre and the chase is on for the Black Book, his Nixonian list of guillotine-bound enemies. “History is thrown to the wolves” (Time Out), but Mann, cameraman John Alton and art director William Cameron Menzies go for baroque via bizarre angles and chiaroscuro lighting. (approximately 89 minutes)
1:00, 4:30, 8:00

“[An] incredible film… Mann, together with genius production designer William Cameron Menzies and great cameraman John Alton, turned out the only film noir ever made about the French Revolution. Visually, it’s a knockout.”
– Elliott Stein, The Village Voice

“If you’re in the mood to hiss Robespierre, you’ve come to the right place… The cinematography by John Alton and art direction are aces!”
– Time Out New York

“Wicked, visually astonishing.”
– Fernando F. Croce, Slant

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MAY 10 WED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

HE RAN ALL THE WAY

(1951, JOHN BERRY) Loner John Garfield (“equaling the young Brando in his dangerous sexual magnetism” – J. Hoberman) seems to have found a family at last, as new friend Shelley Winters introduces him to the folks; until the botched payroll robbery — plus murder — he’s on the run from makes the front page. (approximately 77 minutes)
1:05, 4:30, 8:00

TENSION

(1949, JOHN BERRY) When he hears the news about wife Audrey Totter’s cheating, bespectacled druggist Richard Basehart gets really, really. . . well, tense, his nerves matching that pre-credits stretched-to-the-max rubber band. But those newfangled contacts help him loosen up. With Cyd Charisse. (approximately 95 minutes)
2:40, 6:10, 9:40

RETURN TO TOP.

MAY 11 THU (3 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

BORN TO KILL

(1947, ROBERT WISE) “Cruelty, degradation, and duplicity” as psycho killer Lawrence Tierney marries money but still dallies with bride’s thrill-seeking sister Claire Trevor. Sample turn-on: graphic description of a couple of corpses. (approximately 92 minutes)
1:05, 6:10

“Wise’s nasty noir co-stars Lawrence Tierney as a sociopath killer who tries to marry his way into respectability and Claire Trevor as the mercenary divorcée who can’t resist his thuggish appeal. They’re both at their best bad behavior, as is the solid supporting cast.”
– Elliott Stein, The Village Voice

BODYGUARD

(1948, RICHARD FLEISCHER) Rock-tough Lawrence Tierney gets railroaded by the police, then takes a crummy job guarding the doyenne of a meatpacking company, to promptly find himself waking up next to the corpse of the boss who fired him. Story by 23-year-old Robert Altman. (approximately 62 minutes)
3:00, 8:05

“Fleischer’s brisk direction keeps things on target.”
– Elliott Stein, The Village Voice

SHAKEDOWN

(1950, JOSEPH PEVNEY) Ruthless photographer Howard Duff saves his biggest scoop for last as he climbs to the top, taking blackmailing pix of Lawrence Tierney (“among the most menacing of noir villains” – Robert Porfirio). But carbombing gang boss Brian Donlevy is a big mistake! (approximately 80 minutes)
4:30, 9:30

RETURN TO TOP.

MAY 12/13 FRI/SAT (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

THEY LIVE BY NIGHT

(1949, NICHOLAS RAY) Injured after a bank job, neophyte crook Farley Granger finds doomed love with caregiver Cathy O’Donnell, while the rest of the gang gets picked off by the cops. Ray’s directorial debut features an under-the-credits getaway via Hollywood’s first-ever helicopter shot. (approximately 95 minutes)
2:45, 6:25, 10:05

“Ray's remarkable 1949 debut, one of the many Hollywood precursors to Bonnie and Clyde, is an unusually pure representation of the doomed outlaw couple—perhaps the most romantic of all films noir.”
– J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

ON DANGEROUS GROUND

(1952, NICHOLAS RAY) En route to a mountain manhunt, tough NYC cop Robert Ryan finds romance with blind girl Ida Lupino — sister to his sex killer prey. Striking opening scene: a woman’s loving hand strapping on her husband’s . . . shoulder holster. Score was Bernard Herrmann’s favorite. (approximately 82 minutes)
1:00, 4:40, 8:20

“Not to be missed! Terrific! Bernard Herrmann contributes a beautiful score to this gripping story—and reused a chunk of it later in his music for Hitchcock’s Marnie.”
– Elliott Stein, The Village Voice

“Robert Ryan gives a frighteningly ambiguous performance as a neurotic big-city policeman.
Working under Ray's emotionally sensitive direction, [he] keeps the movie on edge right to the end.”
– David Denby, The New Yorker

“One of the great, forgotten works of the genre. A remarkably pure film.”
– Fernando F. Croce, Slant

“Essential... A melancholic beauty.”
– Nick Schager, Slant

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MAY 14 SUN (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

THE WINDOW

(1949, TED TETZLAFF) A tall-tale-telling tenement kid’s eyewitness account of a sailor’s murder is believed by nobody but the killers themselves. From a Cornell Woolrich story, with a special Oscar to child star Bobby Driscoll. “Edgar” winner for Best Mystery Film of the year. (approximately 73 minutes)
1:05, 4:15, 7:25, 10:30

“The lowdown high concept and the eye of the director (Ted Tetzlaff, who as a cinematographer shot Hitchcock’s Notorious)
earn this tight 1949 suspense film its sordid whiff of immortality; it brings out paranoid feelings in even the most sedate children.”
– Michael Sragow, The New Yorker

THE WEB

(1947, MICHAEL GORDON) “France fell in eighteen days, and you’re not as tough as France.” After shooting down the embezzler über-oily Vincent Price claimed had been threatening him, lawyer Edmond O’Brien starts romancing secretary Ella Raines; but then wonders if he’d been set up. With William Bendix as, for once, a smart cop. (approximately 87 minutes)
2:30, 5:45, 8:50

RETURN TO TOP.

MAY 15 MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

THE DARK PAST

(1948, RUDOLPH MATÉ) Shrink Lee J. Cobb begins to have second thoughts about “criminal rehabilitation” when he and his family are held hostage by escaped killer William Holden and mob. Tense thriller with Freud coming to the rescue. (approximately 75 minutes)
1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 10:00

MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS

(1945, JOSEPH H. LEWIS) Secretary Nina Foch is kidnapped and set up for fake suicide with new name by “hubbie,” maniac George Macready. (approximately 65 minutes)
2:35, 5:35, 8:35

“Dripping with low-budget resourcefulness.”
– Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader.

RETURN TO TOP.

MAY 16 TUE (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

BLACK TUESDAY

(1954, HUGO FREGONESE) Seconds from the chair, mobster Edward G. Robinson and cop killer Peter Graves, with hostages in tow, break out of the Big House, en route to that stashed getaway money. But there’s a standoff with the cops and a moral choice looming up ahead. (approximately 80 minutes)
2:40, 6:00, 9:20

THE GLASS WEB

(1953, JACK ARNOLD) After two-timing both married TV writer John Forsythe and researcher Edward G. Robinson, actress Kathleen Hughes winds up dead, as well as becoming a perfect case for the next episode of their “Crime of the Week” TV series. (approximately 81 minutes)
1:00, 4:20, 7:40

RETURN TO TOP.

MAY 17/18 WED/THU (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

THE KILLER IS LOOSE

(1956, BUDD BOETTICHER) Bank clerk Wendell Corey’s thickly-bespectacled “Foggy” Poole is just the inside man in a holdup; but when his wife is killed during his arrest (myopia or not!), it’s time for revenge. And then arresting officer Joseph Cotten hears Corey’s escaped. (approximately 73 minutes)
2:25, 5:25, 8:35

“A low-key pulp extravaganza from 1956. Budd Boetticher turns this familiarly seamy setup into a grimly Hemingwayesque study of manhood and elusive honor. His static, airy compositions leave plenty of room for both sides to share the frame, and the resulting tensions—and ambiguities—are thrillingly hard to bear.”
– Richard Brody, The New Yorker

“A low budget quickie which bustles through its itinerary (bank heist, jail break, manhunt,
about one sudden death per reel) with efficiency and dispatch.”
– Bob Baker, Time Out (London)

“Packs considerable tension into every scene.”
– Chicago Reader.

CRIME WAVE

(1954, ANDRÉ DE TOTH) Going straight isn’t easy for ex-con Gene Nelson: toothpick-chomping dick Sterling Hayden’s out to pin a murder rap on him, while former slammer roommates Charles Bronson and Ted DeCorsia are looking for a heist partnership — or else. (approximately 73 minutes)
1:00, 3:50, 7:00, 10:00

“A relentlessly unforced potboiler that gazes at noir through the looking glass… De Toth showcases the magnitude of Hayden's pool of potential stoolies in one showstopping traveling shot down a line of interrogation desks, each one a passion play in miniature.”
– Eric Henderson, Slant

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MAY 19/20 FRI/SAT (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

GUN CRAZY

(1949, JOSEPH H. LEWIS) A bank robbery shot from inside the getaway car in a single take highlights Lewis’ startling Bonnie & Clyde-type sleeper, as vicious carny girl Peggy Cummins leads good-hearted gun buff John Dall into a life of crime. (approximately 86 minutes)
1:05, 4:40, 8:15

“The real Bonnie and Clyde, Lewis’s study in pathology is the ultimate expression of the B-movie credo to live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse. Brisk, percussive, a veritable primer for intelligent camera placement and a film of great plastic beauty besides, Gun Crazy is the kind of movie they don’t make any more—and it’s as if they never did.”
– J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

“Among [the film’s] triumphs: a pair of object-hungry young marrieds fondling pressure cookers
in a department store and shivering orgiastically while a hold-up goes on.”
– New York Times.

THE BIG COMBO

(1955, JOSEPH H. LEWIS) Cop Cornel Wilde teams with an ex-moll to nail mob boss Richard Conte, whose disciplinary methods include torture by hearing aid — a vintage Lewis touch. (approximately 89 minutes)
2:50, 6:25, 10:00

e of the last great film noirs, the masterpiece of cult B-director Lewis.
John Alton’s baroque camerawork creates a dazzlingly rich black-and-white texture in deep-focus setups.”
– Elliott Stein, The Village Voice

“A spellbinding black-and-white chiaroscuro with the segmented texture of a spider's web. ...
The set-pieces are fierce… and Wallace's performance is one of noir's great unheralded triumphs.”
– Ed Gonzalez, Slant

“A sense of fatalism and perverse sexuality that exist in few noir films.”
– Carl Macek.

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MAY 21 SUN (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

DETOUR

(1945, EDGAR G. ULMER) “Whichever way you turn, Fate sticks out a foot to trip you.” New York-to-L.A. hitchhiker Tom Neal’s pickup of the aptly-named Ann Savage leads to blackmail and death. (approximately 67 minutes)
1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 10:00

“A nasty little thriller.” – Time Out New York

“One of the defining films of the seductive genre the French critics called film noir.”
– Vincent Canby, New York Times.

THE NARROW MARGIN

(1952, RICHARD FLEISCHER) Train ride from Hell, as taunting prize witness (Marie Windsor as a side-switching gangster’s widow) makes things rough for ambivalent dick Charles McGraw, as he fends off non-stop hoods en route to a grand jury. By the author of Detour. (approximately 71 minutes)
2:30, 5:30, 8:30

“Breathlessly fast and highly suspenseful sleeper par excellence.”
– Time Out (London).

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MAY 22 MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

AMONG THE LIVING

(1941, STUART HEISLER) Tough homecoming for Albert Dekker: first family doctor Harry Carey reveals his identical twin brother is still alive — and then turns out to be a homicidal maniac! — while a lynch mob is on the loose that don’t know nothing about no brother. (approximately 67 minutes)
1:00, 4:10, 7:20, 10:30

“Script, camera and direction all conspire beautifully to keep the screws turned tight.”
– Tom Milne, Time Out (London)

THE SPIRITUALIST

(1948, BERNARD VORHAUS) Bad enough that Lynn Bari keeps hearing the voice of her dead husband in the surf off her seaside cliff home; but then “psychic consultant” Turhan Bey shows up, knowing waaay too much about the both of them. Photographed by John Alton. (approximately 78 minutes)
2:30, 5:40, 8:50

RETURN TO TOP.

MAY 23 TUE (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

I WAS A COMMUNIST FOR THE FBI

(1951, GORDON DOUGLAS) They said there’d be room for advancement, but it’s lonely at the top: after Pittsburgh steel worker Frank Lovejoy rockets up to chief party organizer, he finds one of his duties is turning in Party malcontents. (approximately 83 minutes)
1:05, 4:40, 8:15

“The most visually noir of the red hysteria movies.”
– Robert Porfirio

THE MOB

(1951, ROBERT PARRISH) Things start getting tough for Broderick Crawford’s undercover assignment on NYC’s docks when the supervisors of his initiation turn out to be Ernest Borgnine and Neville Brand! Later hooking up with classier undercover cop Richard Kiley, Crawford’s use of luminous paint proves the key to the mystery. (approximately 87 minutes)
2:50, 6:25, 10:00

RETURN TO TOP.

MAY 24 WED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

PUSHOVER

(1954, RICHARD QUINE) “Money isn’t dirty, just people.” Low-rent Double Indemnity, as cool blonde moll Kim Novak (in her first major role) convinces besotted cop Fred MacMurray that killing her bank-robbing boyfriend and scarfing the cash is all in the line of duty. With Dorothy Malone. (approximately 88 minutes)
1:10, 4:40, 8:10

WOMAN ON THE RUN

(1950, NORMAN FOSTER) What? Ann Sheridan should help cop Robert Keith find her fugitive husband, though splitsville was looming even before he innocently witnessed that murder? Written and directed by Welles collaborator Foster. (approximately 77 minutes)
3:00, 6:30, 10:00

RETURN TO TOP.

MAY 25 THU (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

TRAPPED

(1949, RICHARD FLEISCHER) En route to a hookup with bombshell Barbara Payton, convicted counterfeiter Lloyd Bridges is congratulating himself for his escape from those lousy Feds — only trouble is, he’s really leading them to the gang that’s flooding the Coast with fake 20s. (approximately 78 minutes)
3:00, 6:30, 10:00

BETWEEN MIDNIGHT AND DAWN

(1950, GORDON DOUGLAS) Prowl car cop Edmond O’Brien starts off wired and embittered, but when Donald Buka’s one-man crime wave hits, it’s time to turn the dial to obsessive. (approximately 89 minutes)
1:10, 4:40, 8:10*
*Donald Buka, who plays the bad guy in BETWEEN MIDNIGHT AND DAWN, will appear at the 8:10 show.

“Explosive!”
– The New York Times

RETURN TO TOP.

MAY 26/27 FRI/SAT (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

PHANTOM LADY

(1944, ROBERT SIODMAK) “You like jive?” “You bet. I’m a hep kitten.” Ella Raines and Franchot Tone desperately roam the sizzling NYC streets for a condemned man’s only hope to beat a wife-murder rap — the nameless woman he met in a bar. With Elisha Cook Jr.’s orgasmic drum solo. From a Cornell Woolrich novel. (approximately 87 minutes)
1:10, 4:45, 8:20

“This landmark exercise in nocturnal noir stylistics perfected the studio New York of the 1940s.”
– J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

THE SUSPECT

(1944, ROBERT SIODMAK) Mild-mannered, turn of the century (the last one) shopkeeper Charles Laughton at last finds what he’s looking for in sweet young Ella Raines, but what to do with his shrewish wife and nosy, blackmailing neighbor Henry Daniell? (approximately 85 minutes)
3:00, 6:35, 10:10

“A visually gifted melodrama.” - James Agee, The Nation

“Robert Siodmak’s craftsmanship keeps this period suspense film satisfyingly tense. It’s realistic yet bonechilling. Charles Laughton is restrained and moving… Henry Daniell has his best (evil) role since he shared the piano bench with Garbo in Camille.”
– Pauline Kael

“A darkly labyrinthine atmosphere… Laughton in one of his most engaged and engaging roles… virtuoso audience manipulation.”
– Paul Taylor, Time Out (London)

RETURN TO TOP.

MAY 28/29 SUN/MON (3 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

ARMORED CAR ROBBERY

(1950, RICHARD FLEISCHER) Precursor of The Asphalt Jungle and The Killing. Criminal mastermind William Talman (later Perry Mason’s D.A.) shrugs off a botched big caper, henchman attrition and police dragnets, as square-jawed cop Charles McGraw keeps on coming. (approximately 67 minutes)
SUN 1:00, 5:10, 9:15
MON 1:00

FOLLOW ME QUIETLY

(1949, RICHARD FLEISCHER) On the trail of serial strangler “The Judge,” William Lundigan helps fellow detectives build up a composite mannequin of the killer; with the “Judge” himself, dropping in to the station to substitute for the mannequin and play himself. (approximately 60 minutes)
SUN 2:30, 6:40, 10:35
MON 2:30

“Strangely obsessive.” – Carl Macek

THE CLAY PIGEON

(1949, RICHARD FLEISCHER) Bill Williams snaps out of a coma in a naval hospital, charged to his surprise with treason for playing stool pigeon in a Japanese POW camp. Time to slap on some civvies and get out of town, kidnapping fellow prisoner’s widow Barbara Hale en route. (approximately 63 minutes)
SUN 3:50, 8:00
MON 3:50

“This brisk and largely forgotten B is a pleasant surprise.”
– Elliott Stein, The Village Voice

“Directed with tight, spare energy”
– Tom Milne, Time Out (London)

RETURN TO TOP.

MAY 29 MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

T-MEN

(1947, ANTHONY MANN) “Did you ever spend ten nights in a Turkish bath looking for a man?” Treasury agents Dennis O’Keefe and Alfred Ryder go undercover to infiltrate a counterfeiting gang. Highlights include murder by steam bath and an ominous request for chewing gum. Print courtesy Library of Congress. (approximately 92 minutes)
6:50, 10:20

“Anthony Mann and great cameraman John Alton create one of the most memorably stylized moments in all of film noir—a dreamlike murder scene in which a steam bath’s eerie blackness is ripped by flashing bullets… Mann made his first real splash as a director with this gritty thriller.”
– Elliott Stein, The Village Voice

“Crisp… hallucinatory.” – Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

“The best of early Mann. A cracking little thriller… it effortlessly transcends its semi-documentary brief… to land deep in noir territory…
John Alton's superlative camerawork counterpoints tensions and perspectives with almost geometrical precision.”
– Tom Milne, Time Out (London)

RAW DEAL

(1948, ANTHONY MANN) Dennis O’Keefe breaks out of the pen to nail the man for whom he took the rap: sadistic Raymond Burr. Print courtesy Library of Congress. (approximately 79 minutes)
5:10, 8:40

“All the heavy drama takes place in a spooky, thick, pea soup San Francisco fog, beautifully textured by master DP John Alton.”
– Elliott Stein, The Village Voice

“The apex of noir style. Breathtaking!” - Nick Schager, Slant

“John Alton’s cinematography is a thing of low-budget joy; using the very darkest blacks and the brightest whites smashed together in the same frame.”
– San Francisco Examiner

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MAY 30 TUE (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

HE WALKED BY NIGHT

(1948, ALFRED L. WERKER & ANTHONY MANN) Richard Basehart uses pre-computer technical wizardry to schnooker cops after killing one in a botched robbery. With a legendary final chase through L.A.’s sewer tunnels. (approximately 79 minutes)
1:00, 4:20, 7:40

“The climax at the sewer system [is] staged with enough fierce subterranean geometry to make Lang proud.”
Fernando F. Croce, Slant

“A taut thriller… Basehart is excellent as the strange, lone wolf electronics expert/killer,
an enigmatic threat haunting the paranoid dreams of the witch-hunting era.”
– Geoff Andrew, Time Out (London)

CANON CITY

(1948, CRANE WILBUR) As Reed Hadley rat-a-tat-tats his narration, convicts — with reluctant Scott Brady in tow — escape from Colorado’s Canon City prison amid desolate snowscapes — but is there any place to go? Semi-documentary treatment of a real breakout. (approximately 82 minutes)
2:40, 6:00, 9:20

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MAY 31 WED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

CRIME OF PASSION

(1957, GERD OSWALD) Bored housewife, ex-journalist Barbara Stanwyck decides her unambitious hubbie, cop Sterling Hayden, needs to move up, so it’s time to get friendly with Inspector Raymond Burr — but what if caddish Burr actually decides to do the right thing? (approximately 84 minutes)
1:00, 4:30, 8:00

“Hell hath no fury like Stanwyck scorned!”
– Elliott Stein, The Village Voice

“Miss Stanwyck's exchanges with Mr. Burr, as the smitten inspector,
are so convincing that a taxpayer may feel uneasy.”
– The New York Times

WITNESS TO MURDER

(1954, ROY ROWLAND) Good citizen Barbara Stanwyck reports George Sanders’ murder of a fellow apartment dweller, but with no evidence except her own threatening letters, next stop is the nut house. But when she gets out, forger Sanders (“properly suave and hateful” – NY Times) begins creating his masterpiece: Stany’s suicide note. (approximately 83 minutes)
2:45, 6:15, 9:45

“George Sanders is properly suave and hateful.”
– The New York Times

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JUNE 1 THU (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

711 OCEAN DRIVE

(1950, JOSEPH M. NEWMAN) “Time wounds all heels.” Telephone-repairman-gone-bad Edmond O’Brien helps set up an illegal betting wire service with local bigwig bookies, then slowly takes it — and Joanne Dru — over. But then even bigger wigs get interested and we’re headed for a spectacular Hoover Dam finish. (approximately 102 minutes)
1:00, 4:40, 8:20

SHIELD FOR MURDER

(1954, HOWARD W. KOCH) “Stop or I’ll shoot!” yells cop Edmond O’Brien, but only after he’s already shot a drug runner and stashed away 25 Gs for himself. But when The Big Boss wants his dough back, O’Brien’s partner John Agar smells a rat. (approximately 82 minutes)
3:00, 6:40, 10:20

“Tight, muscular… intelligent and unstrained. Fine movie-making.”
– The New York Times

“Explicit in its violence and brutal in its depiction of greed and lust.”
Carl Macek, Film Noir Encyclopedia

“Explicit in its violence and brutal in its depiction of greed and lust.”
– Carl Macek

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JUNE 2/3 FRI/SAT (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

THIEVES’ HIGHWAY

(1949, JULES DASSIN) An asphalt On the Waterfront, as ex-G.I. Richard Conte finds the apple-trucking biz ain’t all applesauce, especially when up against racket kingpin Lee J. Cobb. Screenplay by A.I. Bezzerides. (approximately 94 minutes)
1:05, 4:45, 8:25

“The director's final, and finest, film made in America.”
– Nick Schager, Slant

“Intense, sharply characterised, brilliantly shot by Hal Mohr.”
– Tom Milne, Time Out (London)

“You will never be able to eat an apple again.” –
New York Times

THE SLEEPING CITY

(1950, GEORGE SHERMAN) Drugs, blackmail and murder at Bellevue — no, it’s not a Frederick Wiseman documentary — with Richard Conte going undercover as an intern, and speaking a “no particular city” prologue to appease an irate Mayor O’Dwyer. (approximately 85 minutes)
3:00, 6:40, 10:10

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JUNE 4/5 SUN/MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

SIDE STREET

(1949, ANTHONY MANN) Disgruntled postal worker Farley Granger dips into the till to top off the family budget, but picks on the wrong guy’s roll, and soon it’s a three-way chase with both hoods and cops on his tail; with cars careening through the location-shot Sunday morning canyons of lower Manhattan. (approximately 83 minutes)
SUN 1:00, 4:40, 8:20
MON 1:00

MYSTERY STREET

(1950, JOHN STURGES) After B-girl Jan Sterling ends up a skeleton off Cape Cod, cop Ricardo Montalban thinks he’s got his man — but then has doubts. Rare forensic evidence noir procedural. (approximately 95 minutes)
SUN 2:45, 6:25, 10:05
MON 2:45

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JUNE 5 MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

M

(1951, JOSEPH LOSEY) Stentorianly underscored remake of Fritz Lang’s early sound classic, with the cops and the underworld in a race to catch a helplessly psychopathic child murderer amid vintage L.A. locations, with killer David Wayne’s “illness and perversion disturbingly explicit in this version” (Robert Porfirio). Print courtesy British Film Institute. (approximately 88 minutes)
6:45, 10:10

“The Los Angeles locations wonderfully used as a strange and terrifying concrete jungle, and a remarkable performance from David Wayne that bears comparison with Lorre.”
– Tom Milne, Time Out (London)

THE BIG NIGHT

(1951, JOSEPH LOSEY) Picked-on teenager John Barrymore Jr.’s birthday party at dad Preston Foster’s bar has an unusual highlight: Dad meekly submitting to a brutal caning by limping Howard St. John — and it’s going to take Junior the rest of an event-packed night to find out why. (approximately 75 minutes)
5:10, 8:35

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JUNE 6 TUE (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

NIGHTFALL

(1957, JACQUES TOURNEUR) Anne Bancroft thinks Aldo Ray’s paranoid — but he’s got his reasons. With Brian Keith and Rudy Bond on his tail because he’s ended up with their loot after blundering into their hideout, even snowy Wyoming looks good; but there’s still that snowplow showdown. Based on a novel by pulp great David Goodis. (approximately 78 minutes)
1:00, 4:30, 8:00

THE BURGLAR

(1957, PAUL WENDKOS) Necklace, Necklace . . . Who’s got the necklace? The fruit of Dan Duryea’s tour-de-force heist proves a magnet for a crooked cop, but then Dan’s got to keep his henchmen off “ward” Jayne Mansfield. With an “homage” to Welles’ Lady from Shanghai funhouse sequence. (approximately 90 minutes)
2:40, 6:10, 9:40

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JUNE 7/8 WED/THU (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
MATINEE ONLY ON THU

THE NAKED KISS

(1964, SAMUEL FULLER) Constance Towers’ prostitute-turned-pediatric nurse (her paralyzed charges returning in her dreams ecstatically exclaiming “I got legs!”) learns the true price of going straight. With an opening sequence to end all opening sequences. (approximately 90 minutes)
WED 3:30, 7:20
THU 3:30

“A fizzy, wigged-out masterpiece… It's Sirk-on-a-shoestring, and twice as cynical.”
– Eric Henderson, Slant

UNDERWORLD, U.S.A.

(1961, SAMUEL FULLER) Revenge quest, Fuller style. Finding out his dying cellmate is one of the SOBs who offed his old man, jailbird Cliff Robertson figures: one down, three to go, even if the remaining trio is now heading the syndicate. (approximately 99 minutes)
WED 1:30, 5:20, 9:10
THU 1:30, 5:20

“In typical fashion Fuller transforms the organized crime movie into a war film.”
– Tony Rayns

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JUNE 8 THU – SPECIAL EVENT!

AN EVENING WITH JANE POWELL & DICK MOORE

Click here for more info
7:30

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JUNE 9/10 FRI/SAT (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL

(1952, PHIL KARLSON) It’s a bitterness contest between ex-con John Payne, pulled in and brutally interrogated about an armored car robbery he had nothing to do with, and ex-cop Preston Foster, who anonymously orchestrated the robbery himself. But Payne gets a lead on those rats who got him in trouble again. (approximately 99 minutes)
3:30, 7:30

“A modern Gothic treatment of the Brinks hold-up.”
– Manny Farber

THE PHENIX CITY STORY

(1955, PHIL KARLSON) Near-documentary treatment — based on fact and filmed on the real locations — of lawyer Richard Kiley’s return to clean up his crime-ridden hometown of Phenix, Alabama. (approximately 100 minutes)
1:30, 5:30, 9:30

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JUNE 11 SUN (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

MAN IN THE DARK

(1953, LEW LANDERS) Terror strikes in 3 dimensions! Gangster Edmond O’Brien gets amnesia after having experimental brain surgery to cure his criminal tendencies — then his old gang wants to know where he stashed the loot. Extraordinary 3-D Noir, shot by legendary cinematographer Floyd Crosby (High Noon). (approximately 70 minutes)
1:00, 4:10, 7:20, 10:30

D.O.A.

(1950, RUDOLPH MATÉ) “I’d like to report a murder.” Slipped an iridium-poisoned mickey during a night on the town in Frisco, CPA Edmond O’Brien makes his last few days count in a frenzied search for his killer through the sleazier jazz clubs and waterfront dives, the climax a rubber-burning car chase in reverse. (approximately 83 minutes)
2:30, 5:40, 8:50

“A seminal thriller... with noir's most enticing intro.”
– Ed Gonzalez, Slant

“Delirious… Maté shoots fast and always to the point as he drives his protagonist through endless doorways and rooms
which are like trapdoors and boxes in an accelerating nightmare… Breathless, indeed.”
– Chris Petit, Time Out (London)

“Its power is derived from the central image of one chunky, sweating, absolutely desolated human.”
– New York Times

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JUNE 12 MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

THE BROTHERS RICO

(1957, PHIL KARLSON) Ex-mobster Richard Conte is well out of it, but when the syndicate asks him to track down his still-in-it brothers, he figures he’d better do it before they do. From the novel by French mystery titan Georges Simenon. (approximately 92 minutes)
1:00, 4:20, 7:40

“Karlson's style is hard, fast, and unadorned.”
– Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

THE UNDERCOVER MAN

(1949, JOSEPH H. LEWIS) Mob bookkeepers drop like flies as IRS agents (yes, they’re the heroes) Glenn Ford and James Whitmore try to put the squeeze on underworld green-shaders en route to laying a tax evasion rap on a Capone-like kingpin. (approximately 68 minutes)
2:50, 6:10, 9:30

“A superior crime thriller in the semi-documentary style beloved by Hollywood in the late '40s. Achieves an authenticity rare in the genre.
And Lewis - one of the B movie greats - directs in admirably forthright, muscular fashion, making superb use
of Burnett Guffey's gritty monochrome camerawork.”
– Geoff Andrew, Time Out (London)

“Lewis draws heavily from a abase of pure romanticism, embellished with stylistic touches of American expressionism
and his own natural flare for the surreal.”
– Carl Macek, Film Noir Encyclopedia

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JUNE 13 TUE (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

THE LINEUP

(1958, DON SIEGEL) When Mr. Big wants his smack back, he sends psycho contract killer Eli Wallach and sidekick Robert Keith to wack the kid who’s “powdered” her dolly. Vintage Siegel action, with hair-raising chase climax on a freeway to nowhere. . (approximately 86 minutes)
1:10, 4:35, 8:00

“Brutal, sadistic and threatening, with its passionless killers stalking San Francisco long before existentialism was à la mode.”
– Time Out (London)

MURDER BY CONTRACT

(1958, IRVING LERNER) Le Samourai, B movie style. Vince Edwards’ dedicated hit man, hired to pop a wealthy woman before she can testify, keeps trying to fulfill that contract, despite drastic changes of plan from management. (approximately 81 minutes)
2:55, 6:20, 9:45

“Ice cold and completely unsentimental.”
– John Gillett

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JUNE 14 WED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

HOUSE OF BAMBOO

(1955, SAMUEL FULLER) A fittingly CinemaScopic tribute to Japanese horizontality, pitting Robert Ryan’s feverishly homoerotic Ichiban gangster against Robert Stack’s highly-repressed but sexual-in-spite-of-himself undercover army agent, until good conquers evil on a Ferris wheel high atop a Tokyo fairground. With Sessue Hayakawa. (approximately 102 minutes)
1:00, 4:40, 8:20

“Some of the most stunning examples of widescreen photography in the history of cinema...
Melds the heady insanity of a Douglas Sirk melodrama... with the philosophical inquiry of the best noirs.”
– Keith Uhlich, Slant

THE CRIMSON KIMONO

(1959, SAMUEL FULLER) In L.A.’s Little Tokyo, a romantic rivalry between a white cop and his Nisei partner causes supposedly laid-to-rest racial tensions to explode — amidst strippers, doll-makers, artists, bohemians, kendo matches, Japanese ceremonials and discussions of Beethoven. (approximately 82 minutes)
3:00, 6:40, 10:20

“The opening is a triumph of grungy lyricism achieved through snaky cutting and blunt compositions.”
– Ed Gonzalez, Slant

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JUNE 15 THU (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

SLIGHTLY SCARLET

(1956, ALLAN DWAN) “With Brains, Bullets and Women, He Fought His Way to the Bottom!” Underrated under-player John Payne’s good/bad operator strives for wiggle room between political boss and reform candidate, while contending with Titian-hued sister act Rhonda Fleming and Arlene Dahl. From James M. Cain’s Love’s Lovely Counterfeit. (approximately 94 minutes)
3:30, 7:30*
Arlene Dahl will appear in person following the 7:30 show.

“This great-looking noir confirmed that master cinematographer John Alton’s imagination in lighting was as distinctive in color as in black-and-white. Scarlet is a favorite flick of Martin Scorsese, who has acknowledged its influence on his own work.”
– Elliott Stein, The Village Voice

BORDER INCIDENT

(1949, ANTHONY MANN) Bad enough when Howard DaSilva’s illegal immigration racket turns to murder-by-quicksand, forcing Mexican agent Ricardo Montalban and gringo counterpart George Murphy to go undercover. But then DaSilva moves to murder-by-thresher! (approximately 99 minutes)
1:30, 5:30, 9:30

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