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AUGUST 7/8 FRI/SAT
 THE THIRD MAN
(1949, Carol Reed) Orson Welles’ Harry Lime rises from the dead, only to give pulp novelist buddy Joseph Cotten the slip in chaotic post-war Vienna, as zithers play and atmosphere drips from the screen. Grand Prize, Cannes Film Festival; Best Director, New York Film Critics Circle; Best British Film, British Academy Awards; Oscar winner for Robert Krasker’s cinematography; and on top 100 lists of British and American films (#1 for the Brits), as well as being named The Greatest Foreign Film of All Time... by the Japanese. Click here for more information about The Third Man.
1:10, 3:20, 5:30, 7:40, 9:50
“One great shot after another. I’ve seen it 50 times and it's still magic.” – Roger Ebert
“Quite simply, one of the finest films ever made.” – Elvis Mitchell, The New York Times
“ONE OF THOSE MIRACULOUS FILMS THAT WORK ON EVERY LEVEL. A sharp, exciting thriller!” – The Onion AV Club
“Recommended! Seriously, is there a better screen entrance than Harry Lime?”
– Time Out New York
“Totally memorable and irresistible romantic thriller. Stylish from first to the last, with inimitable backgrounds of zither music and war-torn buildings
pointing up a then-topical black market story full of cynical characters but not without humor. Hitchcock with feeling, if you like.”
– Leslie Halliwell
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AUGUST 9 SUN (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
 THE SMALL BACK ROOM
(1949, John & Ray Boulting) Bomb-disposal expert David Farrar, embittered by a tin leg courtesy of an on-the-job snafu, battles troubles with live-in girlfriend Kathleen Byron and with the bottle (an excuse for a Caligari-inspired DT fantasy sequence), until faced with the ultimate challenge: a German bomb sporting an unbeatable booby trap.
3:30, 7:30
“This lonely little beast of a movie is one of cinema's great renditions of self-loathing; it's also a vital addition to Powell and Pressburger's portrait gallery of mid-century British life in all of its temperate wisdom and sharp-eyed wartime detail.”
– Michael Atkinson, L Magazine
“MAKE IT THE WEEK'S TOP FILMGOING PRIORITY! It's impossible to describe this superb, stirring drama without sounding intensely dull, so just take our word for it. You won't be sorry.”
– Time Out New York
“EDITOR'S PICK! Underappreciated, insanely well-acted thriller...would make a fascinating double-bill with Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker.”
– David Edelstein, New York magazine
“Belongs to the select group of Film Noir, whose flagship is Citizen Kane.” – Raymond Durgnat
“Remains the most elusive of Michael Powell's mature works.” – Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
“David Farrar and Kathleen Byron are Powell’s most erotically eloquent lovers.” – David Thomson
“Powell and Pressburger’s last film of the Forties, and perhaps their best. Graham Greene might have drawn the central character—
a man constantly hauling himself up by the bootstraps from the despairing nihilism. The movie’s unemphatic Film Noir texture—angular shadoes, moldering corridors,
a spider’s-web complexity of lighting and décor—is all the more impressive for being held within plausible realistic bounds.”
– Nigel Andrews and Harlan Kennedy, Film Comment
 SEVEN DAYS TO NOON
(1950, John Boulting) Tommies and bobbies tramp the deserted streets of London on the trail of tormented scientist Barry Jones, who’s disappeared with a WMD in his briefcase; his demand for the PM: end Britain’s nuclear program in a week, or... Oscar for Best Story. From the director of Brighton Rock.
1:30, 5:30, 9:30
“By far the best film made by the Boultings:
tense, taut, moving to a memorable climax in a deserted London.”
– David Shipman
“Still relevant and surprisingly powerful, Seven Days to Noon impresses by its ambiguity.
London, both in the grip of evacuation and deserted,
is beautifully evoked by the noir-ish camerawork, and John Addison's Herrmannesque score helps to keep the atmosphere nervy.”
– Geoff Andrew, Time Out (London)
“Persuasively understated suspense piece.” – Leslie Halliwell
“A remarkable picture. As well as entertainment, this film provides something big to think about, too.
Terminally overwhelming.
Let it be written on the record that a more exciting climax for a film than the one arrived at in this picture would be hard to invent today.”
– The New York Times
“Supenseful thriller with a sense of urgency in every foot” – David Quinlan
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AUGUST 10 MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
 THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT
(1938, Arthur Woods) Sprung from gaol, Emlyn Williams makes a beeline for an old girlfriend — only to find her strangled — then hits the road, finding refuge with sex crime fetishist Ernest Thesiger.
3:35, 7:15
“THE FIRST BONA-FIDE BRITISH NOIR. A unique combination of Fritz Lang and James Whale.”
– William K. Everson
“On a level with the French cinema.”
– Graham Greene
“An exceptional thriller never released in this country, beautifully directed by Arthur Woods.
A fine feeling for locale—seedy dance halls, rain-swept highways, shabby pubs—it throbs with felt life.
Gives us a fine unpatronizing view of working class life, rare in Britian at this period. The great Ernest Thesiger is superb as a prissy sex maniac An enormously sympathetic movie that time forgot.”
– Elliott Stein, Village Voice
“Shows the passage from the macabre shocker to modern Film Noir, revealing a paranoid world of social and sexual corruption that exists as the dark underside to British respectable society.”
– Andrew Spicer
“A nasty little 39 Steps knock-off.”
– J. Hoberman, Village Voice
“Excellent, little-seen British suspenser of the Hitchcock school.”
– Leslie Halliwell
“The fusion of quirky British realism and slick Hollywood melodramatics produces a real gem. Here the revelation of '30s British society as a world of spivs and cardsharps, lecherous lorry drivers and sybaritic sex maniacs, is worth discovering in itself. Woods takes the workmanlike story and invests it with an atmosphere of unrelenting wind, rain and gloom which makes the average American Film Noir look bright and breezy by comparison.”
– Time Out (London)
“Splendid, atmospheric thriller: the sleeper of its year.” – David Quinlan
 ON THE NIGHT OF THE FIRE
(1939, Brian Desmond Hurst) From petty theft, it’s the slippery slope for mild-mannered barber Ralph Richardson, as blackmail, murder — during a spectacular multi-alarm fire — public ostracism, and nonstop pressure from the coppers ensue.
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“A riveting psychological study. With its sustained doom-laden atmosphere, Krampf’s expressive cinematography, its adroit mixture of location shooting and Gothic compositions and Richardson’s wonderful performance as a lower middle-class Everyman, On the Night of the Fire clearly shows that an achieved mastery of Film Noir existed in British cinema.”
– Andrew Spicer
“The British noirs really had it in for barbers. Ralph Richardson’s frustration at earning only a few pennies a day as a barber in On the Night of the Fire is what leads him to theft and murder.”
– William K. Everson
“Absorbingly entertaining.” – Variety
“Rather unusual for pre-war British studios.” – Leslie Halliwell
“For hot-weather entertainment, compares with a cozy nightmare.” – The New York Times
“Grim but gripping.” – David Quinlan
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AUGUST 11 TUE (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
 BLANCHE FURY
(1948, Marc Allégret) 19th-century poor relation governess Valerie Hobson improves her estate claims by marriage to weakling heir Michael Gough, but dallies with embittered bastard of the house Stewart Granger — and then the ominous light bulbs go on over their heads.
3:15, 6:50
“Easily the best and certainly the most artistic and sober of the cycle of British period romances.
Like Duel in the Sun and Leave Her to Heaven, a maverick in Technicolor, but very much a Film Noir.”
– William K. Everson
“Oh, the nostrils flare all right. One of the better British movies of the period melodrama genre.
Many a passion runs high.”
– David Shipman
“A magnificently appointed production, of which the art designer and the cameraman who devised its Technicolor pattern are the true heroes. Boiling over with Victorian passions and hatreds. The realism of the color photography is often breathtaking in its beauty.”
– The New York Times
 FOOTSTEPS IN THE FOG
 (1955, Arthur Lubin) Aristocratic Victorian Stewart Granger gets away scot-free from poisoning his wife... only trouble is, maid Jean Simmons had a swell view of the action, and now she’s got blackmail on her mind. Time for one more murder — but where did she go in this blasted fog?
1:30, 5:05, 8:40
“Granger and Simmons, husband-and-wife team of the time, are well matched in this florid Edwardian thriller. The film's gusto is infectious.”
– Time Out (London)
“Redolent with the menacing Victorian atmosphere of melodramas such as Gaslight and The Lodger. Among the pleasures are the Technicolor cinematography of Christopher Challis, who worked as camera operator or cinematographer on most of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s stunning color films, and Benjamin Frankel’s elegant musical score.”
– Margarita Landazuri
“Filmed in appropriately dank Technicolor, an unusual foray into Gaslight territory with a switch reminiscent of Fatal Attraction.”
– All Movie Guide
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AUGUST 12 WED
 HELL IS A CITY
(1959, Val Guest) First Inspector Stanley Baker must block out constant nagging from his wife, solve the robbery and murder at jovial if crooked Donald Pleasence’s bookmaking establishment, and track down a prison escapee, who’s out to get revenge on Baker for sending him up. Manchester locations in striking b&w HammerScope.
1:30, 3:30, 5:30, 7:30, 9:30
“A persuasively sweaty crime thriller, this atypical Hammer production benefited from a strong cast and fine use of location photography (in ‘Hammerscope’). The atmosphere is seedy and downbeat, and there's a striking performance by Billie Whitelaw in a period when she seemed to specialise in ‘fallen women.’”
– Time Out (London)
“Shot on grimy location in Manchester, its eager to get its hands dirty.” – The L Magazine
“A superior British offering. Particularly fine is the gritty, realistic depiction of Manchester
and its surrounding countryside which gives added excitement to the final car chase.”
– Phil Hardy
“Engrossing, making crisp, restrained use of a cops-and-robbers chase yarn to line up a persuasive gallery of characters while shaping a lifelike movie mosaic... about as British as British can be.”
– Howard Thompson, The New York Times
“With its tough approach and patchwork of small scenes, this exciting thriller was the forerunner of much British TV cops-and-robbers to follow.” – David Quinlan
“Baker’s most richly intense role. The bleak Lancashire settings give a raw, edgy quality to the mise-en-scène, which is mirrored in the tense edginess
of Baker’s performance as the tough city boy. It succeeds through an intelligent and adroit reworking of generic conventions.”
– Andrew Spicer, British Crime Cinema
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AUGUST 13 THU (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
 SO EVIL MY LOVE
(1948, Lewis Allen) On a boat back from Jamaica, Victorian widow Ann Todd saves artist, criminal on the run, and homme fatale Ray Milland from malaria and falls for him as well. Her reward: a descending spiral through betrayal, blackmail, reverse blackmail and murder... but there’s a final twist. With Geraldine Fitzgerald.
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“Gives off a pungent whiff of sulphur and greasepaint. Allen directs this depravity and old lace with finesse.
Milland, Todd, and Fitzgerald are excellent and surrounded by a selection of gems from London’s acting treasury.”
– John Douglas Eames, The Paramount Story
 THE BROTHERS
(1947, David MacDonald) Turn-of-20th-century Isle of Skye: bootlegger Finlay Currie hires straight-from-the-convent Patricia Roc to be housekeeper for him and his two sons — big mistake! “Duel in the Sun in the Upper Hebrides” (William K. Everson), with highlights including death by rowing and execution by seagull. Print courtesy Stanford Theatre Foundation and UCLA Film and Television Archive.
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“A SURPRISING AND STRIKING BRITISH FILM OF ITS TIME.”
– Leslie Halliwell
“A strange tale of feudin' and fightin', of lust and jealousy and revenge, among the dark, dour, shaggy crofters of the mist-shrouded island of Skye, told with a great deal of beauty.”
– The New York Times
“Heady mixture of sex, superstition, and murder.” – David Quinlan
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AUGUST 14/15 FRI/SAT
(2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
“Two quintessential spiv dramas!”
– J. Hoberman, Village Voice
 NIGHT AND THE CITY
(1950, Jules Dassin) Richard Widmark’s Yank Harry Fabian steers suckers to Francis L. Sullivan’s clip joint, but dreams of moving up — and so begins his headlong nocturnal run through a sleazy London, encountering nice girlfriend Gene Tierney and Brit Noir icons Googie Withers and Herbert Lom en route. Click here for more information about Night and the City.
2:45, 6:25, 10:05
“IT MAY WELL BE THE DEFINITIVE FILM NOIR in its hyperactive transmutations of London
into a web of alleys and underground dens, its fevered chiaroscuro, its angular, fragmented images,
and in Richard Widmark’s bravura performance of a born loser.”
– Foster Hirsch
“A hard-boiled fable. Mixes the fantastic and the real with masterly ease.”– Michael Sragow, The New York Times
“The exemplary Film Noir. Dassin's over-the-top mise-en-scène turns all of London into a giant expressionist trap in this darkest of Noirs.”
– Elliott Stein, The Village Voice
 IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY
(1947, Robert Hamer) Another rainy Sunday in London’s East End — and another dull one for housewife Googie Withers. But then who should show up, but ex-lover John McCallum, fresh from his Dartmoor prison breakout. Click here for more information about IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY.
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![*****[FIVE STARS]](../stars/5starssmnoquotes.gif) [FIVE STARS]
"ABSOLUTELY EXHILARATING! A bleak thriller realized with utter vibrancy, Robert Hamer’s savory stew of
London’s lower class roils with an emotional brutality and precision that most films don’t dare attempt, let alone achieve.
Dense and compact, melodramatic but never maudlin."
– Stephen Garrett, Time Out New York
"A MASTERPIECE of dead ends and might-have-beens, highly inventive in its use of flashbacks and multiple overlapping narratives,
and brilliantly acted by Withers and McCallum… a sprawling, Altmanesque tapestry of East End life… Hamer might have been one of the major figures in modern British cinema.
As things stand, It Always Rains on Sunday is a major work, badly in need of rediscovery."
– Scott Foundas, The Village Voice
"ONE OF HAMER’S MASTERPIECES… It starts out with a typical Film Noir situation: a woman helps an escaped convict who was once her lover.
But Hamer demolishes this plot, transforming it into A BRILLIANTLY WRITTEN CHORAL WORK in which the destinies of a multitude of characters crisscross."
– Bertrand Tavernier, Film Comment
"A fascinating noirish look at life in London’s East End… the scenes between Withers and McCallum are stunningly erotic,
and the movie ends with a spectacular chase through the London streets and rail yards. It was shot by Douglas Slocombe,
whose use of lighting deep within the frame may prefigure Robert Krasker’s work in The Third Man."
– David Denby, The New Yorker
"Delivers an existential wallop for the ages!" – S. James Snyder, The New York Sun
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AUGUST 16/17 SUN/MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
 VICTIM
(1961, Basil Dearden) With homosexuality still then a crime in Britain, it’s a blackmailer’s paradise and lawyer Dirk Bogarde gets caught up in it. But in the wake of a tragic death, other closets are opened. For-its-time courageous social protest that led to the repeal of Britain’s anti-gay laws.
Sun 3:30, 7:25
Mon 3:30
Click here to watch the trailer
“Recommended! An exemplary thriller way ahead of its time.”
– Time Out New York
“Dirk Bogarde gives the commanding performance one has long expected from him. With a fine control of gesture and tone
he conveys
both the suffering of the man condemned by nature and the resolve of the man bent on sacrifice.”
– Dilys Powell
“A daring step for both its director and star. Bogarde remains the film’s most fascinating ingredient: characterised by resolute continence
punctuated with eruptions of desperate candour, his performance speaks of a determined self-policing that has cordoned off passion.
There are many pleasures to be found in the quirky supporting cast, expressive, Noir-style lighting and an effectively suspenseful opening.”
– Time Out (London)
“Retains much of its punch today! An excellent thriller, so intricately plotted and well acted that the topical elements never overtake the drama.
Dirk Bogarde gives a knockout performance, but Victim also presents a gallery of memorable minor characters.”
– Bright Lights Film Journal
 Tiger bay
(1959, J. Lee Thompson) Polish sailor Horst Bucholz murders his girlfriend when he catches her en flagrante, but his gun ends up in the hands of the only witness, lonely tomboy Hayley Mills. And as a fiercely loyal bond is forged, Hayley’s tall tales increasingly frustrate Inspector John Mills (her real-life dad). Strikingly atmospheric location at the eponymous Cardiff docks.
Sun 1:30, 5:25, 9:20
Mon 1:30
“Hayley Mills navigates the psychic roller coaster with gusto, and she forges a touching connection with Buchholz’s vivid, emotionally chaotic seaman. Add her father John as the police superintendent–his scenes with her are marvels of dense manipulation–and Thompson’s eye-opening look at Cardiff’s multicultural underclass, and you’ve got a minor classic.”
– Michael Sragow, The New Yorker
“Has movingly human performances, generates great tension.”
– David Quinlan
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AUGUST 17 MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
  I MET A MURDERER
(1939, Roy Kellino) On the run after killing his wife (well, she did
shoot his dog), James Mason accepts a lift from travelling novelist
Pamela Kellino (later Mrs. Mason) and a bond develops — but is
he just material for her next novel? All outdoors location-shot indie
production — then a rarity — put together by the three principals
as a personal showcase.
7:50 ONLY
“One of Britain's earliest bona-fide Film Noirs (despite almost exclusively sunny exteriors),
I Met a Murderer was also a rare example of Cassavetes-style independent filmmaking in Britain.”
– William K. Everson
“Graceful, gallant, resourceful and in every way satisfying.
Better and more enjoyable than most studio pictures.”
– James Agee
 THE SEVENTH VEIL
(1945, Compton Bennett) So why can’t pianist Ann Todd play anymore?
Psychiatrist Herbert Lom helps peel back the eponymous
veils, flashbacking through a brutal headmistress, amours
with a painter and a bandleader, and her guardian and
brooding, crippled svengali James Mason. Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
6:00, 9:30
“A rich, portentous mixture of Beethoven, Chopin, Kitsch, and Freud... Highly entertaining.
Maybe, with a few veils stripped away, all of us have a fantasist inside who gobbles up this sadomasochistic sundae.”
– Pauline Kael
“Mixes a heady stew of kitsch, culture and Freud. With Mason providing the catchpenny dream of (masochistic) romance -
lame, dark and sardonically brooding, he's the guardian who relentlessly drives her towards success”
– Tom Milne, Time Out (London)
“A splendid modern melodrama in the tradition of Jane Eyre and Rebecca;
it set the seal of moviegoing approval on psychiatry, classical music, and James Mason.”
– Leslie Halliwell
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AUGUST 18 TUE (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
 SO LONG AT THE FAIR
(1950, Antony Darnborough & Terence Fisher) In Paris with her brother for the 1889 Great Exposition, Jean Simmons finds he’s suddenly disappeared — and nobody, including their hoteliers, believes that he was ever there. Except, that is, penniless artist Dirk Bogarde — and an eerie quest begins. With Bond Girl (Goldfinger) Honor Blackman and a Ben Frankel (The Clouded Yellow, The Seventh Veil) score.
1:00, 4:30, 8:00
Listen to discussion of So Long at the Fair on BBC Radio 4's The Film Programme
“An elegantly shot paranoid classic.”
– Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger
“Imminently satisfying... a mystery which really baffles.” – William K. Everson
“This moody period Noir oozes with sinister charm and suspense.”
– The Onion AV Club
“Has a premise that bears similarities with Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes, but also looks forward to Preminger's Bunny Lake is Missing.
Though leisurely paced, the intriguing narrative holds one's interest through the unexpected but plausible resolution and the authentic period detail,
lavish art direction and impeccable performances by the main principals help suspend disbelief.”
– Jeff Strafford
“Uses period elegance to lull and comfort the audience only to transmute it,
as the suspense builds, into an uneasy, unsettling atmosphere.”
– Seattle International Film Festival
“Quite suspenseful: certainly a mystery with a difference.” – David Quinlan
 THE CLOUDED YELLOW
(1951, Ralph Thomas) Ex-spy Trevor Howard finds cataloguing a butterfly collection has its dangers, as troubled Jean Simmons, falsely accused of murder, needs his old skills to break out of jail; and so begins a breakneck chase across the Lake District.
2:40, 6:10, 9:40
“Those who adored the sort of thrillers Hitchcock made, and those who just love a good 'chase' film should not miss.
One of those top-drawer melodramas, charged with mystery and atmosphere, that goes careening through
endless tight places while moving with the velocity of a train.
A first-rate job of fast film-making in a crisp, naturalistic style,
up and down the actual face of England, has been accomplished by all hands.”
– The New York Times
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AUGUST 19/20 WED/THU (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
 THE OCTOBER MAN
(1947, Roy Baker) After a bus accident in which a little girl is killed, John Mills is depressed, guilt-ridden, and twice attempts suicide. And when fellow hotel resident Kay Walsh is found murdered, guess who’s Suspect #1? — with even Mills fearing he may be the psycho killer. Written by espionage titan Eric Ambler. With Joan Greenwood, Kay Walsh, Juliet Mills (as the little girl).
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“Recommended! AS GOOD AS BRITISH NOIR GETS.” – Time Out New York
“The familiar story is brought to life by subtly subjective direction that emphasizes the the character's reticience and anxiety,
while the the oppressive middle-class boardinghouse where much of the action takes place is described with acerbic precision.
Baker does not indulge in stylistic extravagances but his film seems all the better, and all the more British, for his self-effacing steadiness and concentration.”
– Dave Kehr, The New York Times (July 28, 2009 )
“Very much in the Hitchcock/Lang tradition. An essay in style and mood… deserves renewed attention.” – William K. Everson
“Baker used chiaroscuro lighting and unbalanced, cluttered compositions to create a repressive, claustrophobic environment.
Whereas an American Noir hero would strive to prove his innocence, Mills is plunged into an existential nightmare... recalls French Poetic Realist thrillers.”
– Andrew Spicer
“Nice blend of character study, mystery and suspense, with excellent attention to suburban detail.” – Leslie Halliwell
“A new type of thriller in which tension is heightened by the vivid realism of its setting and the complete credibility of its characters.” – Reynolds News
 THE GREEN COCKATOO
(1937, William Cameron Menzies) Song and dance man John Mills, guv’nor of the eponymous nitery, helps new-girl-in-town René Ray flee a false murder charge, except neither knows the corpse is Mills’ brother Robert Newton, and both cops and the real killers are hot on their trail. Screenplay by Graham Greene (his first). Music by Miklós Rózsa. Cinematography by Mutz (Max) Greenbaum (Night and the City, Hatter's Castle, Wanted for Murder).
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“Mutz Greenbaum's chiaroscuro photography depicts London's shadowy demimonde,
Soho, the 'square mile of vice,' with its sleazy nightclubs and vicious, marauding criminals.”
– Andrew Spicer
“Sleazy and remarkable.” – Leslie Halliwell
“A major curiosity among British films... the action scenes have vitality and punch. Robert Newton successfully steals every scene he's in.” – William K. Everson
“Moves at a hectic pace, punctuated with knife fights, punch-ups, cabaret scenes and even the odd Shakespearean quotation.
Cameron Menzies displays his usual flair for atmosphere in the Soho scenes, a hunt among ruined buildings and a racetrack sequence.”
– Phil Hardy
“A tough little thriller that brings its star a James Cagney-style role.” – David Quinlan
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AUGUST 21/22 FRI/SAT
(2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
 HELL DRIVERS
(1957, Cy Endfield) Ex-con Stanley Baker joins William Hartnell’s crew of gravel-hauling truckers, unaware that Hartnell and his screw-loose foreman Patrick McGoohan are running a payroll-skimming scam, while encouraging hairraising reckless driving. Jam-packed cast includes Peggy Cummins (Gun Crazy), Herbert Lom, David McCallum (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.), and a pre-007 Sean Connery.
1:30, 5:20, 9:10
Click here to watch the trailer
“An unjustly neglected nail-biter. This is the stuff that B-movie dreams are made of, and Hell Drivers does its damnedest to deliver bottom-of-the-bill bliss. Rough, urgent cynicism is the name of the game; there’s precious little Hawksian camaraderie, only capitalism and cutthroat competition. Like its antiheroes, the film moves at a full-throttle pace and hugs the curves remarkably tightly.”
– David Fear, Time Out New York
“ONE OF THE REAL DISCOVERIES OF THE SERIES! Achieves an intensity of action and an existential resonance comparable to The Wages of Fear.”
– Dave Kehr, The New York Times (July 28, 2009)
“This presentation of physical stress vivifies life experience that even good Brit playwrights Terence Rattigan and Arnold Wesker couldn’t do. Endfield’s road race scenes have a pulse-quickening, Wellesian kineticism and physical truth that should astonish Cameron-Wachowski fans who think excitement is synonymous with CGI.”
– Armond White, NY Press
Click here to read full review
“A CLASSIC B! Stanley Baker, British cinema's reigning tough bloke throughout the 1950s,
plays a dare-devil trucker in this highly effectively, somewhat politicized cousin to Clouzot’s existential nail-biter Wages of Fear.”
– J. Hoberman, Village Voice
“Absurd, violent, hilarious and constantly surprising melodrama with the silliest of premises backed by a good cast and well handled thrill sequences.”
– Leslie Halliwell
“Reworks popular Hollywood genres, the Western and tough crime thrillers like Raoul Walsh’s They Drive by Night, to create a frontier world of gravel pits,
chalk quarries, roadhouses, and repair yards. For aficionados of British acting, there are rich pickings.
Pounds with raw energy and violence that sets its apart from the typical British film.”
– Andrew Spicer, British Crime Cinema
“Rough, tough stuff.” – David Quinlan
 NEVER LET GO
(1960, John Guillermin) “You’re not tough enough, Johnny” observes his wife to drab cosmetic salesman Richard Todd, then his uninsured car gets stolen by biker Adam Faith. Bad enough, but Faith’s psycho boss — Peter Sellers, in a rare non-comedy role — doesn’t like Todd doing his own investigating. Brit Bicycle Thief with a twist.
3:35, 7:25
Click here to watch the trailer
“If you'd care to see Peter Sellers in a complete switcheroo from the comedies that brought him initial fame, head straight for this nerve-wracking thriller. Todd's bulldog grit comes to the surface, resulting in some totally harsh behavior when he stands up to sadistic Sellers. Fans of nasty nonsense should cream in their jeans at this one.”
– Elliott Stein, Village Voice
“Stolid homegrown crime caper, considered very brutal in its day, with a self-consciously strident use of 'adult' language.
Quite persuasive turns from Todd and Sellers.”
– Time Out (London)
“A middle class Bicycle Thieves.”
– Raymond Durgnat
“The dialogue is crisp and brutal, the camera angles and lighting as severe as anything shot by John Alton, and the narrative tensions adequately frayed
by the
squealing horns of John Barry's big jazz score. Its macho pessimism approaches camp, just enough to convey self-aware amusement but not undermine the story.
Sellers exploits his comedic remove to make Meadows a terrifying offbeat villain.”
– PopMatters
“A shockingly violent yet engaging crime drama, Guillerman's overlooked film is a great pulpy British Noir.”
– All Movie Guide
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AUGUST 23/24 SUN/MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
 GASLIGHT
(1940, Thorold Dickinson) So is Diana Wynward going mad? That’s what hubbie Anton Walbrook (The Red Shoes) seems to be telling her, even as he flirts with the maid in front of her face. A very different atmosphere from the Hollywood remake, with over-the-edge performance from Walbrook.
Sun 1:00, 4:40, 8:20
Mon 1:00, 4:40
“One of the finest of all British thrillers, suspenseful, well-acted and with superb recreation of Victorian England.
This is Dickinson’s best film, not at all eclipsed by the American remake.”
– Georges Sadoul
“Boasts an urgency and a narrative attack, as well as a firm hold on period melodrama, leagues beyond the plush, enjoyable Cukor version. Dickinson’s archetype-creating thriller offers a tensile nightmare vision of Victorian marriage. The silky Anton Walbrook glints with sadistic calculation as the worldly spouse of the sensitive Devonshire lass played with heart-stabbing fragility by Diana Wynyard. Dickinson conjures a claustrophobic intensity that he relieves with a superb music-hall scene—and that he caps with a climax that is quick, exact, and cathartic.”
– Michael Sragow, New Yorker
“In its own small-scale way a superior film by far [to the Hollywood remake]. Lurking menace hangs in the air like a fog,
the atmosphere is electric, and Wynyard suffers exquisitely as she struggles to keep dementia at bay.”
–
Time Out (London)
“Thorold Dickinson shows that he can use detail to its best effect.
Enjoyable and exciting, the atmosphere of Victorian discipline and well-ordered discomfort is most skillfully conveyed.”
– Dilys Powell
“Absolutely effective film version of a superb piece of suspense theater.” – Leslie Halliwell
“A film of such meticulously fostered suspense and verve that it's hard to believe its director was a last-minute substitute.” – Bruce Bennett, The New York Sun
“Flat-out melodrama. The heart of the film is a matter of elegant, suspenseful camera movements in the claustrophobic decor of the Victorian interior.”
– David Thomson
 HATTER’S CASTLE
 (1941, Lance Comfort) Scotland, 1880s: successful hatter Robert Newton (in full-blooded form) builds his own stone castle and tyrannizes employees and family alike, coming between daughter Deborah Kerr and suitor James Mason, and driving a son to suicide.
Sun 2:40, 6:20, 10:00
Mon 2:40
“A coruscating exposé of the hypocrisy of the Victorian paterfamilias.
The brutality of Robert Newton assumes epic proportions, finally consumed in his own Gothic pile.”
– Andrew Spicer
“Full-bodied it certainly is, with Robert Newton in top and totally uninhibited form.” – William K. Everson
“An entertaining slice of Victorian melodrama. Ends up in madness and conflagration.” – Tom Milne, Time Out (London)
“Enjoyable period melodrama with a rampant star performance and good detail.” – Leslie Halliwell
RETURN TO TOP.
AUGUST 24 MON
(Separate Admission)
 THE UPTURNED GLASS
(1947, Lawrence Huntington) Surgeon James Mason’s lecture
concerns a “colleague’s” dilemma: after curing Rosamund John’s
daughter from blindness, the unhappily-married-to-others couple
find love. But when John is later reported dead from a fall from a
window, Mason smells a rat. Mason’s wife Pamela Kellino co-wrote,
as well as playing the nastiest character of all.
6:45 ONLY
“Swooningly masochistic, directed by the smooth, insinuating Huntington.”
– Dave Kehr, The New York Times (July 28, 2009)
“Has some interesting concepts and a twisty plot. Depends, wisely enough, on Mason’s strong personality.”
– David Shipman
“The psychology is genuine; so too is the tension; the camera plays some good quiet tricks.” – William Whitebait
RETURN TO TOP.
AUGUST 24 MON (Separate Admission)
OBSESSION
(1948, Edward Dmytryk) It’s the last straw for psychiatrist Robert Newton when his floozy wife Sally Gray takes up with a Yank — who then ends up chained to a bed in the cellar of bombed-out ruin for the next months, even as Newton starts filling up a bathtub with acid. Music by Nino Rota!
8:30 ONLY
Listen to discussion of OBSESSION on BBC Radio 4's The Film Programme (July 31, 2009)
“Convulsively pessimistic.” – Raymond Durgnat
“Newton plays a man whose mind is consumed by sexual jealousy, becoming an aesthete of crime, creating a strange, macabre bond with his victims
who must appreciate the logic, and the beauty, at their fate at the hands of a man of far greater sensitivity and depth of feeling.”
– Andrew Spicer
“Certainly Dmytryk's best British film. An intriguing 'perfect murder' thriller.
Perhaps only Buñuel could have done justice to the flavour.”
– Time Out (London)
“A witty and genuinely suspenseful comedy-thriller… still holds up surprisingly well.” – William K. Everson
“Solid suspense value.” – David Quinlan
RETURN TO TOP.
AUGUST 25 TUE (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
 APPOINTMENT WITH CRIME
(1946, John Harlow) Back from prison after a smash and grab at a jewelry store goes memorably sour, William Hartnell’s
plan for revenge and blackmail goes worse — the murder weapon actually belonged to his boss, kingpin Herbert Lom; and a double chase begins.
1:00, 4:45, 8:30
“Has the blunt efficiency of an American B-picture.”
– Dave Kehr, The New York Times (July 28, 2009)
“After the war, British crime films become considerably tougher. Appointment with Crime ushered in the new trend with considerable aplomb. Imaginatively and forcefully directed by the little-known Harlow, the film is distinguished by its credible story, settings, and characters. Hartnell evoked contemporary comparisons with James Cagney.”
– Phil Hardy
 GOOD TIME GIRL
(1948, Donald MacDonald) Tired of getting beat up by Dad, 16-year-old Jean Kent runs off to work at Herbert Lom’s night club, but rejected slimeball Peter Glenville
(later Becket director) gets her framed and sent to a reformatory — and then things really go bad. With future sex symbol Diana Dors.
2:55, 6:40, 10:25
“A glimpse into a delicately Noir underworld.”
– Phil Hardy
“Macdonald's enjoyably trashy flick concerns a young woman who gets into the company of black marketeers,
army deserters, razor slashers—you name it—and ends up...well, find out for yourself. Since it's well-directed and acted,
and dishy Diana Dors is also in the cast, there are worse ways to waste 92 minutes.”
– Elliott Stein, Village Voice
“Contains a colorful gallery of low-life types. The glimpses of life in this West End milieu,
along with the later scenes of booze-filled hedonism, convey the lure of escape from the confines of austerity Britain,
and do so all the more strikingly, perhaps for seeming not to be artistically ‘placed’ by the film’s makers.”
– Tom Pulleine, British Crime Cinema
RETURN TO TOP.
AUGUST 26 WED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
 THE LONG HAUL
(1957, Ken Hughes) After ex-G.I. Victor Mature realizes his job trucking between Liverpool and Glasgow is just a front for thieving, he gets beaten up, spends the night with racketeer’s moll Diana Dors, and sees his truck stolen — and then it’s a race with the coppers and insurance investigators to get Dors and a truckload of stolen furs through the Scottish lochs.
1:30, 5:30, 9:30
“A tough, exciting movie that is remarkably full of nasty and sleazy characters.”
– Phil Hardy
“Its use of Liverpool locations was representative of late Noir's turn to northern industrial cities,
which carried with it, as in the New Wave films, connotations of virile and working-class masculinity.”
– Andrew Spicer
“Unsavory.”
– David Quinlan
 THE GOOD DIE YOUNG
(1954, Lewis Gilbert) Four war vets plot an armored car robbery: deserter John Ireland needs dough to hang on to cheating wife Gloria Grahame; Richard Basehart has to get wife Joan Collins away from her nutso mum; ex-pug Stanley Baker’s just lost all his last prize money; and gambler Laurence Harvey has been told by wife Margaret Leighton to get a job or else.
But then...
3:30, 7:30
“Quintessential Film Noir with an outstanding cast. The mood is captured by Jack Asher’s high-contrast back-and-white photography.“
– Geoff Mayer, The Encyclopedia of Film Noir
“The climactic chase through underground stations is worth waiting for.” – Leslie Halliwell
RETURN TO TOP.
AUGUST 27 THU (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
 CORRIDOR OF MIRRORS
(1948, Terence Young) Artist Eric Portman is ecstatic when he meets Edana Romney, the spitting image of a 400-year old portrait stashed in his home, along with dummies sporting lavish period costumes. And then Portman’s number one fan is found strangled next to the slashed portrait. Debut of the original Bond director
(Dr. No) — and Christopher Lee.
1:30, 5:30, 9:30
“One of the most unique British films of the 40s and virtually unclassifiable. Recognizably influenced by films as
diverse a La Belle et la Bete and Brief Encounter, a strange film, lyrical, romantic, sometimes quite moving.”
– William K. Everson
“ARGUABLY THE MOST PECULIAR BRITISH MOVIE OF THE 1940s, this bizarre gothic reincarnation drama was shot in France where it seems to have picked up a few of Jean Cocteau's surrealizing mannerisms. Devotees of high camp will dine out for months on this one. It's overstuffed Grand Guignol, but a hoot and a half.”
– Elliott Stein, Village Voice
“THEY DON'T COME STRANGER.” – David Shipman
“The most formally adventurous of the British Gothic Noirs, blending high Expressionism with English Gothic,
to provide a visual equivalent to the study of male psychological breakdown.”
– Andrew Spicer
 WANTED FOR MURDER
(1946, Lawrence Huntington) Inspector Roland Culver and Sergeant Stanley Holloway find a handkerchief next to Victim 6 of a serial strangler; meanwhile, businessman Eric Portman thinks clerk Sally Gray is just like his mother, but she’s already got a beau, murder suspect Derek Farr. Could she be #7? Co-written by Emeric Pressburger.
3:30, 7:30
“A Fritz Lang or Robert Siodmak (The Killers) type film. A major asset is the extensive use of exterior London locations,
and especially the parks and the Hampstead Heath areas so convenient for the mayhem of homicidal maniacs.”
– William K. Everson
“A pleasant and unpretentious thriller.”
– James Agee
“Portman, the most prolific male Noir actor, plays an introspective, psychologically driven serial killer.”
– Andrew Spicer
RETURN TO TOP.
FRI, AUGUST 28 through TUES, SEPTEMBER 1 (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
 BRIGHTON ROCK
(1947, John Boulting) It’s a seaside holiday weekend at Brighton, but “Kolly Kibber” keeps looking over his shoulder for “Pinkie” (Richard Attenborough), razor-wielding teenage gangleader, while a blowsy blonde keeps asking all these questions. Screenplay by Graham Greene, from his own novel. Click here for more information about Brighton Rock.
1:00, 4:40, 8:20
“ONE OF THE FINEST BRITISH THRILLERS EVER.” – Time Out (London)
“One of the strongest Graham Greene adaptations. Attenborough, silent, calculating, pale, and unblinking,
offers one of the cinema's most convincing embodiments of paranoia and violence. "
– David Denby, The New Yorker
Click here to read full review
"A REDISCOVERED CLASSIC! A NOIR MASTERPIECE!"
– Stephen Whitty, The Newark Star-Ledger
Click here to read full review
"The exquisitely rendered atmosphere of desolation in this moody 1947 classic hasn't dated one bit."
– New York magazine
"Attenborough makes one of the screen's most indelible psychos. An awfully good Noir all around shot in sharp, pungent black and white. The beaches, the pubs, the claustrophobic hideouts—all have been beautifully captured here."
– Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune (August 9, 2009)
"A seedy Noir, equal parts concealed-camera atmosphere and tense set pieces.
More Dickensian than usual for Greene, there's colorful, larger-than-life supporting players aplenty, and strong location shooting."
– Vadim Rizov, Village Voice
Click here to read full review
| SPECIAL EXTENDED ENGAGEMENT
Double feature: BRIGHTON ROCK and THE FALLEN IDOL
Sunday, Aug 30-Tue, Sept 1 • 3 additional days!
Click here for more information
(see additional BRIT NOIR programs for Aug 30 - Sept 1 below) |
 THE FALLEN IDOL
(1948, Carol Reed) With mum and ambassador dad both away for the weekend, eight-year-old Bobby Henrey’s only companions are his beloved pet snake, Ralph Richardson’s Baines the butler, and fearsome Mrs. Baines. But when Henrey trails Baines to a tryst with Michèle Morgan, he enters a world of lies that unintentionally implicate his idol in murder. Written by Graham Greene from his own short story. Click here for more information about The Fallen Idol.
2:50, 6:30, 10:10
“IT REMAINS UNSURPASSED!”
– Anthony Lane, The New Yorker
Click here to read full review
“Lesser known [than The Third Man], but equally brilliant. Laced with moral ambiguity, Noir was a natural fit for Graham Greene, who was fascinated by paradox, betrayal, and lost innocence.”
– Kristin M. Jones, The Wall Street Journal (August 18, 2009)
Click here to read full review
“Although it's not as well known as The Third Man, this is an equally great Reed picture. It's the director's most moving film, and a suspense story on the highest level. Bobby Henrey gives a brilliant child star performance.”
– Elliott Stein, Village Voice
Click here to read full review
“You won’t find anything else half as entertaining!”
– Stuart Klawans, The Nation
“DON’T MISS! [An] exquisitely plotted murder mystery!”
– Time Out New York
Click here to read full review
“One of the most brilliant demonstrations of point of view filmmaking…
reminds us of the glories of the black-and-white cinema at its peak.”
– Andrew Sarris, The New York Observer
Click here to read full review
“A superior psychological drama… As the eponymous idol, Richardson is quietly splendid. His buttoned-up butler is an amiable fabulist,
roguish yet decent, understated but passionate. The yearning with which he regards the radiant Morgan fuels the movie.”
– J. Hoberman, The Village Voice
Click here to read full review
RETURN TO TOP.
AUGUST 30/31 SUN/MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
 THE CRIMINAL
(1960, Joseph Losey) In between prison stints, where he easily becomes kingpin despite brutal warden Patrick Magee, Stanley Baker pulls off a big racetrack robbery and buries the swag — but when there’s a woman involved he’s got to break out. With stark Robert Krasker photography and Johnny Dankworth jazz score.
Sun 2:55, 6:40, 10:25
Mon 1:00, 4:45
Click here to watch the trailer
“Losey's American eye and expertise make it jaggedly explosive and visually brilliant,
A MILLION MILES BEYOND OTHER BRITISH CRIME MOVIES.”
– Tom Milne, Time Out (London)
“Recommended! This terrifically concentrated prison movie has much more on its mind than typical escape attempts.”
– Time Out New York
“For its period a remarkably uncompromising film, this benefits from the director's copious research which included help from real-life underworld figures. Stanley Baker gives one of the major performances of his career in the lead role of a gangland king who escapes from the clink. Losey's impeccable direction creates a vision of the British prison system as a hellish melting pot, a metaphor for an oppressively materialistic and class-ridden society.”
– Elliott Stein, Village Voice
“Stanley Baker contributes a memorable performance as one of Losey's typically self-destructive characters.”
– Dave Kehr
“A REMARKABLY HARSH AND UNCOMPROMISING FILM. The sensation of physical and psychological entrapment pervades the entire film. So all-encompassing is this feeling, so fatalistic the narrative’s sense of inevitability, that Losey’s concerns here seem as much existential as purely social in scope. Everywhere the constructive décor seems to press in on the characters, and its pared-down, spare quality works as a disturbingly powerful evocation of the emptiness and poverty of their inner lives.”
– Phil Hardy, The Gangster Film
“Stanley Baker's key role. The ending, in a nondescript bleak field, whose elegant starkness is the culmination of cinematographer Kraskner's harsh, alienating visual style, the opposite of the romantic Expressionism of his work for Carol Reed.”
– Andrew Spicer
 Yield to the night
(1956, J. Lee Thompson) Nightclub hostess Diana Dors pumps lead into a rival for the affections of her pianist boyfriend. And then, in her condemned cell, the flashbacks begin, as she
waits to hear whether it’s life — a reprieve — or death. Erstwhile Blonde Bombshell Dors plays it straight in a deglamorized dramatic role, based on the real-life Ruth (Dance with a Stranger) Ellis.
Sun 1:00, 4:45, 8:30
Mon 2:55
“An oddly austere thriller. Thanks to the downbeat mood and the surprisingly effective performances,
it does grip the attention.”
– Geoff Andrew, Time Out (London)
“Diana Dors almost alone raised the standard of enjoyable affluence – this cheeky, sexy barmaid-in-sequins personifies the proletarian dream of belonging to the outwardly Americanized, chromium-plated, middle-classes. Her most interesting characterization is in Yield to the Night.”
– Raymond Durgnat
“Not only was Dors cast against type so that the unglamorized scenes in the cell offer an unexpectedly intimate glimpse of a vulnerable, unsure woman, but her sexual allure in the flashbacks help to create a woman who is sensual, intelligent and ambitious. The clarity of Yield's thematic analysis and its arresting visual style were modernist and anticipated the developments which were to come in British Noir.”
– Andrew Spicer
RETURN TO TOP.
AUGUST 31 MON
(Separate Admission)
 THE MAN BETWEEN
(1953, Carol Reed) In
divided post-war Berlin,
Claire Bloom pays a
visit to her brother,
whose wife Hildegarde
Neff is having secret
meetings with shady
go-between and pre-war
lawyer James Mason.
But even as Bloom
finds herself drawn to
Mason, a kidnapping
attempt, a bigamy revelation, and a kidnapping of the wrong
person lead him to a desperate choice, and a classic Reed climax.
7:00, 9:00
“Very much a return to the world of Harry Lime, with the ruins of edgy, divided Berlin standing in for the sewers of Vienna.
The drab, snow-clad city finds its human counterpart in Mason's sardonic, disreputable double agent.
Cold war dogmatism is refreshingly muted, with free world heroes and Stalinist heavies merely a backcloth
to the complexly ambiguous relations centred on Mason.”
– Time Out (London)
“Reed knows all the tricks of suspense and how to use locations.” – David Shipman
“Displays Reed's love of photogenic corruption, his technical finesse, and his feeling for atmospheric intrigue.” – Pauline Kael
RETURN TO TOP.
SEPTEMBER 1 TUE (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
 THE SNORKEL
(1958, Guy Green) Peter van Eyck’s perfect locked-room, looks-like-suicide murder starts things off fast. But his stepdaughter isn’t buying it, even telling him she’s determined to find out how he did it — big mistake?
2:50, 6:25, 10:00
“OPENS WITH ONE OF THE MOST MEMORABLE PRE-CREDITS SEQUENCES FOUND IN A THRILLER.
This clever and twisted thriller, as well as Peter van Eyck’s chilling performance,
is overdue for greater exposure.”
– John M. Miller
 SHE PLAYED WITH FIRE
(1957, Sidney Gilliat) Is Dennis Price scamming the insurance company with his claim for valuable paintings supposedly destroyed in a fire?, wonders adjuster Jack Hawkins, even as he’s distracted by Price’s wife, his own ex-lover... Arlene Dahl. But in the wake of another fire, a body, a £30,000 claim, and a blackmailer — who’s fooling whom?
1:00, 4:35, 8:10
“An echo of early Hitchcock and Agatha Christie, its a cozy, civilized, non-violent but quite absorbing mystery with its own surprises – one is never sure whether Arlene Dahl is a destructive James Cain femme fatale or not.”
– William K. Everson
“Slickly handled.”
– Leslie Halliwell
“Polished and satisfying.”
– David Quinlan
RETURN TO TOP.
SEPTEMBER 2/3 WED/THU
 PEEPING TOM
(1960, Michael Powell) “All this filming, it’s not healthy.” Writer Leo Marks: “How would you like to open a film?” Director Michael Powell: “With a kill.” The bodies pile up as sensitive film studio focus puller Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm) moonlights as “private” photographer of scantily-clad women, while obsessively working on his own “documentary” with the world’s most lethal tripod. Obviously, this perverse examination of “scoptophilia” wasn’t the expected from the director of such artistically acclaimed works as Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes (returning to Film Forum in a stunning new 35mm restoration, Nov. 6-19) and Powell’s career was effectively destroyed by the critical savaging: “The sickest and filthiest film I remember seeing” – “It’s been a long time since a film disgusted me as much as Peeping Tom” – “The only really satisfactory way to dispose of Peeping Tom would be to shovel it up and flush it swiftly down the nearest sewer.” In the ensuing decades, the film’s stature has skyrocketed, with critics and audiences continuing to cringe at its unsettling mayhem, their nerves already lacerated by the garish color photography and design, as well as the jangling piano-and-bongo score; but now relishing the seemingly endless and blackly playful variations on “seeing” and identity: the blind character who “sees” Mark’s true nature; the director of the film within the film played by a blind actor (Esmond Knight); the amateurish, yet chilling, b&w home movies of eight-year-old Mark and his psychologist father, played by Powell’s son Columba and the director himself; the casting of Powell favorite Raymond Massey’s daughter Anna (in her debut) and The Red Shoes’ Moira Shearer – both as victims; even the name “Mark Lewis” was conjured up screenwriter/WWII codemeister Leo Marks (later the devil’s voice in Scorsese’s Last Temptation). Andrew Sarris called it “a consciously nightmarish inspiration for a new generation of American filmmakers,” chief among them Martin Scorsese, who once observed that, “from Peeping Tom and 8 ½ you can discover everything about people who make films, or at least people who express themselves through films.”
Wed 1:30, 3:30, 5:30, 7:30, 9:30
Thu 1:30, 3:30
“POWELL'S MASTERPIECE. This seductive, brightly colored thriller isn't about the ‘problem’ of voyeurism as much as the sub-rosa fascinations of the cinema. It's an understanding and at times even celebratory film– attitudes that scandalized critics years ago and are still pretty potent today.”
– Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
“A masterpiece full of dread, raw with vulgarity. No wonder the critics were shocked, the film was so far ahead of the game.”
– David Thomson
“An undeniable – if unsavory – classic, Released in Britain barely a month before Psycho had its American premiere, Powell's serial-killer saga is no less perverse and perhaps even more disturbing. Peeping Tom exerts an awful fascination, as well it might. This is the movie that puts the sin in cinephilia.”
– J. Hoberman, Village Voice
“A certifiable masterpiece. Powell's still-unnerving study of voyeurism and the allure of cinema, shot in lush, pulpy color.”
– Kristin M. Jones, The Wall Street Journal (August 18, 2009)
“Visually elegant, endlessly perverse. This film's endless, often outrageously Freudian allusions to the nature of seeing, possessing and exploiting that make it one of a kind. Its status as the kinkiest of cinema-conscious classics remains assured.”
– Janet Maslin, The New York Times
“THE QUINTESSENTIAL MICHAEL POWELL FILM. It is at once mischeveious and compassionate, ironic and evangelistic, comic and tragic. A film of visceral terror.”
– Nigel Andrews and Harlan Kennedy, Film Comment
“Film Noir at it's self-referential best. Pushes the boundaries of what could be considered classic Noir– in saturated, almost pornographic Technicolor– but makes up for this with its unflinching (and for the time, daring) attention to one of Film Noir's main themes, sexual perversity and obsession. One of the best and most influential examples of what was an exceptionally productive period in British cinema.”
– Interview Magazine (August 27, 2009)
RETURN TO TOP.
SEPTEMBER 3 THU (Separate Admission)
 NO ORCHIDS FOR MISS BLANDISH
(1948, St John L. Clowes) NYC’s Grissom gang (mostly Brits with bad accents), led by dice-loving Jack LaRue and nasty ol’ “Ma,” waste bumbling kidnappers and take over their prize: a filthy rich heiress (Linden Travers) and her priceless rocks. But what if she likes being a hostage? Typical review: “sickening exhibition of brutality, perversion, sex and sadism” — but now seen simply as the most bizarre British film ever.
6:30 ONLY*
*Q&A with cast member Richard Neilson and original U.S. distributor Richard Gordon following screening
“A faux–American gangster flick in which a ripe-for-depravity debutante falls for the spiv who kidnaps her—and vice versa. It’s a love story. Waxing poetic, an Observer reviewer once rhapsodized that the movie had ‘the morals of an alley cat’ and ‘the sweetness of a sewer’—blandishment enough for anyone.”
– J. Hoberman, Village Voice (August 6, 2009)
“ A CONFIDENT, WELL-CRAFTED HOMAGE TO HOLLYWOOD. The sets, the acting, the smoothly effective direction are all remarkably good, redolent of a short-lived maturity attained by British cinema in the late '40s... The film's 'hero' is indeed a nasty piece of work.”
– Time Out (London)
“Very much an attempt at a full-blooded gangster movie a l’Americaine.
Moves at a breakneck pace punctuated by regular bouts of violence, glossy nightclub scenes and scenes of sexual interest.”
– Phil Hardy
“A wicked disgrace to the British film industry.” – Daily Express
“The morals are about level with those of a scavenger dog.” – Daily Express
“All the morals of an alley cat and all the sweetness of a sewer.” – Observer
“Seeing the film today, one is struck by how much more brazen about sex and violence it is than any of the films that were earning British Cinema a new respect at home and abroad. Unashamedly melodramatic, it also foregrounds the issue of female sexuality with a boldness not to be found in films of the earlier 1940s.”
– Brian McFarlane, British Crime Cinema
Listen to WNYC's interview with Richard Gordon & Richard Neilson
RETURN TO TOP.
SEPTEMBER 3 THU (Separate Admission)
 NOOSE
(1948, Edmond T. Gréville) When a corpse turns up at black market front The Blue Moon Club, Yank reporter Carole Landis starts snooping, much to gang boss Joseph Calleia’s annoyance. And soon there’s a hit man on the way... Right: American insert poster with its slightly-altered U.S. title, The Noose
8:50 ONLY
“A little-seen gem, with black humor, rapid-fire dialogue, and a whiff of phantasmagoria.”
– Kristin M. Jones, The Wall Street Journal (August 18, 2009)
“Calleia is a vicious Mafia-style gangster nastier than Edward G. Robinson ever was in his heyday.
Taking the whole thing by the scruff of the neck, the talented Gréville turns it into something rich, strange and rather wonderful.
His boldly stylised direction, backed by Hone Glendining's expressionistic lighting and the daringly over-the-top performances,
GIVES THIS GRIPPINGLY BLACK YET BLEAKLY FUNNY THRILLER AN ALMOST WELLESIAN EDGE.”
– Tom Milne, Time Out (London)
“A crisp, punchy and expertly directed spiv thriller.”
– Elliott Stein, Village Voice
“Stylish and extremely fast-paced, distinguished by excellent playing from the menacing Calleia, Carole Landis,
and above all Nigel Patrick who turns in a superbly comic performance which quite dominates the action.”
– Phil Hardy
“Cast in the smart-talking mold of American B pictures.”
– Tom Pulleine, British Crime Cinema
RETURN TO TOP.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4 - THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 • TWO WEEKS
Click here for more information
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