“The A-List of American Noir! 34 indispensable titles! There’s just no substitute for experiencing it in a theater... For a survey, this is close to ideal - one-stop shopping, even.” – Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York “Quite possibly the most fruitful [period] in film history! Essential... take in these 34 classics, and you’ll have learned more about film history, and the history of American culture, than any film studies course can teach you.” – Saul Austerlitz, NY Press “34 treasures of shadows and light, masterful mood pieces... of anxiety, sin and sex.” – Melissa Anderson, New York Sun “A month’s worth of tough guys, double-crossing dames, dark, rain-slicked streets, shadowy gunmen in trenchcoats and the inevitable Venetian blinds.” – Jim Beckerman, Bergen Record (Click here to read entire article)

SERIES ENDED

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE SCHEDULE OF SERIES ALPHABETICALLY AND BY DATE

DOUBLE INDEMNITY

(1944, BILLY WILDER) “Memorandum: I killed Dietrichson. Me, Walter Neff, insurance salesman, 35 years old, unmarried, no visible scars. Until a while ago, that is. . .” Fred MacMurray and icy blonde Barbara Stanwyck team up to whack her husband to the tune of “Tangerine,” despite snooping colleague Edward G. Robinson, in the ne plus ultra of film noir, adapted by Wilder and Raymond Chandler from the James M. Cain novel. 1:10, 5:20, 9:50

MILDRED PIERCE

(1945, MICHAEL CURTIZ) Joan Crawford’s only Oscar winner, as onetrack- minded daughterloving Mildred relentlessly moves from housewife to waitress to restaurant mogul, en route dumping husband Bruce Bennett and acquiring sleazeball playboy Zachary Scott — or does she? The adaptation of James M. Cain’s steamy pulp classic required nine writers, among them William Faulkner. “More authentic suggestions of sex than one hopes to see in American films.” – James Agee. 3:15, 7:30

DETOUR

(1945, EDGAR G. ULMER) New York-to-L.A. hitchhiker Tom Neal’s pickup of the aptly-named Ann Savage leads to blackmail and death. Produced by a bottom-of-the-barrel Poverty Row studio, Detour was ignored when first released and didn’t even rate a New York Times review until 1992, when Vincent Canby called it “one of the defining films of the seductive genre the French critics called film noir.” 3:00, 6:20, 9:40

CRISS CROSS

(1949, ROBERT SIODMAK) “I shoulda been a better friend. I shoulda stopped you. I shoulda grabbed you by the neck. I shoulda kicked your teeth in.” When honest armored car guard Burt Lancaster is caught compromised with ex-wife Yvonne de Carlo by new hubby Dan Duryea, his only choice is to hold up his own truck. 1:05, 4:25, 7:45

FORCE OF EVIL (1948, ABRAHAM POLONSKY) Quintessential NYC Noir, poetically written and directed by soon-to-be blacklisted Polonsky, as successful attorney John Garfield doesn’t blink at being front man for mobsters until brother Thomas Gomez wants out. “Moodily and brilliantly photographed in New York streets, gloweringly well-acted and generally almost as hypnotic as Citizen Kane.” – Leslie Halliwell. 1:05, 4:35, 8:05

THE NAKED CITY

(1948, JULES DASSIN) The seminal all-location NYC policier from the director of the French noir Rififi (though director Dassin is actually a native New Yorker). When a young woman is murdered on W. 83rd, the 10th Precinct’s Barry Fitzgerald and Don Taylor track down leads from Stillman’s Gym to the Roxy Theater to the City Morgue to Roosevelt Hospital, with final showdown on the Williamsburg Bridge. 2:40, 6:10, 9:40

GUN CRAZY

(1949, JOSEPH H. LEWIS) A bank robbery shot from inside the getaway car in a single, partly-improvised 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. “Its intensity borders on the subversive and surreal.” – Time Out (London). 1:00, 4:35, 8:10

THEY LIVE BY NIGHT

(1949, NICHOLAS RAY) “This boy and this girl were never properly introduced to the world we live in.” Injured after a bank job, neophyte crook Farley Granger finds doomed love with care-giver Cathy O’Donnell, while the rest of the gang gets picked off by the cops. Nick Ray’s directoral debut features an under-the-credits getaway via Hollywood’s first-ever helicopter shot. 2:45, 6:20, 9:55

THE LOST WEEKEND

(1945, BILLY WILDER) Failed writer Ray Milland hits the sauce and bottom — in Oscar winner for director and star — in Wilder’s harrowing portrait of an alcoholic. Among the famous sequences: the desperate trek for money past actual Third Ave. pawnshops closed for Yom Kippur. “New York brutally stripped of all glamour.” – Tom Milne. 1:40, 5:20, 9:10

THE BIG CLOCK

(1948, JOHN FARROW) Monomaniacal media mogul Charles Laughton orders Crimeways Magazine editor Ray Milland to track down a murderer — with all clues pointing to Milland himself. “Will remind you not only of The Blue Dahlia but of Graham Greene and Hitchcock, with a dash of Hammett and Ambler.” – David Shipman. 3:30, 7:20
Click here to read THE NEW YORKER review

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. En route, the 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. 1:30, 5:20, 9:10

THE ASPHALT JUNGLE

(1950, JOHN HUSTON) “Crime is a left-handed form of human endeavor.” Back from the pen, criminal mastermind Sam Jaffe recruits strong-arm Sterling Hayden, driver James Whitmore, and safecracker Anthony Caruso for that big heist, with backing from lawyer/fence Louis Calhern (whose “niece” is Marilyn Monroe) — but thieves will fall out. The first of the Big Caper pictures, adapted from the W.R. Burnett (Little Caesar, High Sierra) classic. 3:10, 7:00

LAURA

(1944, OTTO PREMINGER) Clifton Webb’s elitist columnist Waldo Lydecker acidly narrates, as detective Dana Andrews, on the brink of necrophilia, falls in love with portrait of murdered Manhattan smart-setter Gene Tierney. The classic romantic noir is “ripe with perverse sexual overtones” (Foster Hirsch). 3:00, 6:25, 9:50

PHANTOM LADY

(1944, ROBERT SIODMAK) “You like jive?” “You bet. I’m a hep kitten.” Ella Raines and Franchot Tone desperately roam the sizzling New York streets for a condemned man’s only hope to beat a wife-murder rap — the nameless woman he met in a bar. With orgasmic Elisha Cook Jr.’s drum solo. From the Cornell Woolrich novel. 1:15, 4:40, 8:05

PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET (1953, SAMUEL FULLER) Lowlife grifter Richard Widmark and “muffin” Jean Peters save the world from communism in Fuller’s streetwise demonstration of democracy in action. Beginning with a startling use of close-ups to chronicle a pickpocket’s pursesnatch in a crowded NYC subway, it moves by turns into a torrid love story and espionage thriller. 3:00, 6:30, 10:00

KISS OF DEATH (1947, HENRY HATHAWAY) “I thought you was my pal!” Even the Tombs looks good to kid-loving squealer Victor Mature, after being tormented by giggling psycho Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark’s electrifying debut), forever enshrined in movie baddiedom as the guy who propels an old lady in a wheelchair down a flight of stairs. 1:05, 4:35, 8:05 Click here to read THE NEW YORKER review

THE MALTESE FALCON

(1941, JOHN HUSTON) The stuff dreams are made of, as Bogart’s Sam Spade traipses through Hammett’s San Fran to recover that damned tchotchka — despite the malevolent connivings of perfumed-card-carrying Peter Lorre’s Joel Cairo, “Fat Man” Sidney Greenstreet’s Kasper Gutman and Mary Astor’s two-faced “Miss Wonderly.” 1:05, 4:35, 8:05

THIS GUN FOR HIRE

(1942, FRANK TUTTLE) “How do you feel when you’re doing it?” “I feel fine.” Laconic killer Alan Ladd cheerlessly goes about his business, getting mixed up with slinky saloon singer Veronica Lake and seeking revenge on double-crossing fifth columnist Laird Cregar. Based on Graham Greene’s A Gun for Sale. “Ladd employs a repertory of classic gestures: no wonder Melville and Delon lifted so much of it for Le Samourai.” – Time Out (London). 3:00, 6:30, 10:00
Click here to read The New Yorker review.

DECEMBER 10/11 FRI/SAT (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1946, TAY GARNETT) “Give me a kiss or I’ll sock ya.” More film blanc than noir, as screencombusting lovers John Garfield and Lana Turner — dressed more for Park Ave. than the greasy spoon she slings hash in — plot to do away with her nice but old husband. Heavily censored from the James M. Cain novel, but as director Garnett once crowed, “We still managed to get the sex across.” 1:20, 5:15, 9:10 THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (1948, ORSON WELLES) “If I’d only known where it would end, I’d never have let anything start.” Footloose Irish sailor with literary aspirations Welles gets mixed up in murder with crooked and disabled lawyer Everett Sloane and his sultry wife Rita Hayworth (Mrs. Welles at the time), as Byzantine plot complications ensue, highlighted by the legendary Hall of Mirrors finale. “A reversion to the style of Citizen Kane: deeply shadowed photography, ogreish close-ups, settings heavy with association.” – Dilys Powell. “Remains Welles’s most purely enjoyable film.” – Joseph McBride. 3:30, 7:25 RETURN TO TOP.

THE KILLERS

(1946, ROBERT SIODMAK) “Don’t ask a dying man to send his soul to hell!” Gas jockey/boxer Burt Lancaster (in his debut) holes up in a small dark room awaiting William Conrad and Charles McGraw — his own assassins — as insurance dick Edmond O’Brien unearths the whole sordid tale, including dirt on two-timing Ava Gardner. The original Hemingway story is dispensed with after the first ten minutes. “A prime example of post-war pessimism and fatalism.” – Time Out (London). 1:20, 5:25, 9:30

GILDA (1946, CHARLES VIDOR) Down-and-outer Glenn Ford’s pledge of loyalty to Buenos Aires nightclub magnate George Macready is threatened when the boss produces a wife — Rita Hayworth! “There never was a woman like Gilda!” shouted the ads, and there never was a star as electrifying as Hayworth, from her hair-tossing first close-up to her teasing bumps and grinds to the strains of “Put the Blame on Mame.” 3:25, 7:30 RETURN TO TOP.

THE BIG SLEEP

(1946, HOWARD HAWKS) Hired by a hothouse-ensconced retired general to investigate his nympho daughter’s gambling debts, Humphrey Bogart, as Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe, finds the dames — including a very young Dorothy Malone as the bookseller — keep throwing themselves at him even as corpses keep dropping, while he and Lauren Bacall take time for a memorable double entendre conversation about race horses. Co-scripted by William Faulkner. 1:20, 5:20, 9:20

MURDER, MY SWEET

(1944, EDWARD DMYTRYK) “I caught the blackjack right behind my ear. A black pool opened up at my feet. I dived in.” Dick Powell’s Philip Marlowe, sweating through a police grilling, flashes back to tell this story of murder, blackmail, sadism, and sexual servitude, in the picture Chandler considered the best of all his novel adaptations (based on Farewell, My Lovely) — and the prototypical 40s noir. 3:30, 7:30

THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW

(1944, FRITZ LANG) Professor Edward G. Robinson takes up Joan Bennett’s “come up and see my sketches” invitation, then, after blackmail by low-life “boyfriend” Dan Duryea and the ensuing murder, gets to watch his old buddy DA Raymond Massey “use the law to nail a man” – Robinson himself. “An exceptionally intelligent thriller.” – David Shipman. 1:00, 4:40, 8:20

THE BIG HEAT

(1953, FRITZ LANG) Blowing up rogue cop Glenn Ford’s wife proves a tactical error for the town’s kingpin, in Lang’s powerhouse crime picture. Hood Lee Marvin, goodhearted moll Gloria Grahame (“no one else projected quite the same combination of traits — dumb, sullen, devoted, available, steamy” – Foster Hirsch), and a pot of scalding hot coffee add sizzling support. Screenplay by noir specialist Sidney Boehm. 2:55, 6:35, 10:15

SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS

(1957, ALEXANDER MACKENDRICK) “Come here, Sidney. I want to chastise you.” The rancid underside of the Great White Way, as Tony Curtis’s sycophantic publicist Sidney Falco plays errand boy to Burt Lancaster’s Winchell-like columnist J.J. Hunsecker, while menaced by sadistic cop Emile Meyer. James Wong Howe’s glistening, location-shot b&w cinematography captures late-50s midtown in the minutest detail, from the marquees of Times Square to a shadowy street below the Queensboro Bridge. 1:35, 5:25, 9:15

Links

• Click here to read Andrew Sarris' review from the New York Observer
• That Old Feeling: Sweet Smells Richard Corliss on a fabulous old film - and a new Broadway musical - about America's love of gossip BY RICHARD CORLISS - Time Magazine article about SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS
• The New York Times article about SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS by A.O. Scott
• Jack Mathews Article about SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS in the March 3, 2002 New York Daily News
• The New York Times article about Bruce Goldstein looking for the today's remnants of SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS' Times Square
• Click here for more information about SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS

TOUCH OF EVIL

(1958, ORSON WELLES) Mexican narc Charlton Heston, on a Yankee honeymoon with gringa bride Janet Leigh, finds himself pressed into service by memorably bloated police chief Welles when a car bomb vaporizes two Tijuana day-trippers. With a legendary opening crane shot that follows the actors for blocks; Marlene Dietrich’s deadpan, dark-wigged madam: and an elaborate chase through the canals of Venice. . . California. 3:20, 7:10

• Click here for more information about TOUCH OF EVIL
• Classic Movies TOUCH OF EVIL Page

SHADOW OF A DOUBT

(1943, ALFRED HITCHCOCK) As wealthy widows keep disappearing, Joseph Cotten’s lovable Uncle Charlie visits his niece “Young Charlie” (Teresa Wright) in her very average middle-American town (shot-on-location Santa Rosa, California), but when someone mentions “The Merry Widow Murderer” . . . Often claimed as Hitchcock’s own favorite, this is perhaps his ultimate evocation of evil nestling among the pleasantly mundane. Authentic downhome Americana provided by Thornton Wilder (Our Town) and Sally Benson (Meet Me In St. Louis). 1:20, 5:20, 9:20

OUT OF THE PAST (1947, JACQUES TOURNEUR) “Nobody’s all bad, deep down.” “She comes the closest.” Jane Greer lives up to the billing as she sucks ex-detective Robert Mitchum back into a past he thought well-buried. An oily young Kirk Douglas co-stars in one of the most beautiful of all noirs, photographed by Nicholas Musuraca. 3:25, 7:25 RETURN TO TOP.

KISS ME DEADLY

(1955, ROBERT ALDRICH) Wearing a raincoat for a nightie and panting orgasmically, Cloris Leachman’s nighttime encounter with Ralph Meeker’s “bedroom dick” Mike Hammer leads him on a search for a mysterious box. Aldrich on his and scripter A.I. Bezzerides’ adaptation of the Mickey Spillane pulp: “We just took the title and threw the book away.” “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. 1:30, 5:30, 9:30

STRANGERS ON A TRAIN

(1951, ALFRED HITCHCOCK) Interesting proposition for Farley Granger from cheerful psycho Robert Walker: he’ll kill Granger’s wife, in exchange for Granger killing Walker’s dad — just a joke? Co-scripted by Raymond Chandler from the Patricia Highsmith novel. The carousel gone haywire ranks among Hitch’s greatest set pieces. 3:30, 7:30

NIGHT AND THE CITY

(1950, JULES DASSIN) Richard Widmark is a sleazy Yank con man on the lam from nightclub fatcat Francis L. Sullivan through the shadowy streets of seedy Soho — London, that is — in what is practically a British Sweet Smell of Success. A much darker follow-up to Dassin’s Naked City, featuring a London underworld that few will recognize. With Gene Tierney, Googie Withers. 1:30, 5:20, 9:10

• Click here to read Pauline Kael’s review in the New Yorker.
• Jules Dassin Biography
• Information about both NIGHT AND THE CITY Scores
• Click here for more information about NIGHT AND THE CITY

THIEVES’ HIGHWAY

“A steamy existential romance.” – Michael Sragow, The New Yorker. [Click here to read entire review]

(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. “You will never be able to eat an apple again without calling up visions of trickery, mayhem, vandalism and violent death.” – New York Times. Screenplay by A.I. Bezzerides, from his own novel.
3:30, 7:20

Click here to read Michael Sragow’s review in the New Yorker

RETURN TO TOP.

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THE ART OF NOIR
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