Tuesday, July 2, 5:00 PM
LIFEBOAT (1944): In this bottle feature, seven survivors of a shipwreck must decide whether to trust the German member of the U-Boat that torpedoed their ship, and left them all stranded in a tiny lifeboat, as he is the only one among them with seafaring skills. The moral calculations each must make motor this thriller to a satisfying conclusion. Dir. Alfred Hitchco*ck
Thursday, July 4, 8:15 PM
NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959): Foreign agents mistake suave and swinging advertising man Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) for a spy. He takes it on the lam and encounters a beautiful blonde (Eva Marie Saint) who may or may not be trusted. This film earned 3 Oscar nominations: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color; Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen; and Best Film Editing. Dir. Alfred Hitchco*ck
Saturday, July 6, 7:07 AM
THE FALCON’S ALIBI (1946): Tom Lawrence (Tom Conway) aka “The Falcon” takes sets out on the trail of a society matron's lost jewels. Dir. Ray Mccarey
Noir Alley
Saturday, July 6, 9:15PM & Sunday, July 7, 7:00 AM
FNF Prez Eddie Muller presents
ARMORED CAR ROBBERY (1950): In this awesome little action-packed noir, a police officer, Charles McGraw in a rare outing as a good guy, tries to find half a million dollars stolen by gangsters. Dir. Richard Fleischer
Sunday, July 7, 8:30 – 5:00 PM
Film Noir Mini-Marathon
8:30 AM
CAGED (1950): This film noir in women-in-prison clothing details the transformation of a young, naïve and pregnant widow (Eleanor Parker) into a hardened convict. She learns the hard way how to survive in the big house from a sad*stic prison guard (Hope Emerson) and the failure of a good-hearted warden (Agnes Moorehead) to reform the prison. This is more than an exploitation flick, it’s an intelligent social drama and raises a still prescient issue facing the American penal system, is it reforming first time offenders or just turning prisoners into career criminals? Nominated for three Oscars including Best Actress for Parker and Supporting Actress for Emerson. Dir. John Cromwell
10:15 AM
WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962) A crazed, aging star (Bette Davis) torments her sister (Joan Crawford) in a decaying Hollywood mansion. This beautiful Hollywood gothic noir features a duet of superbly fearless performances by two legendary actresses. Nominated for five Oscars, but only one win, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White for Norma Koch Dir. Robert Aldrich
12:45 PM
PSYCHO (1960): Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) impulsively embezzles $10,000 dollars from her employer and takes it on the lam. She checks into the Bates Motel, meets the queer but attractive Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), takes a shower and makes cinematic history. A detective (Martin Balsam), Miriam’s sister (Vera Miles) and her boyfriend (John Gavin) all arrive to look for the missing Miriam. Long time Hitchco*ck collaborator Bernard Herrmann created the rightfully legendary score. The immensely talented old time radio actress Virginia Gregg provides the voice of Norman’s mother Norma Bates. Dir. Alfred Hitchco*ck
3:00 PM
DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944): Barbara Stanwyck—in a platinum blonde wig—plays Phyllis Dietrichson—the consummate femme fatale who lures insurance salesman and all-around chump Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) into a plot involving murder and insurance fraud. His friend, and insurance adjuster, Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) smells a rat. Nominated for seven Oscars: Best Actress in a Leading Role; Best Cinematography, Black-and-White; Best Director; Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture; Best Picture; Best Sound, Recording; and Best Writing, Screenplay. Dir. Billy Wilder
Monday, July 8, 4:30 AM – 5:00 PM
Brit Crime Marathon
4:30 AM
MURDER MOST FOUL (1964): Elderly sleuth Miss Marple joins a small-town theatre to investigate a murder of a landlady. The case has already been closed by the police, but she believes that the lodger convicted in the crime is innocent. Extremely loosely based on Agatha Christie’s Mrs. McGinty's Dead which is actually a Hercule Poirot story (again) and is a jolly good read (and pretty dark). Dir. George Pollock
6:30 AM
BLANCHE FURY (1948): In this British Technicolor crime drama, genteel but poor Blanche Fury (Valerie Hobson) becomes the governess for Lavinia, granddaughter of her rich uncle Simon. Desiring position and security, she marries her insipid cousin Laurence (Michael Gough). Dissatisfied with the marriage, she begins an affair with Philip Thorn (Stewart Granger), the illegitimate and only son of the former owner of the estate, Adam Fury. They conceive a plan to murder her husband and uncle, leaving evidence to blame local gypsies, whom her uncle had antagonized in the past. Adapted from 1939 novel by Joseph Shearing. Dir. Marc Allégret
8:30 AM
SO LONG AT THE FAIR (1950): In this period piece Brit Noir, a woman (Jean Simmons) searches for her missing brother in Paris when he and the hotel room he was staying in disappear. Of course, no one else believes that he existed in the first place. Dir. Terence Fisher
10:00 AM
THE 39 STEPS (1935): When a beautiful double agent he was trying to help gets killed, and he stands accused of the crime, vacationing Canadian Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) must go on the run across the U.K. both to save himself and to stop a spy ring trying to steal top-secret information. Along the way he handcuffs himself to lovely lass (Madeline Caroll) who thinks he’s a bad’un. Dir. Alfred Hitchco*ck
11:30 AM
SAPPHIRE (1959): Sapphire, a young pregnant woman, is found murdered on Hampstead Heath. The police shortly discover that she was black but passed as white. The investigating officers (Nigel Patrick and Michael Craig) must deal with the racism in London at the time and within themselves as they search for her killer. Dir. Basil Dearden
1:30 PM
GREEN FOR DANGER (1946): In this taught Brit noir, a Scotland Yard inspector (Alistair Sim) investigates two deaths at a rural English hospital during. Trevor Howard and Sally Gray portray two of the suspected hospital staff. WWII. Dir. Sidney Gilliat
3:30 PM
GASLIGHT (1940): This is the first and franker big screen adaption of Patrick Hamilton's play Angel Street about a newlywed (Diana Wynyard) fears she's going mad when strange things start happening at the family mansion where her aunt was murdered ten years earlier. Anton Walbrook plays the seemingly devoted husband. Dir. Thorold Dickinson
Saturday, July 13, 1:45 AM
BADLANDS (1973): After a charismatic James Dean wannabe (Martin Sheen) kills her dad, a baton-twirling teen (Sissy Spacek) decides to join him on a shooting spree through Montana's Badlands. It’s loosely based on the Starkweather-Fugate killings of the 1950's which also inspired Bruce Springsteen’s album Nebraska and the key back story in Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners (1996). Dir. Terrence Malick
Saturday, July 13, 7:07 AM
THE FALCON’S ADVENTURE (1946): The Falcon (Tom Conway) rescues Louisa Braganza (Madge Meredith) from kidnappers who want her father's secret formula for making diamonds. Her father's murder is pinned on the Falcon and, when they flee to Florida, another murder seems to confirm his guilt. As always, Goldie Locke (Edward Brophy) is there to lend a hand. Dir. William Berke
Saturday, July 13, 1:15 PM
KEY LARGO (1948): A returning veteran (Humphrey Bogart) tangles with a ruthless gangster (Edward G. Robinson) during a hurricane while falling for his dead war buddy’s widow (Lauren Bacall). Claire Trevor steals the film with her Oscar winning performance as the gangster’s alcoholic and emotionally abused girlfriend. Dir. John Huston
Noir Alley
Saturday, July 13, 9:00 PM & Sunday, July 14, 7:00 AM
FNF Prez Eddie Muller presents
THE WOMAN ON PIER 13 (1950): Communists blackmail a shipping executive (Robert Ryan), previously a communist agitator, into sabotaging labor talks involving the union and shipping management. Dir. Robert Stevenson
Sunday, July 14, 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Burt Lancaster Film Noir Double Bill
5:00 PM
THE KILLERS (1946): Expanded from the Hemingway short story, two professional killers come to a small town looking for The Swede (Burt Lancaster). An insurance investigator (Edmond O'Brien) unravels the tangled skein of events that led up to the hit. Ava Gardner plays Kitty, the woman who led the Swede to his doom. Dir. Robert Siodmak
7:00 PM
CRISS CROSS (1949): A lovelorn loner (Burt Lancaster) returns to Los Angeles and quickly falls under the spell of his one-time flame (Yvonne De Carlo), who is now in thrall to a sinister gangster (Dan Duryea). A daring armored car robbery becomes the fulcrum of their dangerous triangle as the two men play each other while vying for the dame’s loyalty. Siodmak creates one of the most seductive and spellbinding tales of l'amour fou in the entire noir canon—a complex and elegantly told tale of desire, desperation and sudden death. Dir. Robert Siodmak
Monday, July 15, 5:30 AM
DIAL M FOR MURDER (1954): A man (Ray Milland) hires a friend to murder his wealthy wife (Grace Kelly). His plan goes awry when she stabs the would-be-murderer. Then he decides he can still get rid of her, by eroding her self-defense claim. Her ex-lover (Robert Cummings) tries to save her. Dir. Alfred Hitchco*ck
Tuesday, July 16, 10:45 AM
STORM WARNING (1951): A model (Ginger Rogers) visits her recently married younger sister (Doris Day) in small town America and witnesses a lynching. When she arrives at her sister’s home, she realizes her brother-in-law (Steve Cochran) was part of the lynch mob. Will she help the crusading D.A. (Ronald Regan) bring down the local branch of the KKK, including her sister’s husband? Dir. Stuart Heisler
Noir Alley
Saturday, July 20, 9:00 PM & Sunday, July 21, 7:00 AM
FNF Prez Eddie Muller presents
RED LIGHT (1949): This film noir features one of George Raft’s best performances! A convicted embezzler (Raymond Burr) hires a soon to be, and rather psychotic, ex-con (Harry Morgan) to act as his instrument of vengeance against his former employer John Torno (Raft) by killing his brother Jess, an Army chaplain just home from the war. John goes berserk when he finds his brother dying and vows to find the culprit. Dir. Roy Del Ruth
Wednesday, July 24, 5:00 PM
THE KILLING (1956): The best laid plans… Ex-con Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) masterminds a racetrack heist. Instead of securing the two million dollar take, his gang’s emotional entanglements bring disaster. In a quintessential piece of noir casting, Marie Windsor plays the treacherous wife of Elisha Cook, Jr. Dir. Stanley Kubrick
Saturday, July 27, 12:45 AM
THE KILLING (1956): The best laid plans… Ex-con Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) masterminds a racetrack heist. Instead of securing the two million dollar take, his gang’s emotional entanglements bring disaster. In a quintessential piece of noir casting, Marie Windsor plays the treacherous wife of Elisha Cook, Jr. Dir. Stanley Kubrick
Noir Alley
Saturday, July 27, 9:00 PM & Sunday, July 28, 7:00 AM
FNF Prez Eddie Muller presents
THE HOUSEMAID (1960): A middle-class Korean family spirals into a delirious nightmare after hiring a young housemaid (Lee Eun-shim). A unique mix of soap opera, noir, and horror. Dir. Kim Ki-young
Sunday, July 28, 12:45 AM
BERLIN EXPRESS (1948): A multinational group of travelers find themselves thrown together to thwart the assassination of a prominent pacifist scientist by defiant Nazis bent on destabilizing post-war Germany. This improbable but intelligent thriller is a true rarity: a shot-on-location look at the resistance Allied powers faced reorganizing the vanquished German citizenry in the aftermath of WWII. Robert Ryan (the laconic American) and Merle Oberon (trying a sketchy French accent) head a cast comprising representatives of each Allied Zone: Britain, France, the Soviet Union and the United States. Although spiced with shadowy noir dramatics (lensed by Oberon’s husband, Lucien Ballard), the film’s most fascinating aspect is its time capsule view of global geopolitics in the rapidly closing window between the Marshall Plan and the building of the Berlin Wall. Dir. Jacques Tourneur
Saturday, July 27, 7:07 AM
MURDER ON APPROVAL (1956): Wealthy American J. D. Everleigh purchases a rare stamp in London and comes to suspect that it is a counterfeit and hires P.I. Tom Martin (Tom Conway in one of two appearances as Martin) to investigate. In London, Martin, assisted by Barney Wilson, a reformed crook, starts down a crooked trail to get to the truth. Murder follows. Dir. Bernard Knowles
Sunday, July 28, 1:15 PM
CLASH BY NIGHT (1952): In this film noir social realism hybrid, an embittered and world-weary woman (Barbara Stanwyck) seeks escape from her life of hard knocks in marriage, only to fall for her husband's amoral best friend (Robert Ryan). The film features a small, early role for Marilyn Monroe. Based on a play by the ever-ponderous Clifford Odets. Dir. Fritz Lang
Sunday, July 28, 11:15 PM
THE AMERICAN FRIEND (1977): Tom Ripley (Dennis Hopper) embroils terminally ill Jonathan in a mafia assassination plot after he snubs him at a party. Based on the novel Ripley’s Game. Ganz is terrific, the casting of Dennis Hopper as Tom Ripley remains one of life’s great mysteries Look out for a cameo by legendary American director Sam Fuller and six more directors, all playing criminals. Dir. Wim Wenders
Monday, July 29, 3:00 AM – 5:00 AM
Film Noir Double Feature
3:00 AM
THE DAMNED DON’T CRY (1950): Fed up with her small-town marriage and life of drudgery, Ethel Whitehead (Joan Crawford) goes after the big time and by sleeping with a series of mafiasi. This fantastic film noir fable, a thinly-veiled version of the life story of gangster's moll Virginia Hill, is perhaps a truer depiction of the real Joan Crawford than Mommie Dearest (1981). Right up there with Mildred Pierce as one of Crawford's finest Warner Bros. melodramas. With Steve Cochran, Kent Smith, and veteran Joan-foil David Brian. Dir. Vincent Sherman
5:00 AM
HIGHWAY 301 (1950): Director Andrew L. Stone was known primarily for musicals before suddenly switching to a solid decade of hardboiled yarns shot largely on authentic locations. This was the first in that vein, and one of the best. Steve Cochran is a cold-blooded outlaw leading the Tri-State Gang on a robbery and murder spree through Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. The film combines the popular early-1950s “documentary” approach with flashes of wildly stylized and (for the time) graphic violence. With Virginia Grey, Gaby Andre, and Robert Webber in his feature film debut. Dir. Andrew L. Stone
Monday, July 29, 10:15 AM
SPLIT SECOND (1953): In this tense thriller, escaped convicts hold hostages in a ghost town that's the target of a nuclear bomb test. One of the cons (Stephen McNally) falls for one of the one of the hostages (Alexis Smith) and things get even tenser. Dir. Dick Powell
Monday, July 29, 6:30 PM
THE LOST WEEKEND (1945): Ray Milland won the Oscar for his performance as Don Birnam, an alcoholic writer with writer’s block who reaches the lower depths while on a bender. The story cuts between the present and the past, trying to explain what’s led him down the path of self-destruction despite the love of his brother (Phillip Terry) and his girlfriend (Jane Wyman). The film also won the Oscars for Picture, Director and Screenplay. Based on the groundbreaking novel by Charles R. Jackson Dir. Billy Wilder
Tuesday, July 30, 7:30 AM – 5:00 PM
Film Noir Mini-Marathon
7:30 AM
THE UNDERWORLD STORY (1950): The classic noir stars Dan Dureya as Mike Reese, an unethical journalist turned newspaper publisher who becomes involved in creating the news and not just writing it when there's a murder case involving another publisher (Herbert Marshall). Mike starts out doing what's best for him, but when an innocent African-American maid is framed, he starts to waver in pursuing his self-interests. Dir. Cy Endfield
9:15 AM
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (1940): An American reporter (Joel McCrea) covering the war in Europe gets mixed up in the assassination of a Dutch diplomat which leads to his uncovering a political conspiracy with the aid of the daughter (Laraine Day) of a prominent politician (Herbert Marshall) and a chap named ffolliott “with two small ‘f’s” (George Sanders), his rival for the girl’s affection. This tremendously entertaining film features several vintage Hitchco*ck set pieces. The film was nominated for six Oscars. Dir. Alfred Hitchco*ck
11:30 AM
HIGH WALL (1947): Quintessential postwar noir! Brain-damaged vet Robert Taylor confesses to murdering his unfaithful wife and is sentenced to a sanitarium. His doctor (sexy Audrey Totter) gradually realizes he might not be guilty. Taylor gives his best performance ever in this neglected gem, which glistens with director Curtis Bernhardt's feverish rain-soaked noirscapes. Dir. Curtis Bernhardt
1:15 PM
THE LETTER (1940): Bette Davis gives a masterful performance as a married woman claiming self-defense in the murder of a fellow Britisher on her husband’s rubber plantation in Malay. This succeeds both as a film noir and an incisive look into colonialism. Herbert Marshall gives a deeply empathetic performance as the loving husband. Watch for Victor Sen Yung as a solicitous lawyer’s clerk. Based on a play by Somerset Maugham, dramatized from his own short story. Nominated for seven Oscars: Best Picture; Best Actress in a Leading Role, Bette Davis; Best Actor in a Supporting Role, James Stephenson; Best Director, William Wyler; Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, Tony Gaudio; Best Film Editing, Warren Low; Best Music, Original Score, Max Steiner. Dir. William Wyler
3:15 PM
CRACK-UP (1946): A museum curator (Pat O'Brien) survives a massive train wreck but wakes up an amnesiac. It gets worse...Seems the accident never happened, and now everyone is convinced he's losing his mind. Frederic Brown's ingenious short story "Madman's Holiday" is inventively realized by Irving Reis and enacted by a top-flight cast, including suave, sinister Herbert Marshall and a sartorially splendid Claire Trevor. Dir. Irving Reis
Wednesday, July 31, 6:45 AM
BLUES IN THE NIGHT (1941): In this consummate jazz noir, pianist Jigger Pine (Richard Whorf) forms a quintet with his singer/wife fronting the band (Priscilla Lane). Relationship problems, criminal activity and the siren song of success all threaten the band’s devotion to jazz and the blues. A remarkable collection of talented actors contributes to the film, Lloyd Nolan, Jack Carson, Wallace Ford, Joyce Compton, Howard Da Silva, and a young Elia Kazan. Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer scored the film and penned the Oscar nominated title song, Blues in the Night which became a huge hit and part of the Great American Songbook. Dir. Anatole Litvak
Wednesday, July 31, 9:45 AM – 11:30 AM
The Best Laid Plans
9:45 AM
ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958): War hero Julien’s (Maurice Ronet) plan to murder his mistress’ (Jeanne Moreau) husband goes awry. Meanwhile, two teenagers steal his car and have a strange adventure. Jazz great Miles Davis created the film’s memorable score. Dir. Louis Malle
11:30 AM
ONCE A THIEF (1965): French superstar Alain Delon's first leading role in an English-language film highlights this ultra-hip 1960s heist yarn, shot entirely on location in San Francisco. The debonair Delon plays an ex-con settled into domestic semi-bliss with wife Ann-Margret, but when dogged cop Van Heflin puts the finger on him for a job he didn't pull, Delon has no choice but to throw in with his brother Jack Palance (!!!) on an actual robbery. Based on a novel by local mystery man Zekial Marko, who also acts in the film and provides exceptional '60s-hipster dialogue. Dir. Ralph Nelson
Wednesday, July 31, 12:15 PM – 5:00 PM
Dark Machinations
3:15 PM
ALL NIGHT LONG (1963): In this modern take on Shakespeare’s Othello—taking place over the course of a party— jazz musician Aurelius Rex (Paul Harris) fears his wife Delia (Marti Stevens) is unfaithful. Patrick McGoogan plays the Iago character, Johnny Cousin, the jealous drummer in Rex’s band. A bevy of contemporary musicians lends credence to the film’s 1960s London jazz scene setting: Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus, Tubby Hayes, John Dankworth and many more. Dir. Basil Dearden
8:00 PM
THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1963): In this late era noir, ex-G.I. Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) slowly begins to realize that he was brainwashed by the Koreans while he was a P.O.W. He soon suspects that his former comrade in arms Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey), who is also the stepson of a presidential candidate, is being manipulated by the Communists Angela Lansbury gives a remarkable performance as Shaw’s icy mother. Based on the novel of the same name by Richard Condon novel. Dir. John Frankenheimer
