Noir Noël
To throw a little healthy skepticism into the holiday season, the Gene Siskel Film Center presents Noir Noël, celebrating the perennially fascinating cycle of moody crime movies that arose from the anxieties of post-World War II America. The eight-film series runs from December 8 through January 4.
We most recently feted film noir in 2001 and 2004, but there are still plenty of rarities, rediscoveries, and restorations around to whet the appetite of even the most jaded noirhounds. The series kicks off with new restorations of two long-unscreened classics: Raoul Walsh’s paranoid chiller THE ENFORCER with Humphrey Bogart, and Joseph H. Lewis’s ultra-perverse THE BIG COMBO. The latter is the centerpiece of a Lewis “triple bill” that includes the sleeper B-gothic MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS and the sexy couple-on-the-run saga GUN CRAZY. A recently restored print of Jacques Tourneur’s NIGHTFALL and an archival print of Jules Dassin’s THIEVES’ HIGHWAY also grace the series, which concludes with a two-film tribute to John Berry, the blacklisted director of TENSION and HE RAN ALL THE WAY.
Most of the films in this short series fall into film noir’s second phase, when the risky romanticism of the mid-1940s segued into the bleaker regions of middle-class discontent and Cold War paranoia. The shadow of the blacklist hangs heavily over these films, with many of their key creative personnel under investigation, about to go into exile (Dassin, Berry), or screenwriting anonymously behind “fronts” (Dalton Trumbo on both GUN CRAZY and HE RAN ALL THE WAY). The full-blown baroque style of THE BIG COMBO places it alongside KISS ME DEADLY and TOUCH OF EVIL in the final phase of film noir’s Golden Age.
-- Martin Rubin
feature films
New restored print!
THE ENFORCER
1951, Raoul Walsh and Bretaigne Windust, USA, 88 min.
With Humphrey Bogart, Zero Mostel
Syndicate-gangster films plugged into the paranoia of the early fifties, none more chillingly than this tale of a tough D.A. (Bogart) struggling to uncover a murder-for-hire organization whose sinister power literally drives people out of their minds with fear. Credited director Windust fell ill after a couple of days and was replaced by action ace Walsh, whose hand is evident in the film’s taut style and exciting climax. Newly restored 35mm print courtesy of the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Preservation funded by The Film Foundation and American Movie Classics. (MR)
Friday, December 8, 6:00 pm
Monday, December 11, 6:00 pm
Joseph H. Lewis triple bill!
Three classic B’s by film noir’s master of offbeat eroticism.
Reduced admission! Attend all three Lewis films at this discount price (tickets must be purchased at the same time): General Admission $21; Students $17, GSFC Members $13.
GUN CRAZY
1949, Joseph H. Lewis, USA, 86 min.
With Peggy Cummins, John Dall
Crime has rarely seemed as sexy or as stylish as in this legendary cult film about a hayseed (Dall) and a carnival sharpshooter (Cummins) whose shared passion for firearms sends them outside the law and into each other’s arms. Dynamically directed (including a celebrated single-take bank robbery filmed from the back seat of the getaway car), GUN CRAZY often seems like a New Wave film ten years ahead of its time. 35mm. (MR)
Friday, December 15, 7:45 pm
Saturday, December 16, 3:00 pm
New restored print!
THE BIG COMBO
1955, Joseph H. Lewis, USA, 89 min.
With Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte
Presented in a newly restored print, Lewis’s other masterpiece is much more rarely screened than GUN CRAZY and even more perverse. Imaginative violence (the hearing aid!), spectacular cinematography (by noir legend John Alton), a pair of patently gay gunsels (Lee Van Cleef, Earl Holliman), and a pioneering implication of oral sex (with classy blonde Jean Wallace on the receiving end) enhance this twisted tale of a rogue cop (Wilde) obsessed with both destroying a mobster (Conte) and possessing the mobster’s mistress (Wallace). 35mm print courtesy of the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Preservation funded by The Film Foundation. (MR)
Saturday, December 16, 4:45 pm
Wednesday, December 20, 6:00 pm
MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS
1946, Joseph H. Lewis, USA, 65 min.
With Nina Foch, George Macready
Lewis first made a splash with this shoestring sensation, a damsel-in-distress gothic in the tradition of The Woman in White and Rebecca. An American girl (Foch) in London takes a secretarial job and finds herself trapped in a Cornwall mansion with a psychotic “husband” (Macready). Jonathan Rosenbaum (Reader) calls it “remarkable. . . dripping with low-budget resourcefulness.” 35mm. (MR)
Saturday, December 16, 6:30 pm
Monday, December 18, 6:00 pm
New restored print!
NIGHTFALL
1957, Jacques Tourneur, USA, 78 min.
With Aldo Ray, Anne Bancroft
Tourneur’s skill with atmosphere made him a master of the horror film (CAT PEOPLE) and the film noir (OUT OF THE PAST). Here he effectively counterpoints the snowy white expanses of Wyoming and the oily black confines of Los Angeles, as a hunted man (Ray) crosses paths with a disillusioned model (Bancroft), a dogged investigator (Paul Gregory), and two ruthless bank robbers (Brian Keith, Rudy Bond). Newly restored 35mm print courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment. (MR)
Friday, December 22, 6:00 pm
Wednesday, December 27, 8:15 pm
THIEVES’ HIGHWAY
1949, Jules Dassin, USA, 94 min.
With Richard Conte, Valentina Cortese, Lee J. Cobb
“One of the best noirs ever made. . . a terrific, fast-moving thriller.”--Jonathan Rosenbaum, Reader
Although not as well known as BRUTE FORCE or THE NAKED CITY, this tough-as-nails tale of cutthroat corruption in the fruit-peddling trade is Dassin’s best American film (and his last before going into blacklist-imposed exile). Writer A.I. Bezzerides (KISS ME DEADLY) based the script on his own experiences; of special note is the Code-bending heat generated by trucker Conte and streetwalker Cortese. Archival 35mm print courtesy of 20th Century Fox. (MR)
Tuesday, December 26, 7:45 pm
Thursday, December 28, 6:00 pm
Directed by John Berry!
Two rare noirs by the blacklisted director with a talent for expressive space and psychological tension:
HE RAN ALL THE WAY
1951, John Berry, USA, 77 min.
With John Garfield, Shelley Winters
Written and directed by recent or soon-to-be blacklistees, this jangly pressure-cooker of a movie throbs with an extra layer of anxiety. It was HUAC-hounded John Garfield’s final film before a fatal heart attack; his desperation burns through the screen as he plays a fugitive cop-killer who latches onto winsome Winters and terrorizes her family. Terrific claustrophobic cinematography by James Wong Howe. 35mm. (MR)
Friday, December 29, 6:00 pm
Wednesday, January 3, 8:15 pm
TENSION
1950, John Berry, USA, 95 min.
With Richard Basehart, Audrey Totter, Cyd Charisse
Pushed around by his slutty wife (bimbo extraordinaire Totter) and her bully boyfriend (Lloyd Gough), nebbish druggist Basehart changes his identity and gets involved with a nice girl (Charisse, who makes a spectacularly leggy entrance). Throwing a twist into this familiar adultery set-up is Barry Sullivan as an Ellroy-level unethical cop who functions as both deus ex machina and Brechtian commentator. 35mm. (MR)
