*All times are PT. Please check your local listings to confirm dates and times.
Tuesday, April 2, 2:30 AM & Thursday, April 18, 5:00 PM
THE THIN MAN (1934): Dashiell Hammett’s urbane but fun-loving sleuths Nick and Nora Charles, along with their pup Asta, investigate the disappearance of an inventor in this classic blend of laughs and suspense. Shot in just two weeks by director Woody "One-Shot'' Van Dyke and cinematographer James Wong Howe, this gem set the gold standard for the sophisticated comedy—inspiring five sequels as well as countless inferior imitations. Van Dyke previously directed Myrna Loy and William Powell in Manhattan Melodrama and spotted the terrific chemistry of their off-screen banter between takes. He insisted on casting the pair as Hammett’s hard-drinking super-couple and the glamorous pair became one of the movies' great romantic teams. Shot by the legendary cinematographer James Wong Howe. The film garnered four Oscar nominations, Best Picture, Best actor for Powell, Best Director, and Best Writing, Adaptation for Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. Dir. Woody Van Dyke
Friday, April 5, 3:15 PM – 7:00 PM
3:15 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
5:00 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
April 6, 5:00 PM
BLOOD ON THE MOON (1948): Robert Mitchum ditches his fedora and trench coat for a Stetson and chaps in this evolutionary noir-stained Western. Robert Wise’s stellar “A” picture debut is complemented by screenwriter Lillie Hayward’s adaptation of Luke Short’s novel transplanting the rain slicked alleys of 1940s Los Angeles into the wide-open spaces of the 19th-century West. Gorgeously lensed by ace noir cinematographer Nicholas Musaraca, this picture was the forerunner of a darker genre of Westerns that became preeminent on the big and small screens during the next decade. Dir. Robert Wise
Saturday, April 6, 9:00 PM & Sunday, April 7, 7:00 AM
VIOLENCE (1947): Undercover reporter Ann Mason (Nancy Coleman) infiltrates a neo-fascist organization that recruits disgruntled war veterans with a paranoiac populist message that views both labor and management as enemies, but amnesia prevents her from exposing them. On top of that, a con artist (Emory Parnell) fleecing the organization falls for her and a government agent (Michael O’Shea) convinces her that he is her fiancé to gain access to the organization. Dir. Jack Bernhard
Sunday, April 7, 5:00 PM
YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN (1950): In this noir musical, Smoke Willoughby (Hoagy Carmichael) reminisces about his friend Rick Martin (Kirk Douglas). Aspiring jazz trumpeter Rick is torn between an honest singer (Doris Day) and a narcissistic, and possibly lesbian, heiress played by Lauren Bacall in an unusually unsympathetic role. Fame, fortune, grief, and madness follow. Script writers Carl Foreman and Edmund H. North adapted Dorothy Baker's book which in turn was inspired by jazz legend’s Bix Beiderbecke's musical life. Harry James supplied Douglas’ trumpet solos. Dir. Michael Curtiz
Monday, April 8, 11:15 PM
A WOMAN’S FACE (1941): The soon to be queen of the noirs, Joan Crawford, starred in this suspenseful drama as a facially scarred blackmailer who’s given a new outlook on life after plastic surgery. Can she adjust to a normal life and stop her ex-accomplice’s nefarious plan to murder his nephew? Dir. George Cukor
Tuesday, April 9, 7:00 PM
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
Tuesday, April 9, 10:30 PM
THE SEVENTH VICTIM (1943): A young woman (Kim Hunter) leaves school to investigate the disappearance of her beautiful and mysterious older sister (Jean Brooks). She finds out some interesting facts, one, her sister was married and two, she was part of a satanic set. The husband (Hugh Beaumont), a poet (Erford Gage) and a psychiatrist (Tom Conway) aid her search for the truth about her sister. Produced by horror icon Val Lewton. Dir. Mark Robson
Wednesday, April 10, 12:00 AM
THE VANISHING (1988): In this chilling Belgian thriller, a young man is obsessed with finding the girlfriend who vanished at a rest stop. His search leads him into terrifying territory. Please note, this is NOT for the faint of heart. Dir. George Sluizer
Friday, April 12, 1:45 PM
PURPLE NOON (1960): This lush adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s renowned crime novel The Talented Mr. Ripley stars a young and extremely handsome Alain Delon as the titular character. Dir. René Clément
Saturday, April 13, 9:15 PM & Sunday, April 14, 7:00 AM
THE BREAKING POINT (1950): This film faithfully retells the story of Hemingway's To Have and Have Not. Charter-boat skipper Harry Morgan (John Garfield) will do anything to save his boat from creditors, even smuggle illegal aliens. Things get ugly when he attempts to double cross a gangster that hires him to spirit away a group of thieves hot off a racetrack heist. Patricia Neal co-stars as the sultry moll who tries to seduce the married Morgan. Dir. Michael Curtiz
Sunday, April 14, 4:30 AM
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 Hitchcock
Sunday, April 14, 11:30 PM
DIABOLIQUE (1955): In this twisting and turning French thriller, the wife (Vera Clouzot) and lover (Simone Signoret) of a sadistic headmaster (Paul Meurisse) plot to kill him. When American producer and schlock-master William Castle saw kids standing in line in the pouring rain to watch this film, he decided that making thrillers was the direction in which to take his independent film production career. Dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot
Monday, April 15, 6:45 AM
THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1946): Drifter Frank (John Garfield) takes a job with roadside diner owner Nick Smith (Ceil Kellaway). Frank begins a torrid affair with Nick’s younger and extremely sexy wife (Lana Turner). Betrayal, murder, perversion of the law, and divine justice follow. Based on the novel by James M. Cain. Dir. Tay Garnett
Tuesday, April 16, 6:00 AM
TOUCH OF EVIL (1958): Orson Welles’ masterpiece about a narcotics agent (Charlton Heston) who unintentionally put his wife (Janet Leigh) in grave danger when he investigates a crooked cop (Orson Welles). Utterly fantastic supporting performance by Marlene Dietrich as a Mexican Gypsy whore- no, really, I mean it. Dir. Orson Welles
Wednesday, April 17, 1:30 AM
WAIT UNTIL DARK (1967): A commercial artist unknowingly brings a stash of heroin into his home. A trio of bad guys (Richard Crenna, Jack Weston and Alan Arkin) trace the dope to him. They trick him into leaving the house, but, unfortunately, his blind wife (Audrey Hepburn) is there alone. They proceed to first try to trick and then to terrorize her while she tries to figure out how to turn the tables on her unknown assailants. Hepburn earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her remarkable performance. Adapted from the Broadway hit written by Fredrick Knott and directed by Arthur Penn. Dir. Terence Young
Wednesday, April 17, 3:15 PM
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
Thursday, April 18, 6:45 PM
KILLER’S KISS (1955): Boxer Davey (Davey Gordon) becomes entangled with taxi dance Gloria (Irene Kane) drawing the wrath of her boss/gangster Rapallo (Frank Silvera) who is obsessed with her. This is director Stanley Kubrick’s second feature and his first foray into film noir. Dir. Stanley Kubrick
Saturday, April 20, 3:15 PM
LADY IN THE LAKE (1947): A lady editor (Audrey Totter) hires Phillip Marlowe to investigate the disappearance of her boss’ wife. First time director Robert Montgomery, who also starred as Marlowe, chose to shoot the entire film from Marlowe’s POV using a subjective camera to replicate visually Raymond Chandler’s first-person narrative from the novel. Dir. Robert Montgomery
Saturday, April 20, 9:00 PM & Sunday, April 21, 7:00 AM
BORN TO KILL (1947): This utterly bizarre film noir details the torrid affair between a killer (Lawrence Tierney) and the narcissistic woman (Claire Trevor) who witnessed his crime. He marries her sister and things really heat up between the amoral pair. Dir. Robert Wise
Sunday, April 21, 3:00 AM – 7:00 AM
3:00 AM
CRIME & PUNISHMENT, USA (1959): Director Denis Sanders wanted to make a version of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s 19th century Russian masterpiece for the beat generation according to star George Hamilton who made his big screen debut in the film. Hamilton plays Robert, a student who murders a pawnbroker and believes he can get away with it. He more than meets his match in Lieutenant Porter (Frank Silvera) who slowly breaks him down. Dostoevsky’s detective was also the inspiration for Lieutenant Columbo. The action was transplanted to contemporary Los Angeles and was one of the few films that executive producer Roger Corman lost money on. Dir. Denis Sanders
4:45 AM
LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME (1955): Engrossing musical bio (from an Oscar-winning story by Daniel Fuchs) of Jazz Age singer Ruth Etting (Doris Day), whose life and career were dominated by gangster Marty 'The Gimp' Snyder, (James Cagney). Ruth’s musical advisor Johnny Alderman (Cameron Mitchell) attempts repeatedly to persuade Ruth to leave her abusive relationship. Dir. Charles Vidor
Friday, April 26, 4:45 AM
I CONFESS (1953): In Quebec, a priest (Montgomery Clift) hears the confession of a murderer and then finds himself accused of the crime. He can’t break the sanctity of the confessional and must find another way to clear himself. To complicate matters his ex-sweetheart (Anne Baxter), who still loves him, was being blackmailed by the victim. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
Saturday, April 27, 2:45 PM
HARPER (1966): In this neo-noir, soon to be divorced private eye (Paul Newman) sets out to find the missing millionaire husband for his crippled wife (Lauren Bacall). The trail leads to a religious cult and a kidnapping plot. His investigation also leads him to Shelley Winters as a faded starlet. Janet Leigh plays his estranged wife whom Harper still loves. Dir. Jack Smight
Saturday, April 27, 9:00 PM & Sunday, April 28, 7:00 AM
THE BIG KNIFE (1955): An unscrupulous movie producer blackmails a self-centered star (Jack Palance- oddly the one being menaced this time) into signing a new contract. Ida Lupino plays his long-suffering wife who begs him not to sign it. Stand out performance by Shelly Winters as a put upon contract actress. Dir. Robert Aldrich
Sunday, April 28, 5:00 PM
THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE (1974): Lieutenant Garber (Walter Matthau) races the clock to thwart the plot of four criminals Blue (Robert Shaw), Green (Martin Balsam), Grey (Hector Elizondo) & Brown (Earl Hindman). They’re holding a subway car full of passenger’s hostage and threaten to shoot one each minute until a one-million-dollar ransom is fully paid. Dir. Joseph Sargent
Thursday, April 30, 10:45 PM – 2:45 PM
10:45 PM
OUT OF THE PAST (1947): In this quintessential film noir, small town gas station owner Jeff Bailey’s (Robert Mitchum) past catches up with him when a stranger passing through town recognizes him. He tells his girlfriend Ann Miller (Virginia Huston) about his previous via flashback, of course. Jeff was a private eye falls for the gangster’s moll (Jane Greer) that he’s supposed to find for her lover Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas). She’s allegedly stolen $40,000 from Whit and he wants her and the dough back. As in all good noirs, nothing is really as it seems. Watch for future noir siren Rhonda Fleming as a duplicitous secretary. Based on Geoffrey Homes’ excellent pulp novel Build My Gallows High and shot by legendary cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca. Dir. Jacques Tourneur
12:45 PM
NIGHT MUST FALL (1937): Young and charming Danny (Robert Montgomery) worms his way into elderly and wealthy Mrs. Bramson’s (Dame May Whitty) household. Her sexually repressed niece (Rosalind Russell) suspects him of larceny and possibly a local murder while being strongly attracted to him. What’s in that hatbox? Both Whitty and Montgomery were nominated for Oscars for their performances. Dir. Richard Thorpe
Asta and Myrna Loy in The Thin Man on April 2 and April 18
Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck on the set of Double Indemnity on April 5
Noir western, Blood on the Moon starring Robert Mitchum on April 6
Eddie Muller presents Violence on NOIR ALLEY on April 6 and 7
Kirk Douglas and Lauren Bacall in Young Man with a Horn on April 7
Joan Crawford stars in A Woman's Face on April 8
Alain Delon stars in Purple Noon on April 12
Eddie Muller presents The Breaking Point on the April 13 and 14 edition of NOIR ALLEY
Eva Marie Saint and Cary Grant share a train ride in North by Northwest on April 14
Vera Clouzot and Simone Signoret in Diabolique on April 25
Marlene Dietrich in Touch of Evil on April 16
Richard Crenna and Alan Arkin in Wait until Dark on April 17
Early Kubrick, Killer's Kiss screens April 18
Eddie Muller presents Born To Kill on NOIR ALLEY on April 20 and April 21
George Hamilton stars in Crime and Punishment on April 21
Doris Day and James Cagney in Love Me or Leave Me on April 21
Montgomery Cliff in I Confess on April 26
Eddie Muller presents Ida Lupino and Jack Palance in The Big Knife on NOIR ALLEY on April 27 and 28
Femme fatale Jane Greer in Out of the Past on April 30
Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell in Night Must Fall on April 30
