Shadow and fog will figuratively roll in to Oakland’s Grand Lake Theatre this week and next during the 22nd Noir City film festival running Jan. 24 through Feb. 2.
Alameda’s Eddie Muller —host of “Noir Alley” on Turner Classic Movies and author of 2001’s “Dark City Dames: The Wicked Women of Film Noir” and, upcoming in April, the revised and expanded “Dark City Dames: The Women Who Defined Noir”—spotlights actresses and their characters in features from the 1940s and ‘50s in this year’s festival. TCM’s Alicia Malone is on tap to cohost on opening weekend and Nick Rossi reprises his roles as music director, performer and the voice of the festival. Tickets cost $20 for a double bill and $200 for passes at NoirCity.com. You really can’t go wrong, even by pointing a finger at the schedule and selecting any of the 24 movies in the lineup. But these listed below are worth seeing projected on the big screen at the glorious Grand Lake.
“The Narrow Margin”: Richard Fleischer, director of the 1973 cult hit “Soylent Green” and 1966’s trippy “Fantastic Voyage,” helmed this classic 1952 B noir with Marie Windsor as the wife of a slain mob boss and Charles McGraw as a detective assigned to protect her during a train ride on her way to testify before a grand jury. Fleischer’s skill and dexterity behind the camera in this movie, particularly the action sequences, thrust him into the big leagues. Since Hollywood rarely leaves a good thing alone, a remake was inevitable with Peter Hyams picking up the reins directing Anne Archer and Gene Hackman in 1990. Our advice: Stick with the original, skip the remake. It’s followed by the lesser-known “Hell’s Half Acre” from 1954, a Honolulu-set thriller with the well-worn trope of a character searching for her missing spouse. Evelyn Keyes plays the wife who gets more than she bargained for in this 35mm print made available by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. (“The Narrow Margin” screens at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 24; “Hell’s Half Acre” at 9 p.m. Jan. 24)
“The Killing”: It was a match made in noir heaven when a hotshot 28-year-old filmmaker named Stanley Kubrick directed and cowrote a screenplay with noir novelist extraordinaire Jim Thompson (whose books “After Dark, My Sweet,” “The Grifters” and “The Getaway” are great , as are their movie adaptations). “The Killing,” their lean-and-mean film about a $2 million robbery scheme at a racetrack that goes awry is a standout. Sterling Hayden plays the fresh-out-of-the-joint guy who plans the heist in the boldly told noir, which displays the daring style of the iconic filmmaker’s later works. At 85 minutes, it’s one of Kubrick’s shortest films. The 1956 must-see is preceded by one of noir’s finest examples, 1947’s “Out of the Past” with Robert Mitchum as a man on the run with a mysterious past, costarring Jane Greer and Kirk Douglas. It got remade as 1984’s “Against All Odds” with Jeff Bridges and Rachel Ward. Again, the original out-distances the redo. See a common theme here? (“Out of the Past” screens at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 25; “The Killing” at 9:30 p.m. Jan. 25)
“Ace in the Hole”: Director Billy Wilder, seven-time Oscar champ, has a jaw dropping resume including “Some Like It Hot,” “The Apartment,” “Sunset Boulevard,” “Witness for the Prosecution” and “Double Indemnity,” to name a few. “Ace in the Hole,” his 1951 plunge into the soul of emptiness differs from those in that it takes an exceedingly dim view of not only the human condition, but the media as well. Kirk Douglas stars as a slimy, stop-at-nothing reporter who futzes about with a big story he’s covering to gain more notoriety for himself. Jan Sterling co-stars in the riveting 1951 classic. The bill opens with a 35mm print of director Joseph Losey’s edgy for its time “The Prowler,” a 1951 scorcher about a man’s plot to murder the husband of a woman who’s the object of his obsession It was written by blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. (The Prowler” screens at 2 and 7 p.m. Feb. 2; “Ace in the Hole at 4 and 9 p.m. Feb. 2)
Part of the proceeds from all screenings will get directed to the nonprofit Noir Film Foundation, dedicated to preserving and rescuing noir features from vanishing forever.
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