Yeah, I spent an unreasonable amount of my weekend peering up at The Hollywood Theatre's screen during Noir City Portland. Do I regret it at all? Of course not; if I have any regrets, it's that I missed 3 of the 8 features, but sometimes a guy has things he's gotta do, y'know. Even so, those other priorities haven't kept me from spending a good deal of time thinking about and craving more noir and film noir related highs. For instance, after skipping out on the third feature on Saturday night, I still ended up streaming Gun Crazy at home on the Warner Archive Instant service.
DEADLY IS THE FEMALE aka GUN CRAZY
I was also pleased to stumble across the film noir episode of the fairly great 1995 PBS series American Cinema on YouTube. I hadn't viewed the series since it first aired on public television, so it was great to take another look at a series that, at the time of its release, had a strong influence in reinforcing my obsession with old films.
Portlanders are in for one hell of a treat this oh, so rainy weekend. San Francisco's Noir City is headed to town for a special, weekend long festival of obscure thrillers from the 40s and 50s, none of which have ever been available on dvd. Best of all, this Noir City Portland event will be MC'ed by none other than N.C. founder Eddie Muller, author of "Dark City," "Tab Hunter Confidential," and many other film-obsessed tomes.
The Hollywood Theatre is proud to present Noir City Portland! Friday September 20 through the Sunday the 22nd, the full lineup of titles boasts the Film Noir Foundation’s latest preservation efforts, Try and Get Me! (1951), and High Tide (1947), along with an impeccable selection of vintage noir titles including Alias Nick Beal (1949), Street of Chance (1942), The Come On (1956), and more! Hosted by the Czar of Noir himself, Eddie Muller, Noir City Portland will present these films on beautiful 35mm prints! None of these films are available on DVD, so don’t miss this incredibly rare opportunity.
Here's a little bit about the films, most of which are obscure enough to not even have trailer available online! All synopses are sourced from AllMovie:
TRY AND GET ME aka THE SOUND OF FURY (dir. Cy Endfield, 1950):
The Sound of Fury is better known by its general release title, Try and Get Me. Based on Jo Pagano's novel The Condemned,
the film recreates a dismal chapter in American history. In 1933, the
otherwise peace-loving citizens of San Jose, CA, were stirred up by
blind hatred into forming a mob and lynching two accused kidnappers
(this same incident was fictionalized in the 1935 Fritz Lang film Fury). Frank Lovejoy and Lloyd Bridges
play a couple of down-and-outers who kidnap a wealthy youngster in
hopes of getting a huge ransom. Things go terribly wrong.
SLEEP, MY LOVE (dir. Douglas Sirk, 1948):
This noir mystery thriller was produced by Mary Pickford and her husband Buddy Rogers, and directed by Douglas Sirk. Claudette Colbert
stars as Alison Courtland, a wealthy New York socialite who awakens on a
Boston-bound train with no memory of how she got there. A kindly older
woman, Mrs. Tomlinson (Queenie Smith) helps Alison call her husband Richard (Don Ameche),
who informs her that she disappeared after threatening his life. While
traveling back to New York, Alison meets Bruce Elcott (Robert Cummings), who is immediately smitten with her.
THE GREAT GATSBY (dir. Elliott Nugent, 1949):
This second film version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's definitive jazz-age novel The Great Gatsby stars Alan Ladd
in the title role. Jay Gatsby, formerly Jake Gatz, is a successful
bootlegger with aspirations of being accepted in the highest social
circles of Long Island. Once he's done this, Gatsby devotes his time to
winning back the love of his former lady friend Daisy (Betty Field), now married to boorish "old-money" millionaire Tom Buchanan (Barry Sullivan).
Gatsby's obsession with rekindling old flames results in
disillusionment and, ultimately, tragedy. Sidelines observer Nick
Carraway, the narrator of the original Fitzgerald novel, is expertly
played by MacDonald Carey, while Shelley Winters makes an excellent impression as Buchanan's slatternly mistress Myrtle Wilson. Cast as Myrtle's dour optometrist husband is Howard Da Silva, who essayed a minor role in the 1974 remake of Great Gatsby. That 1974 version has unfortunately kept the 1949 Gatsby from being released to television.
REPEAT PERFORMANCE (dir. Alfred L. Werker, 1947):
On New Year's Eve, Joan Leslie
runs desperately out of a penthouse apartment and into the Times Square
crowd. She has reason to flee--she has just shot and killed her
husband. Through a freakish wrinkle in time, Leslie
is transported back to the last New Year's and is allowed to relive the
past year all over again. This time she is forearmed with the knowledge
of the murder and does everything she can to avoid the deed--a task
made difficult by such antagonists as her nasty husband and her
emotionally disturbed brother (Richard Basehart,
in his film debut). Events lead inexorably to the murder...but will she
do it this time? Cleverly assembled, and with a more expensive cast and
budget than was usual for pinchpenny Eagle-Lion studios, Repeat Performance is a brisk and absorbing semi-fantasy. It was remade for television as Turn Back the Clock (89), with the original film's star Joan Leslie in a brief cameo role.
THE COME ON (dir. Russell Birdwell, 1956):
In this convoluted thriller a manipulative woman gets entangled in her
own web of deceit. The story is set in Mexico, where an unlucky wanderer
has come to fish. There he falls for a woman that he spied on the
beach. She begs the drifter to murder her domineering husband.
ALIAS NICK BEAL aka CONTACT MAN (dir. John Farrow, 1949):
This modern-day "Faust" variation benefits from a superb cast. Thomas Mitchell
plays Joseph Foster, an honest judge who wants to become governor.
Blocked by corrupt political forces, Foster would practically have to
make a deal with the Devil to reach his goal. Enter Nick Beal (Ray Milland),
a diabolically handsome gent with a slick line of patter and a smooth,
infallible method of getting things done. Failing to recognize his
benefactor's true identity (after all, Nick has no horns or cloven
hooves) Foster agrees to the deal when Nick assures him that the end
result is for the good of the people.
STREET OF CHANCE (dir. Jack Hively, 1942):
Based on Cornell Woolrich's novel The Black Curtain (later dramatized several times on the radio series Suspense), Street of Chance top-bills Burgess Meredith
as an amnesia victim. He awakens in the middle of the street, with nary
a clue of who he is or what he's done. Meredith comes to learn that his
past year of darkness has been a crowded one--and that he might be a
murderer! Louise Platt plays Meredith's wife, but it's total stranger Claire Trevor who seems most interested in probing Meredith's past. Street of Chance is worth spending 74 minutes with, even though the true identity of the killer becomes obvious halfway through.
HIGH TIDE (dir. John Reinhardt, 1947):
In this mystery, set within the newspaper industry, a detective is hired
to protect the editor who believes that someone is out to kill him.
Noir City Portland runs Friday, September 20th through Sunday, September 22nd at the Hollywood Theatre. More info available here.
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Portland is in for a treat this weekend as The Hollywood Theatre begins a 3-day run of a newly-restored, 35mm print of Leave Her to Heaven. For those not in the know, the 1945 feature is one of the more treasured weapons in a film noir buff's arsenal, often referenced as an example of a rococo-like decadence that crept into the genre as it matured.
And the film is packed to the gills with more than enough memorable sequences to hang your enthusiasm upon, including one of the most harrowing examples of dramatized filicide ever committed to celluloid. Ostensibly a vehicle for 1940s starlet Gene Tierney (Laura, Night and the City), Leave Her to Heaven also features a performance by Cornel Wilde that might come off as corny to some when placed against more modern sensibilities but, nonetheless, achieves a perfect balance between the chill that eventually blows into Tierney's characterization and the blustering heights that Vincent Price (The Fly, The Pit and the Pendulum) reaches for in the film.
And since we mentioned Mr. Price, it's worth noting just how much he does with what is essentially a supporting role in this movie. The Vincent Price who appears in Leave Her to Heaven is an altogether different beast than the one that most contemporary audiences have come to expect. This is Price before he became typecast as the voice of horror in a thousand and one b-grade productions, resulting in countless cultural references over the past half century that have unfairly painted him a one-trick pony.
Because of the dissimilarity to the most well-known aspects of his on-screen persona, Price's performance here, playing a spurned lover turned prosecuting attorney, is probably the most pleasurable to engage with on a first-time viewing. To watch his final interrogation of Wilde's character is to witness the less than lawyer-ly techniques of television's "Perry Mason" (if you'll pardon the Spinal Tap reference) turned up to eleven.
Leave Her to Heaven screens at the Hollywood Theatre on Friday, April 8th at 7:15pm and Saturday, April 9th and Sunday April 10th at 2:30pm and 7:15pm.
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