'Noir City: Hollywood' Film Festival

RAW DEAL

$15.00 (general admission) Ticket prices include a $2.00 online booking fee.

Time: 1:00pm

About the Film:

Originally released May 21, 1948

“I want to breathe… all I want is a breath of fresh air,” croaks jailbird/hero Dennis O’Keefe, just before he busts out of prison—to find himself chased by the cops and his former gang, led by a double-crossing and downright sadistic Raymond Burr. Good-girl social worker Marsha Hunt and bad-girl gun moll Claire Trevor duke it out for the soul of this vengeful homme fatal in a rambunctious road movie that Eddie Muller, paraphrasing Nick Lowe, calls “Pure Pulp for Noir People,” or, even more tersely, “Noirvana.” Featuring some of the most stunning camerawork in the the career of legendary cinematographer John Alton. Trevor provides the urgent, breathlessly whispered voiceover narration, one of the genre’s best—which could apply to virtually every aspect of this exceptional film.

FORMAT: 35mm

DISTRIBUTOR: AGFA

COUNTRY: USA

DESTROYER

$17.00 (general admission) Ticket prices include a $2.00 online booking fee.

Egyptian Theatre - Q&A with filmmaker Karyn Kusama and screenwriter Phil Hay

Time: 4:00pm

About the Film:

Originally released August 31, 2018

This unjustly neglected thriller is one of the most complex and uncompromising noir films of recent years, as well as the best American crime drama ever made about a female cop. Nicole Kidman, in her greatest performance to date, portrays a dissolute LAPD detective whose latest case is linked to a devastating tragedy in her past. Her hunt for the killer becomes an all-consuming crusade of vengeance and retribution. The tropes of classic noir are given new and vital life via Karyn Kusama’s dexterous, sensitive, and at times smash-mouth direction. Kidman is a revelation, balancing full-throttle action with raw, emotional intimacy. A great film overdue for rediscovery!

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Annapurna Pictures

COUNTRY: USA

CRY DANGER / HELL'S HALF ACRE

$17.00 (general admission) Ticket prices include a $2.00 online booking fee.

Time: 7:30pm

Schedule:

7:30pm - Introduction

7:40pm - CRY DANGER

9:00pm - Intermission

9:10pm - HELL’S HALF ACRE

Start times are approximate.

About the Films:

CRY DANGER, Dir. Robert Parrish, 79 Min, Paramount, USA

Originally released February 3, 1951

When Rocky Mulloy (Dick Powell) is sprung from prison after serving five years on a robbery charge, he returns to Los Angeles looking to settle things with the crooks who set him up. A shady, wounded war vet (Richard Erdman) and his cellmate’s gorgeous wife (Rhonda Fleming) help him play cat-and-mouse with the local gangster (William Conrad) out to get him. From these bare bones, scripter Bowers makes CRY DANGER both a stellar sampling of film noir and a sly send-up of the genre. Parrish, making his directorial debut, fleshes out the lean-and-mean script with a wonderful array of L.A. locations, always coming up with unusual glimpses into now-lost areas of the City of Angels. A crackerjack crime film—short, smart, sassy, and full of surprises.

FORMAT: 35mm

35mm preservation print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive; preservation funding provided by the Film Noir Foundation

HELL’S HALF ACRE, Dir. John H. Auer, 90 Min, Paramount, USA

Originally released February 26, 1954

Are you ready for a hundred-proof dose of “Tiki Noir?” Evelyn Keyes goes undercover as a taxi dancer in Honolulu’s notorious red-light district searching for her missing GI husband (Wendell Corey)—her only clue the recording of a Hawaiian love ballad with lyrics eerily similar to love letters she received during the war. Little does she know her guy is more than a simple songsmith—he’s now a gangster vying with Philip Ahn for control of the island’s vice rackets. Toss sultry and statuesque Marie Windsor into the mix and it’s noir Nirvana with a slack-key guitar soundtrack … as fun as B movies get!

FORMAT: 35mm

35mm collection print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive