Schedule of the Event:

March 20, 2025

ROAD HOUSE on Nitrate

Egyptian Theatre - Opening Night Reception prior to screening!

35mm nitrate print courtesy of the UCLA Film and Television Archive

$22.00 (general admission) Ticket prices include a $2.00 online booking fee.

Schedule:

6:00pm - Opening Night Reception

7:00pm - ROAD HOUSE on Nitrate

About the Film:

Originally released November 4, 1948

A star-powered face-off between two film noir icons: sassy Ida Lupino and psychotic Richard Widmark. Sparks fly when itinerant songbird Lily Stevens (Lupino) takes a job crooning in Widmark’s rural roadhouse. When she rejects him and takes up with his boyhood chum (Cornel Wilde), the joint really starts jumping. “Love triangle” doesn’t even begin to describe the perverse psychological warfare that follows, especially with Widmark’s scorned man-child holding all of the cards. Things eventually turn violent in the climax, but it’s the trauma caused beforehand that makes his performance (and the film) so memorably unnerving. The studio-made roadhouse is a marvel of production design, the perfect spot for Ida to sing inimitable renditions of the classic ballads “One for My Baby” and “Again.”

FORMAT: Nitrate

DISTRIBUTOR: Disney

COUNTRY: USA

March 21, 2025

DETOUR / MY TRUE STORY

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

Schedule:

7:00pm - Introduction

7:10pm - DETOUR

8:20pm - Intermission

8:30pm - MY TRUE STORY

Start times are approximate.

About the Film:

DETOUR, Dir. Edgar G. Ulmer, 66 Min, Janus Films, USA

Originally released November 14, 1945

Ann Savage’s ferocious performance as an avaricious drifter known only as “Vera” is at the black heart of this ramshackle affair, often cited as the ultimate tale of noir fatalism, as well as one of the most creative—if impoverished—movies ever made in Hollywood. Tom Neal plays Al Roberts, a hard-luck nightclub piano player who decides to hitchhike cross-country to reunite with his estranged girlfriend. Things steadily go from bad to worse, especially once vixenish vagabond Vera gets her hooks into him. Shot in only a few days on the most miniscule budget, Ulmer’s most famous film is a delirious fever dream of paranoia and dread. Don’t miss a chance to see this legendary noir on the big screen!

FORMAT: DCP

MY TRUE STORY, Dir. Mickey Rooney, 67 Min, Sony, USA

Originally released March 8, 1951

In the midst of his halcyon days as one of the busiest talents in show business, Mickey Rooney directed this unusual drama produced in association with True Story magazine. Helen Walker (NIGHTMARE ALLEY) gives a fantastic performance as a paroled ex-con who gets railroaded into working with a gang of thieves who are after an unusual payoff—a supply of myrrh, the secret ingredient used in “Temptation” perfume. Walker is hired as a companion to Madame Rousseau, the elderly recluse who controls the supply, and she’s coerced into pilfering the stash any way she can. A true rarity, never before screened at NOIR CITY (or any other place we know of), it’s a showcase for Walker, one of the most talented and tragically ill-fated actresses of the era.

FORMAT: 35mm

March 22, 2025

FLAMINGO ROAD

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

Time: 1:00pm

About the Film:

Originally released April 28, 1949

Director Michael Curtiz and Joan Crawford repurpose the Mildred Pierce rags-to-riches theme with Joan portraying a carnival cooch dancer stuck in a small Southern town. She runs afoul of brazenly corrupt Sheriff Titus Semple (a delightfully malignant Sydney Greenstreet) after having an affair with his milquetoast deputy (Zachary Scott), whom Greenstreet is grooming for the governor’s mansion. When Crawford hooks up with hard-driving ward heeler Dan Reynolds (David Brian), Greenstreet’s political rival, a juicy showdown is imminent. This rousing melodrama was Curtiz’s final and most successful release from his short-lived independent production company.

FORMAT: 35mm

DISTRIBUTOR: Park Circus

COUNTRY: USA

THE LAST SEDUCTION

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

35mm print courtesy of the Sundance Collection at the UCLA Film & Television Archive

Time: 4:00pm

About the Film:

Originally released October 26, 1994

Bridget Gregory (Linda Fiorentino) is the most compelling and cold-hearted contemporary version of the alluring and avaricious femmes fatales that dominated forties noir. After stealing ill-gotten loot from her shady husband (Bill Pullman), Bridget hides out in a small town where she shamelessly manipulates a smitten rube (Peter Berg) into her increasingly devious and sinister plans. Originally intended as “Skinemax” softcore **** (although there’s far too much plot for that!), the picture got a jolt of class and complexity when Fiorentino demanded the lead. Inspired, director Dahl and his fantastic cast turned the film into a neo-noir joyride: unabashedly sexy, scathingly cynical, startlingly incorrect, and dryly hilarious.

FORMAT: 35mm

DISTRIBUTOR: Park Circus

COUNTRY: USA

OUT OF THE PAST / THE KILLING

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

Time: 7:00pm

Schedule:

7:00pm - Introduction

7:10pm - OUT OF THE PAST

8:50pm - Intermission

9:00pm - THE KILLING

Start times are approximate.

About the Film:

OUT OF THE PAST, Dir. Jacques Tourneur, 97 Min, Park Circus, USA

Originally released November 13, 1947

Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas vie for the honor of being betrayed by Jane Greer, the most desirable of devil dolls, in this quintessential noir masterpiece. A grubby private eye (Mitchum) is hired by a sleek gangster (Douglas) to rein in his fugitive frail (Greer). Complications ensue when dick falls for dame, hard. The serpentine plot, which ricochets from Manhattan to Mexico to Frisco to Tahoe, is spiced with some of the wittiest wisecracks ever, with every step of the dizzying adventure rendered in high noir style by Tourneur, art director Albert D’Agostino, and cameraman Nicholas Musuraca. Equal measures of poetry, poignancy, and hardboiled fatalism. The definitive film noir? You be the judge.

FORMAT: 35mm

THE KILLING, Dir. Stanley Kubrick, 85 Min, Park Circus, USA

Originally released May 19, 1956

You’ll think you’ve died and gone to hardboiled heaven. Or is it hell? Kubrick was only twenty-eight when he unleashed this twisty and twisted masterpiece, studded with diamond-hard dialogue courtesy of pulp master Jim Thompson. Sterling Hayden arranges a clockwork racetrack robbery only to learn the hard way what happens to best-laid plans. Kubrick showed his noir bona fides by casting genre stalwarts Elisha Cook Jr., Marie Windsor, Coleen Gray, Ted de Corsia, Jay C. Flippen—and unforgettable wild man, Timothy Carey. The film’s backtracking narrative so befuddled United Artists that the studio dumped THE KILLING on the bottom half of a double bill, oblivious to the talent that would make Stanley Kubrick the most visionary director of his era.

FORMAT: DCP

March 23, 2025

THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS

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

Time: 1:00pm

About the Film:

Originally released June 25, 1946

Barbara Stanwyck dominates the screen as a coldly ruthless industrial heiress whose passion is reignited by the return of a childhood flame with whom she shares a terrible secret. When Sam Masterson (Van Heflin) returns to his hometown, now controlled by Stanwyck and her husband, alcoholic DA Walter O’Neil (Kirk Douglas, in his film debut), his presence threatens to expose a family scandal that could ruin Iverstown. Sharply scripted by Robert Rossen and evocatively directed by Milestone, this darkly provocative film delivers a timely message about the hazards of rapacious capitalism linked to political power. Featuring a brilliant score by the great Miklós Rózsa.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Paramount Pictures

COUNTRY: USA

THE GRIFTERS

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

Egyptian Theatre - Q&A with actor Annette Bening

Time: 4:00pm

About the Film:

Originally released December 5, 1990

The best movie ever made from a book by Jim Thompson, America’s preeminent writer of noir fiction. Roy Dillon (John Cusack) is a young grifter blithely scamming his way through sunny Southern California, until he gets trapped in the battle of wills and wiles waged by the women in his life: mother Lilly (a never-better Anjelica Huston) and girlfriend Myra (Annette Bening channeling Gloria Grahame). Westlake’s script deals flashbacks like a game of three-card monte, while Frears balances Thompson’s humor and horror as the three-way con builds to its shattering conclusion. Featuring memorable performances from Pat Hingle and J.T. Walsh. It’s been 35 years… long enough to call this an all-time classic!

FORMAT: 35mm

DISTRIBUTOR: Paramount Pictures

COUNTRY: USA

TENSION / ALIAS NICK BEAL

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

Time: 7:30pm

Schedule:

7:30pm - Introduction

7:40pm - TENSION

9:15pm - Intermission

9:25pm - ALIAS NICK BEAL

Start times are approximate.

About the Film:

TENSION, Dir. John Berry, 95 Min, Park Circus, USA

Originally released November 25, 1949

Audrey Totter pulls out all the stops portraying her ultimate “bad girl,” vile voluptuary Claire Quimby, in one of the most underrated noir films of the forties. Richard Basehart plays a milquetoast pharmacist married to the over-sexed and chronically unfaithful Claire. But this sad sack has a plan to get revenge, so he can start a new life with his knockout neighbor, Cyd Charisse! A murder plot ensues—but the victim isn’t who we expect. Cops Barry Sullivan and William Conrad smell a rat—but is Sullivan pursuing the truth or the red-hot Totter? Despite its credulity-stretching plot, TENSION is a wholly satisfying thriller, laced with acid dialogue.

FORMAT: 35mm

ALIAS NICK BEAL, Dir. John Farrow, 93 Min, Universal, USA

Originally released March 4, 1949

This Faustian tale of soul corruption has campaigning politician Thomas Mitchell making a devilish pact with slick fixer Nick Beal (Ray Milland)—who may be Lucifer incarnate. Beal ensnares the faithful family man in a scandalous affair with delectable devil-doll Audrey Totter, over whom he casts a devious spell. The fabulous and fabulist screenplay by Jonathan Latimer is rendered by director Farrow (THE BIG CLOCK, WHERE DANGER LIVES) in superb style, from foggy waterfront piers to lavish luxury penthouses. Farrow’s masterpiece was unearthed back in 2008 when Universal struck a new 35mm print exclusively for NOIR CITY (2009). Be here for this 2025 encore presentation of a sensational supernatural noir.

FORMAT: 35mm

March 27, 2025

PHANTOM LADY / THE RECKLESS MOMENT

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

Schedule:

7:00pm - Introduction

7:10pm - PHANTOM LADY

8:40pm - Intermission

8:50pm - THE RECKLESS MOMENT

Start times are approximate.

About the Films:

PHANTOM LADY, Dir. Robert Siodmak, 87 Min, Universal, USA

Originally released January 28, 1944

Loyal and lovely Ella Raines is “one hep kitten” as she high-heels her way through the noir demimonde, searching for the one woman who can save her boss from a murder rap. Director Robert Siodmak and DP Woody Bredell wring every juicy bit of shadowy mystery from the novel by master of suspense Cornell Woolrich. The film is famous for Elisha Cook Jr.’s manic interlude as a wigged-out jazz drummer in orgiastic frenzy! Producer Joan Harrison (once Alfred Hitchcock’s protégé) announced herself as the most creative female producer in the business with this sleeper hit, a seminal suspense classic that helped launch the noir movement in Hollywood.

FORMAT: DCP

THE RECKLESS MOMENT, Dir. Max Ophüls, 82 Min, Paramount, USA

Originally released October 13, 1949

Joan Bennett gives a compelling performance as Lucia Harper, a suburban housewife who covers up for her teenage daughter when she accidentally kills her caddish lover, a blackmailing Lothario. When the dead man’s partner in crime (James Mason) starts sniffing around, the noose tightens around Lucia’s neck. Can she manage all her domestic and familial duties during the Christmas holiday—while avoiding blackmail, scandal, and arrest? Max Ophüls’ direction is enthralling and elegant, turning a perfectly realized screenplay into a masterpiece of suspense. The wonderful art direction by Cary Odell and Frank Tuttle is enhanced by Burnett Guffey’s supple camerawork, which evokes the sun-burnished light of Balboa, California, as well as the dark corners of the oceanside paradise.

FORMAT: DCP

March 28, 2025

THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW / MURDER, MY SWEET

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

Schedule:

7:00pm - Introduction

7:10pm - THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW

9:00pm - Intermission

9:10pm - MURDER, MY SWEET

Start times are approximate.

About the Films:

THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW, Dir. Fritz Lang, 107 Min, Park Circus, USA

Originally released November 3, 1944

Another 1944 film crucial to the development of film noir, this critically lauded suspenser stars Edward G. Robinson as a middle-aged husband whose accidental meeting with a gorgeous femme fatale (Joan Bennett) leads to murder, blackmail, and suicide. Fritz Lang’s clever direction and the vivid performances of the leads—including Dan Duryea’s sinister dandy (the first appearance of what would become his archetypal noir character)—made this a big hit, although its lone Oscar nod was for the terrific score by Hugo Friedhofer and Arthur Lange. Robinson’s transition from snarling tough guy to timid milquetoast marked a significant shift in his career, leading to many more appearances in noir.

FORMAT: 35mm

Preserved by the Library of Congress

MURDER, MY SWEET, Dir. Edward Dmytryk, 95 Min, Park Circus, USA

Originally released Dec 9, 1944

Philip Marlowe, the quintessential L.A. private eye, searches for an ex-con’s girlfriend, but, as always, winds up swimming in deceit and double-crosses, all of it washing up at a lavish Malibu beach house. A brilliant studio-lot evocation of Raymond Chandler’s favorite corrupt city, featuring former hoofer Dick Powell in a career-transforming turn as Marlowe, and tempting Claire Trevor as the fabulous femme fatale, a role that re-vamped her career and set the template for so many vixens to come. Featuring a vivid supporting cast, MURDER, MY SWEET earns plenty of votes as the best adaptation ever of a Chandler novel.

FORMAT: 35mm

March 29, 2025

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

March 30, 2025

DEAD RECKONING

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

Time: 1:00pm

About the Film:

Originally released December 31, 1946

World War II paratrooper Rip Murdock (Humphrey Bogart) gets ****** into a maelstrom of mayhem and murder after his jump-mate Johnny Drake disappears on their way to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. Bogie traces his missing pal to Gulf City, Florida, where he encounters a morgue stiff with a phony identity, an ominous nightclub owner (Morris Carnovsky), and—most notably—an alluring and mysterious chanteuse named Coral Chandler (Lizabeth Scott). Bogie is at the top of his game in this postwar drama, a virtual catalog of the genre’s most time-honored tropes: vengeful vet, femme fatale, hardboiled voiceover, serpentine flashbacks—all leading to an explosive denouement!

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Sony

COUNTRY: USA

BOUND

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

Egyptian Theatre - Q&A with actor Jennifer Tilly

Time: 4:00pm

About the Film:

Originally released August 31, 1996

For their debut effort as filmmakers, The Wachowskis put a queer spin on a traditional noir thriller, resulting in a neo-noir cult classic. Jennifer Tilly plays Violet, who’s grown weary of being the abused trophy wife of sadistic gangster Caesar (a sensational Joe Pantoliano). Things heat up considerably when Violet encounters Corky (Gina Gershon), a lesbian ex-con working as a handyman in the couple’s apartment building. Their affair triggers a flood of sex, deceit, double-crosses, and startling violence. The graphic sex and violence may have divided critics, but the Wachowskis had the last laugh creating a film true to the spirit of the noir classics they loved, while also earning landmark status as the first film to bring lesbian protagonists to mainstream American cinema.

FORMAT: DCP

DISTRIBUTOR: Paramount Pictures

COUNTRY: USA

THE PROWLER / ACE IN THE HOLE

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

Time: 7:30pm

Schedule:

7:30pm - Introduction

7:40pm - THE PROWLER

9:15pm - Intermission

9:25pm - ACE IN THE HOLE

Start times are approximate.

About the Films:

THE PROWLER, Dir. Joseph Losey, 92 Min, Ivy Video, USA

Originally released May 23, 1951

Losey’s greatest American film, from a script by legendary screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, is resurrected in all its bleak splendor in this 35mm restoration by UCLA Film & Television Archive, the first film ever rescued by the Film Noir Foundation. Materialistic cop Webb Garwood (Heflin) stalks a lonely, affluent Los Angeles housewife (Evelyn Keyes) and decides to win her love in the time-honored noir tradition: by knocking off her husband. Intense performances by the two leads drive this Cain-style tale of adultery, which was audacious and disturbing for its time. Don’t miss this opportunity to see one of the rarest—and most unusual—of all films noir in its original 35mm glory!

FORMAT: 35mm

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

ACE IN THE HOLE, Dir. Billy Wilder, 111 Min, Paramount, USA

Originally released July 4, 1951

On its release, critics called this the most bitter, cynical, mean-spirited movie ever made. It still might hold the honor. What’s certain is how scarily prescient Wilder’s tale of media manipulation (originally released as THE BIG CARNIVAL) turned out to be. Kirk Douglas is stupendously rotten as a disgraced reporter reclaiming the spotlight by prolonging the plight of a trapped miner. Jan Sterling is unforgettable as the miner’s less-than-compassionate wife. It may not feature many of the tropes and iconography of classic noir, but its withering depiction of human nature and American culture is as pitch-black as any film of the era. A genuine masterpiece.

FORMAT: 35mm

Date: March 20-30, 2025

Location: The Egyptian Theatre Hollywood, 6712 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028

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