Lust and Larceny in San Francisco

Noir City 8
January 22 - January 31, 2010
The Castro Theatre
San Francisco

Noir City: Lust and Larceny
February 19 -25, 2010
SIFF Cinema
Seattle

Grab your fedora and your favorite moll, and hop a streetcar to the Castro! Ten nights and four days of intrigue and stylish moral ambiguity are coming to San Francisco. The Film Noir Foundation will present Noir City 8 January 22nd through 31st at the historic Castro Theatre. This year, each night boasts a double-feature of classic films that explores the theme of lust and larceny. Programmers Anita Monga and Eddie Muller have once again designed a film series that investigates a unifying theme in noir while providing diversity by pairing films based on a shared secondary theme for each of the twelve screenings.

Larceny (1948)

Noir City opens with a tribute to writer William Bowers with a double bill of Andre De Toth's Pitfall (1948), on which he served as a script doctor, and George Sherman's Larceny (1948), on which he shared writing credit with Herb Margolis and Lou Morheim. Pitfall stars Dick Powell as a married suburbanite who strays off the straight and narrow with a seeming bad girl, Lizabeth Scott in one of her best performances. Larceny features noir regulars Dan Duryea and John Payne as two grifters targeting a wealthy war widow, Joan Caulfield. Shelly Winters plays their shared girlfriend, who threatens to throw a wrench into their well-laid plans.

Cry Danger (1951)

The festival pays homage to Bowers again on Saturday night, along with director Robert Parrish, by screening two of their collaborations from 1951, Cry Danger and The Mob. When the FNF last screened Cry Danger, no 35mm print existed. This time, they will début their joint effort with the UCLA Film and Television Archive, a fully-restored 35mm print of this wickedly wry film noir. Dick Powell stars as an ex-con out to avenge himself on the mobster who double-crossed him and sent him to the pen for a crime he didn't commit. Richard Erdman plays his alcoholic ex-marine side-kick. In The Mob, detective Broderick Crawford goes undercover to bust a waterfront labor racket.

Belita skates her heart, or is that soul, out in Suspense (1946)

One of noir's most unusual leading ladies, ice skater-turned-actress Belita, gets her due on Monday the 25th, First on the bill comes Suspense (1946), a surprisingly good little thriller -- sort of an ice skating version of The Postman Always Rings Twice -- co-starring Barry Sullivan and the always great Robert Decker. This one truly has to be seen to be believed, as its trip to the dark end of the rink eludes description. Gordon Wiles' The Gangster follows. Based on the novel Low Company by Daniel Fuchs, Barry Sullivan stars as a low-level gangster who is cracking up. Belita co-stars as his unsympathetic society girlfriend.

Red Light (1949)

The always popular San Francisco-themed night returns again this year on Thursday the 28th. The evening starts with a screening of an ultra-rare 35mm print of Roy Del Ruth's Red Light (1949). George Raft delivers another of his signature portrayals of a self-sacrificing tough guy redeeming himself through action. This time he plays a San Francisco business man who sets aside his career to track down the killer of his brother, a priest. His only clue is a bible. Cold War paranoia fills out the second half of the bill, as Gordon Douglas' Walk a Crooked Mile pairs Dennis O'Keefe and Louis Hayward as an FBI agent and a Scotland Yard inspector out to break up a communist spy ring in the City by the Bay. The always reliable noir stalwart Raymond Burr plays, who else, the heavy.

The always sultry Gloria Grahame.

Other double-feature themes include tributes to Marilyn Monroe, John Garfield and director Robert Siodmak. One evening devotes itself to the late, great Richard Widmark and another to spiciest of all the noir dames, Gloria Grahame. As usual, there will be plenty of lust and larceny, femme fatales and bad men, close calls and narrow escapes to keep you coming back night after night. Most of the films screening this year are not available on DVD, so Noir City provides a unique chance to see some real rarities, as well as a chance to catch old favorites on the big screen. Check out the official Noir City 8 site for complete program notes and ticket information. Noir City will also be coming to Seattle, February 19 - 25, check out the details here.