Fast Eddie and the Film Noir Roadshow

I ate up pavement like a starving dog gulping down a bloody steak as I tore my way up Capitol Hill. With the smell of burning rubber I skidded to a stop on the cold concrete of the parking garage and bolted for the open doors across the street, I was late. Was it a date with some broad that likes to steam up my glasses, or my last chance to pay off an overdue bet on a losing horse? It was worse. I was late for the Eddie Muller, Film Noir Foundation screenings of The Man Who Cheated Himself and The Window at the Egyptian! Good thing I sprang for the series pass this year, both shows were packed. I got the big wave-in ahead of the ticket holders and killer seats!

The pre-show talk was nothing to sneeze at, Muller gave a fast, entertaining rundown of the genre, Noir is "people who know they’re doing the wrong thing and do it anyway." Big laughs were followed by comparisons of the major camps. James M. Cain (Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice), wrote in a style which followed the familiar storyline of, decent guy falls for a woman, gets caught up in her felonious mess and takes the rap when she rolls over on him. Cornell Woolrich (Black Angel, Rear Window), followed a simple Noir scenario where "The world is (just) out to get you!"
Among the titles discussed were the Joseph Losey version of M (1950), Try and Get Me, originally released as The Sound of Fury (1950), The Threat (1949), and Too Late for Tears (1949).

The Man Who Cheated Himself

USA, 1950 (81 minutes)

Sunday June 11, 1:30pm The Egyptian

The first film, The Man Who Cheated Himself, follows the popular "bad cop noir" theme, starring Lee J. Cobb as Police Lieutenant Ed Cullin. When his lady friend Lois Frazer (Jane Wyatt), shoots her husband while the Lieutenant is ‘visiting’, he confronts the choice of coming clean or covering up, "I didn’t know what I was doing! You know the truth!" "The truth can get you twenty years!" Cullin’s kid brother Andy (John Dall) is new to homicide division and does his best to solve the crime while the Lieutenant tries to cover his tracks. "How am I doing?" " OK kid. Do any better and I’d be out of a job." The film makes use of locations in and around San Francisco including the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman’s Wharf, Telegraph Hill and Fort Point. The complex plot twists involving the gun, its disposal, reappearance and an errant slug are particularly entertaining.

The Window

USA, 1949 (73 minutes)

Sunday June 11, 4:00pm The Egyptian

Next up was a film made in "The good old days, when you could completely traumatize a nine-year-old boy." The Window, written by Noir master Cornell Woolrich, takes place in the sweltering heat of a New York summer. When Tommy Woodry (Bobby Driscoll) witnesses the brutal murder of a man by his upstairs neighbors as he tries to sleep on their fire escape, no one will believe him. Tommy has a long history of telling tall tales. " Stories? What kind of stories?" His parents Mary (Barbara Hale) and Ed (Arthur Kennedy) punish him for lying but he runs away to tell the police who also discount his story. When his murderous neighbors get wind, things take a frightening turn. Sensational camera work by Robert De Grasse makes brilliant use of the dark, forbidding stairwells and unseen corners of the apartment building and nearby derelicts to create a delightfully sinister mood. One scene in which Tommy’s mother forces him to apologize to the killers for lying is particularly frightening.

This was one hell of a program judging by the huge crowd, their response to Muller and the two gorgeous prints. Thank you, thank you SIFF! For my two cents, bring this mug back next year!