DOUBLE INDEMNITY
(U.S., 1944)
Directed by Billy Wilder
Fri. Sept. 24, 7 p.m., Uptown
Always pay extra special attention to the words of a dying man. Giving new meaning to the word "chump," Fred MacMurray is the cheap fiddle upon which Barbara Stanwyck’s icy femme plays her fatalistic tune. Meanwhile, Edward G. Robinson and his homunculus try to sort out the double-crosses in a tightly wound insurance scam that can only add up to murder.
THE GLASS KEY
(U.S., 1942)
Directed by Stuart Heisler
Wed. Sept. 29, 4 p.m., Plaza
One of the great adaptations of Dashiell Hammett’s pulp fiction, The Glass Key is boiled harder than a six-minute egg. It wasn’t the first time handsome Alan Ladd was paired with leggy Veronica Lake, but it was easily the most riveting. Ladd plays a gangster who falls out with his boss over a girl and winds up working for a rival organization. As vicious and brutal as noir can be, this film is widely reputed to be the inspiration for the Coen Brothers’ Miller’s Crossing.
NIGHTMARE ALLEY
(U.S., 1947)
Directed by Edmund Goulding
Tues. Sept. 28, 6:30 p.m., Plaza
Carnival geeks and circus freaks just don’t get enough screen time, but Nightmare Alley makes up for that in spades, capturing its sideshow milieu with all the seedy grandeur that it demanded. This mesmerizing adaptation of William Lindsay Gresham’s disturbing novel stars Tyrone Power as a grifter seeking to improve his place in the world, but only in the most crooked way possible – as a mentalist fleecing wealthy rubes of their family fortunes.
OUT OF THE PAST
(U.S., 1947)
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
Sun. Sept. 26, 12:15 p.m., Plaza
Robert Mitchum, who always looked so good in black and white that he seemed born for noir, plays a detective on the lam from his own troubled history in this masterpiece by Tourneur (Cat People, I Walked With a Zombie). As we’ve learned a million times since, you can’t outrun the hellhounds on your trail, but Mitchum sets the archetype for slow-burning pathos in this archetypal suspense thriller. Also known as Build My Gallows High.
PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET
(U.S., 1953)
Directed by Samuel Fuller
Sun. Oct. 3, 10 p.m., Globe
With pulpy dialogue penned by a former tabloid journalist (Fuller himself, natch), this unconventional thriller – about a light-fingered pickpocket (Richard Widmark) who accidentally nabs a microfilm containing state secrets destined for the Commies – lingers in the gloomy shadows of Cold War America as only the darkest noirs dared to do. Balancing the colourful repartee is Fuller’s dizzying black-and-white imagery, the camera at times placing us right inside the amoral mind of a petty thief struggling to keep his delicate hands – if not his nose – clean. The film also features memorable supporting performances from Jean Peters, Richard Kiley and Thelma Ritter.
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