From Jacques Tourneur to Humphrey Bogart, What to See at LA’s Noir City
The American Cinematheque and the Film Noir Foundation present the 17th annual Noir City fest, running April 3-19 at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.
Rarely seen gems, restorations, new 35mm prints, films unavailable on DVD and Oscar nominees abound in this journey of 12 nights and 26 films through the side streets and back alleys of film noir.
This year, some true giants of the genre get a salute, including Humphrey Bogart in Delmer Daves’ pitch-black 1947 “Dark Passage” opposite Lauren Bacall, Barbara Stanwyck in Roy Rowland’s 1954 “Witness to Murder” (like Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” through the eyes of a woman) and John Sturges’ 1953 “Jeopardy” and French-American auteur Jacques Tourneur’s “Circle of Danger” and “Berlin Express.”
Also check out the Film Noir Foundation’s 35mm restoration of “Woman on the Run,” which world-premiered earlier this year at San Francisco’s Noir City. Directed by Norman Foster, this great forgotten noir turns on the wife (Ann Sheridan) of a gang murder witness who goes missing, and the reporter (Dennis O’Keefe) who turns on the charm to follow her lead.
READ MORE: San Francisco Loves Its Noir
Noir lovers can also catch an in-person appearance by “Fallen Sparrow” actress Patricia Morison, who just turned 100, along with rare British and Argentine films including a new print of the hard-to-find “Black Vampire,” a “proto-noir” marathon and a closing-weekend Film Noir Party on April 18, featuring a burlesque show, casino games, hair and makeup for the ladies and shaves for the guys. A new restoration of John Reinhardt’s 1947 “The Guilty” starring Don Castle and Wally Cassel also closes out the fest.
