Noir City DC: The 2012 Film Noir Festival
October 20–November 1

Noir City DC returns! This year's edition includes canonical titles DARK PASSAGE, THIS GUN FOR HIRE and THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI; many fan favorites from this year's Noir City Film Festival at the historic Castro Theatre in San Francisco, including THIEVES' HIGHWAY, THE BREAKING POINT, and the long unseen, noirish 1949 version of THE GREAT GATSBY; and several excellent lesser-known rarities, including THREE STRANGERS, recently preserved by the Film Noir Foundation.

Film Noir Foundation founder Eddie Muller and noted film noir scholar and Film Noir Foundation board member Foster Hirsch will introduce selected shows and lead postscreening discussions.

The Film Noir Foundation (FNF), created by writer and film historian Eddie Muller, is committed to rescuing and restoring America's noir heritage. All FNF proceeds from Noir City festivals go to finding and restoring films in danger of being lost or permanently damaged. For information on how you can join the FNF's campaign and receive its bimonthly magazine, visit FilmNoirFoundation.org.

Special thanks to the Film Noir Foundation board, including Eddie Muller, Foster Hirsch and Alan K. Rode, for their invaluable work. Additional thanks to Todd Weiner and Steven Hill, UCLA Film & Television Archive; and Film Noir Foundation member Katherine Majeed.

AFI Member passes will be accepted at all films in the Noir City DC series except UNDERWORLD.

DEADLINE – U.S.A.
60th Anniversary!
* Introduction by The Film Noir Foundation's Eddie Muller on Oct. 20

One of the most exciting and elegiac movies ever made about the fourth estate, as relevant today as when writer/director (and former reporter) Richard Brooks made it. Humphrey Bogart is Ed Hutcheson, veteran editor of the New York Day, which is about to be sold to its main competitor. With only hours left before the presses stop, "Hutch" decides to go out in a blaze of glory, taking down the city's biggest racketeer. An eerily prescient eulogy for old-school journalism. (Courtesy of The Film Noir Foundation)

DIR/SCR Richard Brooks; PROD Sol C. Siegel. US, 1952, b&w, 87 min. NOT RATED

KEY LARGO
* Introduction by The Film Noir Foundation's Eddie Muller on Oct. 20

WWII vet Humphrey Bogart visits the Florida Keys, intending to pay his respects to the widow of a buddy who didn't make it back. But the widow is Lauren Bacall, and there's a hurricane about to roll in, and with it an ill wind that blows mobster Edward G. Robinson their way. Written and directed by John Huston — at the top of his game — with a script assist courtesy of dab hand Richard Brooks. Rounding out the stellar cast are Lionel Barrymore as Bacall's wheelchair-bound father and boozy chantoozie Claire Trevor, Robinson's mistreated moll, giving an Oscar-winning performance.

DIR/SCR John Huston; SCR Richard Brooks, based on the play by Maxwell Anderson; PROD Jerry Wald. US, 1948, b&w, 100 min. NOT RATED

DARK PASSAGE
65th Anniversary!
* Introduction by The Film Noir Foundation's Eddie Muller on Oct. 20

This is Bogart and Bacall's darkest duet, a bizarre ramble through nocturnal 1940s San Francisco, as an escaped con pursues the real culprit in his wife's murder. Startling use of the subjective-eye camera focuses on the mid-20th century city in all its noir glory. Screenplay and direction by Delmer Daves, based on the novel by David Goodis. (Courtesy of The Film Noir Foundation)

DIR/SCR Delmer Daves, based on the novel by David Goodis; PROD Jerry Wald. US, 1947, b&w, 106 min. NOT RATED

THE GREAT GATSBY (1949)
New 35mm Print!
* Introduction by The Film Noir Foundation's Eddie Muller on Oct. 20

Resurrected at long last! This version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel has been buried for decades, to make way for remakes. Thanks to our friends at Universal Pictures, Alan Ladd's noir-styled take on the timeless tale of shady success and unrequited love is again available, in a brand new print made exclusively for Noir City! Screenplay by Cyril Hume and Richard Maibaum, from a play by Owen Davis, based on Fitzgerald's novel. Directed by Elliott Nugent. Not on DVD! (Courtesy of The Film Noir Foundation)

DIR Elliott Nugent; SCR Cyril Hume, based on the play by Owen Davis and the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald; SCR/PROD Richard Maibaum. US, 1949, b&w, 91 min. NOT RATED

UNDERWORLD
Live musical accompaniment by Alloy Orchestra
85th Anniversary!
Introduction by The Film Noir Foundation's Eddie Muller

This was the film that launched Josef von Sternberg's career. Ben Hecht, who wrote the screenplay, won the first ever Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Story (among his uncredited collaborators were Howard Hawks and von Sternberg). "Bull" Weed (George Bancroft) is the high-living kingpin of Prohibition Chicago. When a rival gangster (Fred Kohler) puts the moves on Weed's girl (Evelyn Brent), the criminal code demands retaliation. A favorite of audiences and critics alike, UNDERWORLD is credited as the first gangster film, and the model for the popular genre.

DIR Josef von Sternberg; SCR Ben Hecht, Robert N. Lee, Charles Furthman, George Marion, Jr. US, 1927, b&w, 80 min. Silent with live accompaniment. NOT RATED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE
70th Anniversary!
* Introduction by The Film Noir Foundation's Eddie Muller on Oct. 21

Alan Ladd skyrocketed into stardom playing vengeful assassin Philip Raven in this stylish adaptation of Graham Greene's classic novel of espionage, transposed to the California coast. Veronica Lake sizzles in her first of seven onscreen pairings with Ladd, and noir favorites Laird Cregar and Marc Lawrence lend memorable support. Directed by Frank Tuttle, from a screenplay by W. R. Burnett (THE ASPHALT JUNGLE) and Albert Maltz (THE NAKED CITY). (Courtesy of The Film Noir Foundation)

DIR Frank Tuttle; SCR Albert Maltz, W. R. Burnett, based on the novel by Graham Greene. US, 1942, b&w, 81 min. NOT RATED

CROSSFIRE
65th Anniversary!
* Introduction by The Film Noir Foundation's Eddie Muller on Oct. 21

Just back from WWII, a troop of Army soldiers kills time in Washington, DC, but one of them is suspected of a hate crime— the killing of a Jewish man after a chance encounter. Robert Young is the seen-it-all police detective; Robert Mitchum, at his blasé best, plays a cool-headed sergeant conducting his own investigation in parallel — and at times in conflict — with the cops. Robert Ryan's portrayal of the bigoted, cracked-up killer earned him his only Oscar nomination.

DIR Edward Dmytryk; SCR John Paxton, based on the novel by Richard Brooks; PROD Adrian Scott. US, 1947, b&w, 86 min. NOT RATED

THIEVES' HIGHWAY
A perennial favorite, presented in a pristine 35mm print!
* Introduction by The Film Noir Foundation's Eddie Muller on Oct. 21

WWII vet Richard Conte drives to San Francisco to sell a load of apples — and get revenge on the crooked broker (Lee J. Cobb) who crippled his father. Shot on location in the city's once-thriving Embarcadero produce district, and featuring a terrific performance by Valentina Cortese. Screenplay by A. I. Bezzerides, from his novel "Thieves' Market." (Courtesy of The Film Noir Foundation)

DIR Jules Dassin; SCR A. I. Bezzerides, based on his novel; PROD Robert Bassler. US, 1949, b&w, 94 min. NOT RATED

THE BREAKING POINT
Preserved 35mm Print!
* Introduction by The Film Noir Foundation's Eddie Muller on Oct. 21

John Garfield gives perhaps his greatest performance as world-weary fishing boat skipper Harry Morgan in this superb and darkly noir adaptation of Hemingway's "To Have and Have Not," one of the best, if unjustly neglected, films of the noir era. (Courtesy of The Film Noir Foundation)

DIR Michael Curtiz; SCR Ranald MacDougall, based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway; PROD Jerry Wald. US, 1950, b&w, 97 min. NOT RATED

Preservation funding provided by Warner Bros. in association with The Film Foundation and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

BRUTE FORCE
65th Anniversary!
* Introduction by The Film Noir Foundation's Foster Hirsch on Oct. 27

"Men caged on the inside…Driven by the thought of their women on the loose!" Jules Dassin's hard-hitting prison drama remains a touchstone of the genre, with desperation-driven intensity that explodes into a chaotic breakout-cum-battle royale. Suffering under the heel of sadistic cell block guard Hume Cronyn, inmate Burt Lancaster bides his time and plans his escape. The screenplay is by future director Richard Brooks; William Daniels' photography and Miklós Rózsa's music imbue the atmosphere with an artful foreboding.

DIR Jules Dassin; SCR Richard Brooks, story by Robert Patterson; PROD Mark Hellinger. US, 1947, b&w, 98 min. NOT RATED

NAKED ALIBI
New 35mm Print!
* Introduction by The Film Noir Foundation's Foster Hirsch on Oct. 27

A murder suspect (Gene Barry), released for lack of evidence, vows vengeance on the cops who brutalized him. When one of those cops turns up dead, his partner (Sterling Hayden) hunts down the "innocent" man to prove him guilty. Both end up in thrall to border town bad girl Gloria Grahame, whose unique sexiness is on full display in this ultra-rare potboiler! (Courtesy of The Film Noir Foundation)

DIR Jerry Hopper; SCR Lawrence Roman, based on the story "Cry Copper" by J. Robert Bren and Gladys Atwater; PROD Ross Hunter. US, 1954, b&w, 86 min. NOT RATED

THE NAKED CITY
Preserved 35mm Print!
* Introduction by The Film Noir Foundation's Foster Hirsch on Oct. 27

"There are eight million stories in the Naked City," as the narrator immortally states at the close of this breathtakingly vivid film — and this is one of them. Master noir craftsman Jules Dassin and newspaperman-cum-producer Mark Hellinger's dazzling police procedural was shot entirely on location in New York City. As influenced by Italian neorealism as American crime fiction, this double Academy Award winner remains a benchmark for naturalism in noir, living and breathing in the promises and perils of the Big Apple, from its lowest depths to its highest skyscrapers. (Courtesy of The Criterion Collection)

DIR Jules Dassin; SCR Albert Maltz, Malvin Wald, based on his story; PROD Mark Hellinger. US, 1948, b&w, 96 min. NOT RATED

Print courtesy of the Library of Congress.

THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI
* Introduction by The Film Noir Foundation's Foster Hirsch on Oct. 27

Footloose Irish sailor Orson Welles gets mixed up in murder with crooked and disabled lawyer Everett Sloane and his sultry wife Rita Hayworth (then Mrs. Welles). Byzantine plot complications and baroque visuals ensue, including would-be lovers discussing a murder plot as a shark in an aquarium swims behind them, topped off by the justly legendary hall-of-mirrors shootout finale.

DIR/SCR/PROD Orson Welles; SCR based on the novel "If I Die Before I Wake" by Sherwood King. US, 1948, b&w, 87 min. NOT RATED

99 RIVER STREET
* Introduction by The Film Noir Foundation's Foster Hirsch on Oct. 28

John Payne is a washed-up boxer framed for the murder of his wife. Evelyn Keyes is his sexy gal-pal, using all her wiles to bust the set-up. A damn near perfect 1950s crime saga, perhaps the signature film of director Phil Karlson. The dynamite screenplay is by Robert Smith. (Courtesy of The Film Noir Foundation)

DIR Phil Karlson; SCR Robert Smith, based on the story by George Zuckerman. US, 1953, b&w, 83 min. NOT RATED

GILDA
* Introduction by The Film Noir Foundation's Foster Hirsch on Oct. 28

Rita Hayworth created her Hollywood "Love Goddess" legend in this tailor-made romantic drama, the first of several sex-charged pairings with costar Glenn Ford. The amazing sexual symbolism slipped past the censors (and most viewers) at the time; today the film is regarded as one of the greatest examples of a director "working around" the Production Code. (Courtesy of The Film Noir Foundation)

DIR Charles Vidor; SCR Marion Parsonnet, Jo Eisinger, based on the story by E. A. Ellington; PROD Virginia Van Upp. US, 1946, b&w, 110 min. NOT RATED

THREE STRANGERS
New 35mm Print!
* Introduction by The Film Noir Foundation's Foster Hirsch on Oct. 28

Noir strays into the supernatural realm in this fantastic tale of three strangers (Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Geraldine Fitzgerald) whose fates entwine with a mysterious Chinese idol and a winning lottery ticket. Deeply cynical, gloriously atmospheric. Never on DVD, almost lost in 35mm format, this forgotten classic is proudly presented in a brand new Film Noir Foundation-funded preservation print! (Courtesy of The Film Noir Foundation)

DIR Jean Negulesco; SCR John Huston, Howard Koch; PROD Wolfgang Reinhardt. US, 1946, b&w, 92 min. NOT RATED

Print courtesy of the Film Noir Foundation Collection at the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

T-MEN
65th Anniversary!
* Introduction by The Film Noir Foundation's Foster Hirsch on Oct. 28

Director Anthony Mann and cinematographer John Alton— king of chiaroscuro — pull out all the stops in relating the intensely exciting and shockingly brutal tale of U.S. Treasury agents, led by the redoubtable Dennis O'Keefe, going undercover to infiltrate a cadre of counterfeiters. Great character bits from Charles McGraw and Wallace Ford in a vivid script by crime scribe John C. Higgins. One of the most artfully arresting visual spectacles of the original film noir era! (Courtesy of The Film Noir Foundation)

DIR Anthony Mann; SCR John C. Higgins, story by Virginia Kellogg; PROD Aubrey Schenck. US, 1947, b&w, 92 min. NOT RATED