The year is 1941.  The Great War's epithet--the war to end all wars--is revealed to be nothing more than wishful thinking.   That war’s wounded and widows have barely reached middle age and already Europe is at war again. The world’s leaders and institutions, all of the sacrifices, were simply not enough to eradicate evil.  Whether to continue the struggle regardless, or to settle for appeasement, is the question of the day. The apprehension, the sense of futility, felt by those who had already experienced first-hand the horrors of war and its repercussions must have been overwhelming. Hollywood would continue to offer short-term escape in the form of its standard fluff.  But the films in this series, all completed in the months before America’s entry into the war, confront the country’s dark mood head-on, expressing it directly onto the screen.

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A New York Times review described this film as having “that ennobling suggestion of futility which makes for irony and poetry.”  On one level it’s a standard gangster flic.  The big caper goes bad.  The gangster and his girl head for the hills.  But in this film the world is not what it seems.  Despite its natural beauty, it’s a much meaner place.  The gangster, paradoxically, is “a regular 14 carat sap,” whose most cruel betrayals stem from his kindest acts.  Bogart is perfect as the marked man, his tic and the scarred upper lip the result of a real life WWI naval battle, and those sad, sad eyes.  Don’t miss the shadow bars that imprison him even in his sleep. In the final sequence, look for the shadow-cross cast by his rifle that perhaps signals his redemption?  Ida Lupino is luminous as a bruised angel.

His early work 'DARK CITY: The Film Noir', is a major resource and now an important influence on a second generation of film noir scholars and historians.  Selby was the first to identify a number of obscure films as noir. Two decades ago he correctly identified films that are still overlooked today. 'Dark City' remains a solid work due in part to the author's ability to look into the psychology of the characters that populate noir, without being overly academic.  

Don't miss his introduction to HIGH SIERRA on Sat. Sept 11th

McFarland & Company Publishers

Spencer Selby's Interview @  The BIG CHAT

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It begins as a gothic tale.   A bourgeois son returns to his hometown for his father’s funeral and learns that the twin he believed to be long dead has merely been restrained in a dilapidated family home.  A blow to the head--his reward for a futile attempt to protect his mother from his father’s violence--had turned the child psychotic. As one might expect, he escapes to the nearby mill town that bears the family name. Here, back “among the living,” gothic takes a backseat to noir.  The petty brutality, sleazy sexuality, and greed of the townspeople become the main attraction. The camerawork alone is worth the price of admission.  Fabulous framing and editing make for the scariest jitterbug montage you’ll ever see.   An extreme long shot chase sequence chillingly communicates the helplessness of the victim and the inevitability of the final off-camera scream. Susan Hayward fans will love her portrayal of the saucy, manipulative mill girl.

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A labyrinthine tale of fowl play.  John Huston takes the malaise of High Sierra and hard boils it.  Nobody is innocent in this one, including our “hero.” The truth-seeking detective of the old genre has been replaced with a cynical, self-serving private eye. "We didn't exactly believe your story, Miss O'Shaughnessy; we believed your two hundred dollars."  It’s no longer society’s values he’s upholding, but his own much abbreviated code of honor. It’s no longer polish and superior intellect that are his primary attributes, but street smarts, tenacity and the ability to withstand and dish out body blows.  The celluloid birth of so many noir icons: Sidney Greenstreet’s kilos of nervous joviality (this was his first screen appearance); Peter Lorre’s gardenia scent and oiled curls; Elizia Cook’s impassive baby-face, Mary Astor’s furs and porcelain complexion—none can mask the venality within.   Fast-paced, constantly morphing plot, incredibly clever dialog, every frame encapsulates that 40’s mystique.

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Photography: John Ivano

All the silk and rice powder in China could not smother the noxious vapors of greed, drugs and all-too-ready flesh that pollute Von Sternberg’s Shanghai and positively ooze from the gaming tables of  “Mother” Gin Sling’s glamorous gambling palace. Search all you want for that heart of gold--every heart in Shanghai is as cold and hard as jade.  Dr. Omar slowly slips a strap from Poppy’s perfectly molded shoulder in a scene that somehow melds pure eroticism with the coldness of a dissection table and we’re set to watch another beautiful young thing degrade before our very eyes.  Sumptuous, exotic noir, fabulous cast of degenerates, half-naked women in cages, unforgettable coiffure.  This film was adored by the Surrealists.

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 Doors open at 7:00 pm  -  Films at 8:00 pm   -  Main Door Locks at 8:05 p.m. restricting entrance

 Come early and enjoy our 'No Host Bar'.       

Don't forget to make a reservation.  screenings@hotmail.com

invitation only through a request and is solely at the discretion of Danger & Despair.

www.noirfilm.com

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