The 2009 Arthur Lyons Film Noir Schedule

Hello everyone!

Here are the films and guest stars we have confirmed for the 2009 festival as of April 3rd, 2009. I am looking forward to seeing all of you on May 28, 2009 at the Camelot Theatres in Palm Springs, California.
Darkly,

Alan K. Rode Director, The Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival.

Thursday May 28th
7:30 PM Opening Night – BIGGER THAN LIFE (1956) - A forgotten, noir-stained classic directed by the great Nicholas Ray (Rebel without a Cause, In a Lonely Place, They Live by Night). An ill schoolteacher (James Mason) experiences relief via a “miracle drug” but ends up getting hooked and descending into a psychotic nightmare. This compelling nightmare tale wrapped in Eisenhower era social commentary is a stunner! Also starring Barbara Rush and Walter Matthau.

***BARBARA RUSH is scheduled to be the SPECIAL SCREENING GUEST!!***

Friday May 29th
10:00 AM - ARMORED CAR ROBBERY (1950) 67 min. The ultimate ‘B’ caper flick, directed by the late, great Richard Fleischer (THE NARROW MARGIN). The toughest mug in noir, Charles McGraw, plays a gravel-voiced L.A. Robbery-Homicide dick matched against reptilian gang leader William Talman in the film noir equivalent of KING KONG VS. GODZILLA! Relentless action is leavened by sultry Adele Jergens as a duplicitous burlesque queen, strutting her stuff amidst plenty of period L.A. location photography. One of the best of the RKO noirs and not on DVD!

NOTE: A film short, THE GRAND INQUISITOR, will be screened at 11:30 am, immediately following ARMORED CAR ROBBERY and will include a special guest star appearance by legendary movie star Marsha Hunt, as well as producer/director, Eddie Muller

1:00 PM - THE BAD SEED (1956) This American Gothic classic remains one of most darkly shocking movies of all time. A well-bred Mother (Nancy Kelly) with an absentee husband (William Hopper) discovers that their loving daughter (Patty McCormack) might be dangerously sociopathic. Startling discoveries are piled upon horrifying occurrences in a film that was nominated for four Oscars and might well have provided impetus to family planning during the Eisenhower Administration!

***PATTY McCORMACK is scheduled to be the SPECIAL SCREENING GUEST!!***

4:00 PM – WOMAN ON THE RUN - The sole witness to a gangland murder goes into hiding to avoid both the police who want him to testify and the killers who want him dead. His estranged wife (the wonderful Ann Sheridan), aided by an intrepid reporter (Dennis O’Keefe) scour San Francisco in a race against time to find her reluctant husband before it is too late! Filmed on location, this dark, delightful noir is the rarest of the rare; an exquisite transfer from an original 35mm print. Don’t miss this one!



7:30 PM - THE GARMENT JUNGLE (1957) 88 min. Based on the true story of a muckraking New York journalist who was blinded by acid for trying to expose the evils of garment industry bosses, this film is one of the toughest "exposé" pictures of the 1950’s. The fierce script by Harry Kleiner was dually helmed by Robert Aldrich (the project’s original director) and Vincent Sherman (who replaced Aldrich during filming). The result is seamless, and the performances are uniformly first-rate, from a cast that includes Lee J. Cobb, Kerwin Matthews Gia Scala, Richard Boone, Joseph Wiseman, and a youthfully fiery Robert Loggia.

****ROBERT LOGGIA is scheduled to be the SPECIAL SCREENING GUEST!!***


Saturday May 30th
10:00 AM - CRISSCROSS (1949) Originally intended as a Los Angeles police procedural, this seminal noir was refined by director Robert Siodmak into a sensually stylized amour nou about the consequences of obsession. The action occurs around a robbery cooked up by a fatale heart-breaker (a drop dead gorgeous Yvonne De Carlo) her obsessed ex-husband (Burt Lancaster) and a vicious gangster played by the fulsomely lethal Dan Duryea. With Stephen McNally, Richard Long and Percy Helton. The finale in this one is a jaw dropper! Don’t miss it!!!

1:00 PM - INSIDE JOB (1946) Here is an authentic rarity from the Universal film vault that continues the Arthur Lyons’ tradition of screening newly discovered “B” noir films! Ann Rutherford and Preston Foster star as married ex-cons who seek rehabilitation but end up being blackmailed into a robbery caper. The final credit of legendary writer-director Tod Browning, this gem has not been screened theatrically for decades. Rarest of the rare and only at Palm Springs!

****ANN RUTHERFORD is scheduled to be the SPECIAL SCREENING GUEST!!***

4:00 PM - DESERT FURY (1947) 96 min. Dir. Lewis Allen. Lizabeth Scott in glorious Technicolor -- swirls of yellow hair, emerald eyes, fire-engine red lips -- is truly something to behold, but she’s only one of the attractions in this unique crime drama. Mary Astor (THE MALTESE FALCON) struggles mightily to put the brakes on her daughter (Miss Scott) who is entranced with gangster John Hodiak, Wendell Corey is murderously miffed at being kicked to the curb by his partner-in-crime (Hodiak) while beefcake lawman Burt Lancaster seems oblivious to the swirl of ardor surging all around him. The action is characterized by fast and furious dialogue dripping with innuendo, double entendres and dark secrets. An unforgettable, over-the-top film that is not on DVD!


7:30 PM -RIFFRAFF (1947) One of Arthur Lyons’ favorite film noirs has been disinterred from the Warner Bros. vault! After a visually stunning opening by director (and former Hitchcock cinematographer) Ted Tetzlaff, the film morphs into a breakneck tour of tropical Panama City led by private eye Pat O’Brien. The double crosses and plot twists pile up as O’Brien is aided by nightclub chanteuse Anne Jeffreys and hack driver Percy Kilbride while coping with the sinister bulk of the villainous Walter Slezak. A rare gem, hardly ever screened, that is not on DVD!

**ANNE JEFFREYS is scheduled to be the SPECIAL SCREENING GUEST!!***

Sunday May 31st

10:00 AM - BRUTE FORCE (1947) Producer-writer extraordinaire Mark Hellinger followed his groundbreaking THE KILLERS (1946) with this most hard-boiled of prison noirs. The “men on the inside” (Burt Lancaster, Charles Bickford, Howard Duff, Jeff Corey, Whit Bissell) are matched against sadistic prison captain Hume Cronyn while pining for their “women on the outside” (Anita Colby, Ann Blyth, Yvonne De Carlo and Ella Raines).Beautifully directed by the late Jules Dassin, this picture is a classic example of post World War II noir realism that once seen, can’t be forgotten!


1:00 PM - THE BREAKING POINT (1950) Warner Bros., 97 min. The best film version of Hemingway’s novel To Have and Have Not (yes, it tops the Bogart-Bacall classic), shifts the story from Cuba to California, but retains the story’s central theme of heartbreak. As Skipper Harry Morgan, John Garfield gives a searing portrait of a man whose domestic woes and mid-life crisis leads to crime and death. Garfield’s magnificence is matched by Patricia Neal, as a stiletto-tongued femme fatale with Phyllis Thaxter, as his mousy but mighty spouse and Wallace Ford as the prototypical doomed schemer. One of director Michael Curtiz’s forgotten masterpieces — don’t miss this one

***SHERRY JACKSON IS SCHEDULED AS THE SPECIAL SCREENING GUEST***

4:00 PM – FEMALE ON THE BEACH (1955) Joan Crawford unbound! The most wildly perverse of Joan’s diva films from the 1950’s co-stars Jeff Chandler in his prime as a hunk of a beachcomber. Sexual obsession, blackmail and murder are folded into a froth of weird neighbors, thrown martini glasses, secret diaries, Malibu beach locations and overall camp noir. Directed with panache by the late Joseph Pevney - a long time Palm Desert resident- this film is not on DVD and is very rarely screened. Only at Palm Springs!!

7:30 PM - THIEF (1981) the best neo-noir crime film of the last three decades! Michael Mann’s smashing directorial debut stars James Caan as a fiercely independent professional thief reaching to fulfill his dreams that includes a wife (Tuesday Weld), his former cell mate (Willie Nelson) and partner (Jim Belushi). The plan goes awry when he signs on to work for the Mob and a seemingly genial Godfather (Robert Prosky in his film debut). Extraordinary realism, incredible dialogue with a powerhouse performance by Caan that tops THE GODFATHER! Rarely screened theatrically - don’t miss it!

NOTE: Scheduled films and guests are subject to availability and change.