BEST of COLUMBIA NOIR at SF's ROXIE THEATER in SEPTEMBER!!

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Dewey1960
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BEST of COLUMBIA NOIR at SF's ROXIE THEATER in SEPTEMBER!!

Post by Dewey1960 »

I’m pleased and proud to announce that the Roxie Theater in San Francisco has invited me back to curate another program of great noir films, commencing on Thursday, September 17 and running through Wednesday, September 30. This time around we’ll be presenting a whopping twenty-two films from the fabled vaults of Columbia Pictures! Although it has been reported that Sony has plans for releasing a handful of these titles on DVD later in the year, none are currently available in that format. I sincerely hope that noir enthusiasts from all over, not just the Bay Area, will find their way to the Roxie next month for this incredibly exciting series!

THE BEST OF COLUMBIA NOIR :
TWENTY-TWO GEMS FROM THE VAULTS OF COLUMBIA PICTURES!
ALL SHOWN IN BEAUTIFUL, NEWLY RESTORD 35MM STUDIO ARCHIVE PRINTS!
Thursday, September 17 - Wednesday, September 30


THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17:
JOHNNY O’CLOCK (1947)
BLIND SPOT (1947)

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18:
THE WHISTLER (1944)
THE SOUL OF A MONSTER (1944)

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19:
KNOCK ON ANY DOOR (1949)
CONVICTED (1950)

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20:
PUSHOVER (1954)
DRIVE A CROOKED ROAD (1954)

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21:
SO DARK THE NIGHT (1946)
MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS (1945)

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22:
HUMAN DESIRE (1954)
FRAMED (1947)

WED SEPT 23: NO SHOW TONIGHT!

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24:
THE LINE UP (1958)
THE SNIPER (1952)

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25:
BETWEEN MIDNIGHT AND DAWN (1950)
THE KILLER THAT STALKED NEW YORK (1950)

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26:
THE CRIMSON KIMONO (1959)
SCREAMING MIMI (1958)

SUNDAY & MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 & 28:
THE BURGLAR (1957)
NIGHTFALL (1957)

TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 & 30:
MURDER BY CONTRACT (1958)
CITY OF FEAR (1959)
Mr. Arkadin
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Re: BEST of COLUMBIA NOIR at SF's ROXIE THEATER in SEPTEMBER!!

Post by Mr. Arkadin »

Soul of a Monster hits the big screen! I can't wait to hear what everyone thinks about that one. 8)
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Re: BEST of COLUMBIA NOIR at SF's ROXIE THEATER in SEPTEMBER!!

Post by jdb1 »

Not fair! Not fair!

Honestly, Dewster, don't you know any movie house owners in New York? We like noir too. In fact, we're every bit as noir as SF, if not moreso.
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Dewey1960
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Re: BEST of COLUMBIA NOIR at SF's ROXIE THEATER in SEPTEMBER!!

Post by Dewey1960 »

Judith: I know tons of theaters in NYC but, as I've mentioned before, they all seem to have their own ideas about how things should be done. They aren't all that interested in having Left-Coasters tell 'em how to do their jobs. Big mistake. Anyway, you could contact Priceline.com and get a ticket to SF and join us in the fun!
Ark: SOUL OF A MONSTER is one of the most truly bizarre noir hybrids of the 40s, kind of like Supernatural Noir. Yes, it will be very interesting to see how folks react to this one on the big screen!

In the meantime, here's a link to the Roxie's website, providing more detailed descriptions of the films
in this series:
http://www.roxie.com/events/details.cfm ... FE6FB28ADB
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Re: BEST of COLUMBIA NOIR at SF's ROXIE THEATER in SEPTEMBER!!

Post by moira finnie »

This sounds wonderful, Dewey, and I'm really delighted that your knowledge, (or is it more of a passion?) is receiving so much appreciation this year.

The only movie in your lineup that I'm sure I haven't seen is The Soul of a Monster (1944), which interests me because it features Rose Hobart, an obscure actress who fascinated Joseph Cornell, a fantastic artist who created some hauntingly beautiful boxes and other art works. Of course, it's just a guess, but is George Macready a bad guy in this movie? Or could it possibly be that this one is like Alias Nick Beal giving George a crack at playing a dubious authority figure?

Btw, I'm with Judith. When does the road show version of these lineups hit the trail to stop in all of the SSO neighborhoods to reach all our members? I can see it now:
Dewey's Worldwide Rolling Thunder Film Noir Festival
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Re: BEST of COLUMBIA NOIR at SF's ROXIE THEATER in SEPTEMBER!!

Post by Dewey1960 »

Thanks very much, Moira! The San Francisco Bay Area will be in the throes of mucho noir come September; not only does our show hit the Roxie bigscreen in mid-month, the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley will be presenting an incredible month-long line-up of great British crime films (including the ultra-rare NO ORCHIDS FOR MISS BLANDISH) programmed by my good buddy Steve Seid. And on the 11th, the Castro Theater in San Francisco will put up a six day distillation of the so-called "Brit Noir" series first mounted by the Film Forum in New York earlier this year.
As for SOUL OF A MONSTER, the usually ominous George Macready gets to play both sides of the coin. As the film opens, his character, a beloved physician, lies at death's door. Medical science is stymied and it appears to be the end of the line for the selfless and saintly young doctor. Inexplicably and in the flash of a lightning bolt, a mysterious woman appears just mere minutes after the young doctor's wife bellows in anguish to the heavens above for help from otherworldly powers, good or evil. Rose Hobart is something of a revelation as the malevolent benefactress, dragging Macready back into the living at the expense of his very soul, becoming in the process a snarling emissary of Satan. Macready is astonishing enough, but it's Hobart who works the hardest to make this quirky supernatural noir so unique. Her performance casts an unsettling aura over SOUL OF A MONSTER and, helped along by Burnett Guffey's expressive camerawork, marks it as a sterling counterpart to the best of Val Lewton's similarly atmospheric work at RKO.
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Re: BEST of COLUMBIA NOIR at SF's ROXIE THEATER in SEPTEMBER!!

Post by moira finnie »

The Soul of the Monster sounds pretty nifty, Dewster. Any chance that the attention you are drawing to this film and the other Columbia gems will mean more DVDs of these rarities? Or am I once again woolgathering, oblivious to the increasingly harsh economic realities of the DVD world?
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Re: BEST of COLUMBIA NOIR at SF's ROXIE THEATER in SEPTEMBER!!

Post by MissGoddess »

I would love to see this festival, Dewey, especially JOHNNY O'CLOCK, which is a huge favorite of mine.
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Re: BEST of COLUMBIA NOIR at SF's ROXIE THEATER in SEPTEMBER!!

Post by Dewey1960 »

Moria asked: Any chance that the attention you are drawing to this film and the other Columbia gems will mean more DVDs of these rarities?
Probably yes. Sony has been pretty aggressive about restoring many of their classic and lesser known films. And even though they've been very slow to release titles on DVD, given the amount of restorations they're doing, it's hard to imagine they wouldn't take the next logical step. They have a couple of noir box sets scheduled for the end of the year which include a few of the titles we're featuring at the Roxie.
MissG quipped: ...especially JOHNNY O'CLOCK, which is a huge favorite of mine.
A big favorite of mine too. I have so much faith in this one in fact that I picked it to be the "opening night" film. Really criminal the way it's been kept such a secret over the years.
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Re: BEST of COLUMBIA NOIR at SF's ROXIE THEATER in SEPTEMBER!!

Post by MissGoddess »

Johnny O opens the show??? How marvelous!! I really look forward to hearing about the response
to this movie. And I'm glad to see that Sony is really stepping up it's release of DVDs. I was telling someone
that I thought the selections for the first two noir sets were very compelling---I've only seen about two of
the films in each set.
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Re: BEST of COLUMBIA NOIR at SF's ROXIE THEATER in SEPTEMBER!!

Post by moira finnie »

This is great news about the potential release of these Columbia films in particular. Since TCM and a few other cable channels started to broadcast more of Columbia Studios films a couple of years ago, I've been so impressed with the quality of the prints, and the crisp black and white cinematography (particularly those unjustly forgotten films with the deft hands of Franz Planer, Burnett Guffey, Bert Glennon and Lucien Ballard in evidence), that I've hoped it meant that this studio's films were mostly being handled with care.

I hope that more news about imminent releases comes along soon. One other question, Dewster: do you negotiate directly with Sony/Columbia for the rights to show these films or is it all done through third parties?
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Re: BEST of COLUMBIA NOIR at SF's ROXIE THEATER in SEPTEMBER!!

Post by Dewey1960 »

Moira asked: ...do you negotiate directly with Sony/Columbia for the rights to show these films or is it all done through third parties?
Back when I was programming full-time at the Roxie I was fortunate to have developed excellent working relationships with most of the studios. When it came time to put this one together I simply contacted Sony's theatrical booker in L.A. and booked directly through him. He was gracious enough to provide me access to their archives from which I cobbled together a list of close to thirty noir titles. After two or three weeks of searching they were able to come up with an amazing twenty-two films, an incredible fulfillment rate!
MissG: If memory serves me, the titles from the Roxie noir show to be included in the Sony Film noir box sets are: THE SNIPER, THE LINE UP, NIGHTFALL, CITY OF FEAR and MURDER BY CONTRACT.
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Re: BEST of COLUMBIA NOIR at SF's ROXIE THEATER in SEPTEMBER!!

Post by MissGoddess »

MissG: If memory serves me, the titles from the Roxie noir show to be included in the Sony Film noir box sets are: THE SNIPER, THE LINE UP, NIGHTFALL, CITY OF FEAR and MURDER BY CONTRACT.

Hi Dewey,

I've seen (most of) The Sniper and Nightfall so I'm looking forward to discovering the others.

I'm really surprised Johnny O'Clock isn't included in one of those sets. The cast is pretty good.
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Re: BEST of COLUMBIA NOIR at SF's ROXIE THEATER in SEPTEMBER!!

Post by Dewey1960 »

Not only an exceptional cast: DICK POWELL, EVELYN KEYES, ELLEN DREW, LEE J. COBB, THOMAS GOMEZ...but the debut feature from director ROBERT ROSSEN (THE HUSTLER!!) and cinematography from the great BURNETT GUFFEY. If ever a film screamed out for re-discovery, it's JOHNNY O'CLOCK!!
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Re: BEST of COLUMBIA NOIR at SF's ROXIE THEATER in SEPTEMBER!!

Post by MissGoddess »

Dewey1960 wrote:Not only an exceptional cast: DICK POWELL, EVELYN KEYES, ELLEN DREW, LEE J. COBB, THOMAS GOMEZ...but the debut feature from director ROBERT ROSSEN (THE HUSTLER!!) and cinematography from the great BURNETT GUFFEY. If ever a film screamed out for re-discovery, it's JOHNNY O'CLOCK!!
Hi Dewey,
What else has Burnett Guffey done? I'm not familiar with the name.
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education."
-- Will Rogers
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