Otto Preminger

Foster Hirsch

Film historian Foster Hirsch, author of 16 books on film and theatre, including the acclaimed The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir , will introduce and discuss this selection of Preminger films, a sampling of four of the most popular titles from our extensive Preminger Retrospective in 2006.

At each screening, Hirsch will sign copies of his latest book, Otto Preminger: The Man Who Would Be King -- in stores now!

All films Not Rated.

One of the greatest of all Washington films: "a masterpiece of ambiguity and objectivity"

- critic Andrew Sarris     

Preminger's Cannes Palme d'Or-nominated adaptation of Allen Drury's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel boasts an astonishing all-star cast: Henry Fonda, Charles Laughton, Walter Pidgeon, Gene Tierney, Burgess Meredith, Paul Ford, George Grizzard, Peter Lawford, Will Geer and Betty White. Loosely based on the Alger Hiss controversy, the film's riveting plot and scathing political commentary make it a classic of Cold War cinema.

DIR/PROD Otto Preminger; SCR Wendell Mayes, based on the novel by Allen Drury. US, 1962, b&w, 140 min.

AFI member passes will be accepted.

BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING

This darkly poetic paranoid thriller, described by critic Dave Kehr as "a reflective mid-60s return to the ghostly film noir style," deserves its cult-classic status. Unwed mother Carol Lynley desperately tries to track down her missing four-year-old daughter — but everyone around her suspects that the child does not exist. Noël Coward appears as an eccentric landlord, and Laurence Olivier is the sharp-as-a-tack detective.

DIR/PROD Otto Preminger; SCR John Mortimer and Penelope Mortimer, based on the novel by Evelyn Piper. US, 1965, b&w, 107 min.

AFI member passes will be accepted.

FALLEN ANGEL

Preminger's darkly beautiful film noir, based on Marty Holland's popular pulp novel, evokes postwar Hollywood when good and bad were temporary character definitions. Charming drifter Dana Andrews cons local heiress Alice Faye out of enough cash to run off with Linda Darnell, a sultry waitress. But when Darnell turns up dead and Andrews is the prime suspect, the woman he swindled is his best hope for clearing his name.

DIR/PROD Otto Preminger; SCR Harry Kleiner, based on the novel by Marty Holland. US, 1945, b&w, 97 min.

AFI member passes will be accepted.

"The one lyrical nightmare in the cinema"

- Ian Cameron, National Film Theatre (UK)      

Obsessed with her father, unbalanced teenager Jean Simmons holds a grudge against her stepmother and embroils her infatuated suitor Robert Mitchum in a series of manipulative and deadly plots.

DIR/PROD Otto Preminger; SCR Ben Hecht, based on the novel by William L. Stuart. US, 1950, b&w, 95 min.

AFI member passes will be accepted.