After last year's hugely successful and warmly received inaugural edition, AFI is proud to present the 2nd edition of Noir City DC: The 2009 Film Noir Festival at AFI Silver. Join Eddie Muller and Foster Hirsch of the Film Noir Foundation for screenings of some of the film noir genre's greatest achievements, plus cult classics and rarities that can't be seen anywhere else. If it's anything like last year's Noir City DC series, spirited discussions are sure to follow!

AFI Member passes will be accepted at all screenings in the Noir City DC series.

THE FILM NOIR FOUNDATION

The Film Noir Foundation is a non-profit public benefit corporation created as an educational resource regarding the cultural, historical, and artistic significance of film noir as an original American cinematic movement. It is the mission of the Foundation to find and preserve films in danger of being lost or irreparably damaged, and to ensure that high quality prints of these classic films remain in circulation for theatrical exhibition to future generations. Special thanks to Eddie Muller and Foster Hirsch for making this series possible.

Now on sale at AFI Silver:
The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir by Foster Hirsch. New, expanded edition of the landmark study of the genre. $24.95.

Screenings below marked with an * denote in-theater introductions by the Film Noir Foundation's Foster Hirsch.

SLIGHTLY SCARLET
Rare archival 35mm print!

Arlene Dahl steals the show as sexy kleptomaniac Dorothy Lyons (opposite Titian-tressed "sister" Rhonda Fleming) in this eye-popping adaptation of James M. Cain's Love's Lovely Counterfeit. John Payne plays the slick operator dallying with both dames, and Ted de Corsia is a great sleazy crime boss. But the real star is camera virtuoso John Alton, who translates noir to lurid, saturated color, as if those tawdry 1950s paperback jackets had come to life. (Note courtesy of Noir City)

DIR Allan Dwan; SCR Robert Blees, after Love's Lovely Counterfeit by James M. Cain; PROD Benedict Bogeaus. US, 1956, color, 99 min. NOT RATED

Saturday, October 24, 1:00; Sunday, November 1, 9:10 - just added!

ACE IN THE HOLE

On its release, critics called this the most bitter, cynical, mean-spirited movie ever made. It still might hold the honor. What's certain is the scary prescience of Billy Wilder's tale of media manipulation. Kirk Douglas is stupendously rotten as a disgraced reporter reclaiming the spotlight by prolonging the plight of a trapped miner. Jan Sterling is unforgettable as the miner's less-than-compassionate wife. (Note courtesy of Noir City)

DIR/SCR/PROD Billy Wilder; SCR Lesser Samuels, Walter Newman. US, 1951, b&w, 111 min. NOT RATED

Saturday, October 24, 3:00; Thursday, October 29, 7:00

GUN CRAZY

One of the greatest cult movies of American film history and the very epitome of the B-film noir. An early variation on the Bonnie and Clyde theme, the film was a major influence on Godard and the French New Wave--dazzling evidence that "all you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun." The girl in this case is Peggy Cummins, who works as a professional sharpshooter at a carnival. John Dall has been passionate about guns since his early childhood and when she picks him from the crowd to challenge him to an on-stage shooting contest, the attraction between them is instant and palpable. Despite being warned that Cummins "ain't the type that makes a happy home," Dall proposes to her. Cummins soon craves action and when the money runs dry, she persuades Dall they should become partners in crime. (Note courtesy of British Film Institute)

DIR Joseph H. Lewis; SCR MacKinlay Kantor, Millard Kaufman (and, uncredited, Dalton Trumbo); PROD Frank King, Maurice King. US, 1950, b&w, 86 min. NOT RATED

Saturday, October 24, 5:20; Sunday, October 25, 1:00

WICKED AS THEY COME

"What she wanted out of life ...she got out of men!" Arlene Dahl is a sizzling sensation as Kathleen Allen, a woman who learns early that sex is how she'll get ahead in the world. Her high heels leave puncture wounds in a trail of saps stretching from America to England. British writer-director Ken Hughes adapts Bill Ballinger's novel Portrait in Smoke, and the result lives up to its re-titling. (Note courtesy of Noir City)

DIR/SCR Ken Hughes; SCR Sigmund Miller, Robert Westerby, after Portrait in Smoke by Bill S. Ballinger; PROD M.J. Frankovich, Maxwell Setton. UK, 1956, b&w, 94 min. NOT RATED

Sunday, October 25, 5:00; Wednesday, October 28, 9:00

ALIAS NICK BEAL
New 35mm Print!

Finally--a stunning, brand-new 35mm print of what might be director John Farrow's masterwork! A Faustian fable given full noir treatment by Farrow, scripter Jonathan Latimer and cameraman Lionel Lindon. The devilish Nick Beal (a mesmerizing Ray Milland) materializes out of the fog to "assist" a crusading district attorney (Thomas Mitchell) who has declared that he'd "give anything" to convict a local mobster. Soon, the D.A. begins a miraculous campaign for governor, bolstered by Beal's connections and the encouragement of his most enticing acolyte (Audrey Totter). A supernatural fable that in style and theme is a logical extension of the era's best noir films. (Note courtesy of Noir City Hollywood)

DIR John Farrow; SCR Jonathan Latimer, Mildred Lord; PROD Endre Bohem. US, 1949, b&w, 93 min. NOT RATED

Sunday, October 25, 3:00; Tuesday, October 27, 7:00

THE BIG COMBO
Restored 35mm Print!

Cynical, stylized and a little deranged, this film tells the story of police lieutenant Cornel Wilde's quest to bring down the technocratic mob boss "Mr. Brown" (a very suave Richard Conte) while simultaneously seducing the mobster's girlfriend. Set in a jaded world where crime, romance and even mystery have been corporatized, the film also puts tough-guy masculinity to the test, with male characters prone to sudden bouts of sobbing and two henchmen sharing what can only be described as a "Brokeback moment." Director Joseph Lewis (GUN CRAZY) outdoes himself here, both in his elaborate use of frames-within-the-frame as well as his celebrated transformation of a hearing aid into a torture device. (Note courtesy of UCLA Film Archive)

DIR Joseph Lewis; SCR Philip Yordan; PROD Sidney Harmon. US, 1955, b&w, 84 min. NOT RATED. Restored 35mm print courtesy of the Film Noir Foundation and UCLA Film & Television Archive.

Saturday, October 24, 7:15; Wednesday, October 28, 6:30

SHAKEDOWN
Special Price: $5 on Saturday; $10 Double Feature w/ NIGHT EDITOR on Monday

Howard Duff is terrific as an unscrupulous Weegee-esque newspaper photographer in this slam-bang, tabloid-noir B picture, set entirely in 1950 San Francisco, shown in all its glory from skid row to Nob Hill. Also featured: Lawrence Tierney at his sneering, sinister best. (Note courtesy of Noir City)

DIR Joseph Pevney; SCR Nat Dallinger, Martin Goldsmith, Alfred Lewis Levitt, Don Martin; PROD Ted Richmond. US, 1950, b&w, 80 min. NOT RATED

Saturday, October 31, 1:00*; Monday, November 2, 6:30 (Double Feature w/ NIGHT EDITOR)

*With in-theater introduction by Foster Hirsch.

BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT

Fritz Lang's final American film offers the ingenious notion of a writer (Dana Andrews) framing himself for murder in order to prove the fallibility of the justice system and inhumanity of capital punishment. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time... Lang's once-overwhelming visual style is sublimated to the clockwork mechanics of Douglas Morrow's dense but brisk script, which the director brings to life despite a bargain-basement budget. Co-starring Joan Fontaine as Andrews's long-suffering high-society girlfriend. The remake, starring Michael Douglas, comes out later this year! (Note courtesy of Noir City Hollywood)

DIR Fritz Lang; SCR Douglas Morrow; PROD Bert E. Friedlob. US, 1956, b&w, 80 min. NOT RATED

Saturday, October 31, 2:45*; Tuesday, November 3, 7:00

*With in-theater introduction by Foster Hirsch.

OUT OF THE PAST

Ex-PI Robert Mitchum tries to make a new life for himself in the country but his past catches up with him. First in the form of his former employer, mob boss Kirk Douglas, then in bad girl Jane Greer, whose romantic getaway with Mitchum had ended on a murderous note. Dizzyingly told in flashback, blending dreamy romanticism with doomy cynicism, this is arguably the ultimate film noir, a coolly vicious love triangle between Mitchum, iconic in his trenchcoat and laconically cool; Greer, la femme plus fatale, a serial jilter of men whose duplicity--and murderousness--knows no bounds; and Douglas, blending charm and menace in one of his best performances.

DIR Jacques Tourneur; SCR Geoffrey Homes, based on his novel Build My Gallows High; PROD Warren Duff. US, 1947, b&w, 97 min. NOT RATED

Saturday, October 31, 7:00*; Sunday, November 1, 4:30†

*With in-theater introduction by Foster Hirsch.

†Screening followed by panel discussion: "What is Film Noir?" featuring Foster Hirsch, Jonathan Auerbach and Thomas Kaufman

NIGHT EDITOR
Special Price: $5 on Sunday; $10 Double Feature w/ SHAKEDOWN on Monday

One of Noir City's most popular rediscoveries. Cop William Gargan and his married socialite lover--long and leggy Janis Carter--witness a brutal murder while necking in Lover's Lane. She gets totally turned on. Of course he's assigned to investigate the murder. They are soooooo doomed. One of the raciest and raunchiest B noirs of the 1940s. (Note courtesy of Noir City)

DIR Henry Levin; SCR Hal Smith, after the story by Scott Littleton; PROD Ted Richmond. US, 1946, b&w, 68 min. NOT RATED

Sunday, November 1, 12:45*; Monday, November 2, 6:30 (Double Feature w/ SHAKEDOWN)

*With in-theater introduction by Foster Hirsch.

THE KILLERS
New 35mm Print!

The film that's been called the CITIZEN KANE of film noir. It's all here: murder, betrayal, lust, flashbacks, sumptuous visuals, double- and triple-crosses, whipcrack dialogue ...and sexy young'uns Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner erupting into stardom. (Note courtesy of Noir City)

DIR Robert Siodmak; SCR Anthony Veiller, after the story by Ernest Hemingway; PROD Mark Hellinger. US, 1946, b&w, 103 min. NOT RATED

Sunday, November 1, 2:20*; Wednesday, November 4, 6:30†

*With in-theater introduction by Foster Hirsch.

†Montgomery College Show: Introduction and discussion led by professor Jon Eig

HOLLOW TRIUMPH
Restored 35mm Print!

"No one's blacks were blacker, shadows longer, contrasts stronger or focus deeper." --Variety's Todd McCarthy on cinematographer John Alton

Filmed by the great noir cinematographer John Alton for the Eagle-Lion studio, HOLLOW TRIUMPH features producer/star Paul Henreid as a former medical student turned career criminal, out on parole and ostensibly going straight, but secretly plotting to knock over a gambling house, murder his doppelganger, psychiatrist Dr. Bartok, and assume the dead man's identity. The baroque plotting by screenwriter Daniel Fuchs (CRISS-CROSS, PANIC IN THE STREETS) overflows with deranged psychology and ludicrous coincidences, but the noir atmospherics and Henreid's elan more than carry the day. Cast against type, Joan Bennett stars as the good woman homme fatale Henreid leads astray.

DIR Steve Sekely (and uncredited, Paul Henreid); SCR Daniel Fuchs, after the novel by Murray Forbes; PROD Paul Henreid. US, 1948, b&w, 83 min. NOT RATED. Restored 35mm print courtesy of the Film Foundation and UCLA Film & Television Archive.

Saturday, October 31, 5:00*; Sunday, November 1, 7:30*

*With in-theater introduction by Foster Hirsch.