*All times are PT. Please check your local listings to confirm dates and times.
Monday, March 2, 3:00 AM
ALGIERS (1938): This Hollywood remake of Julien Duvivier’s poetic realist masterpiece Pépé le Moko features Charles Boyer and Heddy Lamarr as the star-crossed lovers who meet in the Casbah. Nominated for four Oscars: Best Actor in a Leading Role, Charles Boyer; Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Gene Lockhart; Best Cinematography, James Wong Howe and Best Art Direction, Alexander Toluboff. Dir. John Cromwell
Monday, March 2, 5:00 AM
ODD MAN OUT (1947): Carol Reed’s intense manhunt thriller won the inaugural “Best Film” prize from the British Academy of Film Awards, and it remains one of the most highly regarded movies ever made in the United Kingdom. James Mason portrays beleaguered fugitive Johnny McQueen, an Irish Nationalist (the filmmakers were forbidden from using the name “Irish Republican Army”) on the lam after escaping from prison. While still in hiding, Johnny is roped into committing a heist that goes fatally wrong. Wounded, he caroms through the Belfast night trying to make it safely back to his guardian angel Kathleen (Kathleen Ryan), who has fallen for the escaped convict. Can Johnny navigate a nocturnal nightmare of danger and deceit? The stellar supporting cast, drawn mostly from Dublin’s Abbey Theatre, includes Cyril Cusack, Robert Newton, Dan (Conal Cochran) Dan O’Herlihy and William (Dr. Who) Hartnell. The cinematography by Robert Krasker is as good as his legendary work with director Reed on The Third Man. An all-time classic! Dir. Carol Reed
Monday, March 2, 5:00 PM
THE HARDER THEY FALL (1956): A cynical press agent (Humphrey Bogart) tempted by the money, goes to work as a PR flak for the corrupt manager (Rod Steiger) of a naïve boxer. He then must decide between the dough and exposing the inhuman conditions rife in the boxing game. DP Burnett Guffey earned an Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White for his work on the film. Dir. Mark Robson
Tuesday, March 3, 4:45 AM
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (1940): An American reporter (Joel McCrea) covering the war in Europe gets mixed up in the assassination of a Dutch diplomat which leads to his uncovering a political conspiracy with the aid of the daughter (Laraine Day) of a prominent politician (Herbert Marshall) and a chap named ffolliott “with two small ‘f’s” (George Sanders), his rival for the girl’s affection. This tremendously entertaining film features several vintage Hitchcock set pieces. The film was nominated for six Oscars including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Albert Bassermann; Original Screenplay, Charles Bennett and Joan Harrison; Best Cinematography, Rudolph Maté; Are Direction and Special Effects, but not Director. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
Tuesday, March 3, 11:15 PM
THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1956): A family vacationing in Morocco accidentally stumbles on to an assassination plot and the conspirators are determined to prevent them from interfering. Jay Livingston and Ray Evans garnered the Oscar for Best Music, Original Song for the film’s song "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)”. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
Thursday, March 5, 3:00 PM
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (1945): One of the most famous fantasy stories of all-time is given a sumptuous and sinister telling in this classic MGM film version. Renowned artist Basil Hallward (Lowell Gilmore) paints a glorious portrait of the dashing and callow narcissist Dorian Gray (Hurd Hatfield), whose ardent wish is that the painting age in his stead. When Dorian realizes his wish has been granted, he embarks on a hedonistic lifestyle that destroys all who dare love him. In only her third screen appearance, Angela Lansbury was nominated for a supporting actress Oscar® for her portrayal of Sibyl Vane. Screenplay by Albert Lewin, based on the story by Oscar Wilde. While not truly a film noir, we think that our FNF followers will enjoy it as our NOIR CITY 14 attendees did. Dir. Albert Lewin
Thursday, March 5, 5:00 PM – 8:45
Eddie Muller presents two Oscar-winning and one Oscar-nominated politically themed movies
5:00 PM
MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939): An idealistic Senate replacement Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) takes on political corruption. Claude Rains delivers an Oscar-nominated performance as Senator Joseph Harrison Paine—a respected senior senator and mentor to the idealistic Jefferson who is hiding a corrupt past. The film won one Academy Award for Best Original Story (Lewis R. Foster) out of 11 nominations. Dir. Frank Capra
7:15 PM
THE GREAT MCGINTY (1940): I was so excited to be able to finally write up one of my favorite Preston Sturges films for our TV listings page and now I have an excuse, Eddie is introducing it. Here is the opening narration for Sturges’ hilarious and touching political satire, “This is the story of two men who met in a banana republic. One of them never did anything dishonest in his life except for one crazy minute. The other never did anything honest in his life except for one crazy minute. They both had to get out of the country". The film is truly about the latter man, Dan McGinty (Brian Donlevy) who rise from voter fraudster for hire to corrupt governor for the machine. An arranged marriage leads him to disaster. Sturges won the Oscar for Best Writing (Original Screenplay). Dir. Preston Sturges
9:00 PM
SEVEN DAYS IN MAY (1964): When a military officer (Kirk Douglas) discovers a coup is being plotted by one of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Burt Lancaster), the President of the United States (Fredric March) must try to find a way to dismantle it. it received two nominations at the 37th Academy Awards (1965): Best Supporting Actor (Edmond O'Brien) and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White (Cary Odell, Edward G. Boyle). Dir: John Frankenheimer
Sunday, March 8, 4:30 AM
MANHATTAN MELODRAMA (1934): In this Pre-code crime drama, orphans "Blackie" Gallagher and Jim Wade are lifelong friends who take opposite paths in life. Jim (William Powell) becomes a D.A., while Blackie (Clark Gable) becomes a racketeer. Despite Blackie's lifestyle, the two men remain bonded through thick and thin. Even when Jim’s association with Blackie threatens his chances of winning the governorship and Jim falls in love with Blackie’s girlfriend Eleanor (Myrna Loy). Director Woody Van Dyke spotted the playful chemistry between Powell and Loy when bantering between takes and insisted on casting the pair as Nick and Nora Charles against MGM’s initial objections. The glamorous pair became one of the movies' great romantic teams. Dir. Woody Van Dyke
Monday, March 9, 1:00 AM
KLUTE (1971) Small town detective John Klute (Donald Sutherland) journeys to the Big Apple to search for a missing friend. He has only one lead: an obscene letter from the man to New York City prostitute Bree Daniels (Jane Fonda). He unravels both the mystery of the missing man and of the call girl. Fonda won a well-deserved Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of the disturbed and disturbing Bree. Dir. Alan J. Pakula
Thursday, March 12, 3:00 AM
THE NARROW MARGIN (1952): Marie Windsor gives one of her signature performances in this heralded thriller, one of the most inventive B films of the classic noir era. Set mostly on a train rife with killers, a tough cop (Charles McGraw) is assigned to haul a mobster’s wife to L.A. to testify against a gang of mobsters. It’s a toss-up as to what’s more exciting—Richard Fleischer’s propulsive handling of the spirited action sequences or Windsor and McGraw, chest to chest, spewing hardboiled insults at each other all the way from Chicago to L.A. Earl Felton’s dialogue snaps, crackles, and pops, and Fleischer’s dynamic direction is explosive enough to have blasted him out of the B unit and into the ranks of Hollywood’s preeminent directors for the next thirty-five years. Dir. Richard Fleischer
Thursday, March 12, 5:00 PM – 11:45 PM
Eddie Muller presents three Oscar-winning films set Down South
5:00 PM
a streetcar named DESIRE Fading Southern belle Blanche Du Bois (Vivien Leigh) tries to build a new life with her sister (Kim Hunter) in New Orleans. Based on the play by Tennessee Williams featuring an electric performance by Marlon Brando. The film won Oscars for won Best Actress (Vivien Leigh)Best Supporting Actor (Karl Malden)Best Supporting Actress (Kim Hunter), and Best Art Direction (Black-and-White). Dir. Elia Kazan
7:15 PM
SELMA (2014) In spring of 1965, a series of dramatic events changed the course of America and the modern concept of civil rights forever. Courageous marchers, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., attempted three times to carry out a peaceful procession from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama on a quest for the basic human right to ...vote. The shocking confrontations, the triumphant final march and the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that followed are now an indelible part of history. The film garnered one Oscar for Best Original Song for “Glory”. Dir. Ava Duvernay
9:30 PM
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962): In 1932 Alabama, a widowed lawyer (Gregory Peck) with two small children defends a black man accused of raping a white woman. Robert Duvall made his official feature film debut as Boo Radley. Based on the novel by Harper Lee. The film won three Academy Awards: Best Actor (Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch)Best Adapted Screenplay (Horton Foote), and Best Art Direction (Black-and-White) (Alexander Golitzen, Henry Bumstead, and Oliver Emert). It was nominated for a total of eight awards, including Best Picture and Director. Dir. Robert Mulligan
Friday, March 13, 11:00 AM
MYSTERY STREET (1950): A Cape Cod coroner (Ricardo Montalban) and a Harvard criminal pathologist (Bruce Bennett) try to solve a possible murder with nothing but the victim's bones to go on. Elsa Lanchester steals the show as the victim’s shady landlady. Leonard Spigelgass received an Oscar nomination for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story. Dir. John Sturges
Sunday, March 15, 4:45 AM
WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962) A crazed, aging star (Bette Davis) torments her sister (Joan Crawford) in a decaying Hollywood mansion. This beautiful Hollywood gothic noir features a duet of superbly fearless performances by two legendary actresses. Nominated for five Oscars, but only one win, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White for Norma Koch Dir. Robert Aldrich
Sunday, March 15, 12:30 PM
SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950): Film Noir meets Hollywood Gothic meets biting satire in this piece of perfection. A failed, and drowned, screenwriter, William Holden, tells us how he fell into a mercenary romance with a faded silent-film star, Gloria Swanson who probably would have told us a rather different story. Admirable support provided Erich von Stroheim as Max, her devoted butler and chauffeur. Dir. Billy Wilder
Friday, March 20, 7:15 PM
KNIFE IN THE WATER (1962): Sportswriter Andrzej and his beautiful wife Christine pick up a hitchhiker on their way to the lake. Andrzej asks the young man to join them on a sailing trip. The men develop a deadly rivalry during a boating weekend that extends to Christine. Dir. Roman Polanski
Saturday, March 21, 9:00 PM & Sunday, March 22, 7:00 AM
WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR? (1965): In the seamy streets of 1960s New York, nightclub DJ Norah (Juliet Prowse) is terrorized by an unknown stalker. Unfortunately for her, her tormentor is actually one of the club’s busboys, Larry (Sal Mineo) who shows a much kinder side with his mentally disabled sister. A police detective with his own emotional problems becomes personally involved in the case. Despite its sleaziness, it is an intelligent look at the emotional and cognitive impact of trauma on its survivors. Plus, it features a rare film appearance by Elaine Stricht. Dir. Joseph Cates
Saturday, March 21, 11:00 PM – Sunday, March 22, 3:00 AM
11:00 PM
HUMORESQUE (1946): Noirish romance about an equally talented and narcissistic classical musician (John Garfield) from the New York slums who falls in love with wealthy neurotic (Joan Crawford) with expectedly problematic results. Crawford’s performance as a self-destructive alcoholic raises the level of the film beyond its melodramatic script. Dir. Jean Negulesco
1:15 AM
FLAMINGO ROAD (1949): Carnival dancer Lane Bellamy (Joan Crawford), while stranded in a small town, becomes romantically involved with deputy sheriff Fielding Carlisle (Zachary Scott), a whose career is controlled by Sheriff and corrupt political boss Titus Semple (Sydney Greenstreet). Semple dislikes Bellamy and mounts a campaign against her but she’s not one to take things lying down. Dir. Michael Curtiz
Sunday, March 22, 9:00 AM
SAPPHIRE (1959): Sapphire, a young pregnant woman, is found murdered on Hampstead Heath. The police shortly discover that she was black but passed as white. The investigating officers (Nigel Patrick and Michael Craig) must deal with the racism in London at the time and within themselves as they search for her killer. Dir. Basil Dearden
Monday, March 23, 3:30 PM
ACT OF VIOLENCE (1949): An embittered veteran (Robert Ryan) tracks down Frank R. Enley, a POW camp informer (Van Heflin) now a respected member of his community and married to a wife (Janet Leigh) unaware of his actions during the war. Mary Astor steals the film as the boozy bar fly and prostitute trying to help Enley. Dir. Fred Zinnemann
Thursday, March 26, 5:00 PM – 2:00 AM
Bernard Herman biographer Steven Smith and FNF Prez Eddie Muller introduce four Hitchcock classics scored by Herman.
5:00 PM
PSYCHO (1960): Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) impulsively embezzles $10,000 dollars from her employer and takes it on the lam. She checks into the Bates Motel, meets the queer but attractive Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), takes a shower and makes cinematic history. A detective (Martin Balsam), Miriam’s sister (Vera Miles) and her boyfriend (John Gavin) all arrive to look for the missing Miriam. Long time Hitchcock collaborator Bernard Herrmann created the rightfully legendary score. The immensely talented old time radio actress Virginia Gregg provides the voice of Norman’s mother Norma Bates. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
7:00 PM
THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1956): A family vacationing in Morocco accidentally stumbles on to an assassination plot and the conspirators are determined to prevent them from interfering. Jay Livingston and Ray Evans garnered the Oscar for Best Music, Original Song for the film’s song "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)”. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
9:15 PM
VERTIGO (1958): An old friend hires ex-cop Scotty (Jimmy Stewart) to follow his beautiful but emotionally disturbed wife (Kim Novak) through the gorgeously shot streets of San Francisco. Stewart gives an intensely dark performance as Scotty spirals further and further into romantic obsession. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
11:30 AM
NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959): Foreign agents mistake suave and swinging advertising man Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) for a spy. He takes it on the lam and encounters a beautiful blonde (Eva Marie Saint) who may or may not be trusted. This film earned three Oscar nominations: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color; Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen; and Best Film Editing. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
Saturday, March 28, 9:00 PM & Sunday, March 29, 7:00 AM
CAGED (1950): This film noir in women-in-prison clothing details the transformation of a young, naïve and pregnant widow (Eleanor Parker) into a hardened convict. She learns the hard way how to survive in the big house from a sadistic prison guard (Hope Emerson) and the failure of a good-hearted warden (Agnes Moorehead) to reform the prison. This is more than an exploitation flick, it’s an intelligent social drama and raises a still prescient issue facing the American penal system, is it reforming first time offenders or just turning prisoners into career criminals? Nominated for three Oscars including Best Actress for Parker and Supporting Actress for Emerson. Dir. John Cromwell
Monday, March 30, 6:00 AM
INTRUDER IN THE DUST(1949): Nobel prize winner William Faulkner's 1948 novel is a high-minded piece of crime fiction, written as atonement for the mistreatment of blacks in his native South. Proud African American farmer Lucas Beauchamp (Juano Hernandez, in a memorable portrayal) is a defiant Mississippi landowner accused of murdering a white man. When the county's most prominent lawyer (David Brian) refuses to defend him, it's up to a young boy (Claude Jarman Jr.) to stand up to the vigilantes and help solve the crime. Dir. Clarence Brown
Monday, March 30, 11:30 AM – 3:00 PM
11:30 AM
HIGHWAY 301 (1950): Director Andrew L. Stone was known primarily for musicals before suddenly switching to a solid decade of hardboiled yarns shot largely on authentic locations. This was the first in that vein, and one of the best. Steve Cochran is a cold-blooded outlaw leading the Tri-State Gang on a robbery and murder spree through Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. The film combines the popular early-1950s “documentary” approach with flashes of wildly stylized and (for the time) graphic violence. With Virginia Grey, Gaby Andre, and Robert Webber in his feature film debut. Dir. Andrew L. Stone
1:00 PM
THE PHENIX CITY STORY (1955): Based on a true story, two crusading lawyers, a father and son (John McIntire and Richard Kiley), take on the corrupt machine running a Southern town at great personal cost. Dir. Phil Karlson
Tuesday, March 31, 4:00 PM
ESCAPE FROM CRIME (1942): Parolee Red O'Hara (Richard Travis) tries to go straight when he visits his wife and discovers that he’s now a father. He becomes a crime photographer and ironically has to return to prison undercover to fulfill an assignment. Will he be able to get out? Watch for Jackie Gleason as one of the cons! Dir. D. Ross Lederman
Tuesday, March 31, 10:30 PM
EXPERIMENT PERILOUS (1944): A chance meeting on a train with a stranger leads psychiatrist Huntington "Hunt" Brailey (George Brent) into the orbit of a beautiful married woman (Hedy Lamarr) whom he believes is in danger and whose husband (Paul Lukas) claims that she’s insane. Dir. Jacques Tourneur
NOIR ALLEY, hosted by FNF prez Eddie Muller, will be on hiatus during TCM’s “31 Days of Oscars” February 13–March 15. NOIR ALLEY will return on Saturday, March 21, with Who Killed Teddy Bear? (1965).
Hedy Lamar and Charles Boyer in Algiers on March 2
James Steward and Doris Day in The Man Who Knew Too Much screens March 3 and March 26
Donna Reed and Hurd Hatfield in The Picture of Dorian Gray on March 5
Eddie Muller presents The Great McGinty on March 5
Eddie Muller presents Seven Days in May on March 5
Myrna Loy and William Powell in Manhattan Melodrama on March 8
Jacqueline White and Charles McGraw in The Narrow Margin on March 12
Marlon Brando and Vivian Leigh on the set of A Streetcar Named Desire presented by Eddie Muller on March 12
Eddie Muller presents Selma on March 12
Gregory Peck and Brock Peters in To Kill a Mockingbird presented by Eddie Muller on March 12
Elsa Lancaster in Mystery Street on March 13
Billy Wilder films Sunset Boulevard screens March 15
Eddie Muller presents Who Killed Teddy Bear on the March 21-22 edition of NOIR ALLEY
Joan Crawford and Zachary Scott in Flamingo Road on March 21
Brit noir Sapphire screens March 22
Mary Astor and Van Heflin in Act of Violence on March 23
Hitchcock's Psycho screens March 26
Kim Novak and Jimmy Stewart star in Vertigo on March 26
Eddie Muller presents Caged on the March 28-29 edition of NOIR ALLEY
Claude Jarman Jr. in Intruder in the Dust on March 30
Steve Cochran stars in Highway 301 on March 30
George Brent and Hedy Lamarr in Experiment Perilous on March 31