Noir City 2018

Noir City 2018. January 26, 2018. 

It’s the Opening Night of the Sixteenth Annual San Francisco Film Noir Festival, also known as Noir City. There is some buzz outside the historic Castro Theater. I get there an hour and fifteen minutes before show time. I want to deal with Will Call and go up the street for a piece of pizza at Oz’s. People with full festival “Passport” tickets are entering the theater. There’s a reception for them on the mezzanine in the balcony. Other fans with tickets for tonight wait in line to get their favorite seats. Many are dressed in the styles of the Forties and Fifties. People are clearly excited. 

There’s plenty of time to go up Castro Street and get my slice of pizza at Oz. It’s become a bit of a ritual for me. They have some exotic toppings including ostrich and camel. It’s early on Friday night and the neighborhood is rocking. 

Back to The Castro Theater. Volunteers guide the crowd in. Inside the door a young man in suit and fedora hands me a festival guide. The guide may be half the reason I’ve come here. It’s very well done with photos, thumbnail descriptions of the films and many Noir fun facts. There are pictures of the posters and lobby cards for the films we’ll see over the next ten days. 

It’s still exciting to enter the historic Castro Theater. I work some events there during the San Francisco International Film Festival and see at least a few other films there during the year. It’s still an amazing place and the best setting for a Noir film festival.

Three female singers are onstage doing standards. The Century Singers are  wearing slinky cocktail dresses. Their only accompaniment is an electric keyboard player. They’re entertaining people while they look for seats and socialize a bit.

There’s time to check out the scene on the balcony. An area is roped off for Passport holders who are treated to samples of food, beverage and Noir related products. There is an area the public can go into, but the real party is behind the velvet ropes. The wonderful people from Green Apple have quite a spread of Noir books. New editions of Noir classics have screaming, lurid pulp covers. So many books ... 

I was standing next to two Passport holders. They perused the festival schedule hand out. “Are you doing them all?” “No, I have to do something on Thursday.” Twenty four films in ten days. That’s not as intense as what some people do during the San Francisco International Film Festival, but it’s still pretty impressive. 

The Century Singers wrap up with the City’s theme song “San Francisco.” The mighty Castro Wurlitzer rises from the orchestra pit with Matt Hagerty at the keyboard. The house organist plays while the stage is cleared of microphones and wires. We’re treated to another version of the City’s song and people clap in unison. Maybe it’s the guys and dolls in period costume. This is a real San Francisco event.

The curtains part and the festival trailer begins. The Noir clips look a little too familiar. Isn’t that a scene from the film they showed a few years back? The one about the guys driving trucks loaded with dynamite through Mexican jungle and treacherous mountain trails? I recognize the opening theme song from my current favorite TV show, Vikings. It’s the Norse call to battle. The pounding beat is quite a combination with the clips of Noir violence. My blood pressure is starting to rise ... and the screen goes dark. 

The crowd is quiet. There are a few wise cracks, but most of us just wait in the dark. A few minutes go by and the trailer starts again. When it gets to about the same spot, the screen goes dark again.

Technical difficulties are a part of festival life, but it’s still surprising how patient the crowd is. I have to admit that I did wonder, how bad are the technical difficulties?

The reassuring voice of Noir City announcer Bill Arney introduces The Czar of Noir, Eddie Muller. Muller is his usual suave, dapper self. Does anyone wear a suit better than Eddie Muller? He certainly doesn’t seem ruffled by the bad technical start. 

Muller has personally sparked the Noir revival. There are plenty of fans in the Bay Area that yearn for nostalgia, but it was Muller really who gave the genre a huge boost. He hosts Noir festivals in other cities including Los Angeles, Seattle and Chicago. He’s been getting more national exposure with his show on Turner Classic Movies: Noir City. It is aired at an unfortunate time, 7 a.m. on Sunday morning. With today’s cable TV technology it shouldn’t make a difference. Just tape it. But come on Turner Classic Movies. This show should be on at night!   

This year’s theme is Film Noir A to B. “A Dozen Double Bills! Classy As and Trashy Bs!” Younger generations don’t even know what a double feature is. Studios paired an A picture that had bigger production budgets and stars with a B picture. Usually the B picture played first. Noir City is usually a double feature anyway. It’s a step back to what going to the movies used to be like, and another of the festival’s links to the past. Muller says that a night out at the movies was a bigger deal in the old days. It was more of a social event. This year films from a certain year will be shown each night. We’ll go in chronological order from 1941 and go to 1953. What most consider the Golden Age of Noir. 

Muller explains the earlier technical difficulties. The trailer was from the 2014 Noir City: “It’s a Bitter Little World.” “They still want it to be 2014 up in the projection booth.” Most of the crowd wishes we could go back to 2014. Muller mentions why we’re really here. The goal of the Film Noir Foundation is to restore Noir films.

One of the Century Singers joins Muller onstage. He hopes she will provide a distraction from the technical difficulties. Annabelle is this year’s Ms Noir City. She attended the festival before she lived in San Francisco. Being Ms. Noir City, “Is a dream come true.” She’s an actress and singer. Muller and Annabelle talk fast. They’re probably making up some lost time from the trailer glitch. Ms. Noir calms things down by singing a song.  

Muller introduces and brings out tonight’s special guest. Victoria Mature is the daughter of Victor Mature. He’s the male lead in this year’s first film I Wake Up Screaming. She’s an attractive young woman. This is surprising. People in the audience are doing the math. 

Muller often meets the offspring of big movie stars and usually finds himself asking: What was it like being the son or daughter of a successful movie actor? How did people treat her father? How did fans treat her? Victoria says she certainly noticed how people gave her father the star treatment. She says she didn’t know her father when he was in his thirties, forties or fifties. At first I thought this was one of those Hollywood abandonment stories. Movie careers were demanding. 

The reason Victoria didn’t know her father during his stardom was that Victoria didn’t exist then. Victor Mature was sixty-two when Victoria was born. Muller exults and gives us a bit of a hip shake. “There’s hope for us all!” 
Victoria says that he agreed with critics of his acting. He used to say, "I'm a bad actor, and I have a hundred films to prove it!" 

Half the fun of Noir City is Muller’s introductions to the films. He thinks The Maltese Falcon was the first Noir film, but some make a case for I Wake Up Screaming. The third prototype Noir film was Stranger on the Third Floor.  It was originally titled Hot Spot. Director H. Bruce Humberstone made only one Noir film, but he helped define the genre.

What the first “real” Noir film was is a matter of some debate. I wondered which one was made first. Which one was released first? Does it make any difference? There were certainly crime dramas before 1941, but Muller means the classic era of Noir, 1941 to 1953. 

Muller says he’s often asked, in what city where were the most Noir films made? Most Noir films were filmed in Los Angeles. New York was second and San Francisco was third. I Wake Up Screaming was filmed in Los Angeles and has some vintage shots. He points out that in LA Noir films the camera tends to pan along a horizon. In New York the camera tends to pan up and down accenting the height of the skyscrapers in the urban jungle. 

I Wake Up Screaming starts with a panoramic view of Los Angeles. The opening music is “Street Scene” by Alfred Newman. It’s a familiar Noir theme that was used in three other films. 

Betty Grable (Jill Lynn) visits her sister at the cafe where she is a waitress. Carole Landis (Vicky Lynn) is “the hash slinger” who wants to escape the cafe and “be somebody” enjoy the high life. Betty Grable tries to talk her out of this. Sometimes the sisters look identical to me.  

A large guy lurks outside watching Landis’ every move. Her sister is concerned, but Vicky Lynn says dealing with creeps is just a part of the job! He tries to hide in the shadows and follows them home. 

Later the Victor Mature character, Frankie Christopher, comes into the cafe. He’s a promoter. “Sports, women, anything.” Frankie is a cool guy. He’s quick with handouts to those down on their luck. He’s smitten by Vicky Lynn, and who can blame him. He offers to take her out on a night on the town. There’s a bit of a Pygmalion subplot. He and a couple of his friends talk about taking someone and introducing them to high society. Would even a lowly waitress fit in? They take her to a posh nightclub, and Vicky Lynn quickly proves them correct.  

Some of the background music is the melody from Somewhere Over the Rainbow. It’s a bit surprising. I Wake Up Screaming was a Twentieth Century Fox production. Why did they use the song from an MGM classic? Muller later comments that the tune will probably give us nightmares later.  

Things go bad quickly. Frankie finds the body of Vicky Lynn. He’s standing over her when her sister walks in. It doesn’t look good. “You don’t think I did it!” 

Well, the cops do and they give him the third degree. They even use the spotlight on him. The whole deal. “Let’s go over this one more time...” 

One of the cops is the creepy guy who stalked Vicky Lynn at the start of the movie. Cornell is played by Laird Cregar. He made a career with parts like this. “So what if I’m a peeping Tom!” That’s part of his job. “I made sure she got home.”

Cornell is sure that Frankie is guilty and becomes obsessed with pinning the murder on him. He brags about how he will get him the death penalty. The cops have got nothing on Frankie and he’s free to fall in love with the “good” sister. He takes Jill Lynn/Betty Grable to her first nightclub, boxing (“We’ll sit in the gallery. That’s where the real fans are.”) and a late night swim in a public pool.   

An early suspect is Elisha Cook, Jr. He was the hapless gunsel in The Maltese Falcon. During the introduction Muller gives him special mention, reminding us that he’s a San Francisco native.  

Cook is a desk clerk. It looks like being a desk clerk in a hotel is a great slacker job. Does anyone do cowardly fear better than him? When he’s accused his wild eyes bug out. He’s already sweating. 

There are the usual Noir plot twists to try to keep you guessing. There’s much running around. Scary cop Cregar visits Jill Lynn. She says that you can’t live without hope. The cop answers, “It’s been done.”

Some scenes look familiar. This happens to me all the time with Film Noir. Maybe I saw it on TV years ago. 

Intermission. The balcony area mezzanine has been opened up for the public. Sponsors display their wares or give away samples. A young guy is passing out comic books. He’s not getting much attention with this crowd. It’s a DC book: Batman in Noir Alley. Batman meets Eddie Muller! They search for the stolen Moroccan Raptor. It’s odd to see Eddie Muller in a comic book.

The crowd is enthusiastic and it’s clear how much people enjoy the festival. Attendance seems weak for Opening Night. There’s plenty of room in the balcony. 
This year's trailer is shown and it's worth the wait. Serena Bramble creates well edited combinations of music and Noir.   

Muller is back onstage for a new feature this year. A trivia contest! We’re encouraged to sign up, but there is a warning. You have to know your Noir or you’re going to look very silly onstage. 

A young woman is this year’s first contestant. She will get three clues and then she must tell us what Noir film is being described. 

The first clue: This was the only Noir film that had a title song that became a Top 40 hit. You can guess after one clue if you really know you’re stuff and want to impress the audience. Muller reminds the crowd: No help from the audience!  

One of the main characters is a flamboyant newspaper columnist. People in the audience that know the answer are squirming.  

I have to admit I was thinking Bad and Beautiful, but she guesses right: Laura. She wins a stack of DVDs.  

The second film will be the B film of the double feature: Among the Living. Muller says it’s a cross between Horror and Noir. “It was early in the Noir game and they were still figuring things out.” It’s also Gothic. The film takes place in the South. “Where people are hidden in attics for a couple of decades.”

Muller tells us that writer Lester Cole makes some social commentary during the film. He was later blacklisted. I’m surprised there’s no mention of Dekker’s demise.

Albert Dekker plays twin brothers. They are the son of a wealthy industrialist and the founder of the town. The film opens with the father’s funeral. The lower classes are huddled outside the gates of the cemetery making snide remarks. 

Paul Raden (Dekker #1) has returned for the funeral. His brother had died when they were ten, or so he was told. The family doctor (Harry Carey) arranged for another child to be buried and he faked the death certificate. Really the brother had been thrown against a wall when he tried to defend his mother from some kind of evil advances from the father. John (Dekker #2) suffered brain damage that drove him insane. He is kept hidden in an attic room for twenty-five years.

This one is pretty wild. We first see John in the attic in a strait jacket. Black servant Pompey (pronounced Pom-pee) takes care of him. Is he all right? Will he behave if the strait jacket is taken off? 

John wants to be sure his father isn’t buried next to his mother. So that “He can’t hurt her anymore.” Pompey tells him the father is buried somewhere else, but John doesn’t believe him. He’s learned not to trust anyone during his twenty-five years of being locked in the attic. He has to see for himself! He strangles Pompey and escapes by jumping out a window. Too bad he didn’t think of that before during the previous twenty five years, but he is insane.  

It may not be the acting job of the century, but playing identical twins has to be a challenge for any actor. The “insane” Dekker, John, gets more of the screen time. Paul seems to fade into the background. Dekker didn’t get an Oscar nomination for this. I didn’t realize Paul’s wife was played by Frances Farmer until I saw her name in the credits. She doesn’t have much of a role.

We can tell the twins apart. It’s easy. The insane one hasn’t shaved. John goes into the town which looks more like New York City than a small mill town. He’s a wide eyed innocent returning to civilization. John is fascinated by seeing people, especially Millie Pickens, played by a stunning Susan Hayward. It’s easy for John to make friends. He has a big roll of money that he innocently flashes around and spends. 

Among the Living has the pacing and atmosphere of an old Horror film. I thought Bela Lugosi would pop out from behind the weeping willows at any minute. 

John seems almost normal. Being around Susan Hayward probably helps, but eventually he goes back to his insane ways. A young woman is killed and the community is outraged. A monster is on the loose! Paul is talked into offering a $5,000 reward. 

This sets the locals off into mob action. Everyone wants that reward, but they seem to just roust some of the even less fortunates. Vagrants and usual suspects are rounded up. The insane killer is standing right next to them, but he must be OK because he’s with Susan Hayward.     

Just about all the films shown at Noir City can be found online. I’ve watched some of them. They’re still absorbing, but there’s just something wrong about watching a film on a computer. It shouldn’t be such a big deal. It’s still a screen and you can’t beat the convenience. The films are usually free. There’s still nothing like seeing these films on a big screen. It’s fun to be among dedicated Noir fans and hearing the crowd’s reactions. There are laughs at unintended double entendres or slang that has a much different meaning today.