|
 OUT OF THE PAST
USA, 1947; 97m
OUT OF THE PAST is almost synonymous with the term film noir, and it
might come as a shock to first-time viewers with visions of rain-soaked
city streets at night and cross-hatched lighting pouring in through
Venetian blinds that the most striking sequences of Tourneur’s 1947
classic take place in bright sunshine, photographed by the great RKO
cameraman Nicolas Musuraca. The flashback-driven plot is, as Chris
Fujiwara has put it, "notoriously complex," but here’s the
basic idea: Jane Greer runs away from mobster Kirk Douglas, who sends
Robert Mitchum to track her down in Mexico, where they fall in love. It
is easily one of the greatest films of the 40s, probably one of the
greatest American films ever made, and Tourneur’s touch here is as deft
as that of a great jazz pianist like Bill Evans or Bud Powell. Mitchum
is at his early peak, and Jane Greer is the loveliest actress you’ve
never heard of. With former child star Dick Moore as the deaf-mute
teenager who takes down Mitchum’s would-be assassin with his fishing line.
Sun Sept 1: 1, 5 & 9; Mon Sept 2: 3 & 7
NIGHTFALL
(New 35mm print)
USA, 1956; 78m
Tourneur’s terrifically compact, low-key adaptation of the David (Shoot
the Piano Player) Goodis novel. A man and a woman (Aldo Ray and Anne
Bancroft) strike up an acquaintance and decide to have dinner together.
After they’re finished, the man is suddenly hijacked and spirited away
by two thugs, played by Brian Keith and Rudy Bond. In an extended
flashback, we learn that Ray had crossed paths with the two men a year
earlier during a camping trip, where they had accidentally left a bag
holding $350,000. Now they want their money back. As always, Tourneur
sifts the action into the settings, in this case an L.A. beachfront and
the open spaces of Wyoming. Ray and Keith, both subtle, gruff-voiced,
and amiable actors, fit perfectly into Tourneur’s oddly unsettled universe.
Sun Sept 1: 3:10 & 7:10
Mon Sept 2: 1, 5:10 & 9:10
THE FEARMAKERS
(New 35mm print)
USA, 1958; 85m
Dana Andrews insisted that his old friend Tourneur direct this 1958 film
about a Washington PR man named Eaton (Andrews) who returns from his
stay in a Chinese POW camp during the Korean war to find that his old
partner has been killed in a car accident after selling out to a man
named McGinnis (Dick Foran). Eaton infiltrates the firm and uncovers the
truth about his friend’s death and McGinnis’ political motives. THE FEARMAKERS
has a vaguely anti-communist theme, but the predominant tone
of the movie is one of sadness and resignation. It’s an oddly compelling
movie. With Mel Tormé as McGinnis’ statistician.
Wed Sept 4: 1, 4:45 & 8:30
STARS IN MY CROWN
USA, 1950; 89m
Tourneur always claimed that he was the consummate Hollywood
professional, the man who never turned down a script. Once, though, he
fought for the chance to direct one, and took a sizable pay cut to do
so. STARS IN MY CROWN, which is unlike any other Tourneur film, is made
up of scenes in the life of a small town in 19th century America called
Walesburg, centering around its parson (Joel McCrea, Tourneur’s old high
school friend), his son John (Dean Stockwell) who becomes sick with
typhoid, the local doctor (James Mitchell), and a man named Uncle Famous
(Juano Hernandez) who is nearly
scared off his land by a band of vigilantes that resembles the Ku Klux
Klan (in an episode that recalls Young Mr. Lincoln and antedates To Kill a
Mockingbird). A lovely, delicate and at times deeply moving film.
Wed Sept 4: 2:45 & 6:30;
Fri Sept 6: 3 & 7
 CANYON PASSAGE
USA, 1946; 92m
Most westerns are about loners crossing vast expanses of desert space.
Tourneur’s neglected 1946 classic is set in the lush forests and fields
of Oregon, and is centered around a community. Dana Andrews is the owner
of Jacksonville’s general store, Brian Donlevy is the amiable but
weak-willed banker who siphons off his depositors’ gold dust to pay off
his gambling debts, Ward Bond is the outsider who carries a grudge
against Andrews, and Susan Hayward is Donlevy’s fiancée who slowly falls
for Andrews. This is a movie of extraordinary visual beauty, shot in
gorgeous, dark-hued Technicolor (by cinematographer Edward Cronjager),
with emotional shadings to match. The set pieces — an Indian massacre, a
barn-raising — are as thrilling as the relationships are carefully
drawn. With Hoagy Carmichael, singing his immortal "Ole Buttermilk Sky."
Fri Sept 6: 1, 5 & 9; Sat Sept 7: 6:45
EXPERIMENT PERILOUS
USA, 1944; 91m
A gorgeous gothic thriller in the vein of Rebecca, Gaslight, and The
Spiral Staircase, but far more mysterious and unsettling: where
Hitchcock, Cukor and Siodmak underline every thrill and chill, Tourneur
works from eerie suggestibility, concentrating on the spaces between
things. The action takes place in 1903 New York, where George Brent’s
doctor befriends a woman on a train who later dies. When he goes to meet
her brother (Paul Lukas), he becomes charmed by his wife (Hedy Lamarr)
and slowly understands that her insanely jealous husband is a threat to
her life. A finely drawn, typically muted thriller with images of
spidery beauty, EXPERIMENT PERILOUS belongs probably to one of
Tourneur’s four or five best films.
Sat Sept 7: 1 & 4:45; Sun Sept 8: 9
STRANGER ON HORSEBACK
USA, 1955; 66m
In the great tradition of Rio Bravo, High Noon, and My Darling
Clementine, STRANGER ON HORSEBACK is about a circuit judge (Joel McCrea)
who arrests the son of a powerful man (Kevin McCarthy) for murder, and
then tries to keep him in jail before he goes to trial — in other words,
the establishment of law and order in a predominantly lawless state.
Shot in three weeks on a low budget, this is one of Tourneur’s most
minimal films, and also one of the most difficult to actually see. "A
visually accomplished work that mobilizes high angles, long shots,
tracking shots, and frames within the frame with Tourneur’s customary
intelligence, giving a certain dry grandeur to the story and its low
budget trappings." – Chris Fujiwara
preceded by
Harnessed Rhythm
USA, 1936; 11m
A Pete Smith Specialty short about a harnessed race horse named Dixie
Dan.
Sat Sept 7: 3 & 8:45; Sun Sept 8: 3
 BERLIN EXPRESS
USA, 1948; 74m
Tourneur shot this tense little melodramatic thriller in bombed-out
post-war Frankfurt and Berlin — in fact, BERLIN EXPRESS was the first
American production filmed in Germany after the war. Dr. Heinrich
Bernhardt (Paul Lukas), poised to re-unify the German nation, is
kidnapped on the express train from Paris to Berlin. His secretary
(Merle Oberon) asks a Russian, an Englishman, a Frenchman, and an
American (played by the great Robert Ryan) on board the train to help
her track down her boss. At a plot level, it’s relatively standard. But
in terms of mood (unsettling, subtly nightmarish, in the best
Tourneur manner) and visual beauty, and also as a document of Germany in
ruins, it’s invaluable.
preceded by
Killer Dog
USA, 1936; 11m
Tourneur himself disliked this story of a dog forced to prove his worth
before he is wrongfully "executed" for the slaughter of some sheep, but
it is probably one of the best and most characteristic of his shorts.
"It's at once one of Tourneur's most lyrical and one of his darkest
films." – Chris Fujiwara
Sun Sept 8: 1 & 5; Mon Sept 9: 1 & 4:30
EASY LIVING
USA, 1949; 77m
One of Tourneur’s most unusual films, and probably one of his most
undervalued, EASY LIVING is both a study of marriage under pressure and
an unusually sensitive examination of how it feels to be an athlete past
your prime. Victor Mature is the star quarterback of the New York Rams,
in the days before football players recived multi-million-dollar signing
bonuses. When he develops a heart murmur, he grudgingly leaves the game,
rethinks his future and tries to rekindle his marriage with his
ambitious wife (Lizabeth Scott). Tourneur, who had never been to a
football game in his life, brings the most delicate touch to the
material, and Mature gives a very touching performance. With Sonny Tufts
as his best friend, Lloyd Nolan as the sympathetic coach, and Lucille
Ball in a beautifully understated performance as the team secretary who
carries a torch for the fallen quarterback.
Sun Sept 8: 6:45; Mon Sept 9: 2:45 & 6:15
THEY ALL COME OUT
USA, 1939; 70m
When Tourneur came back to America, he worked at MGM, first as a
second-Unit director (on A Tale of Two Cities, among other things, where
he first met future partner Val Lewton), then on a series of shorts. His
first feature is an expansion of a Crime Does Not Pay two-reeler, about
the trials and tribulations of juveniles in prison and then coping with
life on the outside. It’s a nice, modest semi-documentary (with striking
sequences shot inside actual federal prisons), but you can see that it’s
made with the same eye and sensibility as the later classics. Starring
Tom Neal, who would make film history without knowing it just a few
years later as the lead in Edgar G. Ulmer’s Detour.
preceded by
Grand Bounce
USA, 1937; 11m
A "neat, ironic tale" (Fujiwara) about a check for $1,000 floating from
one person to the next.
Tue Sept 10: 1; Thurs Sept 12: 3:45 & 7:15
PHANTOM RAIDERS
USA, 1940; 70m
Tourneur’s second and third feature assignments at MGM were filmed
versions of the then popular Nick Carter stories, starring Walter
Pidgeon. They are classic B-movies (albeit opulent ones — this is MGM
after all), made with remarkable zest, dynamism and visual panache. In
PHANTOM RAIDERS, Carter and his sidekick Bartholomew (Donal Meek) go for
a vacation in
Panama, only to find trouble in the form of disappearing merchant ships,
being destroyed by a gangster (Joseph Schildkraut) to make a killing off
the insurance claims. "Throughout PHANTOM RAIDERS, we find the visual
style that Tourneur would develop in his subsequent films, a style
marked by atmospheric schemes of décor and lighting and a subtle drawing
out of scenes of silence and expectation." – Chris Fujiwara
preceded by
Romance of Radium
USA, 1937; 11m
In this Academy Award-nominated 1937 short, Tourneur traces the 40-year
history of the discovery and development of radium. "One of the densest
and most satisfying of Tourneur's short films." – Chris Fujiwara
Tue Sept 10: 2:45
Thurs Sept 12: 2, 5:30 & 9
about the series |
film descriptions and times | filmlinc.com home
|
CURSE OF THE DEMON aka NIGHT OF THE DEMON
THE LEOPARD MAN