Noir on New York Streets
October 21, 22, 28, and 29
November 4
- Side Street
- The House on 92nd Street
The Naked City - Force of Evil
- Kiss of Death
Edge of the City - Killer's Kiss
***All film programs are held in the East Building Auditorium except where noted***
Side Street
October 21 at 3:00 p.m.
Disgruntled postal worker Farley Granger, dipping his hand in the office till, finds he's been stealing from the wrong stash as Joseph Ruttenberg's taut cinematography traps him in a grid of one-way New York streets. Anthony Mann's noir nightmare, cast with men who seem plagued by obsessions they can't control, displays the director's "Germanic rigor... his original dictionary of ways in which to punish the human body." — Manny Farber (Anthony Mann, 1950, 35 mm, 80 mins.)
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The House on 92nd Street
October 21 at 4:30 p.m.
A ring of Nazi provocateurs is at work in New York City, and only German-American university student Bill Dietrich can crack it. " 'Adapted from cases in the espionage files of the FBI' as the prologue convincingly blares, The House on 92nd Street was filmed on 'actual locations,' including Bureau headquarters, while some outdoor crowd shots were taken from a special surveillance van borrowed from the Bureau" — Jason Sanders. The producer of the March of Time documentary newsreels teamed up with the FBI to create this it-really-happened thriller, complete with transvestite agents and bomb secrets. (Henry Hathaway, 1945, 35 mm, 89 mins.)
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The Naked City
October 22 at 5:00 p.m.
From 52 West 83rd, the site of a murder, Barry Fitzgerald and Don Taylor of the 10th Precinct (230 West 23rd) track down leads from Stillman's Gym to the Roxy Theater to the City Morgue to Roosevelt Hospital, with a memorable showdown at the Williamsburg Bridge. William Daniels' on-location camerawork, inspired in part by Weegee, won the Oscar for best cinematography. (Jules Dassin, 1948, 35 mm, 96 mins.)
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Force of Evil
October 28 at 2:00 p.m.
The urban lyricism of soon-to-be blacklisted Abraham Polonsky's script, the modern textures of David Raskin's music, and the realism of George Barnes' photography (with key scenes at the George Washington Bridge, Federal Hall, 28 Wall Street, and the final East River rendezvous) make Force of Evil "a masterpiece — poetic, terse, beautifully exact, a re-creation in highly personal terms of the American underworld...." — Hollywood in the Forties (Abraham Polonsky, 35 mm, 1949, 80 mins.) Preservation funded by The Film Foundation and Archive Council.
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Kiss of Death
October 29 at 4:00 p.m.
Norbert Brodine filmed on New York streets for this underrated if off-beat classic. Richard Widmark makes his debut as a sadistic killer, and Victor Mature is the stool pigeon trapped between two kinds of family loyalty — "the Mob and the Missus." Definitely of its period, Kiss of Death's nighttime New York is "peopled by daylight's misfits and when Mature's wife kills herself, a neighbor happily takes her place." — Paul Kerr (Henry Hathaway, 1947, 35 mm, 98 mins.)
also
Edge of the City
From the mid-1950s cycle of Hollywood films about race problems, Edge of the City holds up especially well thanks to Martin Ritt's use of his New York milieu. Neurotic Axel Nordman (John Cassavetes), an army deserter with a guilt complex over the death of a brother, finds a job as a freight handler and gets therapy-by-example from his life-loving buddy, played by Sidney Poitier. The waterfront shooting (including the brutal baling-hook battle with foreman Charles Malik, played by Jack Warden) is among the best ever. (Martin Ritt, 1957, 35 mm, 85 mins.)
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Killer's Kiss
Introduction by critic James Naremore
The Streets of New York: American Photographs from the Collection, 1938–1958: A Lecture Program
November 4 at 4:30 p.m.
Down-on-his-luck boxer Davy Gordon (Jamie Smith) falls hard for Pleasureland hostess Gloria Price (Irene Kane), but club boss Vincent Rapallo (Frank Silvera) has his own plans. This Cassavetes-like blend of New York avant-garde and mood-drenched noir was shot, written, edited, produced, and directed on a miniscule budget by Stanley Kubrick (whose earlier career as a Look photographer came in handy here, especially in the surreal climactic fight in a mannequin-filled warehouse). (Stanley Kubrick, 35 mm, 1955, 67 mins.)
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