Haggai
01-29-2010, 01:55 PM
Noir City itself was the featured attraction in a double bill showcasing vintage San Francisco locations from the late 1940s. Eddie introduced the first film with a memorably noir quote from star George Raft, which got a round of applause from the crowd: "I must have gone through $10 million during my career. Part of the loot went for gambling, part for horses, and part for women. The rest I spent foolishly."
Raft stars in RED LIGHT as a company boss out for revenge for the murder of his clergyman brother, with a missing hotel room bible holding the critical clue. Despite some logical leaps in the narrative, Roy del Ruth's direction and Bert Glennon's cinematography make for an extremely stylish and visually effective noir, including a white-knuckle stalking scene in a railyard and an explosive finish on top of a huge neon sign.
The rare 35mm print looked very good, though it kept giving out during the middle part of the film. Fortunately, everything got back on track each time, and the last couple of reels of this "biblical noir" went off smoothly, allowing the appreciative audience an uninterrupted viewing of how The Book of Raft was finally written.
Police procedural and commie hunting were the order of the day in the docu-noir WALK A CROOKED MILE, with G-man Dennis O'Keefe teaming up with British inspector Louis Hayward to bust up a conspiracy leaking nuclear energy secrets. The search takes them to the heart of San Francisco's Chinatown, where a shady-looking artist is disguising the latest atomic formulas within his paintings, but who's his inside source for the vital information?
The audience chuckled at the stentorian preaching of Reed Hadley's narration, which reminded everyone to be thankful for the heroic lawmen keeping us all safe from bearded Raymond Burr types. A few local landmarks got some applause, and O'Keefe packing some seriously powerful heat in the final shootout (I almost thought he was about to call in air strikes) made for an enjoyable finish.
Raft stars in RED LIGHT as a company boss out for revenge for the murder of his clergyman brother, with a missing hotel room bible holding the critical clue. Despite some logical leaps in the narrative, Roy del Ruth's direction and Bert Glennon's cinematography make for an extremely stylish and visually effective noir, including a white-knuckle stalking scene in a railyard and an explosive finish on top of a huge neon sign.
The rare 35mm print looked very good, though it kept giving out during the middle part of the film. Fortunately, everything got back on track each time, and the last couple of reels of this "biblical noir" went off smoothly, allowing the appreciative audience an uninterrupted viewing of how The Book of Raft was finally written.
Police procedural and commie hunting were the order of the day in the docu-noir WALK A CROOKED MILE, with G-man Dennis O'Keefe teaming up with British inspector Louis Hayward to bust up a conspiracy leaking nuclear energy secrets. The search takes them to the heart of San Francisco's Chinatown, where a shady-looking artist is disguising the latest atomic formulas within his paintings, but who's his inside source for the vital information?
The audience chuckled at the stentorian preaching of Reed Hadley's narration, which reminded everyone to be thankful for the heroic lawmen keeping us all safe from bearded Raymond Burr types. A few local landmarks got some applause, and O'Keefe packing some seriously powerful heat in the final shootout (I almost thought he was about to call in air strikes) made for an enjoyable finish.