Haggai
01-31-2010, 03:40 PM
The featured personality of the night was arguably the most dependable femme fatale in all of classic noir, Gloria Grahame. First up was Fritz Lang's HUMAN DESIRE, with Broderick Crawford as Grahame's violently desperate husband and Glenn Ford as a returning Korean war vet with "chump" practically written on his face. Abused, battered, and trapped by her husband after he commits murder in a fit of jealousy, Grahame enlists help from the compassionate and smitten Ford, but when her true motivations are revealed, how will it all end?
The audience enjoyed this taut, atmospheric thriller, with applause for Grahame's titillating introduction and her subsequent machinations. This was undoubtedly one of her best roles, a showcase for her sympathetic side as well as her more familiarly manipulative noir screen persona.
Harry Belafonte delivered a special recorded message to the San Francisco audience before ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW, reminiscing fondly about working with Robert Wise, Robert Ryan, and Ed Begley, and for eventually being able to restore screenwriting credit to the blacklisted Abraham Polonsky. He also paid tribute to Eddie Muller and the Film Noir Foundation for reviving access to many classic films.
The film went over well with its contemporary jazz score and sharp-edged racial tension, plus some racy scenes between Grahame and Ryan, with an appreciative response for her first line: "What's going on in there? An orgy?" The brilliantly tense heist sequence, plus the bitter rivalry between Ryan and Belafonte, are part of the modern feel of this now 50-year-old classic that still resonates today.
The audience enjoyed this taut, atmospheric thriller, with applause for Grahame's titillating introduction and her subsequent machinations. This was undoubtedly one of her best roles, a showcase for her sympathetic side as well as her more familiarly manipulative noir screen persona.
Harry Belafonte delivered a special recorded message to the San Francisco audience before ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW, reminiscing fondly about working with Robert Wise, Robert Ryan, and Ed Begley, and for eventually being able to restore screenwriting credit to the blacklisted Abraham Polonsky. He also paid tribute to Eddie Muller and the Film Noir Foundation for reviving access to many classic films.
The film went over well with its contemporary jazz score and sharp-edged racial tension, plus some racy scenes between Grahame and Ryan, with an appreciative response for her first line: "What's going on in there? An orgy?" The brilliantly tense heist sequence, plus the bitter rivalry between Ryan and Belafonte, are part of the modern feel of this now 50-year-old classic that still resonates today.