Événement

NOIR CITY 16: 1942: THIS GUN FOR HIRE / QUIET PLEASE, MURDER

Saturday matinee, January 27

The price of admission gets you into the double bill. You are welcome to arrive at 3:00 and watch the double bill starting from there.

1:00, 5:00
THIS GUN FOR HIRE
(1942, Paramount [Universal]. 81 min.)

Scr. Albert Maltz and W. R. Burnett, from the novel by Graham Greene. Dir. Frank Tuttle

One of the seminal films in Hollywood's noir movement, this taut thriller made stars of Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake, who'd become Paramount's biggest box-office duo of the forties. Ladd plays lone-wolf assassin Philip Raven, who enlists Lake's aid in freeing himself from a frame-up by a secret cadre of "fifth columnists." John Seitz' camerawork presages the shadowy dread he'd bring to sunny Los Angeles in Double Indemnity. Co-starring Robert Preston, Laird Cregar, and Lake's amazing costumes, courtesy of Edith Head. A must-see!

3:00
QUIET PLEASE, MURDER
Archival 35mm Print--Not on DVD!
(1942, 20th Century-Fox. 70 min.)

Scr. Lawrence G. Blochman, story by John Francis Larkin. Dir. John Francis Larkin

George Sanders is a cunning forger who teams up with femme fatale Gail Patrick to swindle gullible art patrons. His ultimate coup, to steal and replicate a priceless Shakespeare folio, turns into a crazy hostage drama when the priceless artifact ends up as a needle in a haystack...hidden somewhere in the Los Angeles Public Library! This indescribably daffy and surprisingly racy rarity is an example of the 20th Century-Fox B-unit at its very best!