Événement

NOIR CITY 8: NIAGARA / THE ASPHALT JUNGLE

$10 double feature shows start at: 1:00, 2:50, 7:15
(NIAGARA plays at 1:00, 5:10, 9:30; THE ASPHALT JUNGLE at 2:50, 7:15)

1:00, 5:10, 9:30
NIAGARA
(1953, 20th Century-Fox. 92 min. Scr. Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch. Dir. Henry Hathaway)
"Niagara Falls and Marilyn Monroe: The Two Most Electrifying Sights in the World!" screamed the studio's ads for this sexually charged Technicolor noir. Monroe is a too-hot-to-handle wife who enflames her husband's jealousy during a vacation at the famous falls . . . with murderous results. Joseph Cotten, Jean Peters, and one of the world's majestic natural wonders all play second fiddle to Marilyn, whose larger-than-life allure still leaps off the screen 56 years after this film was originally released.

2:50, 7:15
THE ASPHALT JUNGLE
(1950, MGM. 112 min. Scr. Ben Maddow. Dir John Huston)
The gold standard of "caper" films. John Huston brings a neorealist feel to his version of W. R. Burnett's classic crime novel, and a remarkable cast vividly brings to life the book's rogues' gallery of crooked characters. It stars Sterling Hayden and Jean Hagen and a trio of the finest supporting performances ever from Louis Calhern, Sam Jaffe, and Marc Lawrence. Huston also gets credit for being the first to exploit the extraordinary on-screen sex appeal of Marilyn Monroe; this was the film that launched her meteoric rise to stardom.