The Silver Screen Oasis

Here's a link to the Roxie's website with all the dope on my new noir program coming next month!
Some unusually rare titles rubbing shoulders with some much-loved classics. Lots of rare B noirs
in stunning 35mm prints, great-looking 16mm collector prints, and high-quality digital. A mixed-
media bag! (Please excuse typos and glitches on website; they're still tweaking.) There's more
than I can possibly yammer on about at the moment, but I need to point out right off the bat--
an astonishing FIVE films photographed by John Alton, two films directed by Nicholas Ray, two
by Joseph H. Lewis, one by Anthony Mann, one by Edward D. Wood, one by Billy Wilder's older
and more interesting older brother, and one by Bruno Ve Sota.
http://roxie.com/events/details.cfm?eve ... 8DD134E5FD

< (( sigh! )) >

The flight and hotel are booked. Look out Dewey (& Mrs. Dewey), Mook, Lzcutter & Moraldo -- I'll be seeing you and some Noir for one glorious week (May 16-22).

E, you've outdone yourself! What a lineup...Moe would be so proud of her boss!!

Sounds like a dark time in sunny CA. Fortunately, I have a few of these OOP films thanks to ChiO and I recorded The Strange Mr. Gregory years ago when you wrote about it here, so I will have my festival at home and look to compare notes via this thread about the viewings. Best of luck Mr. D.!

Oooh what a fantastic lineup, Dewey! So glad to see Bluebeard and Deadline for Murder on the list. The Mark Robson film sounds great.

It sometimes happens: unforeseen circumstances arise that create the need to
quickly regroup! This is now the case with one of our opening night features!
We had a press screening last week for some of our local writers and one of
the prints we presented was I, THE JURY. It soon became apparent that this
print was simply unplayable: milky picture, garbled soundtrack, etc. With
very little time to spare I exhausted all my resources in trying to locate a
different print (no dice) and even the digital copies I was able to scare up
were unacceptable. The only alternative was to scrap the title and try to
find a suitable replacement. Voila! HOLLOW TRIUMPH (aka THE SCAR)!!
I was able to contact a collector pal of mine who is very graciously sending
us his pristine 16mm print of this terrific film which will now share the
opening night bill with THE BIG COMBO next Friday. I regret having to
cut a film from the line-up, but replacing it with a better one takes the sting
out of it. To be able to find a film that a) has the same running time and,
b) was also photographed by John Alton only serves to remind me that Fate
can sometimes work in your favor--even in the world of film noir!
Here's a great clip from HOLLOW TRIUMPH!!
[youtube][/youtube]

Whew! I'm sweating bullets just thinking about you scrambling to find a replacement! It's a good thing you are so resourceful, quick thinking and know so much about movies. Congratulations on finding a great substitution! I was on the edge of my seat watching that clip- it looks like a fantastic movie.

Good luck on opening night. I am sure your audiences will be wowed!

Oooh, it's on Netflix! I'm watching the whole thing now.

Nothing like a pre-opening night foot stuck out to trip you, Mr. Programmer. But whatta save!

Now, quadruple check SHADOW OF TERROR, FEMALE JUNGLE, THE SINISTER URGE and GIRL ON THE RUN. I shall accept no substitutes (unless it's a film directed by Ulmer, shot by Alton, and based on a story by Woolrich).

See you on the red carpet in 11 days on the Mission. My ratty suit, paranoia and flop-sweat are packed.

[u]Dewey1960[/u] wrote:It sometimes happens: unforeseen circumstances arise that create the need toquickly regroup!...

I'm glad you were able to get a replacement. It's a good thing this happened now, and not with a theatre-filled with noiristas demanding to tear you limb from limb. Or worse...suffer the fate Karloff did at Lugosi's hands in "The Black Cat." You don't know how I wish I could attend the festival. Are there cheap hotels in the San Francisco area?

I wish you much success with your show Dewey. Please keep the rest of us posted. Thanx!

P.S. What's been your experience with which screening times are the most popular. I assume most folks are working, so your 8:00pm screenings or what. Just curious.

Wendy, you're in for a major jolt with HOLLOW TRIUMPH and I anxiously await your reactions to it. I think it's one of John
Alton's finest accomplishments and, surprisingly, it's a film that is hardly referenced at all. ChiO, I think we're OK with
those titles. Sometimes we just have to keep our fingers very tightly crossed and hope for the best! Maven, conventional
wisdom generally dictates that an 8:00 show will draw the biggest crowds. With double-features it gets tricky. It's wise
to put the stronger of the two films at 8:00 with the co-feature bookending it at 6:15 and 9:40 (or so). If folks are
concerned about a sell-out they'll usually show up for the first early show and stay for the 8:00. Those who arrive at 8:00
can still take advantage of the double-feature and stay for the 9:40. What we've experienced is that virtually no one
comes at 9:40 for the simple reason that the allure of two films no longer applies. What we've started doing is scheduling
a late (11:00) show of the main feature to encourage people to come at 9:40. This worked remarkably well during our
pre-code fest in March. We had over 200 people in the theater for the 11:00 screening of FREAKS which never would have
happened if that late show hadn't been added; most of those 200 people showed up for the 9:45 show of ISLAND OF LOST
SOULS knowing that they'd still reap the benefits of the double-feature.

It makes me cry tears of joy thinking of 200 people coming to a theatre to see Freaks at an 11:00 showing. I'm all verklempt. Seriously.

I was pretty darn verklempt myself come to think of it. And I'll be even more verklempt if we can
replicate this for film noir next weekend!

Thanx for the feedback Dewey. Two weeks of noir. Gee. I'm wishing you full houses every day.



Break a leg! Dew. And knowing Vera as we all do...she'd probably mean that literally. But this is how I mean it: Good Luck!