Hey Maven! The first four days of the program have been simply terrific! On
Thursday night we had a "pre-opening" shindig with live jazz, free champagne and the great 1961 Brit noir
ALL NIGHT LONG. Near capacity crowd and great vibes all around!
Friday night: A colossal double bill of
THE DEVIL THUMBS A RIDE and
THE GUILTY. The show was a massive SOLD OUT affair! We were fortunate enough to have TWO special guests on board: Barry Gifford, the fine novelist and screenwriter (WILD AT HEART, LONESOME HIGHWAY, etc.) Back in 1988 Barry published a book called "The Devil Thumbs A Ride" which was a collection of wonderful essays about B noir films. It's a terrific book (and was recently reprinted under its new title "Out of the Past.") Barry gave a short intro to
DEVIL THUMBS A RIDE. Our other special guest was Fritzi Feist, the daughter of Felix Feist, the director of
THE DEVIL THUMBS A RIDE. She contacted me the evening before (she lives here in the Bay Area) to let me know she'd be attending the show. She also let me know that
she had never seen THE DEVIL THUMBS A RIDE (it's never been available on VHS or DVD) and this was a particularly thrilling night for her. What made it additionally so was the fact that we had such a huge, enthusiastic crowd. She was very warmly received to say the very least! Also on the program that night was a short noir film that I made back in 1981 called
BLIND ALLEY. It too was warmly received. All in all a fantastic night!
Saturday: A great Anthony Mann double bill of
RAW DEAL and
RAILROADED! Another fat crowd and a wildly enthusiastic reception to these great noir classics. Despite the fact that both of these films are available through commercial DVDs (and the temperature topped out at almost 90 degrees) we had a terrific turnout!
Sunday: Another hot double bill:
CANON CITY (a tense prison picture starring Lawrence Tierney's real-like brother Scott Brady and photographed by the legendary John Alton) and
FRAMED, an exciting Columbia B noir starring Glenn Ford and Janis Carter. Great crowd and they really loved both films! Sunday also marked the arrival of SSO's very own
ChiO, who has travelled all the way from Chicago to be with us for this great series! Meeting
ChiO and hanging out with him has been a tremendous treat, especially in the context of a film noir festival!
I'll be back tomorrow with another report!
Meanwhile here's a tasty little piece that appeared on SF360.org:
http://www.sf360.org/seen/black-and-white-all-over