CRY DANGER / HELL'S HALF ACRE

ABOUT THE EVENT:

7:30pm | Introduction by Alan K. Rode

7:40pm | CRY DANGER

9:00pm | Intermission

9:10pm | Introduction by Eddie Muller

9:20pm | HELL’S HALF ACRE

Start times are approximate.

ABOUT THE FILMS:

CRY DANGER, Dir. Robert Parrish, 79 Min, Paramount, USA

Originally released February 3, 1951

When Rocky Mulloy (Dick Powell) is sprung from prison after serving five years on a robbery charge, he returns to Los Angeles looking to settle things with the crooks who set him up. A shady, wounded war vet (Richard Erdman) and his cellmate’s gorgeous wife (Rhonda Fleming) help him play cat-and-mouse with the local gangster (William Conrad) out to get him. From these bare bones, scripter Bowers makes CRY DANGER both a stellar sampling of film noir and a sly send-up of the genre. Parrish, making his directorial debut, fleshes out the lean-and-mean script with a wonderful array of L.A. locations, always coming up with unusual glimpses into now-lost areas of the City of Angels. A crackerjack crime film—short, smart, sassy, and full of surprises.

FORMAT: 35mm

35mm preservation print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive; preservation funding provided by the Film Noir Foundation

HELL’S HALF ACRE, Dir. John H. Auer, 90 Min, Paramount, USA

Originally released February 26, 1954

Are you ready for a hundred-proof dose of “Tiki Noir?” Evelyn Keyes goes undercover as a taxi dancer in Honolulu’s notorious red-light district searching for her missing GI husband (Wendell Corey)—her only clue the recording of a Hawaiian love ballad with lyrics eerily similar to love letters she received during the war. Little does she know her guy is more than a simple songsmith—he’s now a gangster vying with Philip Ahn for control of the island’s vice rackets. Toss sultry and statuesque Marie Windsor into the mix and it’s noir Nirvana with a slack-key guitar soundtrack … as fun as B movies get!

FORMAT: 35mm

35mm collection print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive