Yes, it’s that time of year again. Film festival overload, otherwise known as April. The American Cinematheque and the Film Noir Foundation join forces for the 15th annual Festival of Film Noir. Shady dames and murderous mobsters converge for dark tales of jaded gumshoes, femmes fatale and menacing heavies in gloriously gritty black and white.
Festival opening night features one of the last movies made in the U.S. by blacklisted writer-director Cy Endfield before he relocated to England: TRY AND GET ME (originally released as THE SOUND OF FURY). Friday’s offerings are in the first row. Saturday’s themed night, “Show Biz Noir,” in the second.
 TRY AND GET ME1951, Film Noir Foundation, 91 min.
35mm print. Dir. Cy Endfield The true story of a shocking 1934 kidnapping and murder in San Jose provided the inspiration for one of the most compelling – and unjustly neglected – masterpieces of film noir. Ex-GI Howard Tyler (Frank Lovejoy), struggling to support his family, meets flashy hoodlum Jerry Slocum (Lloyd Bridges), who eases the gullible Howard into a lucrative life of crime. |
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 SUNSET BOULEVARD1950, Paramount, 110 min. DCP. Dir. Billy Wilder Not only the ultimate Hollywood noir, but one of the greatest films ever made. Beleaguered screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) is thrown by fate into the clutches of aging silent-screen star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) and exploits, for personal gain, her delusional quest for a big-screen comeback.
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Noir City: 15th Annual Festival of Film Noir | Egyptian Theatre | April 5 – 21