'Noir City: Hollywood' Film Festival

2:00 PM -- THE MIND READER

ABOUT THE FILM:

THE MIND READER, Dir. Roy Del Ruth, 70 Min, Park Circus, USA

Originally released April 1, 1933

This proto-noir rarity — presented in 35mm — follows a trio of itinerant con-men working a “spook racket” around the country. All well and good, until “Chandra the Great” (pre-Code cad Warren William) falls for a pretty and gullible rube (Costance Cummings). Based on a story by the legendary Wilson Mizner, himself something of an expert in scams and swindles. A brisk 70 minutes of pre-Code fun, and one of the first films to “pull back the curtain” on phony “spiritualists.”

FORMAT: 35mm

Tickets: $8.00 (member) ; $13.00 (general admission)

7:30 PM -- NIGHTMARE ALLEY on Nitrate

ABOUT THE FILM: 

NIGHTMARE ALLEY, Dir. Edmund Goulding, 110 Min, Disney, USA

Originally released October 9, 1947

One of the bleakest and most audacious pictures ever to emerge from Hollywood. Tyrone Power has the best role of his career as carny roustabout Stanton Carlisle, who connives his way into the big-time as a “mentalist,” preying on the hopes and fears of gullible rubes. But when he betrays his honest wife and partner (Coleen Gray) by throwing in with a shady psychoanalyst (Helen Walker)—there’s hell to pay. Based on the legendary cult novel by William Lindsey Gresham, the tale’s themes about the exploitation of human nature make the film seem more prescient than ever.

FORMAT: 35mm Nitrate

35mm print courtesy of the Film Noir Foundation Collection at the UCLA Film & Television Archive

Tickets: $15.00 (member) ; $20.00 (general admission)