Thirty years ago Elliot Lavine made the Roxie Theatre the epicenter of the film noir revival as he began a month-long film noir series, the first of its kind. It began an illustrious programming career that continues to this day. We’ll commemorate with a series of posts over the next four weeks.

On Sunday, September 8th, Elliot started things off in high gear with a triple feature (inspiring yours truly to follow in his footsteps some twenty years later). He began with DETOUR (1945), following that with MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS (1945), and following that with WHEN STRANGERS MARRY (1944). He then proceeded to play each of them again in the same order, followed by a third screening of DETOUR. (There is no truth to the rumor that the ghost of Tom Neal appeared after the third screening…)

On the 9th and 10th (bringing us up to the exact day thirty years ago), Elliot continued with a double bill that can only be described as iconic: THE KILLERS (1946), followed by ACT OF VIOLENCE (1948).

So far, it’s a 40s festival—but that will soon change. Stay tuned…