I also think, for the benefit of the audience, the running order of the Sunday matinee should have been reversed. If you're going to give people "redemption noir," let the effect linger a bit longer! Ah, well. It's nice to know that a whole lot more folks will get to see FORCE OF EVIL than was the case when we showed it at the Roxie in AGITPROP 2.
Still, its heart is in the right place, and it's probably better to do a show like this on a smaller scale: two dozen films of this type would seem awfully "preachy" (and that's coming from someone who's well-known for liking "preachy"...!).
Here's the full schedule, and you'll see the stocking seams in the program even as you read it:
Thursday January 20
ALL THE KING'S MEN/THE ARGYLE SECRETS
Friday January 21
CROSSFIRE/OPEN SECRET
Saturday January 22
matinee: THE ACCUSED/THE KILLER THAT STALKED NEW YORK
evening: NO WAY OUT/THE SNIPER
Sunday January 23
matinee: ON DANGEROUS GROUND/THE PROWLER
evening: ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW/FORCE OF EVIL
Nice to see the double bill we presented in 2017 at AGITPROP get the Friday night slot at the Grand Lake.
And nice that FORCE OF EVIL (which needs to be shown every June 14th--I'll let you look up the reason why) will close the show, though Eddie really should've found room for THE LAWLESS in schedule rather than reprising THE PROWLER. It's important to remind people that ethnic prejudice is not limited to actions against African-Americans--as what happened at our borders in 2018-2020 so amply demonstrated.
So why do we call it "semi-muddled"? Despite the good intentions, it's ultimately a rather flabby combination of films, with few relevant rarities (ARGYLE SECRETS is really a stretch; films like LOST BOUNDARIES, THE BURNING CROSS, or even SALT OF THE EARTH would've punched up various aspects of the ethnic prejudice angle and shown the deeper roots of such filmmaking in that fraught period). The Saturday matinee slot is little more than a throwaway, with films that barely address social issues. A double bill of THE BURNING CROSS/STORM WARNING could've been pretty darned electrifying, particularly situated half-way through the series.
Responses