711 Ocean Drive
Armored Car Robbery
The Asphalt Jungle
Backfire
Between Midnight and Dawn
Black Hand
Born to Be Bad
The Breaking Point
Caged
The Capture
Convicted
Crisis
The Damned Don't Cry
Dark City
Destination Murder
Dial 1119
D.O.A.
Edge of Doom
The File on Thelma Jordon
Guilty Bystander
Gun Crazy
Highway 301
House by the River
Hunt the Man Down
In a Lonely Place
The Killer That Stalked New York
Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye
A Lady Without Passport
The Lawless
The Man Who Cheated Himself
Mystery Street
Night and the City
No Man of Her Own
No Way Out
Once a Thief
One Way Street
Outside the Wall
Panic in the Streets
Quicksand
The Second Woman
The Secret Fury
Shadow on the Wall
Shakedown
Side Street
The Sleeping City
The Sound of Fury (AKA Try and Get Me)
Southside 1-1000
Sunset Boulevard
The Tattooed Stranger
This Side of the Law
The Underworld Story
Union Station
Unmasked
Walk Softly, Stranger
Where Danger Lives
Where the Sidewalk Ends
Woman in Hiding
Woman on the Run
Films that are 90+% likely to be in the lineup:
711 Ocean Drive, Armored Car Robbery, The Asphalt Jungle, The Breaking Point, Caged, The Damned Don't Cry, Dark City, The File on Thelma Jordon, Guilty Bystander, Gun Crazy, Highway 301, In a Lonely Place, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, Mystery Street, Night and the City, Panic in the Streets, Shadow on the Wall, Shakedown, Side Street, Sunset Boulevard, Try and Get Me, Where Danger Lives, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Woman on the Run
That's 24 films in the "highly likely" category, which is tha standard number of films for the ten-day version of NC. You'll note that D.O.A. is left off the list, as we still think there might be a reprise of "San Francisco noir" at some point, particularly if the Castro manages to remain in play as a movie theater.
There are seven films that might knock a few "favorites" from the lineup--
Crisis, No Man of Her Own, One Way Street, Quicksand, The Sleeping City, Union Station, Woman in Hiding
--but of this group, the only ones really likely to make a dent are NO MAN OF HER OWN (Stanwyck, a good pairing with THELMA JORDON) and ONE WAY STREET (allowing Eddie to stay on the Hugo Fregonese bandwagon).
Making double bills out of this group will be more arduous than in 1948 or 1949, because there's a wider range of subject matter in the 1950 film--it's as though American noir had become a nebula that was spreading out and dispersing across space. The way to do it is probably to pick the twelve films that seem to be the anchoring titles and go from there (assuming that one simply doesn't add in 2-4 more films because there is actually room to do so in the ten-day lineup: you can have up to 28 films if you add a second double bill on Sunday).
Let's go with the notion that we're staying with 24, and then see what could/might be added later. Here are your twelve anchoring films:
Asphalt Jungle
Breaking Point
Caged
The Damned Don't Cry
The File on Thelma Jordon
Gun Crazy
In a Lonely Place
Night and the City
Sunset Boulevard
Try and Get Me
Where the Sidewalk Ends
Woman on the Run
That's the alphabetical list. Then you'd place them across the timeline, putting the most consequential films in the weekend slots. Here's what that might look like:
Fri 1/26: Asphalt Jungle
Sat 1/27: (matinee) The File on Thelma Jordon
(evening) Night and the City
Sun 1/28: In a Lonely Place
Mon 1/29: Armored Car Robbery
Tue 1/30: Where the Sidewalk Ends
Wed 1/31: Try and Get Me
Thu 2/1: The Breaking Point
Fri 2/2: Gun Crazy
Sat 2/3: (matinee) Caged
(evening) Woman on the Run
Sun 2/4: Sunset Boulevard
You might wonder why ARMORED CAR ROBBERY is here as "consequential." We'll get to that in a minute, bear with me.
From there, you fill in the second features:
Fri 1/26: Asphalt Jungle/SIDE STREET
Sat 1/27: (matinee) The File on Thelma Jordon/NO MAN OF HER OWN
(evening) Night and the City/PANIC IN THE STREETS
Sun 1/28: In a Lonely Place/THE DAMNED DON'T CRY
Mon 1/29: Armored Car Robbery/MYSTERY STREET
Tue 1/30: Where the Sidewalk Ends/DARK CITY
Wed 1/31: Try and Get Me/HIGHWAY 301
Thu 2/1: The Breaking Point/WHERE DANGER LIVES
Fri 2/2: Gun Crazy/KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE
Sat 2/3: (matinee) Caged/SHAKEDOWN
(evening) Woman on the Run/ONE WAY STREET (or WOMAN IN HIDING)
Sun 2/4: Sunset Boulevard/GUILTY BYSTANDER
Voila...you have the Stanwyck and Widmark double bills, you have two strong films that can do repeat business on the first Sunday. Then Monday night Eddie can stay home for a breather while Alan Rode handles the Monday night with Charles McGraw. Eddie might even sit out Tuesday, but he'll definitely be back in harness on Wednesday with a run of some of his favorites in the top slot, all the way to the end. And you get some of that "marquee synergy" Eddie likes--the tinny little edge that stems from colliding two titles together that spell out what we might call the noir version of a Zen koan.
Regardless of how it actually comes down (assuming, of course, that the 75th anniversary approach takes hold for multiple years), this listing suggests that a festival focused on 1950 will be more kinetic than what will get shown for 1948 and (possibly) 1949. One value of the "one year approach is that we can get a better sense for overall quality as the cycle continued to play out.
We'll save 1951 for a later point in time, when we know that the year-by-year 75th anniversary approach is definitely being implemented again for 1949...
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