Updating this post to capture the repeat screenings that are emerging as part of the 75th anniversary approach that appears to be what we'll be getting in FNF programming for a while to come. Fortunately the 75th-year thingee for 1946 passed us by during the pandemic programming hiatus, so it's very likely that there's no NIGHT EDITOR for the fifth time coming our way anytime soon...

From 2016: An Extraction and an Update--Repeat Screenings at NC
Posted by Don Malcolm on 6/25/2020, 6:55 pm

A snippet of a late 2016 discussion of the repeat screenings at NC, punctuated by the restoration of SUDDEN FEAR and my incredulity at the three-peat for NIGHT EDITOR, an opinion not particularly appreciated by the "Night Editor" himself.

It's clear that Eddie read this and decided to "double down" (a phenomenon that wasn't quite so frequent prior to the election of 2016) by presenting NIGHT EDITOR a fourth time at NC 16 in 2018. (As if to say, take THAT, O master of "false bravado!") :-)

Where we come in here is at the point where I list films that are far more accomplished that NIGHT EDITOR still waiting for a reprise at NC (remember that 2018 and 2019 presented 97% American films from 1942-1961). When we re-insert SUDDEN FEAR that total is 30--though we should note that SUDDEN FEAR did run back-to-back at NC 1 and NC 2, so technically shouldn't be on the list at all. We pick up at that point with the excerpt...

So we come in here in '23 to update the list of 29 films from the first three years of NC SF that deserve to keep NIGHT EDITOR on the shelf indefinitely (at least through 2026, we'd think: '49, '50 and '51 seem like solid candidates for a 75th anniversary approach.

I've bolded the films that have been shown since 2020 on the original list of 29, and underlined the films from '49-'51 that would be likely candidates for screening in a "75th anniversary" programming approach:


Lady From Shanghai
Where Danger Lives
Born to Kill
Nora Prentiss
Sudden Fear
The Lineup
------NC 1--------------------
Detour
Double Indemnity
Mildred Pierce
Sudden Fear
Tomorrow Is Another Day
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
The Letter
Christmas Holiday
The Reckless Moment
Leave Her to Heaven
Desert Fury
Caged
I Want To Live!
The Locket
-----------NC 2------------------
M (1951)
On Dangerous Ground
Act of Violence
Cry of the City
Where the Sidewalk Ends
711 Ocean Drive
Force of Evil
Murder, My Sweet
Crime Wave
The Crimson Kimono
Kiss Me Deadly
-----------NC 3-------------------

So three films from NC 1-3 have been repeated in '22-'23, taking us down to 26. Nine more films on this list would theoretically get repeated in 2024-26, if Eddie sticks to the 75th anniversary approach--which would take us down to 17 films deserving of a repeat screening ahead of NIGHT EDITOR.