on 12/20/2024, 7:23 am, in reply to "Re: NC 22: Winsome Women Turn Wicked (sans Stanwyck, Crawford, Scott, Lupino--and Cummins)"
But there are a few more "dames" who need to be included than just the nine Eddie cherry-picked for his combo festival/book cash grab. In addition to Alexis Smith (my added contribution) and Madames Carter, Michaels and Moore (ChiO's nominees), there are even more--to wit: Rita Hayworth, Gene Tierney, Susan Hayward, Kim Novak, Jane Russell, Arlene Dahl, and Geraldine Fitzgerald. (Ms. Geraldine is the most marginal of this group, but no more so than Ruth Roman or Marsha Hunt.)
I've left out a few others who might claim "squatter's rights" here as well: Ava Gardner, Andrea King, Shelley Winters, Virginia Mayo, Anne Baxter, Marilyn Monroe, Jean Peters, even Jayne Mansfield)
So the question now becomes: (how) can we fit all of these dames into a single 24-film festival?
It's called consolidation. Here are the 32 "dames" and some films that might be used for them. (Originally I was going to try to cover each year of the American "noir cycle," but that results in some quality tradeoffs that are best avoided.)
The "big dames"
Stanwyck--CRIME OF PASSION (1957) THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS (1946)
Crawford--A WOMAN'S FACE (1941) SUDDEN FEAR (1952)
Scott--PITFALL (1948) THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS (1946)
Lupino--ON DANGEROUS GROUND (1951)
Cummins--GUN CRAZY (1950)
Grahame--IN A LONELY PLACE (1950) SUDDEN FEAR (1952)
Eddie's original "Dark City Dames"
Greer--OUT OF THE PAST (1947)
Windsor--THE KILLING (1956)
Totter--TENSION (1949)
Keyes--THE PROWLER (1951) 99 RIVER STREET (1953)
Savage--DETOUR (1945)
Gray--KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL (1952) NIGHTMARE ALLEY (1947)
Eddie's nine additional "dames"
Bennett--THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW (1944)
Castle--I, THE JURY (1953) 99 RIVER STREET (1953)
Fleming--INFERNO (1953) SLIGHTLY SCARLET (1956)
Hunt--RAW DEAL (1948)
Raines--PHANTOM LADY (1944) THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF UNCLE HARRY (1945)
Roman--TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY (1951)
Sterling--ACE IN THE HOLE (1951) SPLIT SECOND (1953)
Trevor--BORN TO KILL (1947) RAW DEAL (1948)
Walker--THE BIG COMBO (1955)NIGHTMARE ALLEY (1947)
ChiO and Don's add-ons
Carter--NIGHT EDITOR (1946)
Michaels--WICKED WOMAN (1953)
Moore--THE OTHER WOMAN (1954)
Alexis Smith--THE SLEEPING TIGER (1954)SPLIT SECOND (1953)
Seven more names ranging from marginal to undeniable...
Rita Hayworth--GILDA (1946)
Susan Hayward--I WANT TO LIVE! (1958)
Jane Russell--THE LAS VEGAS STORY (1952)
Gene Tierney--LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN (1945)
Arlene Dahl--WICKED AS THEY COME (1956) SLIGHTLY SCARLET (1956)
Geraldine Fitzgerald--THREE STRANGERS (1946) THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF UNCLE HARRY (1945)
Kim Novak--PUSHOVER (1954)
So do we have enough films that can "do double-duty for dames" to get all 32 into a 24-film schedule?
Here are the "double-up" films:
Sudden Fear (Crawford, Grahame)
Raw Deal (Trevor, Hunt)
Strange Love of Martha Ivers (Stanwyck, Scott)
Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (Raines, Fitzgerald)
99 River Street (Keyes, Castle)
Nightmare Alley (Gray, Walker)
Slightly Scarlet (Fleming, Dahl)
Split Second (Sterling, Smith)
That's eight, and that should get us all 32 into the standard-issue Bay Area NC format. So let's program it, retaining what we can of Eddie's work (shown in bold type):
Fri Jan 24
GILDA/NIGHT EDITOR
(Hayworth/Carter)
Sat Jan 25
THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS/THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF UNCLE HARRY (matinee)
(Stanwyck, Scott, Raines, Fitzgerald)
OUT OF THE PAST/THE KILLING (evening)
(Greer, Windsor)
Sun Jan 26
TENSION/GUN CRAZY
(Totter, Cummins)
Mon Jan 27
99 RIVER STREET/THE LAS VEGAS STORY (or HIS KIND OF WOMAN)
(Keyes, Castle, Russell)
Tue Jan 28
WICKED WOMAN/THE OTHER WOMAN
(Michaels, Moore)
Wed Jan 29
SUDDEN FEAR/SPLIT SECOND
(Crawford, Grahame, Sterling, Smith)
Thu Jan 30
DETOUR/TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY
(Savage, Roman)
Fri Jan 31
NIGHTMARE ALLEY/RAW DEAL
(Gray, Walker, Trevor, Hunt)
Sat Feb 1
SLIGHTLY SCARLET/I WANT TO LIVE! (matinee)
(Fleming, Dahl, Hayward)
DESERT FURY/LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN (evening)
(Scott, Tierney)
Sun Feb 2
THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW/PUSHOVER
(Bennett, Novak)
So that gets all 32 dames into play, and has a more delirious, salacious tone to it overall. The bonus here is that in this lineup we finally get that wild color-noir double bill of DESERT FURY/LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN reprised, as an hommage to one of the wildest nights of NC 2.
ChiO might need to fly out from Chicago for that WICKED WOMAN/OTHER WOMAN double bill... :-)
I left in TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY, but there's one other "dame" not on the list whose lone appearance in film noir is more than sufficient to bump Ruth Roman from the festival, and in doing so creating the "tawdry woman" double bill of all time. Yes, I'm speaking of Jean Gillie, whose Margot Shelby so richly deserves to go toe-to-toe with Ann Savage's Vera...in the the long-awaited teaming: DETOUR/DECOY.
If you go with that, you can move the Sunday Feb 2 show to Thurs Jan 31 and put DETOUR/DECOY as the repeating Sunday finale. What a way to go...
Responses