SO below you will find a breakdown of the films discussed in Imogen's book, chapter by chapter. The films in the BAMPFA series discussed in the book are shown in bold type and have an asterisk by the title.

1--NOIR AND THE CITY
A chapter that is mostly out of place in the book, save for the notion that cities can themselves be "lonely places."

The film that stands out in this chapter, which borrows heavily from other writers' reflections on the alienation that often accrues within urban life, is NIGHTFALL, a film that veers away from its initial urban setting for more barren landscapes. Imogen only touches on it briefly in a chapter that focuses on lonely inner spaces within the urban world.

2--NOIR BETWEEN TWO WORLDS
Films in this chapter foreground the urban mindset shifted into remote locations: the titles Imogen associates with various aspects of this juxtaposition are (in order of appearance in the chapter) ROAD HOUSE, CRY VENGEANCE, OUT OF THE PAST, NIGHTFALL again, ON DANGEROUS GROUND (with Imogen chafing at the film's "redemptive ending"), ACT OF VIOLENCE, THE RECKLESS MOMENT* and HUMAN DESIRE.

3--DOMESTIC NOIR (or, per ChiO: "NOIR AS DOMESTIC MELODRAMA")
I think Owen would handle this with more depth and finesse that what appears here, owing to his more elemental understanding of the ongoing scuffle between the hard-boiled and melodramatic impulses in film noir. "Lonely places" as handled by Imogen here drift relentlessly back toward urban settings, as the titles discussed in the chapter will demonstrate: DOUBLE INDEMNITY, BEWARE MY LOVELY, CAUGHT, SORRY WRONG NUMBER, SUDDEN FEAR, THE SECRET BEYOND THE DOOR, CAUSE FOR ALARM, PITFALL, CRIME OF PASSION, ANGEL FACE, LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN*, UNCLE HARRY, SCARLET STREET, and DEAD RECKONING.

As can be seen, the film references are all over the map in terms of the ostensible subjects telegraphed in the chapter titles. As the "lonely places" get more specific, this problem is mitigated, but it doesn't disappear completely.

4-SMALL-TOWN NOIR
Imogen has a big preamble where she tries to fit the emergence of small-town noir into previous film genres. She is especially fond of attempting to sum up multivalent themes by use of a snappy line from a film, even if by doing so the theme gets oversimplified. But her focus on the subject matter improves here when she identifies the first archetype of "small-town noir," Hitchcock's SHADOW OF A DOUBT*, which establishes one key aspect of the sub-genre: the sleepy obliviousness of such "backwater burbs."

Films that touch upon this vein to one extent or another and are discussed/mentioned in this chapter include THE STRANGER, THE DESPERATE HOURS, and TRY AND GET ME, and we see that Imogen is still struggling to assimilate plots and themes into a credible analytical framework. She then slams small-town "social problem noirs" (THE WELL and THE LAWLESS) and moves on to a discussion of total small-town corruption in THE PHENIX CITY STORY*, a phenomenon echoed in the more paranoid THE CAPTIVE CITY. We then move on to more lurid, sexualized variations (FLAMINGO ROAD, RUBY GENTRY, and THE TATTERED DRESS). Imogen's oddly lapidary brand of formalism finds favor in the film that breathlessly collides all of these elements: VIOLENT SATURDAY.

The best take on this vein of small-town noir comes at the end, where kinkiness and an especially saccharine form of melodramatic nostalgia juxtapose in Sam Fuller's THE NAKED KISS.

But there's more here: Imogen covers small towns as "closed systems", breaking up what is one of her best connections (town "pillars of the community" who happen to be namesakes are often the most damaged characters to be found in noir) with a long look at MOONRISE before discussing THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS.

(As noted in an earlier post, MOONRISE is a film that really should be in the series: it is literally festooned with lonely places.)

5--NOIR ON THE ROAD
Things kick right off with DETOUR* and move on to THE DEVIL THUMBS A RIDE (whose "locked room" sequence is queasier but somehow less electric than DETOUR's sniping between Tom Neal and Ann Savage). Imogen continues with HIGHWAY DRAGNET (displaying a patrician's pat disdain for down-and-dirty "B" movies) and DRIVE A CROOKED ROAD. Imogen cribs well from more encompassing literary critics, such as Cynthia Golomb Dettelbach's critique of American car culture. This segues a bit incongruously into an approving description of PLUNDER ROAD, a film with a wonderful dialectic between the cramped space of an eighteen-wheeler and the barren, open spaces that the heist-meisters traverse in their overly-ingenious pursuit of the elusive "pull a job and disappear" scenario.

From there Imogen moves into lovers on the run, starting at the end with THE GETAWAY from the 70s and dizzyingly moving back to proto-noir of the 30s (WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD). She spends a few pages rehashing the Bonnie and Clyde story, locating a pre-noir fulcrum in Lang's YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE, before zeroing in on the noir variations (GUN CRAZY, THEY LIVE BY NIGHT* and TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY).

Moving into more oblique variations, Imogen then covers RAW DEAL (another film that would fit quite well in the series lineup) and DEEP VALLEY.

6--NOIR ON THE MEXICAN BORDER
Sharper here due to the narrowed focus (and the presence of Imogen's favorite Robert Mitchum), this chapter is clearly the heart of the book, and the one that contains more titles in the festival than any other. We make three trips to Mexico in the BAMPFA series: THE BREAKING POINT*, THE HITCH-HIKER* and TOUCH OF EVIL*. Other films discussed in the series include four featuring Mitchum: WHERE DANGER LIVES (which doesn't quite make it into Mexico, actually), HIS KIND OF WOMAN, and THE BIG STEAL. Oh, yes, there are four, right: let's add OUT OF THE PAST, shall we? (Since it was just screened at NC 22, it's not surprising that it's been omitted, however.)

Other films with Mexican (or Hispanic) aspects include RIDE THE PINK HORSE, ONE WAY STREET, KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL, and THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI.
Oddly, Imogen doesn't mention THE HITCH-HIKER* or JEOPARDY in this chapter, including them instead in her next chapter (perhaps for fear of making this chapter too long).

7--DESERT NOIR
We move back across the border into strictly American wastelands with SPLIT SECOND and THE SCARF, and then further into parallel mental wastelands with THE PROWLER. And, of course, Imogen does not forget ACE IN THE HOLE. (But given the paucity of films in this chapter, it does make some sense that JEOPARDY and THE HITCH-HIKER* appear here; but there is one omission that will show up elsewhere that is more than a bit mystifying...)

8--PAST SUNSET: NOIR WESTERNS
For the purposes of an overview festival such as the one at PFA, it's clear that only one "noir western" can be included. Imogen has made the obviously correct choice with PURSUED* (and, of course, it doesn't hurt at all that the story revolves around a character played by Robert Mitchum).

Here are the other noir westerns covered in the chapter: BLOOD ON THE MOON, THE MAN WITH THE GUN (more Mitchum, BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK, THE HALLIDAY BRAND, THE MAN IN THE SHADOW, HIGH NOON, the 1952 version of THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT, STATION WEST, BEND OF THE RIVER, THE FAR COUNTRY, LUST FOR GOLD, RANCHO NOTORIOUS, RAMROD, THE FURIES, THE MAN FROM LARAMIE, RUN OF THE ARROW, THE SEARCHERS, WINCHESTER '73, THE NAKED SPUR, MAN OF THE WEST, and all of the Budd Boetticher-Randolph Scott westerns. If anything, Imogen might be over-inclusive.

And that leads to the strange placement of...DESERT FURY*, which clearly belongs in the previous chapter. (There is too much reliance on car travel, much of it centering around the Chuckawalla Bridge, for this to be seen as a western--not to mention the sexual innuendo that careens in several directions at once.)

9--PRIVATE TRAPS
This chapter is primarily about "noir on the beach," which sadly is only obliquely represented in the PFA series with THE RECKLESS MOMENT*. Films either set or containing notable scenes at the beach that Imogen discusses are CRISS CROSS, HUMORESQUE, CLASH BY NIGHT, THE WOMAN ON THE BEACH--and, coming full circle, , which encompasses several "lonely place" motifs--covering the seashore, the trip to Mexico, and oceanic peril. It then concludes with the heartbreaking vision of Juano Hernandez's disappearance at sea and the shattering confusion of his young son who cannot find him once Harry Morgan's boat is brought back to the harbor. (I still recall the response to seeing a good 35mm print of it at NC 4...it was a transformative moment for many--and it was still 3-4 years before Imogen became a featured writer at the NC e-zine.)

From there, Imogen discusses several noirs that touch upon spiritualistic themes: THE AMAZING MR. X, FALLEN ANGEL, NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES. But these are either a bit lightweight and/or not quite on the mark for the reverberating irony that represents noir at its best: fortunately, there is one more film that captures all of that: NIGHTMARE ALLEY*. The quibble with the BAMPFA lineup isn't so much with the film lineup, which clearly holds up quite well when we look at it in context with what's covered in Imogen's book--it's the placement of as the final film to be screened that raises my eyebrows. NIGHTMARE ALLEY* strikes me as a much more appropriate parting shot.

***

THE surprising omission from IN LONELY PLACES is not IN A LONELY PLACE (it is covered briefly at the end of Chapter 9). Nor is it NIGHTFALL--though it would be a fine addition to the lineup.

It's the absence of THE RED HOUSE and its thoroughly haunted world. (It's not mentioned once in the book, which probably explains why it's not in the series lineup...) That is most unfortunate, because there are more "lonely places" to be found in THE RED HOUSE than in most of the films being screened in this series. (And it should be noted that while Alan Rode screened THE RED HOUSE in Palm Springs seven years ago--in a beautifully restored print, to boot--Eddie has yet to do so at Noir City. Perhaps that can be remedied next year...)