The post below this one brings us to a key question regarding NC 23: quality level (both in terms of individual films, and how they are combined into double features).

Folks will be entertained, because this is the type of show that Eddie has always wanted--music and razzle-dazzle. Not sure about the free booze, which was part of the extra allure for the masses at the Castro, where there was a mezzanine available for the rites of getting sozzled.

We have to wonder if it's the sizzle or the steak this time, though, because the series has had musical interludes grafted onto it for every night of the festival (save this coming Monday). A look at the film lineup that doesn't involve rose-colored glasses (a la Meredith Brody at Eat Drink Films) shows two things: 1) the "TCM-ifying" of NC continues apace and 2) as a programmer of double features, Eddie's reach continues to exceed his grasp.

So we'll grade out the program here night by night and demonstrate the relevance of our two observations...

Opening night Friday 1/16 BLACK ANGEL/BLUES IN THE NIGHT
Eddie is good at opening nights, and this is no exception. Both films are messy dramatically and BLUES begins a serious stretching of the rubber band known as noir, but they are compelling. A-

Saturday afternoon 1/17 TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT/NOCTURNE
A more egregious stretch of the rubber band with the least noir version of the Hemingway story (question: how many actual noirs did Hoagy Carmichael appear in? Look for the answer below...*). NOCTURNE has a spiffy beginning, but the music angle is used up right at the start and despite some semi-snappy lines, there's a reason why this is the second feature on a Saturday matinee. C+

Saturday evening 1/17 THE MAN I LOVE/GILDA
This was programmed backwards on purpose, in hopes of selling more popcorn. But doing it the standard way would make it clearer how THE MAN I LOVE doesn't belong in a noir festival. And Bruce Bennett as the tortured soul love interest is galling for both the audience and for Ida Lupino (who gives it her best shot anyway). It's swoony to the point of semi-conscious no-return, but Eddie knows that folks will sit through it to get to GILDA, which has the true noir take on that interconnection between love and hate. B (for the tonal disparity).

Sunday 1/18 HUMORESQUE/YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN
Two doses of barely borderline noir foregrounding intricate but plodding romantic dysfunction is at least one too many. One could insert these into the schedule as second features with films exploring different tonalities and they would work passably well, but not together. D+ (for the dearth of noir and the dispiriting duplication created by their combination)

Monday 1/19 THE STRIP/FACE THE MUSIC aka THE BLACK GLOVE
Eddie showed THE STRIP on TCM recently and rolled his eyes during both his intro and his outro. But it does have Louis Armstrong. FACE THE MUSIC, on the other hand, has Alex Nicol. C-

Tuesday 1/20 ALL NIGHT LONG/A MAN CALLED ADAM
Meredith Brody tell us that SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (coming up later in the series) has "as many quotable lines as a Shakespeare play" but she completely misses the fact that ALL NIGHT LONG is an updated version of Othello. Ah, well. It's the fourth best film in the series, but it is followed by ham-fisted hamminess in A MAN CALLED ADAM, described accurately by the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw as "a histrionically earnest issue picture." But it, too, has Louis Armstrong. C (for the kind of tone-deaf collision that Eddie seemingly just can't resist)

Wednesday 1/21 LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME/PETE KELLY'S BLUES
Two more films that should have been shown separately. Eddie loves Doris Day, and that's no crime, but Doris should have been slammed up against Joan Crawford in HUMORSEQUE to show the contrasting possible outcomes in troubled romance. It would also have shown the contrast/continuity across Warner Brothers with their stable of actors (Cagney and Garfield) across the decades. PETE KELLY paired with KANSAS CITY would make a terrific contrast in terms of approach to similar/adjacent material. Two more nuanced programming opportunities squandered... C-

Thursday 1/22 THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM/SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS
Tied together primarily by superb jazz scores, the only quibble here is that this duo should have been the Friday night show. A-

Friday 1/23 KING CREOLE/THUNDER ROAD
A cartoon noir double bill that Eddie is apparently so proud of that he couldn't restrain himself from showing it on Friday night. If it had to be shown at all, the Saturday matinee slot was the right choice. D+

Saturday 1/24 matinee HANGOVER SQUARE/THE WRONG MAN
Now here's a seemingly incongruous pairing that actually has an interesting thematic undercurrent--madness. It's a bit too oblique to be totally successful, but it would have been a neat change of pace for Thursday night, followed by GOLDEN ARM/SWEET SMELL on Friday, and then the Dixie-fried duo. B (due to the poor sequencing of these three double features)

Saturday 1/24 evening NORA PRENTISS/THE CRIMSON CANARY
With the final Sunday being used in drifting departure mode again, the Saturday night show should be the big sendoff. And it starts well with NORA PRENTISS, the last of the great Warners melo-noirs. But to finish with piffle on the order of THE CRIMSON CANARY is close to a crime against nature. Three Liz Scott films have enough music/nightlife to follow NORA PRENTISS and add a touch of old-time noir magic to the penultimate ultimate--DEAD RECKONING, I WALK ALONE, and DARK CITY. As one of noir's most visible songbirds, La Liz should be represented here and in this lineup she is conspicuous in her absence. Any of these three could precede NORA PRENTISS and let it have the full culminating power that it truly possesses.
C- (for squandering the big finish)

Sunday 1/25 KANSAS CITY/ROUND MIDNIGHT
Eddie often takes the final Sunday into offbeat tangents, most often lurching out of the classic noir era entirely. This is another one of those--it is only middlingly successful, though. While KANSAS CITY is one of Robert Altman's finest efforts, the same can sadly not be said for 'ROUND MIDNIGHT, a rare misfire from the great Bertrand Tavernier (marred by a deer-in-the-headlights performance from Dexter Gordon). There are those who love this film, and I'm figuring that Eddie (who fancies himself a jazz aficionado) is one of them, so we will split the difference here. B- (It's also a shame that Eddie has only one musical event scheduled for the festival wrap-up; this is the place where jazz should truly be showcased--instead, the absence of such a sendoff seems akin to just letting go of a balloon....)

Now please note that the films in the festival grade out better individually than they do as double bills. Using 90-95 (A/A-), 80-85 (B/B-), 75-65 (C+,C,C-) and 60 (D+), the films grade out at 83, the double features at 74. Of course, there will be a sizable number of folk who won't care about how films flow together as a combined experience--and Eddie's between-film entertainment is designed in part to obliterate that. But it does matter, and some of those who attended Elliot Lavine's festivals or the MCP events will sense that. Though I'm sure it will never happen, Eddie could innovate next year by emulating what Ben Mankiewicz has been doing at TCM with his "two for one" double feature series--have guest programmers select each night's films. The "two for one" series was one of TCM's greatest successes, and it is a beacon of hope for the resurrection of the double feature as a programming art form. That is one area where "TCMifying" NC would be a good thing.

Last thought:--it will be very interesting to see how this series evolves as it travels to other venues. It will lose ~8 films in Seattle next month (which ones?), and it will be interesting to see just how it morphs in LA. Stay tuned...

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*Hoagy Carmichael appeared in one actual noir: JOHNNY ANGEL.