This Friday, San Francisco's Roxie Theater begins two weeks of unfiltered B-movie goodness when "I Wake Up Dreaming: The Haunted World of the B Film Noir" unleashes some of the nastiest film noir of the 40's and 50's, coming in not so long after the fog of Noir City 7 rolled over.
There's plenty of things to like about San Francisco. The view, the vibe, the history... But for a noir fan, it's a place I had come to know as and will always associate with the nooks and crannies depicted in hardboiled crime stories. Where else, I ask, would you get two stirring film noir festivals only a few months apart, but in Sam Spade's chosen city?
As the program guide itself notes, the films shown are "the doomed and forgotten, rough and ready step-children of Hollywood’s lower depths; poverty row gems that, in many ways, capture the true, brutal essence of noir far better than many of their upper-crust cousins." The Roxie seems like the perfect venue for such a showing, and in fact the movie house used to do this quite regularly.
From 1990 to 2003, The Roxie was the premier theater for film noir, showing this sort of great down-and-dirty B movies. Elliot Lavine, the man behind the programming, stopped in 2003 to pursue other interests. Lavine returns to curate this special event to celebrate the release of his new book TV Noir: I Wake Up Dreaming, described to be "A hand-made book comprised of many hundreds of descriptive blurbs from the pages of TV Guide, all focusing on film noir, horror, science fiction and mystery films and television programs from the 1950s through the early 1960s. Creating the illusion of one long endless night (Friday, February 31) of darkly disturbing TV viewing."
Some of the highlights of the program includes the beautifully photographed Raw Deal (May 16), whose Academy Award winning cinematographer John Alton also lensed prison escape film Canon City (May 17), The Madonna's Secret (May 18), Hollow Triumph (May 24) and The Pretender (May 26). Also not to be missed are the opening film The Devil Thumbs a Ride (which is paired with a short film directed by Elliot Lavine himself!) and Under Age (May 25), a seedy film about teenage prostitution directed by Hollywood Ten member Edward Dmytryk.
Most of these films are rare and not released on DVD. I Wake Up Dreaming presents them all as double features, for $10. It runs from May 15 to May 28.
WEEK ONE:
Thursday, May 14
Special Pre-Opening Night Shindig!
ALL NIGHT LONG
Friday May 15:
THE DEVIL THUMBS A RIDE (1947)
THE GUILTY (1947)
Saturday May 16:
RAW DEAL (1948)
RAILROADED (1947)
Sunday May 17:
CANON CITY (1948)
FRAMED (1947)
Monday May 18:
THE SPECTER OF THE ROSE (1946)
THE MADONNA'S SECRET (1946) 
Tuesday May 19:
THE STORY OF MOLLY X (1949)
PORT OF FORTY THIEVES (1944)
Wednesday May 20:
THE LAST CROOKED MILE (1946)
VIOLENCE (1947)
Thursday May 21:
PRIVATE HELL 36 (1954)
NO MAN'S WOMAN (1955)
WEEK TWO:
Friday May 22:
NEW YORK CONFIDENTIAL (1955)
THE HOODLUM (1951)
Saturday May 23:
THE BURGLAR (1957)
WITNESS TO MURDER (1954)
Sunday May 24:
REPEAT PERFORMANCE (1946)
HOLLOW TRIUMPH (1948)
Monday May 25:
WOMEN IN THE NIGHT (1948)
UNDER AGE (1941)
Tuesday May 26:
SUSPENSE (1946)
THE PRETENDER (1947)
Wednesday, May 27:
ALLOTMENT WIVES (1945)
WIFE WANTED (1946)
Thursday May 28:
CITY OF FEAR (1959)
SHACK OUT ON 101 (1955)
