Palm Springs Movie Noir Fest Welcomes Guillermo Del Toro for ‘Nightmare’

As all the time, the Arthur Lyons Movie Noir Pageant in Palm Springs — going down this Thursday by means of Sunday — will concentrate on motion pictures from the first noir period of the ’40s and ’50s, together with a handful of movies that haven’t been screened theatrically in a number of a long time. Additionally as all the time, the 2025 version of the desert fest will reserve a spot for a contact of neo-noir, as seen with the inclusion this time of the Nineteen Seventies crime thriller “The Associates of Eddie Coyle.”

This yr, although, the competition will embrace a very neo-neo noir. To shut out the gathering Sunday night time, director Guillermo Del Toro and co-screenwriter Kim Morgan might be coming to Palm Springs with an apparently never-before-seen prolonged reduce of their 2021 movie “Nightmare Alley,” introduced in black-and-white, a la almost each one of many 12 classic movies that might be previous this beginner over the weekend.

“I do know Guillermo’s very enthusiastic about this,” says longtime competition director Alan Okay. Rode. “He and Kim are good sufficient to return out and spend a while introducing the movie and watching it. I’m honored that he’s popping out to do that, and I’m actually trying ahead to introducing his black-and-white prolonged reduce from certainly one of our most honored filmmakers. He’s treating it sort of as a premiere, which may be very thrilling.”

Del Toro’s remake of the traditional 1947 “Nightmare Alley” was launched in shade 4 years in the past, after all, adopted by a short run of a black-and-white model that appeared in choose theaters after which on Hulu earlier than being put again within the vault. However the filmmaker introduced in December in a Bluesky social-media publish that he was engaged on a brand new B&W edit. “I’m remastering the B&W Nightmare Alley w/ an prolonged reduce. Keep tuned,” the filmmaker posted on the app on Dec. 3, alerting his followers to the existence of the expanded model that the viewers in Palm Springs will presumably see.

However hardcore noir buffs could also be simply as enthusiastic about a few of the titles that may as properly be thought of premieres, they’ve been out of public view for therefore lengthy. “Swell Man” (1946) might be seen in a newly made 35mm print and is being screened theatrically on Friday afternoon for the primary time wherever in a long time, Rode says. The identical hole between theatrical screenings is true of “Paid in Full” (1950), enjoying on Friday night time, though on this case, it’s a model new digital print from Paramount that might be having an official premiere on the competition. On Saturday morning, “Unmasked” might be getting its personal digital theatrical premiere, finishing the roundup of newly revived obscurities.

If these choices make it sound just like the Arthur Lyons Movie Pageant shouldn’t be a roundup of the same old noir suspects, that’s by design. Though noir novices are as more likely to benefit from the programming as a lot as anybody, Rode figures that the loyal viewers that returns to the Palm Springs Cultural Middle (previously the Camelot Theatres) each Mom’s Day weekend has already seen “Double Indemnity” and “The Massive Sleep” and desires to expertise titles from the darker corners (so to talk) of the noir vault.

Says Rode, “I’m retaining with the custom of not displaying the identical movie in 18 years,” which is how lengthy it’s been since he took over programming the competition, which started in 2000. “That’s sort of an unconscious factor, however movie noir is sort of the present that retains on giving,” with many a whole lot of titles that firmly or loosely match throughout the style, to the extent that noir can actually be thought of one. This emphasis on lesser-screened movies doesn’t imply that Rode doesn’t nonetheless program motion pictures which are broadly thought of classics by noir buffs, that he simply hasn’t gotten round to in Palm Springs but. An instance of that will be “Act of Violence,” the Fred Zinneman movie that exhibits Sunday afternoon; that one has proven greater than as soon as at Noir Metropolis, the competition that he and Eddie Muller co-host on the American Cinematheque in Hollywood, however it’s going to lastly be unspooling within the desert this yr.

Muller, who’s certainly one of Rode’s companions within the Movie Noir Basis, and naturally a TCM host, might be becoming a member of Rode as soon as once more in Palm Springs to introduce a handful of movies he’s a fan of. A kind of is “Johnny O’Clock,” which might be proven on Friday afternoon. That screening might be preceded by a guide signing Muller will do for a newly revised traditional of his personal, “Darkish Metropolis Dames: The Ladies Who Outlined Movie Noir,” with Hollywood’s venerable Larry Edmunds Bookshop out to deal with guide gross sales.

Sadly, the unique stars of those movies who got here out to Palm Springs to talk within the competition’s early years have largely handed on, however Rode has made some extent of getting relations out for introductions or Q&As. That’ll be the case in a few cases this yr, first on opening night time Thursday, with Rory Flynn, daughter of Errol Flynn, out to speak about “Cry Wolf” (1947), by which the actor co-starred with Barbara Stanwyck. Then on Saturday night time, Wyatt McCrea, the grandson of Joel McCrea, might be readily available to speak about his grandfather’s profession, together with his work because the star of “The Unseen” (1945).

Particular person tickets for the screenings on the Palm Springs Cultural Middle are $16.29 (together with a $1.79 processing price). There may be one exception: “Nightmare Alley” tickets on closing night time are $32.65 (together with a $2.64 price). A full-access go for your entire 13-film lineup is out there for $158.19. That competition go doesn’t embrace admission to “Nightmare Alley,” however passholders are in a position to purchase a ticket for that movie at half-price. Advance tickets for all the person movies or competition go are on sale by means of Eventbrite right here.

Scanning the listing of titles enjoying this yr — which may be browsed intimately right here — one could stand out as not simply probably the most well-known movie being screened, however an outlier: “On the Waterfront.” Rode readily acknowledges it’s not an actual match. “I do know purists will argue with me whether or not that is movie noir or not — and I don’t assume it truly is,” he admits. “However it’s one of many nice movies ever made in Hollywood. And it put me on the trail to righteousness, through an elective movie course I took in 1970 throughout my junior yr in highschool in New Jersey. It’s a movie that meant loads to me, and I believed it could be nice to indicate it on the large display screen, in order that’s what I’m doing. And I’ve a pair tales to share, courtesy of Nehemiah Persoff, who made his movie debut driving the taxi that Rod Steiger and Marlon Brando had been in making the well-known ‘I might have been a contender’ scene. That was additionally the debut film of such actors as Pat Henning, Martin Balsam, Fred Gwynn and Nehemiah, who all went on to nice careers as character actors” out and in of noir.

There are different movies that could be seen as outdoors of movie noir which Rode will make a case for, just like the Western “Lust for Gold,” starring Ida Lupino and Glenn Ford. (Rode is aware of his noir Westerns, as scant as that subgenre could also be; he actually wrote the guide on one other certainly one of them, “Blood on the Moon.”) “Not one of the characters in ‘Lust for Gold’ are good,” he laughs to level out, which helps agency up its noir credentials.

Additionally crossing genres a bit is “The Unseen,” “one other movie that hasn’t been seen in a long time, and this was like a follow-up to the extra well-known film ‘The Uninvited,’ the ghost story that Louis Allen made with Ray Milland and Gail Russell. ‘The Unseen’ is extra of a sort of noir-stained homicide thriller, with McCrea and Russell once more starring and Allen once more directing. Wyatt McCrea is a brilliant good man who I’ve develop into pleasant with, and he’ll be there to speak about his grandfather and the McCrea Ranch Basis.”

Rode is happy about “Swell Man,” “a forgotten film that (producer) Mark Hellinger made in between his large hit of ‘The Killers’ and ‘Brute Pressure’ that has been utterly forgotten and ignored. I used to be actually lucky that Common cleared up some rights points on it, and we’re displaying what I’m instructed is a pristine 35mm print of a most uncommon film, written by Richard Brooks… The movie is a few Hemingway-esque warfare correspondent who’s purported to be an important hero, who comes again to his hometown after the warfare, and it seems he’s a complete miscreant shit. And who higher to play that than Sonny Tufts, of all folks? And he will get concerned with Ann Blythe. It’s a really, very odd and attention-grabbing film.”

“Paid in Full,” in the meantime, “has been lacking for a lot of, a few years, and I actually must thank Charlotte Barker, who’s the pinnacle archivist at Paramount. She made me DCPs of ‘Paid in Full’ and likewise a Republic programmer, ‘Unmasked,’ with Raymond Burr working a scandal sheet, blackmailing and stealing and murdering his means into numerous mayhem. These two movies haven’t been proven in I don’t know the way lengthy.”

However the primary attraction of the week for many should still be “Nightmare Alley.” Del Toro might be making his first look on the competition, though Morgan was a well-known face there in earlier years. “She interviewed Julie Garfield again in 2010 and has been to the competition a number of instances; I’ve recognized Kim for years and I believe we did a commentary monitor on a ‘New York Confidential’ DVD years in the past.” As for the director, “The time period genius may be very typically tossed round and possibly misused in relation to folks concerned in cinema, however so far as I’m involved, Guillermo is as near a genius as we now have,” Rode says. “He can do something from make-up to drawing to writing, directing and producing, however he’s additionally obtained a lot humility and a lot ardour, and it’s all real. Simply sitting and listening to him discuss… He did a factor with the pinnacle of the British Movie Institute throughout the TCM Basic Movie Pageant and he was speaking about what the Powell and Pressburger motion pictures meant to British Cinema, and cinema typically, and it was simply so eloquent and spot-on… and he’s such an excellent individual.

“I’ve to sort of pinch myself, as a result of that is 26 years that this occasion has gone on. If reminiscence serves, the primary yr that I used to be concerned on this was 2002, and I used to be sitting in certainly one of what was then known as the Camelot Theaters, watching ‘Nightmare Alley’ with (star) Colleen Grey, who I turned mates with. And I imagine Eddie Muller was introducing it, and Linda Christian, Tyrone Energy’s widow, the actress, walked in and sat down within the theater. So now right here we’re, 23 years later, and we’re displaying Del Toro’s model of William Lindsay Gresham’s guide, and it looks like we’ve actually come full circle.”

The viewers on the Cultural Middle leans towards the older and the long-term-loyal, not surprisingly, given the native inhabitants. However that’s not true of each movie noir competition. When Noir Metropolis occurred on the Egyptian in Hollywood in March, the viewers skewed younger. In a uncommon instance of that competition screening the obvious classics, they put up a double-bill of “Out of the Previous” and Stanley Kubruck’s “The Killing,” hosted by Muller and Rode, who every requested for a present of palms of who hadn’t seen the movie in query earlier than. “

The viewers on the Cultural Middle leans towards the older and the long-term-loyal, not surprisingly, given the native inhabitants. However that’s not true of each movie noir competition. When Noir Metropolis occurred on the Egyptian in Hollywood in March, the viewers skewed younger. In a uncommon instance of that competition screening the obvious classics, they put up a double-bill of “Out of the Previous” and Stanley Kubruck’s “The Killing,” hosted by Muller and Rode, who every requested for a present of palms of who hadn’t seen the movie in query earlier than. “I anticipated possibly six to 10 folks to boost their palms, however I’d say about two-thirds of the viewers for every movie did, which was stunning. I’ve been doing this a very long time, and also you begin getting these assumptions that, ‘Nicely, all people has seen this,’ however we’re into one other technology or so of audiences for these movies.”

Why they attraction to the very younger in addition to the very previous is obvious to Rode. “The explanation these movies are actually sort of a connective, umbilical to traditional movies for a contemporary viewers is as a result of the themes are timeless… I imply, despite the fact that somebody who’s of their early twenties could also be confused over: ‘Why are the boys carrying these hats? Why is a physician in a maternity ward smoking a cigarette? Why do the telephones appear to be boomerangs?’ However the fundamental themes of the human situation and the themes of striving, lust, larceny, greed, all of that… our accoutrements within the trendy world have modified considerably from, say, 1947, however I don’t assume folks have modified that a lot.”

In the case of definitions, “I don’t assume it’s a style. I believe it’s a mode,” Rode says, “and I believe, like magnificence, noir is usually within the eye of the beholder.” However there are apparent near-common denominators. Clearly not each crime movie from that interval is a movie noir, however there’s an argument that’s been made that each movie noir is a criminal offense movie ultimately. Does that maintain true?

Rode wouldn’t essentially go that far, however he notes, “You possibly can say that one of many issues that characterizes a movie noir is when individuals are concerned in doing one thing that they know is flawed — both legally, morally, culturally or no matter — after which they do it anyway. That’s one of many robust traits of a movie noir. Or as Arthur Lyons put it, ‘You possibly can all the time inform it’s a movie noir when the protagonist will get screwed over within the first 5 minutes and it goes downhill from there.’”

The total program for the 2025 Arthur Lyons Movie Noir Pageant:

Thursday, Might 8
• 7:30 p.m.: “Cry Wolf” (1947) with Errol Flynn, Barbara Stanwyck [followed by Rory Flynn Q&A]

Friday, Might 9
• 10 a.m.: “Swell Man” (1946) with Sonny Tufts, Ann Blyth, Ruth Warwick
• 1 p.m.: “Johnny O’Clock” (1947) with Dick Powell, Evelyn Keyes, Lee J. Cobb [preceded by Eddie Muller book signing]
• 4 p.m.: “Lust for Gold” (1949) with Ida Lupino, Glenn Ford
• 7:30 p.m.: “Paid in Full” (1950) with Robert Cummings, Lizabeth Scott, Eve Arden

Saturday, Might 10
• 10 a.m.: “Unmasked” (1950) with Robert Rockwell, Barbra Fuller, Raymond Burr
• 1 p.m.: “Angel Face” (1953) with Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons
• 4 p.m.: “The Associates of Eddie Coyle” (1973) with Robert Mitchum, Peter Boyle
• 7:30 p.m.: “The Unseen” (1945) with Joel McCrea, Gail Russell [with appearance by Wyatt McCrea]

Sunday, Might 11
• 10 a.m.: “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye” (1950) with James Cagney, Barbara Payton and Helena Carter
• 1 p.m.: “Act of Violence” (1948) withVan Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh, Mary Astor
• 4 p.m.: “On the Waterfront” (1954) with Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Pat Henning and Eva Marie Saint
• 7 p.m.: “Nightmare Alley” (2021) with Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette [with Q&A with Guillermo Del Toro, Kim Morgan] (separate admission)