Cy Endfield Series Opens Saturday at UCLA

UCLA will showcase the films of director Cy Endfield in a new series, Sound and Fury: The Films of Cy Endfield.

The series opens at UCLA's Billy Wilder Theater this Saturday, January 9th, and continues through March 18th.

The series will feature 13 films spread over several evenings. Brian Neve, author of the book THE MANY LIVES OF CY ENDFIELD, will be on hand to introduce some of the movies, including on opening night.

Opening night will feature two films I've reviewed here on past occasions, THE UNDERWORLD STORY (1950) and TRY AND GET ME (1950), also known as THE SOUND OF FURY.

THE UNDERWORLD STORY is quite an enjoyable movie which stars Dan Duryea, Gale Storm, and Herbert Marshall. TRY AND GET ME is a memorably unsettling film which stars Frank Lovejoy, Lloyd Bridges, and Richard Carlson. I've seen it twice and while I recommend checking it out, twice was enough for me!

Sunday night, January 10th, is an interesting evening, featuring a pair of "B" films, THE ARGYLE SECRETS (1948) with William Gargan and Marjorie Lord, and GENTLEMAN JOE PALOOKA (1946) with Leon Errol. Also showing that night is an oddball MGM short directed by Endfield, INFLATION (1943), starring Edward Arnold, Esther Williams, and Stephen McNally, who was then being billed as Horace McNally.

The terrific HELL DRIVERS (1957) screens on January 16th. The excellent cast includes Stanley Baker, Peggy Cummins, Sean Connery, David McCallum, Herbert Lom, and Patrick McGoohan.

Other films in the series include ZULU (1964) with Stanley Baker, THE LIMPING MAN (1953) with Lloyd Bridges, THE MASTER PLAN (1955) with Wayne Morris, CRASHOUT (1955) with William Bendix, and JET STORM (1961) with Stanley Baker and Richard Attenborough.

Please visit the UCLA website for the complete schedule.

Another very interesting series starts at UCLA on January 22nd, Out of the Ether: Radio Mysteries and Thrillers On Screen. The series includes NIGHT EDITOR (1946) and a pair of WHISTLER mysteries! I'll have more on that series here at a future date.

A note regarding two other special L.A. screenings in January: On January 11th the Academy screens a reconstructed Clara Bow film, GET YOUR MAN (1927), along with THE BLAZING TRAIL (1921). (I have a ticket!) And on January 31st the Egyptian Theatre hosts a tribute to Marsha Hunt, showing the new documentary MARSHA HUNT'S SWEET ADVERSITY (2014) along with her rarely seen film NONE SHALL ESCAPE (1944).

Combined with a Kurosawa series coming to the Egyptian Theatre, the only problem a Southern California classic film fan has this month is making time to see everything!