A Visit to the 21st Annual Noir City Film Festival

Opening night of the 21st Annual Noir City Hollywood Festival was Friday, March 29th, at the Egyptian Theatre.

It was a wonderful evening filled with vintage cars and clothes, lots of great people, and of course a pair of most enjoyable film noir titles.

This was the ninth year in a row I've attended the festival's opening night! I've been going to the Noir City Festival for a decade now and made countless terrific movie memories. Opening night is always particularly fun, a wonderful convergence of classic film fans.

Above, Alan K. Rode and Eddie Muller of the Film Noir Foundation, along with a solo shot of the "Czar of Noir" below.

Opening night was a sellout! Saturday evening was also very well attended.

As has been the case for the past three years, the Noir City films will play for 10 consecutive evenings at the Egyptian; closing night is Sunday, April 7th.

My detailed date-by-date look at the festival schedule may be found here. As usual, a majority of the films are shown in 35mm.

Below, Alan K. Rode, Christa Faust, and Michael Schlesinger before the movies began rolling:

Karie Bible is one of the volunteers manning the souvenir table:

Below, Ann Dvorak biographer Christina Rice with Jemma Rode. Christina is working on an upcoming biography of Jane Russell which I'm looking forward to reading!

Alan and Jemma Rode as the festivities began:

Eddie Muller with Mark Fleischer, son of director Richard Fleischer. Richard Fleischer directed the evening's first film, TRAPPED (1949), which I'll be reviewing here in the near future. TRAPPED starred Lloyd Bridges, Barbara Payton, and John Hoyt.

The opening night party between films in the Egyptian's courtyard:

Jeremy Arnold:

Alice Maltin chats with my husband while actor Clu Gulagher, a mainstay attending L.A. classic film screenings, chats with Alan Rode in the background.

After the party, Alan Rode introduced the evening's second film, THE FILE ON THELMA JORDON (1949), starring Barbara Stanwyck and Wendell Corey.

As always, this introductory post to the Noir City Hollywood Festival will be regularly updated with review links for all films seen at the festival. As the saying goes, watch this space!

New reviews of films seen at the 2019 Noir City Film Festival: TRAPPED (1950), THE FILE ON THELMA JORDON (1949), APPOINTMENT WITH DANGER (1950), SUDDEN FEAR (1952), PLAYGIRL (1954), HELL'S HALF ACRE (1954), THE MIDNIGHT STORY (1957), and MONKEY ON MY BACK (1957).

Previously reviewed films seen at this year's festival: SHADOW ON THE WALL (1950), CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS (1953), 99 RIVER STREET (1953), THE BIG COMBO (1955), and A KISS BEFORE DYING (1956).

Posts on past Noir City Festivals which contain review links for all films seen each year, in reverse chronological order: A Visit to the 20th Annual Noir City Film Festival (2018); A Visit to the 19th Annual Noir City Film Festival (2017); A Visit to the 18th Annual Noir City Film Festival (2016); A Visit to the 17th Annual Noir City Film Festival (2015); A Visit to the 16th Annual Noir City Film Festival (2014); A Visit to the 15th Annual Noir City Film Festival (2013); A Visit to the 14th Annual Noir City Film Festival (2012); A Visit to the 13th Noir City Film Festival (2011); A Visit to the Noir City Film Festival (2010).