Laura's Miscellaneous Musings: The 2025 Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival in Review

Sunday, May 25, 2025

The 2025 Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival in Review

One of my favorite events of the year is the annual Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival. I've been attending the festival for a decade now, and this year's festival was wonderful as always.

This year's festival opened on Thursday evening, May 8th, and ran through Sunday, May 11th. The festival took place in its longtime home, the Palm Springs Cultural Center, also known as the Camelot Theatres.

Festival producer and host Alan K. Rode is seen above along with regular festival guests Victoria Mature and Steven C. Smith.

As always, Rode's Film Noir Foundation colleague Eddie Muller joined him in introducing films this weekend (seen below). Muller is seen in the above photo signing copies of his new book, the revised and expanded edition of DARK CITY DAMES, alongside Jeffrey Mantor of Hollywood's Larry Edmunds Bookshop.

A dozen films were screened between Thursday evening and Sunday afternoon, including a number of rarities. The festival featured a mixture of 35mm and digital prints, including the digital theatrical premieres of PAID IN FULL (1950) and UNMASKED (1950).

Half the films shown at the festival were new to me; I wanted to get reviews up while they were fresh in my mind and have reviewed four of the films thus far, linked near the end of this post.

Opening night featured Errol Flynn and Barbara Stanwyck in CRY WOLF (1947), a film I really enjoy. The poster seen here is from the collection of Brian Light; photos of additional posters from his collection are seen below.

Errol Flynn's daughter Rory joined us prior to the movie to sign her book THE BARON OF MULHOLLAND: A DAUGHTER REMEMBERS ERROL FLYNN.

She later joined Alan Rode in the theater for an interview:

Opening night concluded with a reception under the stars in front of the theater. The festival was very well attended throughout the entire weekend.

Three out of the four films shown on Friday were new to me: SWELL GUY (1946), LUST FOR GOLD (1949), and PAID IN FULL (1950), which were shown along with an all-time favorite, JOHNNY O'CLOCK (1947).

Two of Saturday's films, UNMASKED (1950) and THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE (1973), were also first-time watches for me. They were screened along with ANGEL FACE (1953) and THE UNSEEN (1945).

I'll add that it was 108 in Palm Springs that Saturday, so we were glad to be in a dark, air-conditioned theater!

Joel McCrea's grandson Wyatt McCrea was interviewed by Alan Rode at the Saturday night screening of THE UNSEEN. It's always wonderful to hear him share stories about his grandfather, not to mention his grandmother, Frances Dee.

Wyatt is seen after the screening with Victoria Mature and Alan Rode:

Sunday morning was one of my favorite films of the festival, the new-to-me KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE (1950).

Alan Rode introducing a movie during the festival:

We had to leave Palm Springs a bit earlier than usual this year and thus missed the Sunday afternoon screenings of the great films ACT OF VIOLENCE (1948) and ON THE WATERFRONT (1954). We had an absolutely marvelous time at the festival and can't wait till next year!

For those able to stay in Palm Springs through Sunday evening, there was the added bonus of a special screening of a black-and-white edition of NIGHTMARE ALLEY (2021) with director Guillermo del Toro present for an interview along with his wife and co-screenwriter, Kim Morgan.

Previously reviewed films seen at the 2025 Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival: CRY WOLF (1947) (also here), JOHNNY O'CLOCK (1947), ANGEL FACE (1952), and THE UNSEEN (1945).

New-to-me films reviewed following this year's festival: SWELL GUY (1946), LUST FOR GOLD (1949), UNMASKED (1950), and KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE (1950). We also saw PAID IN FULL (1950) and THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE (1973) which I hope to review in the future.

On our way to the festival we made a stop at Pioneertown, a movie location dating from 1946. Look for an article on it coming soon to my Classic Movie Hub Western RoundUp column. (Update: Here is the direct link to my article on Pioneertown, which has a fascinating history. I've included numerous photos.)