Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival

Founded in 2000 by the local writer, noir enthusiast, and former Palm Springs City Council Member, Arthur Lyons, the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival now draws Film Noir enthusiasts to Palm Springs from cities throughout Southern California, nationwide, from Canada, and even from Great Britain.

The Palm Springs Cultural Center took the Festival over after Arthur died to ensure that the Festival could continue as a local cultural event. We renamed the event in Arthur’s honor and brought in Alan K. Rode to program, curate and direct it.

Known in the world of Noir for showing the very best of rare Noir classics, the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival is a favorite for fans of this genre. This Festival is one of several in the United States focused on this uniquely American Art Form. The festival regularly screens hard to find films that are not available anywhere else, and draws Film Noir enthusiasts from all over the country.

Film Schedule:

10:00 AM: Crime Wave (1954) Warner Bros. 73 min. D: Andre de Toth Three ruthless convicts (Ted de Corsia, Charles Bronson and Nedrick Young) escape from San Quentin, rob a filling station and hide out at a parolee’s (Gene Nelson) apartment while forcing Nelson and his wife (Phyllis Kirk) to participate in a bank robbery. A relentless homicide lieutenant (a toothpick chewing Sterling Hayden) figuratively tosses the Constitution in the nearest trash bin by using any means necessary to corral the bad guys. Originally titled The City is Dark, this terrific “B noir is characterized by a breakneck tempo accentuated by location filming in downtown L.A.’s Bunker Hill, Glendale and LAPD’s Homicide Division headquarters at City Hall.

1:00 PM: Dead Reckoning (1946) Sony-Columbia, 100 min. D; John Cromwell Humphrey Bogart is a decorated WWII paratrooper investigating the disappearance of his comrade in arms as both men are enroute to Washington DC. He tracks the missing soldier to the Gulf Coast and untangles his pal’s past involving an alluring chanteuse (Lizabeth Scott) and a sinister nightclub owner (Morris Carnovsky). Bogie and Liz never looked or sounded better than in this classic post war noir replete with flashbacks, ominous characters and smarmy dialogue with murder and mayhem folded in. Artfully directed by John Cromwell and scripted by a collage of writers including Steve Fisher and Allen Rivkin.

4:00 PM: Woman in Hiding (1950) Universal, 93 min. A car careens off a bridge into a river in the Great Smoky Mountains with the driver (Ida Lupino) observing the search for her body from a hiding place while reflecting on the events resulting in the accident. A suspenseful “woman in peril” film penned by Oscar Saul and Roy Huggins is directed to maximum effect by Michael Gordon two years before he was blacklisted. Co-starring: Ida’s future hubby Howard Duff, the always sinister Stephen McNally, Peggy Dow, John Litel and Taylor Holmes.

7:30 PM: Day of the Outlaw (1959) United Artists, 91 minutes. D: Andre de Toth. A simmering range dispute between a ruthless cattle rancher (Robert Ryan) and a group of homesteaders explodes into chaos when a gang of sadistic renegades led a sociopathic ex-Army officer (Burl Ives) takes over and runs amuck. This noir stained western with an emphasis on adult themes boasts an incredible cast led by Ryan, Ives, Tina Louise, Alan Marshal, Nehemiah Persoff, Jack Lambert, Elisha Cook Jr and Mike McGreevey among many other familiar faces. Filmed on location near Bend, Oregon.

Scheduled special guest: Actor/Producer/Director Mike McGreevey.

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