Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival

Film Schedule:

Friday May 9, 2025

10:00 AM Swell Guy (1946) (35mm) Mark Hellinger Productions/Universal, 86 minutes. Screenplay by Richard Brooks, Produced by Mark Hellinger, Directed by Frank Tuttle

Mark Hellinger’s overlooked second production following his smash hit of The Killers (1946) is theatrically screened in Palm Springs for the first time anywhere in decades! Richard Brooks’ acidic adaptation of Gilbert Emery’s play concerns a famously heroic war correspondent (an improbable Sonny Tufts) who returns to his post WWII California home town and is gradually revealed to be a manipulative sociopath. Chief among those left in his destructive wake are a besotted Ann Blyth, sister Ruth Warrick, William Gargan as an oblivious brother and Mary Nash as Tuft’s long suffering mother. With: Thomas Gomez and Millard Mitchell.

1:00 PM Johnny O’Clock (1947) Sony- Columbia, 95 minutes, Screenplay by Robert Rossen, Produced by Edward G. Nealis, Directed by Robert Rossen

Dick Powell plays it tough as a gambling house overseer tied in with a gangster chieftain (Thomas Gomez), his restless wife (Ellen Drew) and a crooked policeman (Jim Bannon). When the bent cop and his girlfriend (Nina Foch) turn up missing, Powell becomes involved with the missing girl’s sister (Evelyn Keyes) while unraveling a Gordian knot of plot twists complicated by the presence of homicide detective Lee J. Cobb. A trio of top notch femme performers headed by Keyes, former Palm Desert resident Ellen Drew and Foch combine to give Powell a lot more than bargained for. Robert Rossen’s successful directorial debut of his taut script foreshadowed his Academy Award winning smash hit All the King’s Men two years later.

Eddie Muller will sign his book Dark City Dames: The Women Who Defined Film Noir before the screening.

4:00 PM Lust for Gold (1949) (35mm) Sony-Columbia, 90 minutes, Screenplay by Ted Sherdeman, Richard English adapted from a book by Barry Storm , Produced and directed by S. Sylvan Simon

The Superstition Mountains of Arizona are the setting for Glenn Ford and Ida Lupino to co-star in this compelling sagebrush noir. Barry Storm (William Prince) is obsessed to locate the elusive Lost Dutchman Gold Mine originally discovered by his grandfather Jacob Walz (Glenn Ford). Part fact, part legend, the mine has lured many fortune seekers to their deaths over generations. A parallel story, related in flashback, dramatically depicts the outcome of obsessive greed on both past and present protagonists. Striking Arizona location photography by cinematographer Archie Stout accentuates the performances of Ford, Lupino, Gig Young, Edgar Buchanan and Will Geer. The setting is the Southwest, but the story and characters are pure noir-you do not want to miss this frequently overlooked and underappreciated film!

7:30 PM Paid in Full (1950)Hal B. Wallis/Paramount, 98 minutes, Screenplay by Robert Blees, Charles Schnee. Story by Frederic M. Loomis, Produced by Hal B. Wallis, Directed by William Dieterle

Digital Theatrical Premiere!

The troubled relationship between two sisters (Lizabeth Scott and Diana Lynn) and stolid Robert Cummings is presented as a flashback of noir stained histrionics via an original story penned by an actual MD. William Dieterle gives free rein to the “good sister-bad sister” parable with a daring (for its time) screenplay that tested the forbearance of the MPAA’s Censor’s Office. With: Eve Arden, Ray Collins, Frank McHugh and Stanley Ridges. Paid in Full hasn’t been screened theatrically for decades nor released to home video or streaming. This sparkling new digital version is making its world premiere at the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival!

Tickets and Passes

Date: May 8 - 11, 2025