Arthur Lyons Noir Fest Premieres Rare Restorations
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival runs May 7–10 at the Historic Camelot Theatre in Palm Springs, its 26th year, with 12 films in under 72 hours including four per day on the middle two days.
- Alan K. Rode, programming his 19th year, opens the fest with the world premiere of a Film Noir Foundation digital restoration of Slightly Scarlet (1956) — the first widescreen and Technicolor film the FNF has restored, shot in SuperScope with John Alton as cinematographer.
- "Gunn" (1967), Blake Edwards' feature adaptation of his Peter Gunn TV series with Ed Asner and a screenplay by William Peter Blatty, gets a world-premiere digital restoration; Rode says it hasn't screened theatrically since release and isn't on streaming or Blu-Ray.
- "Manhandled" (1949), a Dorothy Lamour/Dan Duryea/Sterling Hayden noir, receives its world-premiere digital restoration, likewise unavailable on streaming or Blu-Ray.
- "City Girl" (1938), a 67-minute Fox proto-noir with Ricardo Cortez, screens in 35mm from a Disney-held archival print — the only format available, as no DVD or DCP exists, making it possibly the rarest film of the festival.
- "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967) screens under the neo-noir umbrella, preceded by a book signing with Kirk Ellis for his new We Kill People: Bonnie and Clyde — A Hollywood Revolution in America's Obsession with Guns and Outlaws.
- Rode, who co-hosts Noir City Hollywood with Eddie Muller and just introduced a film at the TCM Classic Film Festival, pitches the Palm Springs trip to noir-fatigued fans as a no-valet, no-traffic, poolside antidote to the L.A. circuit.
Why it matters: Film restoration is typically invisible to the public, but three of these premieres — including 'Gunn,' unseen theatrically since 1967 — give cinephiles a rare chance to see newly preserved prints on a big screen, while the 35mm-only 'City Girl' from Fox's archives shows what remains orphaned in studio vaults. For the roughly 26-year-old Palm Springs audience Rode has cultivated, the festival is less about hits than about the recovery of physically endangered titles.
Ask SkimNews
