In a stroke of good fortune, I happen to be in SF for the opening of Noir City 5, the yearly film noir festival. Bub loves old movies and has been schooling me in some of the classics (on a recent trip out here, we took in a double feature of Stormy Weather and Carmen Jones at the beautiful Stanford Theatre). But this was my first exposure to Noir on the big screen. We went for the opening festivities and a double feature of Raw Deal, starring Dennis O'Keefe, Claire Trevor, and Marsha Hunt; and Kid Glove Killer with Van Heflin and Marsha Hunt. Marsha Hunt, who at age 89 is still pretty sprightly and was wearing higher heels that me, was there for interviews and a reception.So rabid noir fans with spit curls and fedoras and red lips (fedoras and red lips on different people, of course) filed into the Castro Theatre along with Bub and I, clearly the outliers as 
always, and it was loads of fun. Raw Deal is exactly what I imagined when I thought of noir - crime, bad boys with hearts of gold getting lousy shakes, dames getting slapped by bad boys, small guns that fit into neat little purses, red lips, and hard stares. So campy but so entertaining. Marsha Hunt's character was the good girl trying to get the jailbird escapee to walk the straight and narrow, to no avail, and of course he gets killed in the end and dies in her arms. After the movie, Marsha came on stage and talked about her 62 films, her start in movies (she actually called them "talkies", so cute), her efforts to back the "Hollywood 19" who were called before the House Un-American Activities Committee and her subsequent blacklist from Hollywood. For someone I'd never heard of in Hollywood, she's been right in the thick of filmmaking history for decades- which only shows that I should probably know more about filmmaking history.
always, and it was loads of fun. Raw Deal is exactly what I imagined when I thought of noir - crime, bad boys with hearts of gold getting lousy shakes, dames getting slapped by bad boys, small guns that fit into neat little purses, red lips, and hard stares. So campy but so entertaining. Marsha Hunt's character was the good girl trying to get the jailbird escapee to walk the straight and narrow, to no avail, and of course he gets killed in the end and dies in her arms. After the movie, Marsha came on stage and talked about her 62 films, her start in movies (she actually called them "talkies", so cute), her efforts to back the "Hollywood 19" who were called before the House Un-American Activities Committee and her subsequent blacklist from Hollywood. For someone I'd never heard of in Hollywood, she's been right in the thick of filmmaking history for decades- which only shows that I should probably know more about filmmaking history.If you find yourself in the Bay area at some point in the next ten days, grab yourself some red lipstick and head for the Castro and make sure you call someone a broad on the way.
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