Alex Film Society Presents Film Noir Double Feature: Gun Crazy / The Lineup

July in Glendale signifies Cruise Night, the community’s celebration of California car culture. This year you can join in the fun on July 19th. The Alex Film Society continues the theme the following Saturday with Chrome-Plated Crime: A Car-Crazy Film Noir Double Feature showcasing two film noir classics: GUN CRAZY and THE LINEUP. In GUN CRAZY, John Dall succumbs to the charms of Peggy Cummins’ carnival sharpshooter femme fatale. His infatuation steers them down a one-way street to auto theft, armed robbery and murder. One of the essential films noir, it is notable for an extended bank robbery scene photographed from the back seat of the getaway car, filmed in Montrose locations.

In THE LINEUP chrome-plated behemoths cruise the mean streets of 1958 San Francisco in search of prey. The cops are on the trail of a maniacal Eli Wallach and his gang; the gang is in pursuit of unsuspecting tourists returning from vacation unknowingly carrying heroin hidden in their luggage. The high-speed car chase is a precursor to a more famous one featured ten years later in Bullitt. Director Don Siegel employs extensive location work to bring a gritty realism to the narrative; he would return with another case of a cop chasing a psychopath in 1971 with Dirty Harry.

The program will be introduced by Alan K. Rode, who is well-known to those who frequent the annual Dark City film noir festival at the American Cinematheque. Mr. Rode is the author ofCharles McGraw: Biography of a Film Noir Tough Guy and a soon-to-be-published biography of Michael Curtiz. He is a director of the Film Noir Foundation and producer of the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival, which is held each May in Palm Springs.