Richard Widmark | PARIS LA

Noir star Ida Lupino worked opposite the best in the business—Humphrey Bogart, Richard Widmark, Jean Gabin, Robert Alda, Edward G. Robinson, John Garfield. She was also the only woman directing and producing movies in Hollywood in the 1950s and, after Dorothy Arzner, only the second regularly working female director in Hollywood history.

The double bills in the UCLA Film and Television Archive series HARD, FAST AND BEAUTIFUL—THE FILMS OF IDA LUPINO pair four examples of her directorial work (which she co-produced with her husband, screenwriter Collier Young) with classics directed by Nicholas Ray and Vincent Sherman.

Screenwriter Alexandra Seros will talk about Lupino on the opening Friday.

THE HARD WAY and HARD, FAST AND BEAUTIFUL, Friday, April 6, at 7:30 pm.

OUTRAGE and THE BIGAMIST, Saturday, April 7, at 7:30 pm.

THE HITCH-HIKER and ON DANGEROUS GROUND, Friday, April 27, at 7:30.

BILLY WILDER THEATER, HAMMER MUSEUM, 10899 Wilshire Boulevard, Westwood, Los Angeles.

cinema.ucla.edu/hard-fast-beautiful-ida-lupino

Edmond O’Brien and Ida Lupino in The Bigamist (1953).

NIGHT AND THE CITY (1950)—Jules Dassin’s London gangland saga featuring an indelible performance by Richard Widmark—plays this weekend at the Wilder in a 35mm nitrate print of the British release version.*

In the late 1940s, the New York office of 20th Century Fox ordered Darryl Zanuck to fire Dassin for his leftist politics. Instead, Zanuck sent Dassin to London to shoot Jo Eisinger’s script, which Zanuck and Dassin hardened into a pitiless noir. Co-star Gene Tierney—escaping a failed affair in Hollywood—was happy to come on board.

“Dassin was attracted to the film’s overarching theme based on the destructive effect of money and ambition, and NIGHT AND THE CITY is one of the toughest, bleakest films ever produced by a major Hollywood studio.” — Geoff Mayer, from The Encyclopedia of Film Noir

NIGHT AND THE CITY

Saturday, December 16, at 7:30.

Billy Wilder Theater, Hammer Museum

10899 Wilshire Boulevard, Westwood, Los Angeles.

*The British release version of the film runs six minutes longer than the U.S. release and features alternate opening and closing scenes, as well as a different score by composer Benjamin Frankel.

Night and the City (1950). Richard Widmark as Harry Fabian.

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IDA LUPINO — THE HARD WAY

NIGHT AND THE CITY