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The Prowler (1951); The Hoodlum (1951)

The Prowler (1951)
March 20, 2009 - 7:30 pm
Billy Wilder Theater
In-person: 
author James Ellroy ("The Black Dahlia"), author Eddie Muller ("Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir").

Preservation funded by the Film Noir Foundation and The Stanford Theatre Foundation

The Prowler (1951)

Directed by Joseph Losey

Set in a shadowy post-war Los Angeles, The Prowler focuses on a wealthy but neglected housewife (Evelyn Keyes) who spends her evenings alone, with only her husband's voice on the radio for company. When she's spooked by a peeping tom, a calculating cop (Van Heflin) answers the call, turning her ordered life upside down. The Prowler was the third of five films Losey made in Hollywood, and the most critically and commercially successful. The following year Losey was officially blacklisted and soon embarked on a career abroad where he eventually earned a reputation as a European auteur.

Horizon Pictures, Inc.. Based on a story by Robert Thoeren and Hans Wilhelm. Producer: Sam Spiegel. Screenplay: Hugo Butler, Dalton Trumbo. Cinematographer: Arthur Miller. Editor: Paul Weatherwax. Cast: Van Heflin, Evelyn Keyes, John Maxwell, Katharine Warren, Emerson Treacy.

35mm, 92 min.

Preservation funded by The Stanford Theatre Foundation

The Hoodlum (1951)

Directed by Max Nossek

This briskly paced, low-budget, B film noir features quintessential tough guy, Lawrence Tierney, in a most fitting role as Vincent Lubeck, an angry, brooding, habitual criminal, who after five years in the joint is released on parole to live with his mother and brother Johnny (played by Tierney's real life brother, Edward). Sent to work at the family gas station, Vincent grows bitter and restless, and begins plotting his escape from the menial labor of his humdrum life. Completely void of fear, pain and compassion, Vincent has no qualms about destroying everyone and everything in his path.

Jack Schwarz Productions, Inc. / Eagle-Lion Classics, Inc.. Producer: Maurice Kosloff. Screenplay: Sam Neuman, Nat Tanchuck. Cinematographer: Clark Ramsey. Editor: Jack Killifer. Cast: Lawrence Tierney, Allene Roberts, Marjorie Riordan, Lisa Golm, Edward Tierney.

35mm, 63 min.

Part of: 
2009 UCLA Festival of Preservation