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UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Hugh M. Hefner Classic American Film Program present

Nitrate Noir:  Leave Her to Heaven  /  Nightmare Alley

Leave Her to Heaven
August 13, 2016 - 7:30 pm
In-person: 
Mark A. Vieira. He will sign copies of his book beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Online ticket sales have ended.  Tickets are still available at the box office, which opens one hour before show times.

In his latest book, Into the Dark: The Hidden World of Film Noir, 1941 to 1950, Hollywood historian Mark A. Vieira excavates rare photos, publicity material, film reviews, audience surveys and contemporaneous interviews with stars and filmmakers to understand how the films we now call noir were received and discussed at the time of their initial release.  In keeping with Vieira’s project to present noir in its original contexts, UCLA Film & Television Archive presents an ultra-rare double feature of two film noir classics presented in original 35mm nitrate prints.  Vieira will appear in person for a book signing before the screening.

Special thanks:  Schawn Belston—20th Century Fox.

IB Technicolor Nitrate Print!

Leave Her to Heaven  (1945)


Set against the rugged natural beauty of New Mexico where a novelist (Cornel Wilde) and his new wife (Gene Tierney) settle into a lakeside cabin after a whirlwind romance, Leave Her To Heaven exudes an atypical atmosphere for a film noir.  Leon Shamroy’s Oscar-winning Technicolor cinematography gives a bright, airy counterpoint to the dark, roiling obsessions that drive Tierney’s jealous socialite to acts of violence that would make even the most jaded femme fatale blanch.

35mm, Technicolor, 110 min.  DIR: John M. Stahl.  SCR: Jo Swerling.  CAST: Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain.

Nitrate Print!

Nightmare Alley  (1947)


Ambitious carnival roustabout Stan Carlisle (Tyrone Power) takes over a sideshow mind-reading act and transforms it into a slick nightclub turn.  Determined to milk the "spook racket" for all it's worth, Stan next joins forces with a corrupt psychiatrist who supplies him with confidential information about her wealthy patients that Stan uses to convince them of his psychic ability.  Power skillfully conveys Stan's cynicism and nervy charm, along with his oddly touching naiveté: he cannot help believing in tarot cards, and has a superstitious fear of divine retribution.

35mm, b/w, 110 min.  DIR: Edmund Goulding.  SCR: Jules Furthman.  CAST: Tyrone Power, Joan Blondell, Coleen Gray.