Rare Noir at the San Francisco Roxie

Silvana Mangano and Doris Dowling in "Bitter Rice"

By Moira Sullivan
The second series of A Rare Noir is Good to Find screens at the Roxie May 5 through 8. Programmer Don Malcolm brings us 11 films on international noir from the 1950’s. Countries include Egypt, Eastern Europe, Latin America the Far East and Western Europe. During this postwar period, there are many commonalities in these films that are evident in classic noir.

On May 5, CAMINO DEL INFIERNO (The Road to Hell - 1951, Mexico) features a femme fatale Mexican actress Leticia Palma as Leticia. She wants expensive jewelry and furs and is lovers with Tony who works for gang boss León. There are many twists to the plot including betrayal, and a missing hand.

No film better addresses the excesses of lawlessness than IN THE NAME OF THE LAW (In Nome Della Legge - 1950, Italy) screening on May 6. Directed by Pietro Germi the film stars Massimo Girotti as the newly installed judge in a small Sicilian village - Guido Schiavi. The people are described as descendants of ancient customs that outsiders don’t understand but several captains patrolling the area with guns on horseback are not hard to figure out. This film surely influenced Coppola’s The Godfather II starring Al Pacino. Pietro Germi is a skilled director and the film is one of the best at this series of noir films.

On May 7, STRANGE ENCOUNTER screens (Estranho Encontro - 1958, Brazil) directed by Walter Hugo Khouri. This is another film that pulls you in instantly. Marcos (Mário Sérgio) driving on a country road is stopped by the figure of a woman, Julia (Andrea Bayard). falling on top of the hood of his car, her heels sliding from underneath her feet. She seems to come from nowhere but is actually the girlfriend of a man with an amputated leg she wants to escape, that she met in the clock shop where she works – Hugo (Luigi Picchi) .

Also on May 7 is BITTER RICE (Riso Amaro - 1949, Italy) directed by Giuseppe De Santis. the most handcrafted and compelling film of the series starring Silvana Mangano as the femme fatale Silvana and Doris Dowling as Francesca. The film is set in the North where every year women arrive to plant rice and take home some of it to their villages. They are paid workers and class differences between paid workers and scabs or the illegals are made clear. Yet the women tend to unify. Silvana refuses the advances of Marco (Raf Vallone), a soldier she grew up with and Francesca has fallen in with the petty thief Walter (Vittorio Gassman.)

On May 8 films from Japan and South Korea known for high quality technical achievements make for excellent noir.

CASH CALLS HELL (Gohiki No Shinshi - 1966, Japan) is directed by Hideo Gosha. Tatsuya Nakadi, plays a broken man who had it all – the boss’s daughter, the company car, a pension, a good salary and a lover who grabs the steering wheel sending him into a swerve that mow down a man and his daughter. While in prison he is contracted to kill three men when he gets out.

THE HOUSEMAID (Hanyo - 1960, Korea) is by Ki-Young Kim. The head of nuclear family reads in the news about a housemaid that seduces the master of the house and brings him to ruin. This foreshadowing continues and puts his family on the edge. 

These and more films at the Roxie 5-8 May.

© 2017 - Moira Sullivan - Air Date: 05/03/17
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