Back from Palm Springs Noir Fest
Just returned from this year’s Palm Springs Film Noir Festival. For those obsessed with the shadowy, doomed nether-world of Hollywood’s post-war B crime films, this year’s fest was no disappointment. I go every year and alternate between the pool at my motel and the big comfortable Camelot Theater (and its excellent bar upstairs–yes, you can bring your drinks into the movies!).
The theme that dominated this year’s list of obscurities was bad women. I can’t tell you what a thrill it is to see these evil scheming broads in their ’40s and ’50s gowns spinning their webs on the big screen. Some of the films, like 3 Bad Sisters and The Price of Fear, were so rare that there are only a couple of prints in existence. Most of the films shown were followed by a chat with one of the actors or a producer, film archivist, etc.
The festival is the first weekend of June every year, and it is my favorite annual moviegoing experience. If you like to see lost hard-boiled, existential celluloid while outside the air-conditioned theater tumbleweeds bounce down the hot bleak desert streets, see you there next year.
