Film Noir at Five o'Clock

Our annual collaboration with the Atlantic Film Festival continues with a series of screenings at 5pm each day of the festival. This year we feature key works from the film noir canon, from 1941 to 1955. Gritty, urban films full of hard-bitten men and femmes fatale, film noir continues to fascinate and inspire cinephiles fifty years after its heyday.

Friday, 17 September - The Maltese Falcon

John Hutson, USA, 1941, 100 minutes

Humphrey Bogart stars as the cynical Sam Spade in the third cinematic adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's famous mystery novel.

Saturday, 18 September - This Gun For Hire

Frank Tuttle, USA, 1942, 80 minutes

Alan Ladd is a ruthless killer-for-hire caught in a nasty politically-tinged double-cross in this noir classic written by Little Ceasar author W.R. Burnett.

Sunday, 19 September - Phantom Lady

Robert Siodmak, USA, 1944, 87 minutes.

Cornell Woolrich (Rear Window, The Bride Wore Black) penned the pulp novel that B-movie master Robert Siodmak (The Spiral Staircase) transformed into one of the enduring films of the noir genre.

Monday, 20 September - Double Indemnity

Billy Wilder, USA, 1944, 106 minutes

James M. Cain's insurance-scam novel comes alive in the hands of Billy Wilder and his deadly cast headed up by a lethal Barbara Stanwyck and her patsy victim Fred MacMurray.

Tuesday, 21 September - Detour

Edward G. Ulmer, USA, 1945, 69 minutes

Shot in an amazing six days, Detour is the ultimate low-budget film noir masterpiece about a lonesome piano-player who foolishly hitch-hikes his way to murder and mayhem.

Wednesday, 22 September - The Set Up

Robert Wise, USA, 1947, 78 minutes

A taut drama about a past-his-prime boxer waiting for his last fight, The Set Up unfolds as a rare real-time experiement by the future director of The Sound of Music, Robert Wise.

Thursday, 23 September - The Asphalt Jungle

John Hutson, USA, 1950, 112 minutes

The ultimate caper film that has been remade several times, The Asphalt Jungle sees John Hutson transforming W.R. Burnett's furious heist novel into an outstanding noir film.

Friday, 24 September - Kiss Me Deadly

Robert Aldrich, USA, 1955, 105 minutes

Mickey Spillane's detective Mike Hammer gets in deep with nuclear secrets in this famous late entry in the film noir canon.

Saturday, 25 September - The Killing

Stanley Kubrick, USA, 1957, 99 minutes

Noir novelist Jim Thompson wrote the script for this tough-as-mails racetrack caper-gone wrong, that catapulted a young Stanley Kubrick to the big leagues just a film noir finally began to fade as a viable genre.