Yesterday was a BIG day in a variety of ways. First of all, we started out in Mexico (cinematically, anyways), watching an absolutely gorgeous Anthony Mann film called BORDER INCIDENT (1949) that was shot by one of my very very favorite cinematographers, John Alton. It was amazing. So much so, that a woman behind me gasped and said, “This is rather gruesome, isn’t it?” Yes, a film from 1949 can be rather gruesome!

We then moved into a wonderfully unusual piece from Mexico called, IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND – EN LA PALMA DE TU MANO (Dir. Roberto Gavaldón, 1951) which was truly extraordinary. I had never seen a Mexican noir before so that was great!

Then later on in the evening it was the restorations section.

One of the reasons I am up here (aside from my love/obsession for noir) is that I have been chosen to be the first recipient of the Nancy Mysel Legacy Grant, which is a huge honor and I am exceptionally thrilled and grateful. If you had told me, at the beginning of my film studies (approx. 15ish years ago) that I would be getting to the point where I would get to the point where I would get up on stage in front of a SOLD OUT audience of 1400+ people  and tell them what Nancy Mysel meant to me and how important film restoration was and how very honored I felt receiving this award….WITH EDDIE MULLER??????

I would’ve laughed in your face and thought you were teasing me. I would’ve said “No way. Not me.” But that’s what happened last night. And I promise to uphold Nancy’s legacy in the best way possible because she was one of the most exceptional women in the film preservation community and inspired me to join and is one of the primary reasons that I chose this path, much like film noir is one of the reasons I fell in love with the cinema.

After the presentation, we watched two INCREDIBLE restorations that really were prime examples of what can be done if the right people, passions and resources are involved, even if you don’t have the original materials.

TOO LATE FOR TEARS (Byron Haskin, 1949) was just incredible looking. While Eddie said it was going to be a little rough going for a restoration due to the lack of original elements (great story about the retrieval, too!) it was nowhere near that! It looked fantastic- Liz Scott’s face, Dan Duryea’s suit, all the details were beautiful. My favorite thing about a noir restoration: make the desperation look gorgeous like cinema is supposed to. And TLFT certainly did. And…it was a wonderful film to boot with some really gritty real PURE noir lines. SO. MUCH. ENJOYMENT. Man, do I loooooove film noir.

Afterwards, of course, was a film that I bought recently on Blu-ray but was waiting to see on big screen before watching at home: the incomparable Ida Lupino’s THE HITCH-HIKER (1953). All I know is that the folks at the LOC did a *smashing* job restoring this baby. The shine on the bumper on the car in the very beginning, the details of each separate leave and twig on the ground, each man’s five o’clock shadow…the details and the shadows were gorgeous! And this is all without losing any of the beauty of the film grain or the shadow and light of the film. What a movie.

 

Tonight we head to Japan and see the work of Akira Kurosawa! Pretty excited about that! Kurosawa does noir. Mmmmhmmm!

Noir City, man. Nothing like it.