In his debut screen role, Charlton Heston plays Dan Haley, an alienated
vet turned small-time gambler who isn’t so much pursued (by the cops, a
lounge singer, a widowed suburbanite) as he is fleeing from his own
disillusionment. After fleecing a fellow veteran (Don Defore), Dan and his
gang of low-ball hustlers (Ed Begley, Jack Webb, and Harry Morgan), find
themselves the quarry of a psycho-killer bent on revenge. The setting of
Dark City is noir from its beat-up bookie joints and glistening nightclubs
to its grimy hotel rooms. But director Dieterle seems intent on redeeming
his gooey-eyed gambler, who sees the cards stacked against him.
Written by John Meredyth Lucas, Larry Marcus, adapted by Ketti Frings from
a story by Marcus. Photographed by Victor Milner. With Charlton Heston,
Lizabeth Scott, Viveca Lindfors, Dean Jagger. (97 mins, B&W, 35mm
(In conjunction with) Dark Past: Film Noir by German Emigrés
As Hitler’s influence grew in 1930s Germany, artists and intellectuals
fled the country; whether because they were Jewish or held contrary
political views, they saw their lives or livelihoods threatened by the
emerging fascist reign. The German film industry was not immune to this
flight and the decade witnessed the exodus of a host of important
filmmakers—directors, cinematographers, screenwriters, and others.
Hollywood became a haven for these hasty émigrés—by the early forties
tinsel town had a thriving contingent of German-speaking filmmakers,
including Otto Preminger, Max Ophuls, Douglas Sirk, Billy Wilder, Robert
Siodmak, Fritz Lang, Edgar G. Ulmer, and many others. Grateful for any
assignment, these veteran directors took on low-budget B-movies, turning
them into highly effective, emotionally resonant, darkly dramatized
mysteries and crime stories, later to be known as noirs. It’s said that
the greatest contribution of this group of directors was the shadow-laden
mise-en-scène with its brooding urban cityscapes distilled from German
Expressionism. But as you shall see from these eight noirs by eight
directors, much more than rain-spattered streets and crepuscular lighting
links them. Many of these bristling features, from Max Ophuls’s Caught to
Curtis Bernhardt’s High Wall, from William Dieterle’s Dark City to Otto
Preminger’s Where the Sidewalk Ends, share a belief that authority is
necessarily corrupt, that institutions are to be mistrusted, that what is
worst in us will come to light, and, finally, that no one can shake their
dark past.
Theater Admission Prices
Single Feature
$5.50 BAM/PFA Members, UC Berkeley Students
$9.50 Adults (18-64)
$6.50 UC Berkeley faculty, staff, and retirees
Non-UC Berkeley students
Senior citizens (65 & over)
Disabled persons
Youth (17 & under
Additional Feature $4.00 All Patrons
PFA General:
2575 Bancroft Way
Berkeley, CA 92027
(510) 642-1412
