In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City

June 6–July 24, 2025

Inspired by Imogen Sara Smith’s 2011 book, In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City, this series focuses on film noirs set in suburbia and small towns, on the road, in the desert, and along borderlands. Smith will travel from New York City to introduce the films on the series’ opening weekend, and we will also tap Bay Area film experts David Thomson and Eddie Muller to host additional screenings.

Read full description

  • Alfred Hitchcock: Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

  • John M. Stahl: Leave Her to Heaven (1945)

  • Michael Curtiz: The Breaking Point (1950)

  • Nicholas Ray: They Live by Night (1948)

  • Edgar G. Ulmer: Detour (1945)

  • Ida Lupino: The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Upcoming
    Events
  • Selected
    Objects
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Upcoming Films

  • The Breaking Point

    Michael Curtiz
    United States, 1950

    35mm Archival Print

    Friday, June 6 7 PM
    Introduction and Post-Screening Discussion by Imogen Sara Smith

    The Breaking Point is film noir at its best, with outstanding performances by the cast, especially Phyllis Thaxter as a wife who keeps her family together on a shoestring budget despite the stubbornness of her husband (John Garfield).

    View Details
    Get Tickets

  • The Hitch-Hiker

    Ida Lupino
    United States, 1953

    35mm Archival Print

    Saturday, June 7 4:30 PM
    Introduction and Post-Screening Discussion by Imogen Sara Smith

    Two fishing buddies pick up a hitchhiker on their way to Baja, with potentially deadly results, in Ida Lupino’s high-tension thriller. Photographed by the great noir cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca.

    View Details
    Get Tickets

  • Desert Fury

    Lewis Allen
    United States, 1947
    Saturday, June 7 7 PM
    Introduction and Post-Screening Discussion by Imogen Sara Smith

    Film noir expert Eddie Muller called Desert Fury “the gayest movie ever made in Hollywood’s Golden Era.” Filmed in glorious Technicolor with costume design by Edith Head.

    View Details
    Get Tickets

  • Pursued

    Raoul Walsh
    United States, 1947

    35mm Archival Print

    Sunday, June 8 4 PM
    Introduction and Post-Screening Discussion by Imogen Sara Smith

    Raoul Walsh’s favorite of his Westerns, Pursued is a fated family tragedy set under cinematographer James Wong Howe’s oppressive clouds and menacing cliffs. Starring Robert Mitchum.

    View Details
    Get Tickets

  • Shadow of a Doubt

    Alfred Hitchcock
    United States, 1943

    4K Digital Restoration

    Saturday, June 14 7 PM
    Introduction and Post-Screening Discussion by David Thomson

    Joseph Cotten is the urbane Uncle Charlie, hiding out in the small-town home of his sister Emma in this blend of satire and mystery. Is Uncle Charlie the Merry Widow Killer hunted by the police, or is he as innocent as he claims?

    View Details
    Get Tickets

  • The Reckless Moment

    Max Ophuls
    United States, 1949

    35mm Archival Print

    Saturday, June 21 7 PM

    Housewife Joan Bennett must cope with a killing, blackmail, and the everyday pressures of domesticity in this stunning suburban noir. “An underrated gem” (Phillip Lopate).

    View Details
    Get Tickets

  • Detour

    Edgar G. Ulmer
    United States, 1945

    Digital Restoration

    Wednesday, June 25 7 PM

    This 2018 restoration is the best that Detour has looked or sounded for generations. Despite severe restrictions of time and budget, Edgar G. Ulmer and his collaborators were able to craft one of the best and purest film noirs of all time.

    View Details
    Get Tickets

  • They Live by Night

    Nicholas Ray
    United States, 1948

    35mm Archival Print

    Wednesday, July 2 7 PM
    Introduction and Post-Screening Discussion by David Thomson

    Nicholas Ray’s lyrical, passionate debut follows a pair of fugitive innocents. It influenced films from Jean Luc Godard’s Pierrot le fou to Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde.

    View Details
    Get Tickets

  • Leave Her to Heaven

    John M. Stahl
    United States, 1945

    35mm Archival Print

    Saturday, July 5 4:30 PM

    Intoxicating Gene Tierney (Laura) is the femme fatale par excellence in this astounding Technicolor noir classic, now beautifully restored, about a young novelist (Cornel Wilde) whose new bride’s extreme jealousy plunges their nuptial heaven into hellish depths of psychic disorder.

    View Details
    Get Tickets

  • Touch of Evil

    Orson Welles
    United States, 1958/98

    4K Digital Restoration

    Saturday, July 12 7 PM

    This is the 1998 reedit by Walter Murch of Touch of Evil, featuring a cast of castaways led by Orson Welles, Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, and Joseph Calleia, with appearances by Marlene Dietrich, Akim Tamiroff, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and Dennis Weaver—all swept grimly along by Russell Metty’s ever-frenetic camerawork.

    View Details
    Get Tickets

  • Nightmare Alley

    Edmund Goulding
    United States, 1947

    4K Digital Restoration

    Friday, July 18 7 PM
    Introduction and Post-Screening Discussion by Eddie Muller

    “Wildly unpredictable circus and penthouse noir with gorgeous scumbag Tyrone Power, at the height of his doomed charms. . . . After viewing this picaresque and cathartic film, you will never again misuse the word ‘geek’” (Guy Maddin).

    View Details
    Get Tickets

  • The Phenix City Story

    Phil Karlson
    United States, 1955
    Thursday, July 24 7 PM
    Introduction and Post-Screening Discussion by Eddie Muller

    “Filmed on location in Alabama with a documentary-like look, the movie captured the ambiance and tenor of its Deep South setting better than almost any other fact-based movie of its era” (Bruce Eder, AllMovie).

    View Details
    Get Tickets

Past Films