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TCM Website
July 19, 1999
TCM's Steamy Summer of Darkness Readies
for
Hot August Nights
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Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will continue to take to the shadows in August for part two of Summer of Darkness, the most comprehensive collection of film noir movies ever assembled. TCM's Summer of Darkness is being presented in the form of all-night marathons every weekend in August, and features such great movies as CRACK-UP (1946, August 6, 8 p.m.), MACAO (1952, August 7, 10 p.m.), HE WALKED BY NIGHT (1949, August 13, 8 p.m.), THE BIG STEAL (1949, August 14, 8 p.m.) ANGEL FACE (1953, August 14, 11:30 p.m.), SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957, August 20, 8 p.m.), KISS ME DEADLY (1955, August 21, 8 p.m.), THE HIGH WALL (1947, August 21, 2:30 a.m.), THE NARROW MARGIN (1952, August 27, 8 p.m.) NOCTURNE (1946, August 27, 11 p.m.), THE KILLING (1956, August 28, 8 p.m.) and THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950, August 28, 9:30 p.m.).
Each night Summer of Darkness is themed to salute such classic film noir stars as Claire Trevor (August 6) and Robert Mitchum (August 14); noir writers like Clifford Odets (August 20); and such quintessential character types as "wrongly accused" (August 7), "the streets of L.A." (August 21) and "hard-boiled detectives" (August 27).
TCM has also produced a series of original features entitled Cruel Beauty: The Women of Film Noir hosted by actor Scott Glenn (Silence of the Lambs, Backdraft) featuring roundtable discussions with some of the great female film noir stars including Jane Greer (THE BIG STEAL, August 14), Marie Windsor (THE NARROW MARGIN, August 27), Coleen Gray (THE KILLING, August 28; KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL, August 7.) and Audrey Totter (THE HIGH WALL, August 21). The women will discuss what it was like making these films - many of which were low-budget quickies at the time - and how their appeal has lasted and grown.
The term film noir derives from the French critical term roman noir, used to describe novels of the '30s that expressed a mood of cynical fatalism. Although scholars disagree on when the genre started, the most likely contender for the title of "first film noir" is MURDER, MY SWEET (1944), with Dick Powell as detective Philip Marlowe. Although earlier films like THE MALTESE FALCON starring Humphrey Bogart as detective Sam Spade, and THE STRANGER ON THE THIRD FLOOR (1940, August 7, 11:30 p.m.), with Peter Lorre as a deranged killer, had most of the elements of film noir, the genre did not take off until the period following World War II, as the optimism of the war years gave way to a growing cynicism.
The genre continued into the '50s, when growing awareness of organized crime and international espionage gave credibility to such classic noirs as KISS ME DEADLY (1955, August 21, 9:30 p.m.), starring Ralph Meeker as Mike Hammer, and THE NARROW MARGIN (1952, August 27, 8 p.m.), with Charles McGraw guarding a material witness against the mob. More recently, film noir has been revived for such contemporary classics as Chinatown (1974), The Grifters (1990) and L.A. Confidential (1997).
Turner Classic Movies, currently seen in more than 32 million homes, is a 24-hour cable network from Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. TCM presents the greatest motion pictures of all time from the largest film library in the world, the combined Time Warner and Turner film libraries, from the '20s through the '80s, commercial-free and without interruption. For more information, please visit the TCM website at (http://TCM.turner.com).
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