“Summer of Darkness” — TCM Is a National Treasure

This is fantastic!  Turner Classic Movies (TCM) has just made my summer.

TCM is having a film noir festival called “Summer of Darkness,” that will run for 24 hours every Friday in June and July.  That’s 121 shadowy classics.  More than 200 hours of rain-drenched streets, cynicism, and cigarette smoke.

Check out the incredible schedule.  All the classics are there, along w/a broad selection of lesser-known gems.

Look, I love film noir.  It’s easily my favourite film genre.   Just looking at the great titles on this list—The Maltese Falcon, Out of the Past, Murder, My Sweet, D.O.A., Laura, The Big Sleep, Elevator to the Gallows, etc.—is enough to make me clear my Friday schedule through July.  And the best part is that even after years of seeking out obscure noir, there are literally dozens of films in the festival that I’ve either never seen or have forgotten.

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One of the films I’m most eager to see again is a little-known movie called The Locket, which will run at 11:45 PM on 24 July 2015.  I saw it once on TV when I was on my early teens, in the long-ago days before On Demand or streaming or DVDs or even VCRs.  It’s a v strange film with an even stranger structure:  The story is told in a flashback within a flashback within a flashback. Sort of.  When I saw it, I thought it was one of the best movies ever made.  I wonder if it will hold up.

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PS  See my earlier posting of a found-on-the-Web graphic that shows you How to Tell If You’re in a Film Noir.