Opera Noir

The, largely inactive, Danger & Despair film group has had a number of reels stolen from our Market St storage area. If you happen to see any of these on EBay, Craigslist, or wherever fine stolen items can be found, please send me an email.

Speaking of being inactive, I am frequently asked when will we have another screening. The answer, I don't know. And I sincerely wish I had a better answer for you. During this hiatus, I will do my best to feed your need for noir by posting as many noir activities that I can find.

It is not too late to catch Opera Noir. What is Opera Noir? Well, it's just like film noir, only it's opera :-) Actually, I think a great deal of opera has noir-like plots, but in this particular case, Terry Teachout (yes, the Wall Street Journal performance critic) and composer Paul Moravec teamed up to adapt The Letter to the stage. According to Teachout, "'It looks like a movie, sounds like an opera and plays like a play." Costumes by Tom Ford. Performances are scheduled for July 25 and 29 and Aug. 3, 7, 15 and 18. See http://www.santafeopera.org for tickets and times. Oh yeah, you will have to go to Santa Fe, New Mexico to see it.

Of course, the movie (1940), directed by William Wyler, starred Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall and James Stephenson, was itself an adaptation of the story by W. Somerset Maugham. Howard Koch wrote the screenplay. Koch (one of the writers for Casablanca) was a victim of the House UnAmerican Activities Committee and was blacklisted. Koch had been ordered, by studio mogul Jack Warner, to write Mission to Moscow, which painted Stalin as a friend of the US during a time in which Stalin was pitted against Hitler. In the book Hollywood on Trial -- McCarthyism's War against the Movies, by Michael Freedland, Freedland wrote: "... under protest, Howard [Koch] wrote the script which portrayed Stalin as a friend of the US. Later on, Koch was interviewed by HUAC. A piece of evidence used to prove his anti-Americanism was this portrait of Stalin ... He told them, 'but Mr. Warner ordered me to do it.' Warner would not defend Howard."

Nonetheless, Koch and his wife moved to England, where he resumed his writing career under a pseudonym. Koch was also famous for having written the adaptation of "War of the Worlds," for Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre radio broadcast, which sent America into a panic.

You may have noticed that I have a habit of posting things, well, a bit late. Mea culpa. BUT if you find yourself in Chicago between July 31 - August 6, you should definitely check out Noir City Chicago, with special guest Harry Belafonte (August 1st only). Mr. Belafonte will be present for the screening of Odds Against Tomorrow. Other films being shown are: Framed, The Lady from Shanghai, Double Indemnity, The Prowler, The Killers (hmmm ...), The Breaking Point, Chicago Syndicate, and Call Northside 777. For more information, see http://www.musicboxtheatre.com/collections/noir-city-chicago/.

And hats off to our mystery man in the field (Peter L) for letting me know about the following:
Excelsior Meeting Room at 4400 Mission St.(at Cotter)
Monday, 8/3/09: 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Clash by Night - Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Ryan

Finally, I need your help. It was never my intention to write this blog myself, but to be a forum for contributors who have an interest in writing about noir, publishing noir events, and discussing noir in general. So, if you would like to write a blog entry, tell me about an event, ask a question, etc ... please do.