WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Beginning this fall, the Clark Art Institute, in collaboration with Images Cinema, hosts a series of classic noir films.

 

All films are free and screened in the Manton Research Center auditorium on select Thursdays at 6 pm.

 

October 30

The Big Sleep (1946)

Based on Raymond Chandler's novel of the same name, The Big Sleep might be the high-water mark of Hollywood's love affair with the infinitely slippery possibilities of the English language. It is also a study in the evasiveness of genre. Although the morals are skewed, the bullets plentiful, and the femmes most definitely fatale, Bogart's Marlowe is a decent, (mostly) unconflicted hero, and much of the film takes place not in the shadowy streets but in a series of well-lit, beautifully appointed rooms. This only makes the film feel more subversive, as though the seedy criminal underworld were spilling over into real life, bringing with it the grim but thrilling aura of sexual abandon and sudden death. (Run time: 1 hour, 56 minutes)

 

November 6

The Hitch-Hiker (1943)

Two men on a fishing trip pick up a mass-murdering hitcher (Talman) and are forced at gunpoint to drive him through Mexico until the fatal moment when he no longer needs them. Director Ida Lupino never relaxes the tension in this 1943 classic for one moment, yet her emotional sensitivity is also upfront as the fishermen bicker about how to deal with their captor, stressing that only through friendship can they survive. (Run time: 1 hour, 11 minutes)

 

November 13

The Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

In director Alexander Mackendrick's swift, cynical 1957 film, Burt Lancaster stars as the vicious Broadway gossip columnist J. J. Hunsecker while Tony Curtis is Sidney Falco, the unprincipled press agent whom Hunsecker ropes into smearing the up-and-coming jazz musician romancing his beloved sister. (Run time: 1 hour, 36 minutes)

 

November 30

Pickup On South Street (1953)

Petty crook Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) has his eyes fixed on the big score. When the cocky three-time convict picks the pocketbook of unsuspecting Candy (Jean Peters) in director Samuel Fuller's 1953 thriller, he finds a more spectacular haul than he could have imagined: a strip of microfilm bearing confidential U.S. information. Tailed by manipulative Feds and communists, Skip and Candy pit greed against redemption and passion against self-preservation. (Run time: 1 hour, 20 minutes)

 

December 4

Leave Her to Heaven (1954)

Novelist Richard Harland (Cornel Wilde) seems to have found the perfect woman in Ellen (Gene Tierney), a beautiful socialite who initiates a whirlwind romance and steers him into marriage before he can think twice. Yet the glassy surface of Ellen's devotion soon reveals monstrous depths, as Richard comes to realize that his wife is shockingly possessive and may be capable of destroying anyone who comes between them. (Run time: 1 hour, 50 minutes)

 

December 11

Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

In this atomic adaptation of Mickey Spillane's novel, directed by Robert Aldrich, the good manners of the 1950s are blown to smithereens. Ralph Meeker stars as snarling private detective Mike Hammer, whose decision one dark, lonely night to pick up a hitchhiking woman sends him down some terrifying byways. (Run time: 1 hour, 46 minutes)

 

December 18

The Third Man (1949)

Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, black-market opportunist Harry Lime—and thus begins this legendary tale of love, deception, and murder. (Run time: 1 hour, 44 minutes)

 

Free. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524.