NIGHTFALL
dir. Jacques Tourneur, 1957
79 mins. United States.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3 - 10 PM
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 - 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 - 10 PM

Working with classic film noir genre tropes (a suitcase filled with money, an innocent man being accused, a snowy day in Wyoming?), Tourneur's late-period noir is a poetic thriller that becomes increasingly difficult to pin down with its suspenseful flashback structure and vividly set sun-filled exteriors. Released nine years after his noir masterpiece OUT OF THE PAST and photographed by film noir legend Burnett Guffey (IN A LONELY PLACE, THE RECKLESS MOMENT), NIGHTFALL tells the story of an artist (Aldo Ray) who desperately tries to prove his innocence for a murder and robbery he didn’t commit. The slow-burning thriller culminates in an epic final scene, worth noting due to its striking resemblance to a Coen Brothers movie whose location is just north of Tourneur’s Teton County exterior (oh geez).

From I HAVE THE RIGHT TO LIVE: A Film Noir Double Bill.