To inaugurate my new and improved ONE WAY STREET blog and web site, I am posting my introduction to THE BIG COMBO and PITFALL double feature when I presented on Wednesday night at the Million Dollar Theatre in downtown L.A. While I was crossing the street at the corner of 3rd, I gazed across Broadway at the Bradbury building and realized that this was where Edmond O'Brien, wracked with pain from luminous poisoning, staggered to his rendezvous with destiny in D.O.A. This was also where Lon Chaney Jr., recently revived from the San Quentin gas chamber, murderously prowled for "Squeemy Ellis" in Indestructible Man and where Jack Lemmon parked his T-Bird filled with ladders, paint, and Romy Schneider to deface a billboard in Good Neighbor Sam. This was also the same real estate where Harrison Ford was assigned to hunt replicants in Blade Runner (1982). I was treading on cinematic hallowed...

For those of you who are not Facebook habitues, I wanted to post a link about the upcoming Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival next week 13-16 May in Palm Springs at the Camelot Theatres. It is our tenth anniversary and with a line up of rare films and guest stars such as Ernest Borgnine, June Lockhart, Ann Robinson, Julie Garfield and Tommy Cook, this year's fest will be landmark event. Hope to see you there! ...

While resolving that I will not be at the screenings of Red Light and Walk a Crooked Mile at Noir City in San Francisco this Thursday because work beckons, my thoughts turned to...   The Noir City opener this weekend in San Francisco   A better weekend of darkness could not be imagined! After the opening night double header of Pitfall-one of the seminal film noirs, IMHO and Larceny on Friday, Saturday brought the debut of the restored print of Cry Danger (funded by the Film Noir Foundation, btw) followed by another Bill Bowers scribed jewel, The Mob. The Cry Danger screening was special. Not only was this underrated film in spectacular shape thanks to the stellar efforts of the UCLA restoration team, I brought my pal, Richard Erdman up to the Castro Theater to share in the good vibes. Dick has the best part in the film as a smartass...