It’s dark out… let’s watch some cathartically dark movies. 

• Dragging Harrison Ford out of retirement, it’s the 1983 neon-noir film Blade Runner.  [3:46]
• Oh sure the DA says to lay off, but Marlow has a hunch, see? The Big Sleep 1946. [2:05]
• Are they aliens or the 1%? Let’s skewer the corrupt underbelly of Reaganomics in 1988’s John Carpenter meme fest They Live. [3:33]
• Preparing for the big heist with gritty, Hays Code unapproved realism in this scene from 1955’s Rififi. [4:31]
• Dick Tracy finds himself in a tight spot after getting pinched by Big Boy and his goons in this 1990 adaptation of the 1930s comic books: [3:56]
• Bruce Lee (!) demonstrates why it’s not a good idea to splash out on an expensive office if you are a private eye, in this scene from 1969’s Marlowe. [3:17]
• Sometimes you just gotta hide a wrongfully accused rabbit from the cops. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). Also, while you are here, check out all the physical objects being interacted with by cartoons, all practical. It’s bananas. [3:41]
• If you like your monologs and dialogs extra hard boiled, look no further than this narrative exposition from 1945’s Detour. [2:13]
• Speaking of German Expressionism, check out this introduction from 1998’s Dark City.  [1:28]
• Occupied Czechoslovakia with a man on the run, in Hangmen Also Die! 1943. This film was written by Berthold Brecht and directed by Fritz Lang after both fled Nazi Germany. [2:05]
• Screwball dialog and a daring exit in 1931’s proto-noir The Front Page. [2:22]
• Clash of the warrior codes when aging mafiosos pick a fight with an avid Samurai enthusiast, in Jim Jarmusch’s 1999’s Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. The film was heavily influenced by Le Samouraï and Branded to Kill which appear elsewhere in our program. [2:21]
• After the surprise passing of a beloved civic leader, his wife is left to deal with the skeletons in the closet: Keeper of the Flame (1942). [4:07]
• Sometimes the most effective threat is a friendly question, Dick Tracy 1990. [1:26]
• Top notch verbal jousting between Bacall and Bogart in The Big Sleep 1946. [1:39] 
• The Shawshank-famous hairflip, plus covert sparring between ex-lovers: 1946’s Gilda. [3:22]
• She’s not bad, she’s just drawn that way: Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). [3:24]
• (Extended cut after 8pm) Vocabulary word: Rififi explained through song, dance and illustrative shadow puppets: [1:16-3:32]
• The Big Sleep, bookstores and their employees are sexy, discuss. 1946. [2:32]
• (After 8pm) Madonna femme-fataleing it up in 1990’s Dick Tracy. [2:42]
• The cabbies in noirs can be several kinds of deadly: The Big Sleep 1946.  [1:03]
• Self-driving cabs: flouting traffic laws for 80+ years: Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). [2:52]
• (After 8pm) We go to Japanese B-Movie auteur Seijun Suzuki’s Branded to Kill for a nice quiet bodyguard ride through the country. 1967. [2:52]
• The spiritual godfather of the French New Wave, Jean-Pierre Melville, strips noir down to precise action and glances in this clip from 1967’s Le Samouraï. [3:49]
• (After 8pm) Seijun Suzuki’s 1966 Tokyo Drifter brings neo-noir back to its minimalist expressionist roots. and definitively proves that gunfights are the dream ballets of action movies. Discuss. [2:52]