Posted: 04/23/2002

The Palm Springs Film Noir Festival

by Alan Rode

The second annual Palm Springs Film Noir Festival will run from June 6th through 9th at The Camelot Theater.

Festival founders Craig Prater and Arthur Lyons announced that this year will feature guest appearances by stars and celebrities including mystery writer Mickey Spillane and film stars Jane Russell, Rhonda Fleming, M. Emmet Walsh and Coleen Gray. The Festival is co-produced by the Palm Springs Festival of Festivals.

The festival will screen 12 noir films, including:

DOA, the 1949 Edmund O’Brien classic about the college professor who discovers he’s been poisoned. Featured actress Beverly Garland is expected to appear at a June 8 screening at 1 p.m.

Detour, the 1945 film about a drifter that “Video Movie Guide” calls “one of the best if not the best low-budget films ever made.” Star Ann Savage is scheduled to appear at this 1 p.m. June 9 screening.

Suddenly, the 1954 thriller starring Frank Sinatra as the head of a gang out to kill the president. Co-star Nancy Gates is expected to appear at that screening at 10 a.m. June 9.

The festival will kick-off at 7:30 p.m. on June 6 with a screening of His Kind of Woman, featuring an appearance by Russell. Ms. Fleming, who was a hit at last year’s festival, is scheduled to speak at a screening of her film, Slightly Scarlet, at 7:30 p.m. June 7.

Mickey Spillane, best known for his hard-boiled detective novels featuring Mike Hammer, is slated to answer questions after a screening of his film, The Long Wait, at 7:30 p.m. on June 8. He will also sign books at a reception at The Vintage Marketplace in Palm Springs.

Additional films to be shown include:

In A Lonely Place (1950)
He Walked By Night (1948)
Woman On The Run (1950)
Blood Simple (1984) with a special appearance by M. Emmet Walsh
Kansas City Confidential (1952) with a special appearance by Coleen Gray.

The 4-day event will end with the classic noir film Boomerang (1947).

Daytime screenings are $10.00 each; evening screenings are $12.00. Tickets go on sale May 15. Advance tickets can be purchased by calling (760) 327-2432. The Camelot Theatre’s website is here.

A fundraising reception for Rhonda Fleming’s Women’s Cancer Clinic will be held at The Deck, Palm Springs, Friday, June 7, 2002 at 9:00 p.m. immediately following her film. Tax-deductible donations for Ms. Fleming’s reception are $25.00 with checks made payable to the Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation (no credit cards accepted for this event). Hors d’oeurves will be served.

Alan Rode is a writer who lives in San Diego, California.

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