Rated: NR    Runtime: 69min.
Thursday August 26

NOT NECESSARILY NOIR

THE FACE BEHIND THE MASK
This beautifully blended Columbia B horror-noir comes early enough in the classic cycle to qualify as among the first serious Hollywood films (along with Stranger on the 3rd Floor, I Wake Up Screaming, The Maltese Falcon and This Gun For Hire) made in this burgeoning expressionistic style. Peter Lorre delivers a brilliantly complex performance as Johnny Szabo, an idealistic immigrant who turns to a savage life of crime after a hotel fire hideously disfigures his face. Co-starring Evelyn Keyes (!), Don Beddoe, George E. Stone. Directed by Robert Florey. In B&W. 35mm Studio Print. 69 mins. 1941. THURS at 7:00, 9:50

HOUSE OF HORRORS
A bizarre hybrid rarity, the final film to star the phenomenal Rondo Hatton, an actor notoriously exploited by Hollywood’s B picture studios until his death just months after the release of this picture. Hatton suffered from acromegaly, a degenerative and disfiguring disease that gave him the unfortunate appearance of being a human monster, enabling opportunistic producers to cast him in horrific roles without the use of makeup. Here Hatton is “The Creeper,” a psychopathic maniac who becomes the murderous tool of a demented sculptor! Certainly one of the strangest Bs of the 40s and a film that has been vastly underappreciated, largely due to the unsavory circumstances of its production. NOT TO BE MISSED! Co-starring Robert Lowery, Virginia Grey, Martin Kosleck, Alan Napier. Directed by Jean Yarbrough. In B&W. 35mm Studio Print. 65 mins. 1946. THURS at 5:30, 8:30

See the ENTIRE SCHEDULE!