Originally conceived as our series for March 2020--and we all know what happened then--Roxy Confidential is a celebration of the masterworks of American film noir, one we're overjoyed to finally present in full to our community. As much a style as a genre, film noir perfectly captures the angst & moral ambiguity of the post-war era. Its directors found the means to explore elements of trauma in a world no longer solidly "black and white," elements that continue to influence today’s culture. The five films in Roxy Confidential--all made between 1941 and 1955--are noir to their bones, containing the classic imagery of the genre: the femme fatale, the private eye, and the plan gone horribly wrong. Through the haze of moral ambiguity and sudden violence, unforgettable stories and indelible images emerge.
In this atomic adaptation of Mickey Spillane’s novel, directed by Robert Aldrich, the good manners of the 1950s are blown to smithereens. Ralph Meeker stars as snarling private dick Mike Hammer, whose decision one dark, lonely night to pick up a hitchhiking woman sends him down some terrifying byways. Brazen and bleak, Kiss Me Deadly is a film noir masterwork as well as an essential piece of cold war paranoia, and it features as nervy an ending as has ever been seen in American cinema.