Shady gangsters, witty femme fatales and cynical private eyes: “Noir City”, The 17th Annual Festival of Film Noir is currently under way at the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. The Opening Night film Woman on the Run (1950) starring Ann Sheridan was restored last year with funds from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s charitable trust.
It’s easy to see why this treasure had to be saved – twice! Woman on the Run has all the elements of the quintessential film noir: Luminous black and white, mostly night photography, in this case by another San Franciscan, the celebrated and innovative cinematographer Hal Mohr; a story set in the dark underbelly of society, riddled with crime, murder, and mystery. There’s a gangland murder to silence a potential witness, a beautiful woman enters the picture and the chase is on.
Woman on the Run, fits right in: The story is one of intrigue and mistaken identity. A man walking his dog at night witnesses a murder. He does not want to get involved, so he runs from the police to avoid being taken to protective custody and having to identify the killer, thereby risking his own life. To find him, the police follow his wife, assuming she will lead them to her husband. But the couple’s marriage has been on the rocks, and she’d rather not see him again. Evading the police, she befriends a crime reporter who has charmed her into helping him track the husband and land a big story … and who turns out to be the last person that wants to help her.  Ann Sheridan, the leading lady and producer of the movie, was known as “The Oomph Girl,” at the peak of her career, but never achieved the super-stardom of some of her contemporaries. She turned down the title role of Mildred Pierce (which rescued the career of Joan Crawford) and was passed over for other juicy roles. Woman allowed her to show her mature beauty and acting chops. The script is smart and witty, full of sharp noir cracks, provoking frequent gales of laughter at the screening. Woman was screened in 2003, at the first Noir City and again at San Francisco’s Noir City Festival in January. But the print which was the only 35 mm copy in the world, was stored at Universal Studios’ vault, and was lost along with thousands of other reels in a 2008 fire, ironically as it was awaiting transfer to the UCLA Film and Television Archives. Muller did not give up, and while searching the newly completed database of the holdings of the British Film Archive, he found another copy, a duplicate negative, along with a separate sound track. The elements were lent to the UCLA Archive, and that is when the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s charitable trust supplied a grant covering most of the restoration cost.
For a full list of the Noir City Festival films go to:
http://www.americancinemathequecalendar.com/content/noir-city-hollywood-17th-annual-festival-of-film-noir
Yoram Kahana