Looking to get in touch with your inner Humphrey Bogart or longing to see what a terrible cad Fred McMurray could be before he transformed into a lovable dad in “My Three Sons”? Then you should grab your fedora, light up a smoke (no, not really!) and head over to the Stanford Theatre.
The gorgeous movie palace on University Avenue in Palo Alto is kicking off a two-month Film Noire Festival on Friday, Sept. 6, with two of Bogart’s classics, “The Big Sleep” and “The Maltese Falcon.”
Film noir, which loosely translates to “dark film,” grew out of German expressionism to take over U.S. movie screens in the 1940s and ’50s. Filled with smoke and shadow — nearly all “film noir” movies were black-and-white — these pictures were often morality plays, often featuring a femme fatale and a male protagonist who finds himself in over his head. These were flicks with gumshoes and dames, private eyes and spies, and sometimes a poor sap who winds up staring at the sparky end of the electric chair.
That double feature plays through Sunday, and a few of the can’t-miss movies include “Double Indemnity” (Sept. 14-15), “Sunset Boulevard” and the original “Nightmare Alley” (Sept. 28-29), “The Third Man” and “Key Largo” (Oct. 5-6), “Touch of Evil” (Nov. 2-3) and 1946’s “The Postman Always Rings Twice” (Nov. 9-10).
Check out the full schedule at www.stanfordtheatre.org.