Lovers of American film noir may want to shack up at the library on Sidney Street in Port Orchard starting tomorrow through the month of July.
The Kitsap Regional Libary branch is making use of its massive movie archives in creating a new classic film series targeted at adults. Its first installment — “The Maltese Falcon” (1941) — will light the screen at 6 p.m. Thursday as the initial five-part series leaves the gates focused on the dark and anxious style of film noir.
Other titles slated for the series include “Double Indemnity,” “Body and Soul,” “The Wrong Man” and “The Killers.”
“We have this really fantastic film collection, I’d love to be able to see this be the start of a wide variety of film series,” series creator Wally Clark said, hinting at including additional genres if attendance is there.
All of the Kitsap Regional Library branches are plugged into a catalogue of thousands of movie titles across all genres, most of which are available for their purchase and public showing, media librarian John Fosset said.
Branches have somewhat routinely offered teen film series ranging from anime to the latest Harry Potter, but this is one of few recent series targeted for adults.
And though the movies in the film noir series are as old or older than a good cross-section of adults, they still hold both relevance and entertainment — both at face value and behind the scenes — for film lovers of all ages.
“I’m just catching some of these movies for the first time myself,” Clark said. “In all my life, I think what have I been missing … I want the same kind of oohing and ahhing coming out from the audience as well.”
Storied American director John Huston’s directoral debut “The Maltese Falcon,” could very well deliver Clark’s wishes.
Based on the story of the same title — written in 1929 by pulp fiction author Dashiell Hammett — Huston’s 1941 cinematic version of “The Maltese Falcon” was designated as the first of the film noir genre by Panorama du Film Noir Américain — the French book that coined the term “film noir.”
In America, the film was nominated for three Academy Awards. It’s also one of the chief contributors to the slicked-back, heavy-staring detective icon for which actor Humphrey Bogart was famed and that which is often viewed as a defining character feature of the film noir style.
In the movie, Bogart plays private investigator Sam Spade who is thrust into a web of greedy and murderous players chasing after a piece of historic lost treasure — a jewel-encrusted falcon statuette which was seized by pirates on its way from Malta to Charles V of Spain in the 16th century.
The story follows Spade on a twisted road of deceit and death initiated by the undercover lust for riches from those around him, including the other iconic character of film noir, the femme fatale — Brigid O’Shaughnessy.
O’Shaughnessy, the seductive villain who sends Spade into the fire, is played by Mary Astor.
Other notable actors in the film include Sydney Greenstreet (Signor Ferrari from Casablanca) as the notorious “Fat Man” Kasper Gutman and Peter Lorre as an adventurer also after the treasure — Joel Cairo.
Free refreshments will be provided and the movies will be shown on a big screen at 6 p.m. each Thursday (June 28-July 26) in the conference room of the Port Orchard library branch — 87 Sidney Ave. For more information, call (360) 876-2224.
GRAY BOX
Film Noir Series
• All showtimes are at 6 p.m., free
June 28: “The Maltese Falcon” (1941) Directed by John Huston
July 5: “Double Indemnity” (1944) Directed by Billy Wilder
July 12: “Body and Soul” (1947) Directed by Robert Rossen
July 19: “The Wrong Man” (1956) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
July 26: “The Killers” (1946) Directed by Robert Siodmak
