<<< December 15 - 20, 2006 >>>

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This is an Egyptian Theatre Exclusive this month! Look for Ray films coming to the Aero in 2007.

Like few American directors before or since, Nicholas Ray was capable of imbuing his films with the violent, gleeful, contradictory impulses of his own personality. But his color-saturated stories of abusive men and morally stronger women, of Americans caught in the awful throes of re-imagining themselves, as in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, BIGGER THAN LIFE, THE LUSTY MEN (sadly unavailable for screening) or WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES, have to be seen on the Wide, Wide Screen to appreciate why Ray remains such an enigma.

Born in Wisconsin in 1911, Ray spent his early years soaking up a staggering array of influences: studying architecture with Frank Lloyd Wright, working with Elia Kazan in New York’s Theatre of Action, promoting folk music with Pete Seeger and Alan Lomax. He directed his first film, THEY LIVE BY NIGHT (1948), working with producer John Houseman. Ray soon gained a reputation for his unique, intuitive rapport with actors in such films as IN A LONELY PLACE and ON DANGEROUS GROUND, and also for his combative, almost sado-masochistic relationship with the Hollywood establishment. Although his strangest, most daring (and some say greatest) film came in 1954 with the surreal Joan Crawford western, JOHNNY GUITAR, it was the epochal REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955) that was his most widely-acclaimed success. His unique friendship with James Dean became the stuff of legend, but it was Ray’s discovery of the widescreen Cinemascope format on REBEL that helped shape the rest of his career. Sadly, almost inevitably, Ray quit Hollywood in the early 1960’s (or, more likely, Hollywood quit him). He spent the rest of his creative years as a teacher, inspiring a new generation of filmmakers including Jim Jarmusch and Wim Wenders. Nicholas Ray died in New York in 1979.

JOHNNY GUITAR, 1954, Republic (Paramount), 110 min. Joan Crawford is headstrong Vienna, a saloon-owner waiting for the railroad to reach her town. But her friendship with charming outlaw, The Dancing Kid (Scott Brady) jeopardizes her standing in the local community. If things weren’t bad enough, the uptight landowners are led by vindictively jealous Emma (a frightening Mercedes McCambridge) who will do anything to repress her yen for The Kid, even if she has to lynch half the town to do it. Enter Vienna’s returning old flame, Johnny (Sterling Hayden), a fast-draw who has given up guns for a guitar! Only director Nicholas Ray could pull off something so brazen - a color-coded, violent, romantic tall tale rife with allegorical references to the rabid right wing of 1950’s America. A stunning achievement that comes off like a crazy quilt collaboration between Luis Bunuel, Anthony Mann and Vincente Minelli! Victor Young did the lush score with Peggy Lee singing the memorably torrid theme song. Co-starring Ward Bond, Ernest Borgnine, John Carradine. NOT ON DVD.

TRUE STORY OF JESSE JAMES, 1957, 20^th Century Fox, 92 min. Director Nicholas Ray was hamstrung by studio interference in his remake of the Tyrone Power-starring original, but there are still enough off-kilter touches as well as the filmmaker’s trademark brilliant use of color to make it more than worthwhile viewing. This time around, Robert Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter star as Jesse and Frank James respectively, with a great supporting cast that also includes Agnes Moorehead, John Carradine, Alan Hale, Jr. and Hope Lange. NOT ON DVD.

Saturday, December 16 – 6:00 PM

Double Feature:

THEY LIVE BY NIGHT, 1948, Warner Bros., 95 min. Nicholas Ray’s directorial debut (and his own favorite) is a deeply-felt tale of young love struggling to survive in a cruel, unforgiving world. Farley Granger and Cathy O’Donnell are memorable as star-crossed lovers Bowie and Keechie in this darkly romantic and melancholy adaptation of Edward Anderson’s depression-era crime classic Thieves Like Us. In Ray’s hands, it’s Romeo and Juliet for the film noir era. Co-starring a wonderfully sociopathic Howard da Silva. NOT ON DVD.

ON DANGEROUS GROUND, 1952, Warner Bros., 82 min. Dir. Nicholas Ray. A violent, embittered metro cop (Robert Ryan) in hot water with his boss gets sent upstate to help with a small town manhunt. The search leads him into a fateful confrontation with his own off-limits heart when he falls in love with the fugitive’s blind sister (Ida Lupino). Sterling contributions all around: A.I. Bezzerides’ savvy script, Ray’s vigorous direction, Bernard Herrmann’s magnificent, brassy score, and Ryan’s ferocious performance make this one of film noir’s most affecting statements about anger and alienation in the big city. The contrast between city and country, brutality and tenderness is pure Ray.

Saturday, December 16 – 9:30 PM

Double Feature:

IN A LONELY PLACE, 1950, Sony Repertory, 94 min. Dir. Nicholas Ray. A brilliant, moody drama of a screenwriter (Humphrey Bogart) accused of murder, and the starlet (Gloria Grahame) afraid to trust him. On one level, a poisonous rejection of all things Hollywood; on another, a love triangle of almost demonic intensity between the director and his two stars. Although Dorothy B. Hughes’ original novel was also possessed of a desolate ending, Ray’s equally downbeat climax was quite different and undoubtedly did not find favor with the studio powers-that-be. Co-starring Frank Lovejoy.

PARTY GIRL, 1958, Warner Bros., 99 min. Director Nicholas Ray’s ultra-stylish homage to 1930’s gangster films revolves around an ice-cold chorus girl (Cyd Charisse) and her equally cynical lawyer boyfriend (Robert Taylor) who want to sever their ties to organized crime. But the film really belongs to Ray’s stunning use of color and the widescreen as well as Lee J. Cobb in a savage caricature of a Capone-like mobster. NOT ON DVD.

Sunday, December 17 – 7:30 PM

Double Feature:

BIGGER THAN LIFE, 1956, 20^th Century Fox, 95 min. Director Nicholas Ray’s subversively twisted portrait of suburban life centers on a teacher (James Mason) who becomes addicted to cortisone and experiences visionary, tyrannical delusions. Ray’s superb use of color and shot composition reaches a deliriously surreal intensity here that, at times, borders on the psychedelic. In addition to one of Mason’s finest performances, there’s also standout work from co-stars Barbara Rush and Walter Matthau. A must for Ray fans. NOT ON DVD.

WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES, 1958, Warner Bros., 93 min. Director Nicholas Ray’s rarely screened drunken masterpiece stars Christopher Plummer as a young game warden in early 1900’s Florida, trying to stop bigger-than-life, outlaw poacher Burl Ives and his gang of cutthroats (including a young Peter Falk) from decimating the wild heron population. Shot on atmospheric and very swampy locations, Ray’s depiction of the frontier surrendering to civilization is worthy of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS. And, like Welles, Ray himself was barred from finishing or editing the final cut of the film. Produced and written by Budd Schulberg (writer of ON THE WATERFRONT). NOT ON DVD.

Wednesday, December 20 – 7:30 PM

Double Feature:

REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, 1955, Warner Bros., 111 min. Director Nicholas Ray’s awesome, mythic saga of teen disobedience and alienation in 1950’s America made James Dean and co-star Natalie Wood instant cultural icons. Ray’s use of color and the Cinemascope screen remains groundbreaking to this day, rivaling Hitchcock for striking frame compositions and bold symbolism. Co-starring Sal Mineo, Jim Backus, Corey Allen, Dennis Hopper. "...the film still breathes like a hurt, brooding animal. It's an indelible vision of a pretty 1950s America with a searing crack in it… a movie so audacious it can only be poetry, a kind of cinematic free verse…" – Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle.

BITTER VICTORY, 1957, Sony Repertory, 103 min. Richard Burton is a fatalistic captain at odds with his indecisive and inexperienced superior, a timid major played by Curt Jurgens, as they undertake a dangerous mission across the desert to steal secret documents from the Nazis during WWII. Burton had left Jurgens’ beautiful wife, Ruth Roman, heartbroken years before, and this association further poisons the relationship between the two officers. One of Nicholas Ray’s most underrated and most beautifully directed masterworks is full of subtle touches that build inexorably to a shattering and tragic conclusion. Originally cut by over 20 minutes in America, this is the restored and original uncut version. Writing about BITTER VICTORY in Cahiers du Cinema, Jean Luc Godard famously declared "Henceforth there is cinema. And the cinema is Nicholas Ray."