Series: The Sun Sets in the West: Mid-Century California Noir

Experience the dark side of modern living with this series of mid-century film noirs. Shot on location and set amid the bustle of major cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco—as well as their sun-soaked peripheries, beach cities, and desert oases—these ten films inject the Golden State’s benign climate with a heady dose of postwar angst. These mass entertainments, many of them B pictures largely neglected in their day, interweave tabloid sensationalism with expressionistic flourishes, progressive undertones, and lithe formalism. They also offer troubling forecasts of America’s traumas to come in the 1960s and 1970s.

Presented in conjunction with California Design, 1930-1965: "Living in a Modern Way"

Programmed by Bernardo Rondeau, Assistant Curator, Film Programs.