A Rare Noir Is Good To Find 3
Cash Calls Hell + Assault on the Pay Train
RARE NOIR 3 reprises two stone-cold classics that electrified audiences when they were previously screened in 2015 (Assault on the Pay Train) and 2017 (Cash Calls Hell). Due to the vagaries of the rep cinema world, these haven’t screened elsewhere since. Sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands…
Cash Calls Hell / Gohiki no shinshi
In a role diametrically opposite to what viewers will have seen in The Beast Shall Die, here Tatsuya Nakadai plays an ex-con who enters into a killing pact—only to find himself embroiled in a deadly turf war. As the young daughter of an early victim in this criminal siege attaches herself to him, Nakadai finds himself twisted in several directions at once, desperately trying to keep both of them alive amidst the escalating carnage. (Japan, 1966, dir. Hideo Gosha, 92m)
Assault on the Pay Train / Assalto ao trem pagador
Our final film for Rare Noir 3 takes us to Rio de Janiero and the invention of favela noir in a film based on real-life events. A bold heist pulled off by slum dwellers turned payroll thieves teeters on the edge of dissolution due to the gang’s inability to hang together—proving that class solidarity is a frustratingly ephemeral thing. Non-actor Eliezer Gomes gives a towering performance as the mastermind who goes below and beyond to keep the caper from cratering. (Brazil, 1962, dir. Roberto Farias, 102m)
He’s at it again. Eternal renegade of rep programming Don Malcolm (THE FRENCH HAD A NAME FOR IT, MIDCENTURY MADNESS) brings 13 insanely rare international noirs to the Roxie—including nine never before screened in America! A RARE NOIR IS GOOD TO FIND screens August 13, 19 and 20. “The time is ripe for more of these astonishing films to surface,” Don says, “as we continue to discover that the late Spencer Selby was right: there was—and is—a worldwide film noir tradition that needs to be traced in its entirety so that we will know its true extent and be able to properly assess its influence in film history.”
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