Curated by Gary Meyer
Noir City returns to the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland, CA from January 15 through January 25, 2026 with a grand line-up of film sharing a musical theme. We bring you a gallery of posters, stills, and trailers from the festival for the first half of the Festival.
Make sure to check out Meredith Brody’s preview of Noir City here.
William Gillespie was uncredited for his powerful rendition of the Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer song that became a standard.
Pianist Jigger Pine (Richard Whorf) has drunken nightmare.
“You know how to whistle, don’t you?”
Only watch after seeing NOCTURNE.
The singing voice for Rita Hayworth in Gilda (1946) was dubbed by the Canadian-American singer Anita Ellis, whose sultry voice audiences famously mistook for Hayworth’s. Eddie Muller explained that unlike the usual dubbing process of the actor performing to singer’s recording, Ellis would sing to match the filmed segments of Hayworth singing. Ellis did not get a screen credit as Columbia Pictures wanted to keep it a secret, one that lasted 28 years. Despite claims that Hayworth herself sang a few numbers in the film, John Kobal writes in his “Rita Hayworth: Portrait of a Love Goddess” that “Ellis dubbed all of the vocal parts since both their voices could not be used, Ellis’s singing voice was too unlike Hayworth’s for Hayworth’s voice to be used in different parts of the film.” TCM’s John Miller offers some interesting background stories about Gilda but mistakenly continues the rumor. More fascinating behind-the-scenes stories from Miller here.
We search the Internet and books and our own collections to find images we think you will like. IMDB is a great source and would be the easy way to gather materials but we find more goodies elsewhere. While their collection is far from complete, the 236 images for GILDA on IMDB are hot!
To Watch without commentary go here.
Peg La Centra was Ida Lupino’s (uncredited) ghost voice in The Man I Love and again in Escape Me Never(1947). She appears in Humoresque (1946) as a nightclub singer. Lupino wanted to do her own singing and was able to do that the following year as the torch singer in Road House(1948).
According to Jeremy Arnold’s TCM notes, The Breen Office wasn’t happy with certain elements of the script. They objected to the story’s “low moral tone…of adultery and illicit sex” and found many specific touches that had to go, such as a reference to a slot machine, a suggestion that a cop was crooked, and scenes that “encroach too closely on the intricacies of married life.”
Ida Lupino with director Raoul Walsh
“Louise” is a cockatoo who Lauren Bacall’s character Amy calls her best friend and Doris Day is never seen interacting with the bird in the film. But it makes for a great publicity photo.
Harry James taught Kirk Douglas how to hold the trumpet and appear to be playing it. And the trumpet playing heard in the film is actually James.
The film, loosely based on a novel by Dorothy Baker is said to be inspired by the life of Bix Beiderbecke. Writer Steve Wallace:” James plays – aggressive, big brassy sound, a ton of vibrato and decorative high-note stuff – has absolutely nothing to do with the way Bix Beiderbecke (a.k.a. Rick Martin) played. Bix had a singing, silvery tone, left plenty of space in his lyrical phrases, played in the middle of the horn and was said by Eddie Condon to have a ‘sound like a girl saying yes’. This sounds more like a girl saying ‘Get lost, I’m busy doing my bicep curls.’ ”
A brief history of Bix Beiderbecke.
Harry James’s playing to Kirk Douglas’ acting as the trumpet player being reunited with his mentor, Art Hazzard (Juano Hernández). It seems that no songs actually played by Bix are included in the film but many that were popular during his 1920s jazz scene. The trumpet parts for the main character, Rick Martin, were dubbed by Harry James in a Swing Era soloist’s style, rather than directly mimicking Beiderbecke’s signature “cool” cornet tone. It is fiction, after all.
The young Rick meets Art, his mentor, early in the film.
Only watch after seeing THE STRIP
Watch clips from A MAN CALLED ADAM by clicking here. 
We’ll drink to that. This represents the first half of Noir City at the Grand Lake Theater.
Watch for part two with all the films showing Wednesday, January 21-Sunday, January 25.
You will find the complete schedule here.
And don’t forget to pick up your free program book (cover at the head of this gallery).
And if you don’t live in the San Francisco Bay Area, fear not—-Noir City will be touring “Face the Music” to eight cities this year including Portland, Seattle, Hollywood and New York..Sign up for their announcements. Join the Film Noir Foundation and get the fantastic quarterly online magazine.
Gary Meyer started his first theater in the family barn when he was twelve-years-old. He directed a monster movie there and wanted to show it on the set. It became The Above-the-Ground Theatre screening dozens of silent films with music arranged from his parents’ record collection. Over 250 films were screened along with live productions, workshops and the publication of a literary/arts/satire zine, “Nort!” and a film newsletter, “Ciné.” After film school at SFSU he calls his first job as a booker for United Artists Theatres “grad school” that prepared him for co-founding Landmark Theatres in 1975. It was the first national arthouse chain in the U.S. focused on creative marketing strategies to build loyal audiences for non-Hollywood fare. After selling Landmark, he consulted on many projects including Sundance Cinemas and the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Rose Cinemas, created several film festivals including the Dockers Classically Independent Film Festival and Tube Film Festival for the X Games, and resurrected the 1926 Balboa Theatre in San Francisco. Meyer joined the Telluride Film Festival in 1998, becoming a Festival Co-Director in 2007-2014. He founded the online magazine, EatDrinkFilms.com in April 2014 and consults for festivals while offering pro bono advice to independent filmmakers and cinemas. He started EatDrinkFilms to give a voice to writers wanting to explore food, beverage and the movies from unique perspectives. Meyer, Editor/Publisher, also contributes articles.
eatdrinkfilms.com 
Thank you! Looks, sounds wonderful. Wish I could go. Have fun!