Noir City 2025 Spotlights Legacy Of Women Who Shaped Classic Genre
By Don Shanahan
Elements of the classic “film noir” genre have found success and inspired movies for almost a century. Cracking with style, crime, and tension, such films are the epitome of the expression, “They don’t make them like they used to.”
In September, noir fans have an oasis at the annual “Noir City” program at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago.
Noir City: Chicago 2025 darkens the screens of the historic Music Box Theatre in the Lakeview neighborhood from September 5-11. The annual event is presented by the Film Noir Foundation and features 18 movies this year.
Each screening is presented by Eddie Muller, the founder of the Film Noir Foundation and the on-screen host of “Noir Alley” programming on the Turner Classic Movies cable channel. Alan K. Rode, the writer of “Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film,” presents weekday screenings.
For passes, tickets, information, and the full schedule, please click here. The festival prices are set at $12.50 for individual tickets. Music Box members get in for $10.
The Noir City: Chicago 2025 slate is giving a spotlight to female legacies. So often cast as the prerequisite “femme fatale” roles, women made noir films tick and sizzle as much as the square-jawed and broad-shouldered men. Jane Greer, Audrey Totter, Evelyn Keyes, Coleen Gray, and Ann Savage are the core ensemble of women featured in this year’s program. Most of the films are presented on 35mm.
Below is a summary of the Noir City: Chicago 2025 schedule and line-up, many of which are playing in their original film formats with prints provided by the restoration efforts of the Film Noir Foundation and the Library of Congress.
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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5
The Grifters (1990) - 7 p.m.
The Killing (1956) - 9:30 p.m.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6
Detour (1945) - 2:15 p.m.
Gun Crazy (1950) - 4:15 p.m.
Out of the Past (1947) - 6:45 p.m.
The Hot Spot (1990) - 9 p.m.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 7
My True Story (1951) - 2:15 p.m.
Tension (1949) - 4:15 p.m.
The Woman in the Window (1944) - 6:30 p.m.
The Prowler (1951) - 8:45 p.m.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8
Dead Reckoning (1947) - 7 p.m.
The Reckless Moment (1949) - 9:20 p.m.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) - 7 p.m.
Phantom Lady (1944) - 9:30 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10
Cry Danger (1951) - 7 p.m.
Alias Nick Beal (1949) - 9 p.m.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11
Scarlet Street (1945) - 7 p.m.
Murder, My Sweet (1944) - 9 p.m.
About the Music Box Theatre
Operating since 1929, the Music Box Theatre has been the premier venue in Chicago for independent and foreign films for more than four decades, playing host to over 200,000 patrons annually. It currently has the largest theater space operated full time in the city.
The Music Box Theatre is independently owned and operated by the Southport Music Box Corporation. SMBC, through its Music Box Films division, also distributes foreign and independent films in the theatrical, DVD, and television markets throughout the United States.
Regular events produced, presented, and hosted at Music Box Theatre include the 70mm Film Festival; Music Box Christmas Sing-A-Long and Double Feature, the annual 24-hour horror-movie marathon “Music Box of Horrors”; and Noir City: Chicago, co-presented by the Film Noir Foundation.
Don Shanahan is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic living in Elmwood Park as a school teacher by day with his wife, Thanh, and two children, Molly and Sam. He is the Editor-in-Chief and Content Supervisor of Film Obsessive, the founder of the website Every Movie Has a Lesson, and the co-host of the Cinephile Hissy Fit podcast. Don is also a voting member of the nationally-recognized Critics Choice Association, Hollywood Creative Alliance, Chicago Indie Critics, the Online Film Critics Society, and several other groups. The Shanahan family manages the "Free Blockbuster" take-a-movie/leave-a-movie franchise box located on the 2600 block of North 75th Court.