The Center for Art, Culture, and History, Exeter, or CACHE, will be hosting a classic film noir cinema series every first Monday at 6 p.m. beginning March 4th with the 1946 film The Stranger, starring Orson Wells and Loretta Young. The rest of the spring season lineup includes Detour (1945) on April 1st, starring Tom Neal and Anna Savage, and Impact (1949) on May 6th, starring Brian Donlevy.
The series kicks off in March with The Stranger. The film depicts a German refugee named Charles Rankin (Orson Welles), a respected professor at a small-town Connecticut university who is married to an American (Loretta Young). When a former Nazi’s body is found in the same town, a government official (Edward G. Robinson) begins a cat-and-mouse investigation of Rankin, discovering that he is not whom he appears to be but someone with a very sinister background.
April’s movie selection is titled Detour. Al Roberts (Tom Neal) is a pianist in a sleepy New York nightclub. When his girlfriend takes off for California to seek singing gigs, Roberts decides to hitch-hike after her. On the way, he gets a ride from a man who, apparently from a heart attack, dies. Roberts, afraid that he’ll be suspected of killing the man, buries the body in the desert and takes the man’s car and wallet, assuming his identity. Seeing a female hitchhiker (Ann Savage), Roberts picks her up, unaware that she will lead to his utter ruin.
May concludes the spring season lineup with the film Impact. Businessman Walter Williams (Brian Donlevy) plans a business trip to Denver and asks his wife, Irene (Helen Walker), to come along. She declines, but asks him to give a lift to her cousin Jim, who is on his way to the mid-West. The “cousin” turns out to be Helen’s lover, who plans to kill Williams. Although Jim hits Walter on the head and dumps him off of a cliff, Jim ends up getting killed and burned beyond recognition in an accident in Walter’s car. Still alive, the dazed Walter climbs onto the back of a parked moving van and ends up in a small town in Idaho. There, he assumes a fake identity and ends up working at the garage station of widow Marsha Peters (Ella Raines). When Walter finds out that Helen is now suspected of what appeared to be Walter’s death in the auto accident, he must decide whether to pursue his new life or go back and exonerate the woman who wished to kill him.
Vintage dress is encouraged but not required to attend. Film discussions will follow, hosted by Aida and Lee Bartoletti of Exeter, CA. This event is free and open to the public (donations are accepted), and it is recommended for ages 13 and older. For more information, visit our website at www.cach-exeter.org.