The upcoming 2026 Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival invites audiences into a shadowy, seductive world of crime, passion, and moral ambiguity with a four-day celebration of classic and rediscovered Noir films. Spanning early noir precursors, postwar British thrillers, Hollywood landmarks, and newly restored rarities, this year’s program offers a richly textured exploration of the genre’s enduring power—on the big screen of the Historic Camelot Theatre at the Palm Springs Cultural Center. Exactly where it belongs.
Opening Night ignites in Technicolor brilliance with the world premiere digital restoration of Slightly Scarlet (1956), a delirious, widescreen fever dream from director Allan Dwan. Adapted from James M. Cain’s hard-boiled crime novel Love’s Lovely Counterfeit, the film luxuriates in heightened melodrama and visual excess, anchored by Rhonda Fleming and Arlene Dahl as dangerously opposed sisters entangled in corruption and desire. Newly restored by the Film Noir Foundation, this rarely seen color noir sets the tone for a festival that celebrates both style and substance. Host Alan K. Rode will interview Vincent Pirozzi, Vice President, Roundabout Entertainment Inc.
Across the weekend, the program traverses continents and eras. Britain’s gritty postwar cinema roars to life with Hell Drivers (1957), a bruising, high-octane tale of labor and survival featuring a remarkable early ensemble including Sean Connery and Patrick McGoohan. Meanwhile, Robert Hamer’s It Always Rains on Sunday (1947) offers a haunting portrait of desperation in London’s East End—widely regarded as the definitive British noir.
Hollywood’s golden age is represented with both iconic works and overlooked treasures. Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde (1967), a revolutionary landmark that redefined American filmmaking, screens alongside Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s incendiary No Way Out (1950), marking Sidney Poitier’s unforgettable debut in a searing examination of race and justice.
The festival also highlights rare screenings and restorations unavailable elsewhere. Blake Edwards’ stylish neo-noir Gunn (1967) and Manhandled(1949), starring Dorothy Lamour in her only noir role, will both screen as World Premiere digital restorations that are not available on streaming or Blu ray. City Girl (1938), another rarity, will be screened in 35mm. The fast-paced pre-noir low budget crime feature proves that crime pays… until it doesn’t!
The program ventures into noir’s atmospheric and psychological edges with Jacques Tourneur’s I Walked with a Zombie (1943), a poetic fusion of horror and colonial history, and Let Us Live (1939), a powerful miscarriage-of-justice drama inspired by the Sacco and Vanzetti case.
Saturday evening spotlights Joan Crawford at her fiercest in The Damned Don’t Cry (1950), a quintessential rise-to-power noir partially filmed in Palm Springs, while The Mob (1951) delivers hard-hitting undercover intrigue on the New York waterfront.
Beyond the screen, the festival features several special guests and live appearances, including restoration expert Vincent Pirozzi, writer-producer Kirk Ellis (Bonnie and Clyde screening and book signing), actor-producer Wyatt McCrea, and author Scott Eyman.
From shadowy black-and-white classics to lurid Technicolor spectacles, this year’s Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival is a celebration of cinematic danger, beauty, and rediscovery—where every frame flickers with intrigue and every story pulls audiences deeper into the dark.
Join us May 7–10 for an unforgettable journey into noir.
Event: 2026 Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival
Date: May 7-10, 2026
Location: Palm Springs Cultural Center, 2300 East Baristo Road, Palm Springs, CA 92262
Tickets: https://www.arthurlyonsfilmnoir.org or Eventbrite
