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A Science on Screen® Presentation | Tickets $5

Pre-show presentation: Hardboiled Hooligans: From Cigarettes to Vaping
w/ Vingie Ng, Graduate Student, Human Toxicology, University of Iowa 

"Everything about this picture is superb."—Albert Goldberg, Chicago Tribune

"Film noir at its finest, a template of the genre."—Rob Fraser, Empire Magazine

"This shrewd, smoothly tawdry thriller, directed by Billy Wilder, is one of the high points of nineteen-forties films."—Pauline Kael, The New Yorker

It's no surprise that Billy Wilder crafted one of the most iconic noir films of the classic era. Complete with smoke filled rooms, dark alleys, a dynamite femme fatale, a nefarious murder plot, and enough hardboiled dialogue to fill a pulp novel, the film casts a long shadow both on and off the screen. On a routine house call, insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) is seduced by the sultry housewife Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) and soon finds himself embroiled in a murderous case of insurance fraud. When it becomes clear that Neff is in over his head, he must contend with his partner's (Edward G. Robinson) suspicions as the ugly truth is slowly revealed.

An initiative of the COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE, with major support from the ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION.