Film Branch Presents:
Shadows & Secrets: A Film Noir Series
Twelve Rare and Restored Classics Illuminate the Screen in Ojai
Sundays through October 25, 2026
Individual $10 tickets available at the door
Twelve Restored Classics Screen Sunday Evenings
The Film Branch announces Shadows & Secrets: Season Two, a twelve-week series of restored American film noir classics screening Sunday evenings at 7:00 PM through October 25. Single admission is $10 at the door.
When Shadows & Secrets concluded its first season, audience response made one thing clear: the appetite for classic noir — uncompromising, atmospheric, and shot through with postwar dread — had not been satisfied. Season Two answers that response with twelve more masterworks of the genre, each critically acclaimed, recently restored, and largely unknown to contemporary audiences.
The Film Branch announces Shadows & Secrets: Season Two, a twelve-week series of restored American film noir classics screening Sunday evenings at 7:00 PM through October 25. Single admission is $10 at the door.
When Shadows & Secrets concluded its first season, audience response made one thing clear: the appetite for classic noir — uncompromising, atmospheric, and shot through with postwar dread — had not been satisfied. Season Two answers that response with twelve more masterworks of the genre, each critically acclaimed, recently restored, and largely unknown to contemporary audiences.
Season Two - through October 25
September 13 - Pitfall (1948) Dick Powell plays a man with everything the postwar American dream promised, and is suffocating inside it. André De Toth's film is a quiet, devastating examination of suburban rot, with Lizabeth Scott and a magnificently menacing Raymond Burr in support. The house in the suburbs never looked more like a trap. Directed by André De Toth
No screening September 20
September 27 - Repeat Performance (1947) What if you lived the past year over again, knowing everything you know now? Alfred Werker's film is noir's great formal experiment: a time-reversal fantasy that asks whether human nature can be outrun. The answer is complicated, honest, and more unsettling than any conventional thriller ending. Directed by Alfred L. Werker
October 4 - The Chase (1946) Arthur Ripley's film begins as a conventional thriller and slowly, inexorably becomes something else entirely, something dreamlike, irrational, and deeply strange. Peter Lorre steals every scene he's in. The ending refuses to resolve. Contemporary audiences have reassessed this long-neglected film sharply upward, and rightly so. Directed by Arthur Ripley
October 11 - The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950) Lee J. Cobb plays a veteran San Francisco detective who covers up a crime for a woman he loves, and is immediately assigned to investigate it. Felix Feist's film is classical noir at its most satisfying: a smart man realizing, step by inexorable step, that he made a fatal mistake. The San Francisco locations are some of the most evocative in the genre. Directed by Felix E. Feist
October 18 - City That Never Sleeps (1953) Chicago narrates its own story in John Auer's film, a voice in the night that never forgives and never forgets. Gig Young plays a cop at a crossroads, and the city he patrols is as much a character as any of the humans moving through it. Strange, poetic, and completely unlike anything else in the noir canon. The series' best-kept secret. Directed by John H. Auer
October 25 - The Sound of Fury (1950) We end here because there is nowhere else to go. Cy Endfield's film, based on a true story, is one of the most shattering American films ever made: a portrait of desperation, manipulation, and the terrifying speed at which a community becomes a mob. Frank Lovejoy and Lloyd Bridges are unforgettable. What happens in the final sequence is not something we'll describe here. Bring someone you trust. Directed by Cy Endfield
September 13 - Pitfall (1948) Dick Powell plays a man with everything the postwar American dream promised, and is suffocating inside it. André De Toth's film is a quiet, devastating examination of suburban rot, with Lizabeth Scott and a magnificently menacing Raymond Burr in support. The house in the suburbs never looked more like a trap. Directed by André De Toth
No screening September 20
September 27 - Repeat Performance (1947) What if you lived the past year over again, knowing everything you know now? Alfred Werker's film is noir's great formal experiment: a time-reversal fantasy that asks whether human nature can be outrun. The answer is complicated, honest, and more unsettling than any conventional thriller ending. Directed by Alfred L. Werker
October 4 - The Chase (1946) Arthur Ripley's film begins as a conventional thriller and slowly, inexorably becomes something else entirely, something dreamlike, irrational, and deeply strange. Peter Lorre steals every scene he's in. The ending refuses to resolve. Contemporary audiences have reassessed this long-neglected film sharply upward, and rightly so. Directed by Arthur Ripley
October 11 - The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950) Lee J. Cobb plays a veteran San Francisco detective who covers up a crime for a woman he loves, and is immediately assigned to investigate it. Felix Feist's film is classical noir at its most satisfying: a smart man realizing, step by inexorable step, that he made a fatal mistake. The San Francisco locations are some of the most evocative in the genre. Directed by Felix E. Feist
October 18 - City That Never Sleeps (1953) Chicago narrates its own story in John Auer's film, a voice in the night that never forgives and never forgets. Gig Young plays a cop at a crossroads, and the city he patrols is as much a character as any of the humans moving through it. Strange, poetic, and completely unlike anything else in the noir canon. The series' best-kept secret. Directed by John H. Auer
October 25 - The Sound of Fury (1950) We end here because there is nowhere else to go. Cy Endfield's film, based on a true story, is one of the most shattering American films ever made: a portrait of desperation, manipulation, and the terrifying speed at which a community becomes a mob. Frank Lovejoy and Lloyd Bridges are unforgettable. What happens in the final sequence is not something we'll describe here. Bring someone you trust. Directed by Cy Endfield
Past Film Branch Screening Trailers
Past Film Branch Screenings
THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES
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1939 Academy Award Winner For Special Effects THE RAINS CAME
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AMMELIE
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PUMP
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FINNEGANS WAKE
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BEYOND THE SURFACE
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