Noir City: Never Open That Door
February 16, 2024
Noir City Opening Night
Dress up in your best noir outfit and join us for Opening Night of the 16th Noir City Seattle to kick off this spectacular week of classic films. Included with your film ticket:
• 5:00pm - Pre-reception with the Czar of Noir, Eddie Muller, where you can enjoy a libation at the Noir Bar and bask in the musical stylings of the Casey MacGill Trio and his three-piece band with their sometimes sweet, sometimes rough-hewn three-part harmony vocals and a rhythm section that swings.
• 6:00pm - Presentation of Film Noir Foundation’s new 4K restoration of Never Open That Door
The Film Noir Foundation's latest restoration is a duo of suspense stories from the pen of Cornell Woolrich. Highlighted by the incredible cinematography of Pablo Tabernero, it features masterful sequences of spine-tingling suspense. Critic Horacio Bernades declared, “Rarely has an Argentine film been more purely cinematic than this.” World Premiere Film Noir Foundation 4K Restoration.
Individual Tickets: $16 | $11 SIFF Members - Select showtime to purchase
Passes: $150 | $125 SIFF Members
SIFF year-round passes and vouchers are not valid for this screening.
More noir films have been based on the stories of Cornell Woolrich than any other writer, and Noir City is proud to present this brand-new restoration of one of the best of those adaptations. In “Someone’s on the Phone,” Ángel Magaña plays a man bent on avenging the death of his sister, driven to suicide by gambling debts. In “The Hummingbird Comes Home,” Roberto Escalada portrays a racketeer who brings the gang to his boyhood home to lay low after a robbery. His blind madre doesn’t approve. Originally a three-part anthology of Woolrich tales, Never Open That Door was released separately from the 73-minute If I Should Die Before I Wake, also adapted by Casona and Christensen. Benefitting from the incredible cinematography of Pablo Tabernero, this is one of the most evocative realizations of Woolrich ever produced, featuring masterful sequences of sustained suspense. Said Buenos Aires film critic Horacio Bernades, “Rarely has an Argentine film been more purely cinematic than this.” —Film synopsis courtesy of Noir City
Digital restoration by the UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by the Film Noir Foundation.
- Original Language Title: No abras nunca esa puerta
- Director: Carlos Hugo Christensen
- Principal Cast: Ángel Magaña, Renée Dumas, Diana de Córdoba, Roberto Escalada, Ilde Pirovano, Norma Giménez
- Country: Argentina
- Year: 1952
- Running Time: 85 min.
- Producer: Carlos Hugo Christensen
- Screenplay: Alejandro Casona
- Cinematographers: Pablo Tabernero
- Editors: José Gallego
- Music: Julián Bautista
- Filmography: Maos Sangrentas (1955), Armiño negro (1953), The Trap (1949), The Naked Angel (1946), The Lady of Death (1946)
- Language: Spanish