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International Art Society to show double film feature

The International Arts Society will show a double feature tomorrow in the continuum of its International Film Series. The films "Out of the Past" and "The Lady Eve" juxtapose the antics of 1940s screwball comedy with the dark dimensions of 1940s film noir.

"When the driving force is the sexual energy of desire, there's a thin line that runs between noir and comedy," said series director professor Charlie Scruggs, on the pairing of the films.

In "The Lady Eve," lovers repeatedly collide in comedic, romantic interludes that climax into a comedic, surface resolution. The 1941 film, directed by Preston Sturges, stars Barbara Stanwyck as a cardsharp who spots a sucker in beer heir Hopsie Pike played by Henry Fonda. What she miscalculates is the effect that this clod has on her own heart.

In "Out of the Past," characters collide, but the sexual tension created by Jane Greer as the darkest of femme fatales provokes a much more somber outcome. "Out of the Past," directed by Jaques Tourneur in 1941, deals with a loner's efforts to escape his criminal past. However, murder, double-dealing and a dangerous Jane Greer disrupt the quiet life he struggles to maintain.

When viewing the two films side by side, "it's fascinating to see how the witty, intelligent woman in the comedy could also be the shrewd femme fatale in the noir," Scruggs said.