Hollywood has at times articulated the nation's social woes. "The Dark Side of the Dream: Subversive Cinema for Subversive Times, 1933-1964" is the provocative title of a mini-fest of old studio potboilers centered on the dangers of being employed. The working-class stars in 12 films depicting management as oppressive and workers as bamboozled by flacks and financiers. What a comfort to find things have always been as bad as they are now! Kidding. Back then we had telephone operators, milkmen, and metal workers. See em all, Friday through Monday, starting March 23 at the Roxie.
Marked Woman (1937) Bette Davis is at the top of her game, brimming with kinetic energy as a woman fighting for her right to exist in a man's world. Her eyes are electro-magnetic, her smile ironic, her gowns by Orry-Kelly. When her young and innocent sister is murdered, Bette plays mongoose to her gangland pimp's cobra (a prune-lipped Eduardo Ciannelli). He plays rough, she hangs tough, and you take the rollercoaster ride of Robert Rossen and Abem Finkel's five-act plea for sex workers. Humphrey Bogart as the crusading district attorney tones down his tendency to mania, limiting the sparks. (3/24, 9 p.m.)
Black Legion (1937) Humphrey Bogart was no ordinary leading man; he relished roles that delved deep into the paranoid psyches of little men. Bravado, sarcasm, and a volatile temper barely mask his wounded vanity, the chip on his shoulder, and a febrile brain scheming to outwit imagined enemies. He's the perfect patsy for a local fascist club modeled on the KKK. Writer Abem Finkel's high-tension melodrama about the right to work skewers every native-born chump's latent xenophobia. Bogey makes some bad choices that get him into a tight corner with the pointy-hooded thugs. (3/23, 9 p.m.)
Heroes for Sale (1933) Richard Barthelmess is a sensitive guy trying to live honorably, even when his WWI battlefield valor earns him shrapnel to the spine and a morphine habit, while his buddy gets the medal. Clerking in a bank, his nerves shredded, his version of events is dismissed as the ravings of a dope fiend. That's already a lot of plot, but this homage to workers' rights has many uplifting and downshifting developments in store. The sublime Aline MacMahon reliably distracts from creaking plot points, convincing you the film's heart's in the right place, and that's what counts! (3/25, 1:30 p.m.)
Face in the Crowd (1957) Writer Budd Schulberg's rigorous satire of TV is served up with pathos by director Elia Kazan and a Who's Who of acting. Patricia Neal breaks your heart, while Andy Griffith repulses you. This brainy film is a crash course in mind control by mass media. As one character opines, "In every strong and healthy society from the Egyptians on, the mass had to be guided with a strong hand by a responsible elite. In TV we have the greatest instrument for mass persuasion in the history of the world." (3/25, 6 p.m.) Could be considered a cynical postmodern version of:
Meet John Doe (1941) Director Frank Capra has two impeccable leads, Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck, to sell this fable of a populist uprising that threatens to subvert politics-as-usual. He's got good eggs James Gleason and Spring Byington and bad egg Edward Arnold to represent the best of human nature and its eternal opposite, big money. What he doesn't quite have is a script. Sermons and sentiment slow this two-hour epic, but you'll enjoy its clear-eyed takedown of the demagoguery that exploits grassroots activism. (3/25, 8:30 p.m.)
Naked Kiss (1964) Constance Towers stars as a prostitute who's good at beating people about the head, has an innate gift for orthopedic nursing, and swiftly snags the most eligible bachelor in the small town that gives her a second chance. One hour into this turgid Sam Fuller fantasia graced by screen veterans Betty Bronson and Virginia Grey plus brazenly wooden male co-stars, the wedding is suddenly off. Telling you why would spoil the film's jaw-dropping plot twist. That thrill lasts a moment; there's still 30 minutes to go. Equal parts creepy and maudlin. (3/24, 7 p.m.)
M (1951) Joseph Losey's attempt to remake Fritz Lang's 1931 blood-curdler is a fan letter that loses a lot in translation from pre-Hitler Berlin to red-scare L.A. Poor David Wayne cannot fill Peter Lorre's shoe fetish as the kidnapper of kiddies who get a free balloon in exchange for being offed. Losey restages iconic sequences minus Lang's precision and panache. Angst is hard to fake. Raymond Burr is so Damon Runyon. Even Luther Adler can't make sense of the drunken intellectual. You do get to see the fabulous Bradbury Building. (3/24, 3:45 p.m.)
Bette Davis is at the top of her game in "Marked Woman," part of The Dark Side of the Dream. Photo: Courtesy Roxie