The final Friday of the Noir City festival was reserved for a man that we honored as our January 2008 Star of the Month, Edward G. Robinson. Alan K. Rode, Director of the Film Noir Foundation, described Robinson as a complex actor who should be recognized for his entire body of work, rather than for his famous gangster roles. As it happened, the packed house at the Egyptian saw two films that showed Robinson as anything but a gangster: 1948's Night Has a Thousand Eyes and 1947's The Red House. In under four hours, Robinson went from a good-hearted mentalist to a suspicious farmer, and the crowd watched in amazement as he failed to miss a beat.

In Night Has a Thousand Eyes, a woman named Jean Courtland (Gail Russell) is readying herself to commit suicide by jumping from a bridge into a moving train. At the last minute, her husband-to-be Elliott Carson (John Lund) pulls her to safety and questions her motives. She tells him that she believes she is supposed to die under the stars, based on the prediction of a man named John Triton (Robinson). When Elliott confronts Triton about frightening Jean, Triton informs him that he means no harm. In flashback mode, Triton tells of his early career as a traveling mentalist whose talents are purely theatrical. He moves from show to show with his partner, Whitney Courtland (Jerome Cowan) and girlfriend Jenny (Virginia Bruce). Unbeknownst to himself, Triton actually possesses the ability to foretell the future and begins to see random images in his head. When those images translate into physical events, he believes he's somehow using the power of suggestion to bring them about. Most disturbing to Triton is the vision of his beloved Jenny succumbing after giving birth. In order to prevent the possibility of that happening, he leaves town after a gig and never returns. Jenny and Whitney eventually marry and have Jean. Fast forward back to the present, Triton explains to Elliott that he's returned to prevent his latest vision from becoming reality: that of Jean dying under the stars within a week's time. Night Has a Thousand Eyes showed Robinson as a lonely hermit living only with regret as company. He's such a powerful personality that trying to imagine him vulnerable is nearly impossible. But he made it look effortless. The film is somewhat of a rarity, as many films in the Noir City festival have been. It was an excellent choice to start off the Robinson tribute.

After a brief intermission, the lights went down once more for 1947's The Red House. While not exactly the familiar noir setting, the elements of mystery and danger were ever-present in the tale of a secret house. Robinson plays Pete Morgan, an aging man with a wooden leg who lives in the middle of nowhere. He and his wife Ellen (Judith Anderson) have raised Meg (Allene Roberts) since she was a baby. Meg is now a teenager and quite friendly with a boy named Nath Storm (Lon McCallister). Meg convinces Pete to give Nath a job on their farm. When Nath tells Pete where he lives, and of his plans to take a shortcut through the woods, Pete sternly warns him to "take the long way home". He tells of screams in the night and other terrifying happenings attributed to a red house in the woods. Naturally, Nath ignores the warning and does get lost in the maze-like pathways. He eventually finds his way back to the Morgan farm and goes to sleep in their barn for the night. Pete finds him the next morning and gives him the "I told you so" speech. Nath suspects something is "off" about Pete, but continues to work for him. On his second attempt at taking a shortcut through the woods, Nath is hit over the head by an unseen person. He blames Pete, who claims to have been sitting in his living room the whole time. Ellen confirms Pete's alibi. Unable to leave well enough alone, Nath decides to hunt for the red house with Meg at his side. Meg and Nath are fond of each other despite Nath's involvement with a sultry girl named Tibby Renton (Julie London). There's one other problem: Pete has hired a lookout man (Rory Calhoun) to patrol the woods. The Red House is well-suited for a dreary and desolate evening. The film manages to turn a wide-open field into a claustrophobic box of tension. Though it has fallen into the public domain, the print shown at the Egyptian was the best possible version of the film available.

Many people call him Eddie G; he just had a smooth way about him, even when he was playing the heavy. It's always great to enjoy films on the big screen that haven't been shown in decades. The more famous films are screened so often that they easily overshadow other benchmarks in an actor's career. Thankfully, that wasn't the case at the Edward G. Robinson Double Feature and the large crowd erupted in applause as the final credits rolled. The festival runs through April 24, 2008.