PPTitle

PRIVATE PROPERTY

1960 | dir: Leslie Stevens | 79 min

NEW 4K RESTORATION!
Starring Warren Oates

PRIVATE PROPERTY. New 4k Restoration. Two homicidal Southern California drifters (played to creepy perfection by Warren Oates and Corey Allen) wander off the beach and into the seemingly-perfect Beverly Hills home of unhappy housewife Kate Manx, in this long-lost film noir gem written & directed by The Outer Limits creator Leslie Stevens. Shot through with shimmering sexual tension and lensed in stunning B&W by master cameraman Ted McCord (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre), Private Property is both an eerie, Jim Thompson-esque thriller and a savage critique of the hollowness of the Playboy-era American Dream. When Manx, in irresistible blonde beehive and tight capri pants, purrs that she’s ready for love, her husband waves her off, muttering “Wife noises” to his buddy on the phone.

Warren Oates delivers his first great screen performance here as one of the drifters, years before he emerged in The Wild Bunchand Two-Lane Blacktop as one of the finest character actors of his generation; his bizarre, voyeuristic Lennie-and-George relationship with the underrated Corey Allen (James Dean’s hot rod rival in Rebel Without a Cause) is fueled by a barely-suppressed homoerotic tension. The back-story to the film is almost as strange: director Stevens (a protégé of Orson Welles) and lead actress Manx were married at the time, and the film was shot in their own Beverly Hills home. Several years later, Manx tragically committed suicide and her fragile spirit seems to hang over the film. A major rediscovery for noir and crime fans, Private Property was completely lost until UCLA Film & TV Archive recently located the only known 35mm elements, which have been restored in 4k by Cinelicious for this re-release.

IN THEATERS
July 1-3, 2016 Film Society of Lincoln Center New York, NY get ’em
July 7, 2016 Aero Theatre Los Angeles, CA get ’em
July 8-14, 2016 Alamo Drafthouse – Vintage Houston Houston, TX get ’em
July 8-14, 2016 Alamo Drafthouse – El Paso El Paso, TX get ’em
July 8, 2016 Alamo Drafthouse – Lubbock Lubbock, TX get ’em
July 9-10, 2016 Speed Art Museum Louisville, KY get ’em
July 10, 2016 Texas Theatre Dallas, TX get ’em
July 13, 2016 Videology Brooklyn, NY get ’em
July 24-25, 2016 Guild Cinema Albuquerque, NM get ’em
July 29-31, 2016 Brattle Theater Boston, MA get ’em
July 29-30, 2016 Alamo Drafthouse – Ritz Austin, TX get ’em
July 29 – Aug 4, 2016 Alamo Drafthouse New Mission San Francisco, CA get ’em
August 5-11, 2016 Facets Chicago, IL get ’em
August 12-18, 2016 Grand Illusion Theatre Seattle, WA get ’em
August 26-28, 2016 Museum of Fine Arts Houston, TX get ’em
August 30-31, 2016 Wexner Center Columbus, OH get ’em
September 15, 2016 Castro Theatre San Francisco, CA get ’em
September 23, 2016 International House, Philadelphia Philadelphia, PA get ’em
October 1, 2016 TIFF Lightbox Toronto, Canada get ’em
November 5-6, 2016 Cleveland Cinematheque Cleveland, OH get ’em


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