Long before the Sundance Film Festival, independent productions flourished on Hollywood’s Poverty Row, that strip of Gower Street between Sunset Boulevard and the Paramount lot. Dozens of fly-by-night outfits came and went in the 1930s and '40s, churning out genre films that often had an edge and grittiness not found in major studio movies. UCLA Film & Television Archive has made it a mission to preserve and restore these rare and endangered works, of which this series presents 12 shining examples, with an emphasis on noir, horror, and pre-Code audacity.
Organized by Dave Kehr, Curator, Department of Film. Special thanks to Jan-Christopher Horak, Todd Wiener, and Scott MacQueen of UCLA Film & Television Archive.
The exhibition is supported by the Annual Film Fund.
