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One of the many frustrations of living in Los Angeles is its lack of a good-old-fashioned swamp. Sure, you can visit every imaginable climate within a few hours—scorching deserts, snow-capped mountains, the Beverly Center—but when life bogs you down, nothing hits the spot better than soaking your scaly skin in some murky algae-infested water. Just ask Reggie ^[2].

If a drive down La Cienega (Spanish for “marsh” or “swamp”) doesn’t quite cut it, you may want to check out the swamp noir double feature playing at the Egyptian Theater ^[3] this Sunday evening.

Part of the American Cinematheque’s and the Film Noir Foundation’s continuing Return to Noir City: The 10th Annual Festival of Film Noir ^[4], this double bill brings two extremely rare (and, God willing, ultra-violent) films back to the big screen.

First up at 7:30 p.m. is Cry of the Hunted (1953), a fugitive-on-the-run flick set in the Louisiana bayou. Barry Sullivan, William Conrad, Vittorio Gassman, and Polly Bergen star in what the Cinematheque describes as a tale of “fiery personalites” sucked into a “vortex of brutality.”

Hunted is followed by the even rarer Lure of the Swamp (1957), whose tagline screams, “Destination … HELL! Greed led them into the misty depths of a strange land!” Starring Marshall Thompson, Joan Vohs (as a swamp vixen!), Jack Elam, and Leo Gordon, the film follows a Florida swamp guide who discovers a recently deceased bank-robbing client’s loot has been stashed away in the marshland.

I’ll bet you dollars to donuts most these cats wind up wearing wooden kimonos.

Photo: Still from Cry of the Hunted (1953), courtesy of The Film Noir Foundation.

Related posts:

1. British Noir and Horror at the Hammer ^[5]
2. Check Yul Head: "Westworld" at the Aero ^[6]
3. Hey, you. Yeah, you, you big fake. ^[7]
4. Unemployed? American Cinematheque Feels Your Pain. ^[8]
5. Definitive New 35mm Restoration of RASHOMON at the Nuart ^[9]