Originally conceived as our series for March 2020--and we all know what happened then--Roxy Confidential is a celebration of the masterworks of American film noir, one we're overjoyed to finally present in full to our community. As much a style as a genre, film noir perfectly captures the angst & moral ambiguity of the post-war era. Its directors found the means to explore elements of trauma in a world no longer solidly "black and white," elements that continue to influence today’s culture. The five films in Roxy Confidential are noir to their bones, containing the classic imagery of the genre: the femme fatale, the private eye, and the plan gone horribly wrong. Through the haze of moral ambiguity and sudden violence, unforgettable stories and indelible images emerge.  

The Maltese Falcon has been called the first major film noir. Detective Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) gets more than he bargained for when he takes a case brought to him by a beautiful but secretive woman (Mary Astor). As soon as Miss Wonderly shows up, trouble follows as Sam's partner is murdered and Sam is accosted by a man (Peter Lorre) demanding he locate a valuable statuette. Sam, entangled in a dangerous web of crime and intrigue, soon realizes he must find the one thing they all seem to want: the bejeweled Maltese falcon.