On Friday, March 20, two rarely seen slices of noir from 1951 screen as part of the UCLA Film & Television Archive’s 14th annual Festival of Preservation: Joseph Losey’s The Prowler kicks things off at 7:30 p.m., followed by B-feature The Hoodlum.

Set in a shadowy post-war Los Angeles, The Prowler focuses on a wealthy but neglected housewife (Evelyn Keyes) who spends her evenings alone, with only her husband’s voice on the radio for company.  When she’s spooked by a peeping tom, a calculating cop (Van Heflin) answers the call, turning her ordered life upside down. The Prowler was the third of five films director Losey made in Hollywood, and the most critically and commercially successful. The following year Losey was officially blacklisted, and soon embarked on a career abroad, where he eventually earned a reputation as an auteur.

The briskly paced The Hoodlum features quintessential tough guy Lawrence Tierney in a most fitting role — as Vincent Lubeck, an angry, brooding, habitual criminal who, after five years in the joint, is released on parole to live with his mother and brother Johnny (played by Tierney’s real life brother, Edward). Sent to work at the family gas station, Vincent grows bitter and restless, and begins plotting his escape from the menial labor of his humdrum life. Completely void of fear, pain and compassion, Vincent has no qualms about destroying everyone and everything in his path.

Appearing in person with the films are authors James Ellroy (The Black Dahlia) and Eddie Muller (Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir). The films screen at the Billy Wilder Theater, located at 10899 Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood. Advance online tickets are available for $10, and are also available at the box office starting one hour before showtime: prices are $9 for general admission, $8 for Cineclub members, students, seniors and UCLA Alumni Association members, with ID, and $7 for Cineclub members who are students or seniors. For more information, click here, or phone (310) 206-FILM.