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The B Noir festival is a hit! It's always a delight to hear about retrospective programming doing well. There are still people out there interested in and trying out old movies in theaters. Or maybe the San Francisco noir crowd is just that strong. I'd written about "I Wake Up Dreaming" a couple of weeks back (read it here); I have since went and saw some of the movies they're playing.

If you're in the Bay Area and you haven't spared the time, there's good news. The festival was supposed to end this Thursday, but I have just been informed that since it is selling out so well, they've decided to add another week of showings!

The list of extra screenings is at the bottom, but before that, I want to recommend trying to get to this Friday's showing of The Devil Thumbs a Ride, which I managed to catch on the fest's opening night.

This Friday, San Francisco's Roxie Theater begins two weeks of unfiltered B-movie goodness when "I Wake Up Dreaming: The Haunted World of the B Film Noir" unleashes some of the nastiest film noir of the 40's and 50's, coming in not so long after the fog of Noir City 7 rolled over.

There's plenty of things to like about San Francisco. The view, the vibe, the history... But for a noir fan, it's a place I had come to know as and will always associate with the nooks and crannies depicted in hardboiled crime stories. Where else, I ask, would you get two stirring film noir festivals only a few months apart, but in Sam Spade's chosen city?

As the program guide itself notes, the films shown are "the doomed and forgotten, rough and ready step-children of Hollywood’s lower depths; poverty row gems that, in many ways, capture the true,...