Essential Cinema: Edgar G. Ulmer: Prince of Poverty Row

THE NAKED DAWN

Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer

USA, 1955, 1h 22min, 35mm

Essential Cinema: Edgar G. Ulmer: Prince of Poverty Row

There are no current or future screenings planned for this film.

François Truffaut called this Edgar G. Ulmer Technicolor western “a small gift from Hollywood” and said that “every shot shows the love of cinema.” A good bad man (Arthur Kennedy) takes a break between heists to help a poor family. In 35mm.

The 10/24 screening will be introduced by Noah Isenberg, the George Christian Centennial Professor and Chair of University of Texas at Austin’s Radio-Television-Film department, and author of the critical biography “Edgar G. Ulmer: A Filmmaker at the Margins.” The author will be onsite signing copies of the book at this screening.

About this series:

In the mid-1980s, when a traveling retrospective of the famously obscure émigré filmmaker Edgar G. Ulmer (“King of the Bs”) was making its way across the United States, the Houston Chronicle ran a review with the apt title “Edgar G. Who?” If he was known at all, it was mainly due to his breathtaking low-budget noir DETOUR (1945). But Ulmer’s near thirty-five-year career as a director encompassed everything from a doomed entry to the Universal horror cycle, four Yiddish features, a Mexican western (Truffaut called it “a small gift from Hollywood”), a few sci-fi quickies, and other minor wonders from Poverty Row. Programmed in collaboration with Noah Isenberg, the George Christian Centennial Professor and Chair of University of Texas at Austin’s Radio-Television-Film department, and author of the critical biography “Edgar G. Ulmer: A Filmmaker at the Margins.”

The Naked Dawn Still 1

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