Bogey vs. the Nazis

In “All Through the Night” (1942), an uncannily prophetic spy thriller that manages to spoof the genre, a bunch of Damon Runyon types, led by Humphrey Bogart, take on a vast network of Nazi spies planning to blow up the Brooklyn Naval Yard--precisely what the Japanese did to Pearl Harbor only a few months after this film was shot in the fall of 1941. (It was released in January 1942.)

This Hal Wallis production was made in the classic Warner Bros. tradition: fast and furious, bristling with rat-a-tat-tat dialogue. “All Through The Night,” written by Leonard Spigelgass and Edwin Gilbert, also was smartly directed by Vincent Sherman, who will be present after a 7:30 p.m. screening tonight at Melnitz Hall’s James Bridges Theater, part of UCLA’s Archive Treasures Series.

Bogart’s Gloves Donahue is a Lower East Side Irishman who’s moved uptown as a big-time gambler. When the baker who supplies Gloves’ favorite restaurant with cheesecake is murdered, Donahue starts investigating, encountering lovely lady-in-distress Kaaren Verne and ultimately uncovering a ring of Nazi spies, led by Conrad Veidt, Peter Lorre and Judith Anderson.

Topical, unpretentious Warners pictures like this one have often worn better than the more costly productions of other studios. “All Through the Night” also boasts an exceptionally large cast of Hollywood Golden Age redoubtables. In the opening scene alone Phil Silvers waits on William Demarest and, yes, Jackie Gleason. (310) 206-FILM.

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Among the films remaining in “Venezia a Hollywood”--a selection of Italian films from the last Venice Film Festival at the Italian Cultural Institute (1023 Hilgard Ave., Westwood)--is Luciano Ligabue’s vibrant “RadioFreccia,” which screens Friday at 6 and 8:15 p.m.

At 10 p.m. June 20, 1993, in a beautiful unidentified Italian city, radio announcer Bruno (Luciano Federico) explains that the station will go off the air forever at midnight. But between now and then, he’ll reveal it’s whole 18-year history. We’re instantly plunged into a classic tale of friendship among five young men who hit upon the idea of a pirate radio station to play the music they love and to speak their minds.

The dominant figure of the group is Freccia, a rugged, reckless romantic, played in such an electrifyingly natural manner by Stefano Accorsi that he resurrects memories of James Dean both in the character and in his portrayal. Accorsi is a real discovery, and so is Luciano Ligabue, a top Italian rock star, who has made a knockout debut directing an adaptation of his own short story.

“RadioFreccia” recalls, unsurprisingly, “Rebel Without a Cause” but also “American Graffiti” and “The Last Picture Show.” It has a soundtrack steeped in American rock classics plus several of Ligabue’s own songs and richly deserves a U.S. release--and, indeed, is ripe for an American remake. “Venezia a Hollywood” concludes Saturday at 7:30 p.m. with a restored print of Roberto Rossellini’s Neo-Realist classic “Paisan” (1946); screening tonight at 6 and 8:15 is Michele Placido’s outstanding “Of Love Lost,” reviewed in Screening Room last week. Admission is free but reservations are required: (310) 443-3250.

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Versatile Australian-born, Hong Kong-based cameraman Christopher Doyle, who came to international acclaim for his collaborations with cutting-edge director Wong Kar-Wai, will be honored with exhibitions of his photography, installations, collages and videos. The first, at Still Moving at New Alchemy Gallery and the Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies in Hollywood, starts today, with a later exhibition opening Nov. 21 at Track 16 Gallery at Santa Monica’s Bergamot Station.

Meanwhile, the UCLA Film Archive’s “Days of Being Doyle,” a retrospective of films and short videos shot by Doyle, affords us the opportunity to see his work with directors other than Wong, who is represented only with the 1997 film “Happy Together,” which launches the retrospective Saturday at 8 p.m. at Melnitz Hall’s James Bridges Theater. Doyle will make an appearance with director Gus Van Sant, with whom he collaborated on the upcoming “Psycho” remake.

The title of the wrenching, jagged “Happy Together,” taken from the popular song, is decidedly ironic. Shot alternately in high-contrast black and white and rich color, it has a harsh charcoal-sketch look in either mode as it charts the coming apart of a gay love affair. “Happy Together” is as fragmented in style as the relationship it depicts with relentless emotional honesty. The result is a take-no-prisoners movie from one of Hong Kong’s most idiosyncratic filmmakers. It’s the very antithesis of sentimental gay love stories. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Screening Sunday at 7 p.m. is “That Day at the Beach,” the 1983 film that marked the feature debuts of Doyle and director Edward Yang, and helped launch the New Taiwan Cinema. Yang lifts the conventional women’s picture to masterpiece level by using his whopping 166-minute running time to see his people in the round and, through their stories, how a rapidly changing society affects the course of their lives.

The reunion of two women after 13 years triggers a cascade of non-sequential flashbacks that echo the bits-and-pieces manner in which most of us learn about each other’s lives. Teresa Hu plays a renowned concert pianist, who fell in love with a medical student, whose family demanded that he marry a woman of their choice. Sylvia Chang, cast as the chic businesswomen sister of the medical student, however, defied her family and married for love.

Intricate in structure, “That Day at the Beach” is highly formal work with a measured space, and Doyle has responded appropriately with a flow of beautifully lighted, carefully composed images that is quite the oppose of the gritty, high-contrast, shoot-from-the-hip look he has brought to Wong’s films.