Covering every inch of the screen

Although Cinemascope and other wide-screen formats of the 1950s and ‘60s are synonymous with such blockbusters as “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Ben-Hur” and “Doctor Zhivago,” directors of the era quickly discovered the format also worked with more intimate dramas, westerns and thrillers.

The American Cinematheque festival “Cinemascope and Wide-Screen, Part One,” which takes place Friday through May 17 at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, illustrates the versatility of the wide-screen format.

The retrospective kicks off Friday with the rousing 1961 drama “The Guns of Navarone,” a best picture Oscar nominee starring Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn and James Darren. Based on the bestseller by Alistair MacLean, the World War II adventure follows a group of men assigned to destroy a Nazi gun battery on the Greek coast.

Saturday’s program is a double bill honoring the late director Richard Fleischer: 1955’s “Violent Saturday,” a film noir based on W.B. Heath’s caper novel starring Victor Mature, Richard Egan, Sylvia Sidney and Lee Marvin, and the historical epic “Barabbas,” from 1962. Originally shot in the wide-screen format of Technirama 70, “Barabbas” stars Anthony Quinn as the thief who is given amnesty in place of Jesus.

Two cult favorites from maverick director Sam Fuller are featured Sunday. The 1957 western “Forty Guns” -- Fuller wanted to call it “Woman With a Whip” -- stars Barbara Stanwyck as a powerful Arizona rancher clad in black leather who rules the county with the help of hired guns. Enter Barry Sullivan as the new marshal, who wants to rid the town of corruption and ends up melting the heart of the icy Stanwyck. Subversive and erotic, the low-budget black-and-white Cinemascope opus is one of Jean-Luc Godard’s favorites. Rounding out the bill is Fuller’s 1955 film noir, “House of Bamboo,” a remake of 1948’s “The Street With No Name” that was shot in postwar Tokyo. Robert Ryan plays a crime boss; Robert Stack is an undercover cop working with Ryan’s gang who falls in love with the widow (Shirley Yamaguchi) of a member of Ryan’s crew.

Concluding the festival May 17 is a Vincente Minnelli double bill. The 1958 melodrama “Some Came Running,” based on the novel by James Jones, marked the first on-screen pairing of Rat Packers Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Sinatra plays a cynical, dipsomaniac writer who returns to his small Midwestern hometown, which is seething with dark secrets and desires; Martin plays his friend, a gregarious alcoholic gambler. Shirley MacLaine, in her first Oscar-nominated performance, shines as a good-natured floozy who falls for Sinatra.

After working with Minnelli on the classics “The Bad and the Beautiful” (1952) and “Lust for Life” (1956), Kirk Douglas reunited with the director for the lurid, delectably over-the-top 1962 melodrama “Two Weeks in Another Town.” Douglas plays an alcoholic actor fresh out of rehab who goes to Rome to appear in a film directed by a good friend (Edward G. Robison). Cyd Charisse plays Douglas’ va-va-va-voom ex-wife.

For festival information: (323) 466-3456, or go to www.americancinematheque.com. General admission tickets are $9, available at www.fandango.com.