Robert Ryan at Anthology Film Archives

Anthology Film Archives is in the midst of a Robert Ryan retrospective… Here are some details via the Wesleyan University Press (publishers of the new Robert Ryan biography) …

The series collects six of the most arresting screen performances by this gifted artist and activist, whom Martin Scorsese called “one of the greatest actors in the history of American film.” Select screenings will feature discussions with author J.R. Jones, film editor for the Chicago Reader, and Robert Ryan’s son, Cheyney Ryan, professor of law and philosophy at the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict at Oxford University.

Robert Ryan became a star after World War II on the strength of his menacing performance as an anti-Semitic murderer in the film noir Crossfire. Over the next quarter century he created a gallery of brooding, neurotic, and violent characters in such movies as "Bad Day at Black Rock," "Billy Budd," "The Dirty Dozen," and "The Wild Bunch." His riveting performances expose the darkest impulses of the American psyche during the Cold War.

Here's the lineup:

• ACT OF VIOLENCE (Fred Zinnemann, 1948)
Sept. 6, 4:15 PM; Sept. 8, 9 PM

• ON DANGEROUS GROUND (Nicholas Ray, 1952)
Sept. 7, 7 PM; Sept. 10, 7 PM

• THE NAKED SPUR (Anthony Mann, 1953)
Sept. 7, 9:00 PM; Sept. 9, 7 PM

• ABOUT MRS. LESLIE (Daniel Mann, 1954)
Sept. 10, 9 PM

• BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK (John Sturges, 1955)
Sept. 6, 9 PM; Sept. 8, 7 PM

• GOD’S LITTLE ACRE (Anthony Mann, 1958)
Sept. 6, 6:15 PM; Sept. 9, 9 PM

I saw "The Naked Spur" yesterday and it was quite entertaining…



Here's more on Ryan in Artforum this past week.

Anthology Film Archives is on Second Avenue at East Second Street.