See these films: Desert Fury + In Harm's Way @ the HFA

In Harm's Way

There are a couple of deviations from the standard noir in Lewis Allen's Desert Fury (1947; 5 pm). First of all, the protagonist is a woman (Lizabeth Scott), a teenager whose mother (Mary Astor) runs the local casino. Paula has the hots for a racketeer trying to horn in on her mom's business, a "hunk fatale" played by a sometimes-shirtless John Hodiak. Then there's the setting, the not-so-noirish desert of the title, shot in glowing Technicolor. Finally there's the campy sexual attraction between Hodiak and his best bud, played by Wendell Corey. All and all a good time, but if you want a change of pace, stick around for Otto Preminger's In Harm's Way (1965; 7 pm), in which John Wayne wins the War in the Pacific. Both are part of the Harvard Film Archive's Paramount Studio retrospective. The Archive is in the Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy St, Cambridge | Sunday, September 2 | $9; $7 students, seniors | 617.495.4700 or hcl.harvard.edu/hfa.