This crazily plotted 1946 adaptation of Cornell Woolrich’s even crazier novel The Black Path of Fear is the very essence of the post-war strain of American cinema now known as “film noir.” Robert Cummings plays an everyman vet whose life is turned upside down when he finds a wallet that belongs to a sadistic gangster (Steve Cochran) who hires him as his chauffeur. The lovely Michèle Morgan is the gangster’s captive wife and Peter Lorre is his “assistant” Gino. For many years, The Chase was available only in substandard prints. When the negative was found in Europe, a full-scale restoration was undertaken, and here is the glorious outcome. Preservation funding provided by The Film Foundation and the Franco-American Cultural Fund.

Screening with Mark Kausler and Greg Ford's It's the Cat and Some Other Cat (total running time: 7m).