Introduction by Red Hollywood director Thom Andersen on August 16.

Nathanael West: Communist or fellow traveler? Both, but he died too young to be disillusioned or exiled. A B-movie writer? Yes, but his scripts are closer to his novels than the films adapted from them. I Stole a Million is an absurdist version of film noir in which the American Dream goes obscenely wrong for decent but impetuous taxi driver Joe Lourik (George Raft), who tries to buy his own cab but soon finds himself turning to crime amid money disputes with the company he enlists to help him do so. West’s pessimistic script serves as the foundation for a gripping parable about the perils of trying to control one’s own economic fate under capitalism.