Critic’s Pick: ‘Naked City’ noir series at LACMA

The excellent Stanley Kubrick exhibition now at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is not only a great thing in and of itself, it also inspired a fine repertory series, “Naked City: New York Noir and Neorealism,” which is currently playing at LACMA’s Bing Theater. Showcasing features shot on location around New York during the time Kubrick was working as a photographer in the city, the series kicks into high gear this weekend. Friday’s double bill begins at 7:30 p.m. with Otto Preminger’s gritty “Where the Sidewalk Ends,” a bleak noir starring the “Laura” couple of Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney. That’s followed at 9 p.m. by the dialogue-less “The Thief,” starring Ray Milland as a nuclear physicist in serious trouble. Saturday’s showings begin at 7:30 p.m. with Morris Engel’s “Little Fugitive,” the story of a 7-year-old boy on the lam in Coney Island that is often cited as an inspiration for the French New Wave. Screening at 9 p.m. is “The Window,” taken from a story by chillmeister Cornell Woolrich titled “The Boy Cried Murder.” More information and tickets at lacma.org or (323) 857-6010.