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TCM Party screens The Prowler as part of 'Summer of Darkness'

moviesJul 25, 202635505

Turner Classic Movies screened Joseph Losey’s noir The Prowler as part of its Summer of Darkness watch party series, following the block’s leadoff film Sunset Boulevard. Viewers singled out Van Heflin’s performance as a sociopathic, crooked cop opposite Evelyn Keyes and described a plot built around adultery, murder, and a pregnancy whose timing sparks suspicion. Commenters noted a striking desert and abandoned town setting used for a climactic sequence in which a birth occurs in a decayed house, and praised a memorable shot of a car emerging into empty landscape. Several posts called The Prowler a bleak, underappreciated entry in noir that strips away the postwar myth of the noble policeman and compared it to later domestic-thriller works such as Unlawful Entry. The screening was presented alongside other noir picks in the block including The Killing and Sunset Boulevard, prompting viewers to reassess The Prowler’s toughness and its twist ending.