Movie critic Steven Rea's picks of the week

Dark City Chestnut Hill Film Group, Woodmere Art Museum, 9201 Germantown Ave., Tuesday 7:30 p.m. (Doors open at 6:30 p.m.) $5 suggested donation. Charlton Heston makes his big-screen professional debut in this moody, artfully shot 1950 noir - a tale of a bookie who takes a fat cat for $5,000 at poker, and the serious consequences when the patsy hangs himself and his crazy brother (Mike Mazurki) goes looking for revenge. Lizabeth Scott does her Lauren Bacall thing and then some as a lounge singer who's up close and personal with Heston's bad guy (who's maybe not so bad after all). William Dieterle directs. Dark City kicks off the 42d (!) season of the Chestnut Hill Film Group's Tuesday-night series. Other titles to come: Watership Down, Spirits of the Dead, The Straight Story, Point Blank. For complete list and info: www.armcinema25.com/ chestnut-hill-film-group

The Iron Giant: Signature Edition Select area theaters, Wednesday 7 p.m. and Sunday at noon. Brad Bird's 1999 animated sci-fi buddy flick - a small-town boy and a robot from outer space - draws its inspiration from the paranoia-infused science fiction of the 1950s, from the comic book art of Will Eisner and Jack Kirby, from the dark but wondrous world of fairy tales. With its cool, Ike-era design elements and call-up-the-armed-forces action, the movie has a decidedly retro feel, but it's also very much of this moment, right now. Bird went on to make the Pixar gems The Incredibles and Ratatouille, then graduated to (hyper-animated) live action with Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, but the filmmaker's visual energy and inventiveness is very much on display in his late-20th-century endeavor. This new "signature edition" boasts added footage. For theater and ticket info: www.fathomevents.com/event/the-iron-giant-signature-edition/more-info/theater-locations