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The Big Heat 1953

Fritz Lang's most celebrated American film, is a chilling and violent tale of corruption, vengeance, and loss. Dave Bannion, played by distinguished Film Noir actor Glenn Ford, is an upright but unscrupulous cop on the trail of a vicious gang he suspects holds power over the police force.

Kiss Me Deadly 1955

Hard-hitting detective Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) takes on thugs and atomic secrets in Robert Aldrich's fast-paced thriller. Kiss me Deadly, an adaptation of the Mickey Spillane novel. The night goes awry for Hammer soon after he picks up a scantily clad hitchhiker (Cloris Leachman).

The Big Combo 1955

Police Lt. Leonard Diamond is on a personal crusade to bring down sadistic gangster Mr. Brown. He's also dangerously obsessed with Brown's girlfriend, the suicidal Susan Lowell

Violent Saturday 1955

Directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Victor Mature, Lee Marvin, Richard Egan and Stephen McNally. The film, set in a mining town, depicts the planning of a bank robbery as the nexus in the personal lives of several townspeople. Prominent actors Sylvia Sidney and Ernest Borgnine are in supporting roles. Violent Saturday was filmed in color .

The Hitch-Hiker 1953

The only true "film noir" ever directed by a woman, this tour de force thriller (considered by many, including Lupino herself, to be her best film) is a classic, tension-packed, three-way dance of death about two middle-class American homebodies (Edmond O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy) on vacation in Mexico on a long-awaited fishing trip. Suddenly their car and their very lives are commandeered by psychopathic serial killer Emmett Myers (William Talman - Perry Mason).

D.O.A 1950

D.O.A. is a film noir drama film directed by Rudolph Maté, considered a classic of the stylistic genre. The frantically-paced plot revolves around a doomed man's quest to find out who has poisoned him – and why – before he dies.

The Dark Corner 1946

Private investigator Bradford Galt has moved to New York from San Fransisco after serving a jail term on account of his lawyer partner Tony Jardine. When he finds someone is tailing - and possibly trying to kill him, Galt believes Jardine is behind it. As he finds there is rather more to it, he is increasingly glad to have his attractive new secretary Kathleen around, for several reason

Scarlet Street 1945

When a man in mid-life crisis befriends a young woman, her venal fiancé persuades her to con him out of some of the fortune she thinks he has.

Directed by Fritz Lang Stars Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett

Odd Man Out 1947

Johnny McQueen (James Mason), leader of a clandestine Irish organization, has been hiding in the house of Kathleen and her mother, planning a hold-up that will provide his group with the funds needed to continue its activities. During the hold-up, things go sour: Johnny is wounded, cannot make it back to the hideout, and disappears in the back-alleys of Belfast. Immediately, a large-scale man-hunt is launched, and the city is tightly covered by the constabulary, whose chief is intent on capturing Johnny and the other members of the gang.Directors: Carol Reed Stars: James Mason, Robert Newton and Cyril Cusack

PBS documentary on film noir

Detour 1945

Piano player Al (Tom Neal) is bitter about having to work in a New York nightclub. After his girlfriend Sue (Claudia Drake) leaves to seek fame in Hollywood, he decides to join her. With little money, he has to hitchhike his way across the country. The Hollywood Production Code did not allow murderers to get away with their crimes on film at the time, so the orginal ending had to br changed .

Destination Murder 1950

 Laura Mansfield's father is killed, apparently by a telegraphic messenger. She spots Jackie Wales in a police lineup, but can't identify him positively. Later, she arranges to meet him, and is convinced he was the killer, but he was acting for someone else. She gets to know Jackie to find out who the boss is, taking a job in the Vogue Club, owned by a man named Armitage. Meanwhile, Alice, Armitage's greedy mistress, goes after Jackie and lures him into blackmailing the nightclub owner. Armitage discovers the betrayal, and kills the two, but Laura schemes to get closer so she can prove him guilty.

Beat the Devil 1953

Beat the Devil  On their way to Africa are a group of rogues who hope to get rich there, and a seemingly innocent British couple. They meet and things happen..Directed by John Huston , screenplay written by Huston and Truman Capote .It was intended by Huston as a parody of The Maltese Falcon . Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Robert Morley, Peter Lorre, and Bernard Lee . Roger Ebert, who included the film in his "Great Movies" list, notes that the film has been characterized as the first camp movie.

My Gun is Quick 1957

Robert Bray, best known to baby-boomers as "Ranger Corey" on TV's LASSIE, is cast as Mickey Spillane's rough-edged private eye Mike Hammer in MY GUN IS QUICK. Mike's mission this time out is to solve a murder and a jewel robbery. He faces opposition from two warring criminal gangs, but when has that ever stopped him in the past? Co-starring as a typically Spillanesque cool blonde is Whitney Blake, who like Bray later gained TV fame in a more sedate role on the weekly sitcom HAZEL (incidentally, Ms. Blake is the mother of actress Meredith Baxter). Not quite as accomplished as Robert Aldrich's classic Mike Hammer yarn KISS ME DEADLY, MY GUN IS QUICK works well within its modest limits.

Kiss of Death 1947

Two bit thief (Mature) puts his family in untold danger when the district attorney convinces him to squeal on a fellow inmate at Sing Sing: the homicidal psychopath  (and the ruthless, violent Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark).will stop at nothing to gain revenge. Academy Award Nominations: Best Supporting Actor--Richard Widmark, Best Original Story.

Notorious 1946

Alfred Hitchcock's classic romantic espionage thriller, with passionate, brilliant performances by Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, featuring one of the most famous screen kisses in film history. At the end of World War II, American military intelligence drafts the alluring daughter (Bergman) of a convicted Nazi to infiltrate a band of nefarious Germans who have fled to Brazil. She is teamed with a dashing but chilly agent (Cary Grant) with whom she falls deeply in love.

Raw Deal 1948

In this film noir classic, a revenge-seeking gangster (Dennis O'Keefe) is sent to prison after being framed for a crime he didn't commit. After seducing a beautiful young woman, he uses her to help him carry out his plot for vengeance, leading him to the crazy pyromaniac (Raymond Burr) who set him up.

The Chase 1946

A chauffeur falls in love with the boss's wife but the boss is a mafioso and the two elope to Cuba with hitmen on their trail. The Chase is the best cinematic equivalent of the dark, oppressive atmosphere that characterizes most of Cornell Woolrich's best fiction.

Night and the City 1950

 In NIGHT AND THE CITY, director Jules Dassin brilliantly fuses two styles of filmmaking, crossing the expressionist lighting and framing of film noir with the almost documentary location shooting he used for THE NAKED CITY (1948). Dassin treats NIGHT AND THE CITY's central London locations as strange exotic places. As the movie opens, it is nighttime and small-time hood Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark) is running from almost unseen pursuers.

Too late for tears 1948

When a bag of money is thrown into the car of a young couple, she murders him for the money and will murder anybody else who tries to get in her way.

Blonde Ice 1948

 Blonde Ice is a 1948 American crime film noir directed by Jack Bernhard and starring Leslie Brooks, Robert Paige and Michael Whalen. It was based on the 1938 novel Once Too Often by Whitman ChambersA ruthless newspaper woman resorts to murder while clawing her way to the top.

Vicki 1953

Directed by Harry Horner and based on the novel I Wake Up Screaming, written by Steve Fisher. The film features Jeanne Crain, Jean Peters, Elliott Reid and Richard Boone.

Vicki is a remake of the 1941 film I Wake Up Screaming starring Betty Grable, Victor Mature, and Carole Landis

Framed 1947

Directed by Richard Wallace and featuring Glenn Ford, Janis Carter, Barry Sullivan and Edgar Buchanan.

Mike Lambert takes to driving a truck when he falls on hard times. When his rig brakes stop working in a small town he meets Paula Craig (Janis Carter) at the La Paloma Cafe and is quickly drawn into a criminal plot devised by the seductive femme fatale.The B movie is generally praised by critics as an effective crime thriller despite its low budget.

The Woman In The Window 1944

When a conservative middle-aged professor engages in a minor dalliance with a femme fatale, he is plunged into a nightmarish quicksand of blackmail and murder.

Directed by Fritz Lang starring Edward G. Robinson

Moonrise 1948

Danny Hawkins has been tortured his entire life because he is the son of a killer who was hanged. In a state of insanity Danny kills Jerry Sykes. When the body is discovered Danny flees from his true love Gilly Johnson and the law but is able to reach salvation by coming to grips with his identity and by turning himself in to the police.Directed by Frank Borzage and starring Dane Clark, Gail Russell and Ethel Barrymore.

The File on Thelma Jordon 1950

Stanwyck plays Thelma Jordon, a woman who late one night shows up in the office of married Assistant district attorney Cleve Marshall (Wendell Corey) with a story about prowlers and burglars. Before Cleve can stop himself, he and Thelma are involved in a love affair. But Thelma is a mysterious woman, and Cleve can't help wondering if she is hiding something. Directed by Robert Siodmak

Jigsaw 1948

The title refers to a jigsaw puzzle and the story begins with the murder of a print shop owner that is quickly labeled a suicide. But newspaper columnist Charlie Riggs is convinced that it was a murder related to a white neo-fascist organization called the Crusaders and imparts this suspicion to Assistant District Attorney Howard Malloy.

The film stars Franchot Tone, Jean Wallace, and Marc Lawrence and has cameo appearances by Marlene Dietrich, Henry Fonda, John Garfield, Burgess Meredith, Marsha Hunt, Doe Avedon, Everett Sloane, newspaper columnist Leonard Lyons, and the director Fletcher Markle

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