Film Noir

  • William A. Berke – Pier 23 (1951)

    1951-1960CrimeFilm NoirUSAWilliam A. Berke

    Plot Synopsis by Hal Erickson
    Pier 23 was one of three hour-long mysteries produced by Lippert Productions for both TV and theatrical release. Each of the three films was evenly divided into two half-hour “episodes,” and each starred Hugh Beaumont as San Francisco-based amateur sleuth Dennis O’Brien. In Pier 23, O’Brien first tackles the case of a wrestler who has died of a suspicious heart attack after refusing to lose a match. He then agrees to help a priest talk an escaped criminal into returning to prison. The film’s two-part structure leads to repetition and predictability, but it’s fun to watch TV’s “Ward Cleaver” making like Philip Marlowe.Read More »

  • Orson Welles – The Stranger (1946)

    1941-1950CrimeFilm NoirOrson WellesUSA

    The Stranger is often considered Orson Welles’ most “traditional” Hollywood-style directorial effort. Welles plays a college professor named Charles Rankin, who lives in a pastoral Connecticut town with his lovely wife Mary (Loretta Young). One afternoon, an extremely nervous German gentleman named Meineke (Konstantin Shayne) arrives in town. Professor Rankin seems disturbed–but not unduly so–by Meineke’s presence. He invites the stranger for a walk in the woods, and as they journey farther and farther away from the center of town, we learn that kindly professor Rankin is actually notorious Nazi war criminal Franz Kindler.Read More »

  • Robert Wise – Odds against tomorrow (1959)

    1951-1960CrimeFilm NoirRobert WiseUSA

    Quote:
    Odds Against Tomorrow, a crackling crime caper with an undercurrent of racial tension, combines the desperation of three men–two of whom hate each other–and the culmination of that desperation in the form of a robbery. The film, which includes a fantastic jazz score by pianist John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet, is a film noir gem. David Burke (Ed Begley), a former policeman who once served a prison sentence, has asked bigoted southerner Earl Slater (Robert Ryan) to rob an upstate bank with him, promising him $50,000 in small bills if the robbery is successful.Read More »

  • William A. Berke – FBI Girl (1951)

    1951-1960CrimeFilm NoirUSAWilliam A. Berke

    Quote:
    A governor planning to run for U.S. Senate has a secret past that could prove damaging to his political aspirations: he’s a convicted murderer, and that will come to light if the FBI does an investigative check on him. He goes to a local crime boss for help. The racketeer arranges for a low-level FBI employee to take the incriminating file from FBI headquarters, but then she is conveniently murdered. Two FBI agents investigating her murder begin to think that something isn’t quite kosher.Read More »

  • Scott King – Treasure Island (1999)

    1991-2000CultFilm NoirQueer Cinema(s)Scott KingUSA

    Treasure Island is an experimental, 16 mm black-and-white drama written, directed, and photographed by producer Scott King. The loosely constructed plot shows the private lives of two British code-crackers (Lance Baker and Nick Offerman) during WWII who decode letters and look for hidden meanings behind the words. As a counterintelligence ploy, they decide to drop a dead body off the coast of Japan before a discovered invasion. The film then turns to these men’s personal lives and the problems with the women they love, along with the secrets they hide.Read More »

  • William C. Thomas – They Made Me a Killer (1946)

    1941-1950CrimeFilm NoirUSAWilliam C. Thomas

    All Movie Guide Review:
    This Pine-Thomas Production was scripted by Geoffrey Homes (aka Daniel Mainwaring), best known as the author of the novel upon which the “film noir” classic Out of the Past was based. Robert Lowery plays victim-of-circumstance Tom Durling, in the wrong place at the wrong time when a bank robbery occurs. As the only witness to the crime, Durling is sought after by June Reynolds (Barbara Britton), who wants to prove that her brother, killed in the holdup, was innocent of complicity. Trouble is, the police have fingered Durling as their primary suspect, so he naturally wants to remain scarce. By film’s end, however, Durling and June have taken it upon themselves to track down the villains. Unusual for its time was the film’s depiction of its policeman characters, who are shown to be reasonable and intelligent rather than conclusion-jumping and dull-witted.Read More »

  • Pierre Chenal – La bête à l’affût AKA Beast at Bay (1959)

    1951-1960Film NoirFrancePierre ChenalThriller

    User Review by dbdumonteil
    Pierre Chenal’s last hurrah-although not his last movie, it’s easily the best of the four thrillers he made when he was back from Argentina. “Jeux Dangereux” the precedent year suggested a return to form for a director who made interesting film noirs in the thirties and a masterpiece in the forties (“La Foire Aux Chimères”). All promises were fulfilled in “La Bete A L’Affut” .Read More »

  • Joseph H. Lewis – Cry of the Hunted (1953)

    1951-1960DramaFilm NoirJoseph H. LewisUSA

    Story
    A fugitive is pursued by a lawman who is obsessed with his capture.Read More »

  • R.G. Springsteen – When Gangland Strikes (1956)

    1951-1960ClassicsFilm NoirR.G. SpringsteenUSA

    Plot:
    In this crime drama, mobsters swear to get revenge upon a zealous public prosecutor as he tries to get them put into prison. The desperate mobsters try to stop him by using his innocent daughter in a blackmail scheme.Read More »

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