Film Noir

  • Kôji Shima – Kaidan otoshiana AKA The Pit of Death (1968)

    Kôji Shima1961-1970Film NoirHorrorJapan

    Haruo Kuramoto works in a company where he wants to climb by marrying the director’s daughter. But he has a problem: he maintains a secret relationship with Reiko, secretary in the same company, whom he has made pregnant and who under no circumstances intends to give him up.Read More »

  • Jacques Becker – Touchez pas au grisbi (1954)

    Jacques Becker1951-1960CrimeFilm NoirFrance

    Jacques Becker’s (Le Trou) Touchez Pas Au Grisbi occupies a significant part in French cinema history; it exerted a huge influence on subsequent directors such as Jean-Pierre Melville (Le Doulos), Henri Verneuil (The Sicilian Clan) and Claude Sautet (Classe Tous Risques). Max (Jean Gabin, Port of Shadows) is an aging gangster who manages to pull off his final heist, a spectacular gold bullion robbery at Orly airport. All is well until Max’s former girlfriend Josy (Jeanne Moreau, Viva Maria!) tips off a rival gangster, Angelo (Lino Ventura, Razzia Sur La Chnouf). Angelo kidnaps Max’s partner and best friend and threatens to kill him unless Max hands over the loot from his robbery. Touchez Pas Au Grisbi was the birth the French policier, a European transposition of the fantastic American gangster films and film noirs of the 1940s. Based on a book by Albert Simonin (Cold Sweat) and beautifully shot in striking black-and-white by Pierre Montazel (Hi-Jack Highway).Read More »

  • Robert Siodmak – The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945) (HD)

    Robert Siodmak1941-1950250 Quintessential Film NoirsDramaFilm NoirUSA

    Bachelor Harry Quincey, head designer in a small-town cloth factory, lives with his selfish sisters, glamorous hypochondriac Lettie and querulous widow Hester. His developing relationship with new colleague Deborah Brown promises happiness at last…thwarted by passive, then increasingly active opposition from one sister. Will Harry resort to desperate measures?Read More »

  • Norman Foster & Orson Welles – Journey Into Fear (1943)

    Orson Welles1941-1950250 Quintessential Film NoirsFilm NoirNorman FosterThrillerUSA

    An American ballistics expert in Turkey finds himself targeted by German agents. Safe passage home by ship is arranged for him, but he soon discovers that his pursuers are also on board.Read More »

  • Roy William Neill – Black Angel (1946)

    Roy William Neill1941-1950DramaFilm NoirUSA

    Synopsis:
    A falsely convicted man’s wife, Catherine (June Vincent), and an alcoholic composer and pianist, Martin (Dan Duryea), team up in an attempt to clear her husband of the murder of a blonde singer, Mavis Marlowe (Constance Dowling), who had been Martin’s wife. Their investigation leads them to face-to-face confrontations with a determined policeman, Captain Flood (Broderick Crawford), and a shifty nightclub owner, Mr. Marko (Peter Lorre), who Catherine and Martin suspect may be the real killer.Read More »

  • Cy Endfield – The Limping Man (1953)

    Cy Endfield1951-1960DramaFilm NoirUnited Kingdom

    His Hollywood career temporarily in the doldrums in 1953, Lloyd Bridges headed to Britain to star in The Limping Man. Bridges plays an ex-GI who arrives in London to visit his wartime amour (Moira Lister). Before anyone knows what’s happened, our hero is mixed up in a murder case. The victim was killed by a mysterious “limping man,” who is also an expert sharpshooter. Just when it seems that events have overwhelmed the GI and his lady love, the story suddenly. . .well, that would be tattling, wouldn’t it?Read More »

  • Henry Hathaway – Kiss of Death (1947)

    Henry Hathaway1941-1950250 Quintessential Film NoirsCrimeFilm NoirUSA

    Small-time crook Nick Bianco gets caught in a jewel heist and despite urgings from well-meaning district attorney D’Angelo, refuses to rat on his partners and goes to jail, assured that his wife and children will be taken care of. Learning that his depressed wife has killed herself, Nick informs on his ex-pals and is paroled. Nick remarries, gets a job and begins leading a happy life when he learns one of the men he informed on, psychopathic killer Tommy Udo, has been released from custody and is out for revenge against Nick and his family.Read More »

  • William A. Seiter – Make Haste to Live (1954)

    William A. Seiter1951-1960DramaFilm NoirRepublic PicturesUSA

    After serving 18 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, a mobster is paroled and returns to a New Mexico town to exact his revenge on the woman responsible for his conviction.Read More »

  • Eiichi Kudô – Yaju-deka AKA The Dropout (1982) (HD)

    Eiichi Kudô1981-1990CrimeFilm NoirJapan

    Quote:
    Detective Seiji Otaki is determined to find the psychopathic killer of a young woman who was ostensibly a student but in reality a high-priced prostitute. Even though he has been taken off the case for beating up a suspect, he refuses to let it go and recruits his mistress to act as a decoy for the killer. Her involvement turns out to be a fatal mistake, and when her husband gets out of prison, Detective Otaki is in worse trouble than ever.Read More »

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