Recent Event Highlights: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, While the City Sleeps, Killer's Kiss, The Big Heat, 99 River Street, and 214 more...
Created by dipity on Jan 23, 2008
Last updated: 03/11/10 at 11:37 PM
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a 2005 crime/comedy film, which follows many conventions of the classic film noir genre. It is based, in part, on the novel Bodies Are Where You Find Them by Brett Halliday. The screenplay was written by Shane Black who also directed the film. It was produced by Joel Silver, Carrie Morrow, Susan Levin and Steve Richards. The cast includes Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer and Michelle Monaghan as well as Corbin Bernsen, Dash Mihok, Larry Miller, Rockmond Dunbar, Shannyn Sossamon and Angela Lindvall. The title is a reference to Pauline Kael's 1968 book, which in turn was named after a translation of an Italian poster of a James Bond movie, which she called "perhaps the briefest statement imaginable of the basic appeal of the movies."It was filmed in Los Angeles between February 24 and May 3, 2004. After debuting at the Cannes Film Festival in France on May 14, it received a limited release in cinemas in late October and early November of 2005.
The movie is narrated...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373469
Croupier is a 1998 film starring Clive Owen as a croupier. The film was directed by Mike Hodges. The film was released by Image Entertainment on DVD in the USA, and Alliance Atlantis in Canada. Though intended as a feature film, it was shown on television in North America. It was also initially released in cinemas and drew a steady audience at the box office. It had a strong critical following in North America, and helped to launch Clive Owen's acting career there.
Croupier was disqualified from the Academy Awards after it was shown on television.
The film has been classified as neo-noir. It uses interior monologues in the style of many early noir detective films.
Jack Manfred is an aspiring writer going nowhere fast. To make ends meet, and against his better judgement, he takes a job as a croupier. He finds himself drawn into the casino world and the job gradually takes over his life; his relationship with girlfriend Marion begins to deteriorate. One gambler in particular catches his...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159382
Gattaca is a 1997 science fiction drama film written and directed by Andrew Niccol, starring Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Jude Law with supporting roles played by Loren Dean, Gore Vidal and Alan Arkin. The movie's score was composed by Michael Nyman.
The film presents a biopunk vision of a society driven by new eugenics. Children of the middle and upper classes are designer babies, genetically engineered in-vitro to be the optimal recombination of their parents' genetic material. A genetic registry database uses biometrics to instantly identify and classify those so created as valids while those conceived by traditional means are derisively known as faith births, god children and in-valids. While genetic discrimination is forbidden by law, in practice it is easy to profile one's genotype resulting in the Valids qualifying for professional employment while the In-Valids who are susceptible to disease are relegated to menial jobs.
The movie draws on concerns over technological...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177
The Crying Game (1992) is a popular and critically acclaimed Irish film written and directed by Neil Jordan. The film explores themes of race, gender, nationality, and sexuality against the backdrop of the Irish Troubles. The original working title of this film was The Soldier's Wife.The film was notable for its dramatic plot twist, when the male protagonist discovers that his seemingly female love interest has a penis while undressing. The film is also notable for its sympathetic portrayal of characters from often-reviled subcultures, presented here as complex and likable human beings. Audiences accepted the film as a thriller, but also as an unconventional romance. As one of the first mainstream dramas to deal with transgender issues, it has become a major film in discussions of alternative sexualities and popular culture. [citation needed]The Crying Game is about the main character Fergus' experiences as a member of the IRA which often employed questionable and potentially deadly...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104036
Miller's Crossing (1990) is a gangster film directed by Joel and Ethan Coen and stars Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney and John Turturro. The film's plot depicts a power struggle between two rival gangs and how the protagonist (played by Byrne) plays both sides off each other. In 2005, Time magazine chose Miller's Crossing as one of the best 100 movies made since the inception of the periodical. Time movie critic Richard Corliss said that the movie is a "noir with a touch so light, the film seems to float on the breeze like the Frisbee of a fedora sailing through the forest".
The film is set during the Prohibition era in an unnamed northeastern US city (most of the exteriors were shot in New Orleans, taking advantage of that city's vintage architecture and streetcar line) where two warring gangs face off. Leo O’Bannon (Finney), a headstrong Irishman, controls the town, but his power is in danger of being usurped by a rival gang headed by the ambitiously violent Italian, Giovanni Gasparo,...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100150
Blade Runner is a 1982 cyberpunk, neo-noir American film directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, loosely based on the novelDo Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. It features Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, Daryl Hannah and Joanna Cassidy.The film depicts a dystopian Los Angeles in November 2019 in which genetically manufactured beings called replicants, visually indistinguishable from adult humans, are used for dangerous and degrading work in Earth's "off-world colonies". Following a small replicant uprising, replicants became illegal on Earth, and specialist police units — called "blade runners" — were trained to hunt down and "retire" (kill) escaped replicants on Earth. The plot focuses on a brutal and cunning group of replicants hiding in Los Angeles and a semi-retired blade runner, Rick Deckard (Ford), who reluctantly agrees to take on one more assignment.Blade Runner initially polarized,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083658
Chinatown is a 1974 film directed by Roman Polanski featuring many elements of the film noir genre, particularly a multi-layered story that is part mystery and part psychological drama. The movie won several high-profile awards, including an Academy Award in 1975 for Best Original Screenplay for Robert Towne.Chinatown stars Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston and also features a cameo appearance by its director, Roman Polanski. Also appearing in the film are John Hillerman, Diane Ladd, Perry Lopez, James Hong, Joe Mantell, Bruce Glover, Burt Young, and Noble Willingham. The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. A sequel, called The Two Jakes, was released in 1990, starring Jack Nicholson (who also directed it), with a screenplay written by Robert Towne.In 1937 a Los Angeles private investigator named Jake 'J.J' Gittes (Nicholson) is hired to spy on Hollis Mulwray, the chief engineer for the city's water department. The woman...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071315
The French Connection is a 1971 Hollywood crime film directed by William Friedkin. The film was adapted and fictionalized by Ernest Tidyman from the non-fiction book by Robin Moore. It tells the story of two New York City policemen who are trying to intercept a heroin shipment coming in from France. It is based on the actual, infamous "French Connection" trafficking scheme. It stars Gene Hackman (as porkpie hat-wearing New York City police detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle), Roy Scheider (as his partner Cloudy), and Fernando Rey. It also features Eddie Egan and Sonny "Cloudy" Grosso, the real-life police detectives on whom Hackman's and Scheider's characters were based.
It was the first R-rated movie to win the Academy Award for Best Picture since the introduction of the MPAA film rating system. It also won Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Gene Hackman), Best Director, Best Film Editing, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Ernest...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067116
The Manchurian Candidate is a film adapted from the 1959 thriller novel written by Richard Condon. A Cold War thriller, it was directed by John Frankenheimer and starred Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Angela Lansbury and Janet Leigh. The central concept of the book and the subsequent 1962 film is that the son of a prominent political family has been brainwashed into becoming an unwilling assassin for the Communist Party. The film had its national release on Wednesday, October 24, 1962, at the height of the Cuban missile crisis.During the Korean War and the Second Red Scare, the Soviets have developed a technique based on "brainwashing" and akin to hypnosis, whereby a person can be snapped into and out of a trance, ordered to do things with full compliance, and have no memory of such actions afterwards. The Soviets kidnap a patrol of U.S. soldiers fighting in Korea, take them to Manchuria in the People's Republic of China to be brainwashed and then covertly release them back to the...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056218
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items into the main text and removing inappropriate items.Cape Fear is a 1962 film about an attorney whose family is stalked by a criminal whom he helped to send to jail. It stars Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum as Max Cady, Polly Bergen, Lori Martin, Martin Balsam, Jack Kruschen, Telly Savalas and Barrie Chase.It was adapted by James R. Webb from the novel The Executioners by John D. MacDonald. It was directed by J. Lee Thompson, and released on April 12, 1962.Peck, who also served as a producer, was originally offered the role of Max Cady, the story's antagonist. However, he was so against playing a villain at the time that he steadfastly refused the part. He went on to say that he felt audiences would not accept him playing a ruthless character so he instead sought the role of the hero. This casting has led to some of the biggest criticisms of the movie. At 6'3, Peck is clearly the more physically powerful[citation needed] of two...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055824
Harry Belafonte starred in Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), the first film noir with a black protagonist. Belafonte selected Abraham Polonsky, who had written and directed a famous noir, Force of Evil, to write the script. As a blacklisted writer Polonsky used a front, John O. Killens, a black novelist and friend of Belafonte's. (In 1997, the Writers Guild of America officially restored Polonsky's credit.) The film is based on a novel by William P. McGivern. Oscar-winner Robert Wise produced and directed. Composer John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet, contributed the film's jazz score.
French director Jean-Pierre Melville credited this film with being a formative influence on his work and made references to it in his films.
David Burke (Ed Begley), a former policeman ruined when he refused to cooperate with State Crime Investigators, has asked hard-bitten, racist ex-con Earl Slater (Robert Ryan) to rob an upstate bank with him, promising him $50,000 if the robbery is successful. Burke...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053133
Touch of Evil (1958) is considered one of the last examples of film noir in the genre's classic era (from the early 1940s until the late 1950s). It was directed by Orson Welles, who appears as a corrupt U.S. police captain. The black-and-white film also features Charlton Heston as a Mexican police officer, Janet Leigh ("at her most perversely innocent" as one critic put it) as his bride, and Marlene Dietrich as a cigar-smoking gypsy brothel owner. The screenplay, loosely based on the novel Badge of Evil by Whit Masterson (a pseudonym for Robert Wade and William Miller), was written by Welles. Additional scenes were written by Paul Monash, and Franklin Coen.
Akim Tamiroff plays a border mobster with a wandering toupee, Dennis Weaver is a mentally unbalanced night clerk at an isolated motel, and Zsa Zsa Gabor appears briefly as the impresario of a strip club. Welles liked what Weaver did as Chester on TV's Gunsmoke and worked closely with him on his part, which was shot on a three...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052311
Lonelyhearts (also known as Miss Lonelyheart ) is a 1958 film noir drama film directed by Vincent J. Donehue. It is based on the play by Howard Teichmann and the 1933 novel Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West.
The film stars Montgomery Clift, Robert Ryan, Myrna Loy, Jackie Coogan, Dolores Hart, and Maureen Stapleton in her first film role. Stapleton was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as well as for a Golden Globe.
Nathaniel West's novel on which this film was based was adapted for the screen in 1933 as Advice to the Lovelorn starring Lee Tracy. It was made by 20th Century Pictures and distributed by United Artists, directed by Alfred L. Werker from a screenplay by Leonard Praskins. The film was more of a comedy-drama than this version.
In 1957, the novel was adapted into a stage play entitled Miss Lonelyhearts by Howard Teichmann. It opened on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre on October 3, 1957 in a production directed by Alan Schneider and designed by Jo...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053017
Screaming Mimi (1958) is a Columbia Pictures release directed by Gerd Oswald and based on the novel by pulp novelist Fredric Brown.In the opening scene set in Southern California, while Virginia Wilson (Anita Ekberg) is taking an outside beach shower, an escaped madman from the sanitarium shows up. He stabs her dog, Devil, attacks her and is then shot to death by a neighbor with a rifle. After the attack, Virginia is committed to a sanitarium. The psychiatrist falls in love with her. He fakes her death, and they go on the lam. Virginia ends up dancing at the El Madhouse night club run by Gypsy Rose Lee. Lee performs Put the Blame on Mame, the classic noir theme from Gilda. All the while Virginia is being stalked by a serial killer. Jazz vibraphonist Red Norvo plays himself. The book the film was based on was remade as L' Uccello dalle piume di cristallo (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage) in 1970, although it's almost nothing like the book....,
Sweet Smell of Success is a 1957 film noir made by Hill-Hecht-Lancaster Productions and released by United Artists. It was directed by Alexander Mackendrick and produced by James Hill, with Tony Curtis, Harold Hecht and Burt Lancaster as executive producers. The screenplay was by Clifford Odets, Ernest Lehman and Alexander Mackendrick from the novelette by Lehman. The movie was photographed by James Wong Howe. The original music score by Elmer Bernstein.The film stars Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison and Martin Milner. It tells the story of a powerful newspaper columnist who uses his connections to ruin his sister's relationship with a man he deems inappropriate. Lancaster's role as J.J. Hunsecker is based on famed New York columnist Walter Winchell.The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. In 2002 Sweet Smell of Success: The Musical was created by Marvin Hamlisch,...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051036
A Kiss Before Dying is a novel by Ira Levin. The book won a 1954 Edgar Award, for Best First Novel, and it has been adapted to film twice: a 1956 version starring Robert Wagner and Joanne Woodward, and a 1991 version starring Matt Dillon and Sean Young.
The 1956 version was color film noir directed by Gerd Oswald.
Robert Wagner plays Bud Corliss, a student who is wooing Dorothy Kingship (Joanne Woodward) purely for her father's mining fortune. When he finds she is pregnant he realizes she is quite likely to be disinherited. Bud then murders Dorothy, with it staged in a way that it appears to be a suicide. After a couple of months her sister, Ellen, finds evidence to question the suicide verdict, but by then has a new boyfriend of her own, who turns out to be Bud.
The film was remade in 1991 starring Matt Dillon and Sean Young. The screenplay and direction by James Dearden.
Sean Young received received two Golden Raspberry Awards: worst actress for playing one twin, and worst...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049414
The Killing (1956) is a film by Stanley Kubrick based on the novel Clean Break by Lionel White. The film noir depicts the efforts of Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) and an assembled team to rob a racetrack.The use of non-linear chronology and multiple points of view influenced many later filmmakers, such as Quentin Tarantino. When studio executives first saw the completed film, they stated that the film made no sense and no audience would sit through the non-linear story. Kubrick re-edited the movie, then found that the key to telling the story was to keep it the way it was in the book, and the way he first edited it. United Artists released the film at the bottom of double bills.The film credits pulp writer Jim Thompson with "additional dialogue", though there is some question as to whether that credit fairly describes the extent of Thompson's contributions to the script. (Thompson was credited as a full co-writer on Kubrick's next film Paths of Glory.)While Kubrick's second film, ...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049406
Nightmare is a 1956 psychological thriller starring Edward G. Robinson. The story is based on a novel by William Irish (aka Cornell Woolrich). The novel was also made into a film in 1947 titled, Fear in the Night. The film was directed by long-time movie writer Maxwell Shane, later the producer of the classic horror anthology Thriller in the early 1960s. He directed both versions of the film. Also appearing in the film as the movie's big band is Billy May and His Orchestra.New Orleans big band clarinetist Stan Grayson has a nightmare where he sees himself in a mirrored room killing a man. He wake ups and find blood on himself, bruises on his neck, and a key from the dream in his hand. He goes to his brother-in-law, police detective Rene Bressard, about the problem but is dismissed. Later, the two men go on a picnic in the country with Grayson's girlfriend and sister. Grayson leads them to an empty house, the house of his dream, when it begins to rain. They are shocked to see that the...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049553
The Harder They Fall is a 1956 film noir, drama film starring Humphrey Bogart in his final movie role. The character Eddie Willis (Bogart) is based on the career of boxing writer and event promoter Harold Conrad. The film is directed by Mark Robson and based on the 1947 novel by Budd Schulberg. The screenplay was by Philip Yordan.Sportswriter Eddie Willis is broke after losing his newspaper column. He's hired by boxing promoter Nick Benko to act as publicist for Benko's new boxer, a giant and slow witted Argentinian boxer named Toro Moreno. Eddie accepts the job because the money's good. Unknown to Toro, a number of fights are fixed to make the public believe that the boxer is for real. Eddie promotes the fights, but begins to feel guilty about his work. The story comes to a climax when Benko arranges for Toro to fight a vengeful heavyweight champ, a fight that can't be fixed.Boxers appearing in the film:"The people, Eddie, the people! Don't tell me about the people, Eddie. The people...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049291
Blood on the Moon is an RKO black-and-white 1948 "psychological" western directed by Robert Wise with cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca. The film, starring Robert Mitchum, Barbara Bel Geddes, and Robert Preston has many film noir elements. It was shot in California and some of the more scenic shots at Red Rock Crossing, Sedona, Arizona. Based on the novel by Luke Short.Mitchum plays drifter cowboy Jim Garry. After receiving a job-offer letter from smooth-talking Tae Rilling (Preston), Garry rides into an Indian reservation and finds himself in the middle of a feud between cattle ranchers and homesteaders. What Garry doesn't realize is that Rilling, the man he now works for, is crooked. Tate plans to swindle naive landowners in an elaborate scheme involving a plan to make sure that cattle owner Lufton and his family don't get grazing land thereby losing their cattle. At first aligning himself with Rilling, Garry finally figures out that his so-called friend is up to no good and...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040175
The Desperate Hours is a 1955 film from Paramount Pictures starring Humphrey Bogart and Fredric March. The movie was directed by William Wyler and based on a novel and play written by Joseph Hayes.
Bogart portrays Glenn Griffin, the leader of a trio of criminals who invade the Hilliard family's suburban home and hold the four members of the family hostage while awaiting the arrival of a cohort who is bringing the three fugitives funds to aid them in their escape. Police organize a statewide manhunt for the escapees and eventually discover the distraught family's plight. Bogart's character menaces and torments the Hilliards and threatens to kill them, and an unfortunate garbage collector who happens upon the situation is murdered. At the climax of the film, Mr. Hilliard (March) throws Griffin (Bogart) out of the house by holding Griffin's loaded gun on him. Griffin is subsequently gunned down and killed when he hurls his unloaded gun at a police spotlight and tries to make a break for...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047985
The Night of the Hunter is a 1955 film noir based on the novel by Davis Grubb which was based on the true story of Harry Powers, who was hanged in 1932 for the murders of two widows and three children in Clarksburg, West Virginia. It was adapted for the screen by James Agee and Charles Laughton. Laughton also directed the film, which has since been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. The film's lyric and expressionistic style had a tremendous influence on directors, including David Lynch, Jean Renoir, Terrence Malick, and the Coen Brothers.In the summer of 1974, archivist Robert Gitt Anthony Slide retrieved several boxes of photographs, sketches, memos and letters relating to the film from Laughton's widow Elsa Lanchester for the American Film Institute in Washington, D.C. She also gave them over 80,000 feet of rushes and outtakes from filming. These remained in storage until 1981 when...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048424
Killer's Kiss (1955) is a film by Stanley Kubrick. It was Kubrick's second feature, and the earliest still available (he removed his first film Fear and Desire from circulation over his displeasure for it). Kubrick was 26 years old when he directed this movie, and had to borrow $40,000 from his uncle, who owned a drug store in New York.
The film revolves around Davey Gordon (Jamie Smith), a 29 year old welterweight New York boxer in the end of his career, and his relationship with a dancer (Irene Kane) and her violent employer (Frank Silvera). Silvera had worked with Kubrick on his previous feature, Fear and Desire. Most of the film's locations were minutes away from Kubrick's apartment, a trend which would continue even after moving to England, preferring to work as close to home as possible.
Kubrick began to shoot the film with sound recorded on location, as was common practice in Hollywood. However, frustrated by the intrusion of the microphone into his lighting scheme, Kubrick...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048254
House of Bamboo (1955) is a film noir shot in color and in CinemaScope format. The narration at the film's beginning tells the viewer that the film was photographed entirely on location in Tokyo, Yokohama, and the Japanese countryside. At movie's end, an acknowledgments credit thanks "the Military Police of the U.S. Army Forces Far East and the Eighth Army, as well as the Government of Japan and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department" for their cooperation with the film's production. The film is a loose remake of The Street with No Name (1948), by the same screenwriter (Harry Kleiner) and cinematographer (Joseph MacDonald) as in the original.In 1954, a military train guarded by American soldiers and Japanese police is attacked as it travels between Kyoto and Tokyo. During the raid, which is carried out with great precision, an American sergeant is killed, and the train's cargo of guns and ammunition is stolen. The crime is investigated by Capt. Hanson, an American, and Japanese...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048182
Rififi is a 1955 black-and-white French heist movie. Its original French title is Du rififi chez les hommes ("of brawling among men"), which was shortened for release in the English-speaking world (the word rififi means fighting or brawling).
The film was directed by Jules Dassin, creator of many American film noir classics including The Naked City, Thieves' Highway, Brute Force and Night and the City. The film stars Jean Servais, Carl Möhner, Robert Manuel, and Dassin himself as César le Milanais (the womaniser). The film's score was composed by Georges Auric.
Rififi is based on a novel by Auguste le Breton; le Breton assisted in adapting it to film. However, Dassin expanded the safe-cracking job, which is negligible in the book, into a 32-minute sequence that occupies a fourth of the running time and is played entirely without dialogue or music. So meticulous is the construction and so specific the detail of this scene that the Mexican interior ministry banned the movie because...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048021
Crashout is a 1955 film noir black-and-white movie.Convict Van Duff is the leader of a large-scale prison break. The breakout works as the six survivors hide out in a forgotten mine working near the prison.Once the coast is clear they then set out on a long, dangerous journey. The convicts take by foot, car, train and truck in an attempt to get to some hidden stolen bank loot. On the journey the doomed prisoners meet with some locals including a kidnapped doctor (Percy Helton) and a young woman on a train (Gloria Talbott)....,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047958
Black Tuesday is a 1954 film noir starring Edward G. Robinson. The film is a return of Robinson playing evil gangster types like he did in early Warner Bros. films. The crime melodrama also stars Peter Graves in one of his early film roles. The film also starred Jean Parker. Shot in black-and-white.The film is due to be released on DVD by VCI Entertainment after an announcement made in 2005. A quality copy of the film has long been sought by collectors.A violent con, Vincent Canelli (Robinson), escapes prison on the night of his execution. With the help of a phony newspaper reporter and Canelli's girlfriend, the con takes along five hostages including a priest. Another inmate, Peter Manning, is taken along because Canelli wants the money Manning hid before going to jail. Manning is injured badly in the escape and leaves a bloody trail. The gang ends up at a hideout where they're surrounded by police. Canelli threatens to kill hostages if he's not given safe passage and murders the...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046790
Human Desire is a black-and-white drama film, shot in film noir style, directed by Fritz Lang. The movie, based on the novel La Bête humaine by Émile Zola, was released in 1954. The story was made twice before in film: The Human Beast (1938) directed by Jean Renoir and Die Bestie im Menschen (1920).
Hard-drinking Carl Buckley is a railroad worker fired from his job. His seductive wife pays a visit to a railroad official to try to get his job back. When Buckley suspects that his sexy, younger wife Vicki (Grahame) has done more than just talk with a railroad official, he first brutally beats her then he tracks down the railroad man and eventually stabs him to death in a jealous rage. Train conductor, and Korean War vet, Jeff Warren (Ford) knows that Vicki was a witness at the murder scene, but because of mutual attraction, refuses to testify against her. The two begin an affair with each other. Vicki then desides Warren should kill her violent husband and comes up with a plan.
...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043503
Loophole is a 1954 black and white B-movie crime drama. The film was directed by editor turned director Harold D. Schuster. Actress Mary Beth Hughes plays the movie's femme fatale.The film tells the story of a bank teller Mike Donovan (Sullivan) who he fails to report a $49,000 shortage from his drawer. He's accused of theft and quickly fired from his job. He is then prevented from finding other employment by insurance investigator Gus Slavin (McGraw) who is driven to find out where Sullivan took the money. Despite many setbacks, Donovan tries to clear his name but even his wife (Malone) doesn't think that he'll be able to do it. Turns out the money was heisted by a phoney bank examiner and his mole working at the bank (Hughes).[{Category:Drama films]]...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047192
Crime Wave is a 1954 movie, in film noir style, directed by André De Toth. The film is also known as The City is Dark.
An con is released from prison and tries to start a new life. He's hounded by a hard-nosed cop who doesn't think he can reform. The ex-con and his wife's troubles get worse when three San Quentin prison escapees show up at his house wanting to hide out from the law. Fearing for his wife's safety, the con decides to let the men stay. Later, the fugitives try to force the man into robbing a bank with them.
...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046878
Female Jungle is a 1955 black-and-white B-movie notable for being one of Jane Mansfield's first films. It's rumored that Mansfield was paid $150 USD for her role in the film. The movie, which was held from release for over a year, was later reissued as "Hangover".A cop (Tierney) is suspected of killing a gorgeous film star. Since he was extremely drunk at the time, even he suspects that he did it. As he investigates the murder, a slimy gossip columnist (Carradine) who spent time with the woman that night becomes the main suspect. But he also becomes a red herring when a third man is finally found to be the real killer.In Death on the Cheap, Arthur Lyons writes that the film, although "shoddily written, produced and directed", is significant for several reasons, including "It was American International's only foray into film noir... The film also marked a return to the screen of noir icon Lawrence Tierney, whose off-screen bar brawls and numerous arrests during the 1940s had made him ...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049204
The House Across the Lake is a 1954 British film released in the U.S. as Heat Wave. The film noir drama stars Alex Nicol and Hillary Brooke. An American pulp novelist, Mark Kendrick (Nicol), meets his rich neighbors across the lake and is soon seduced by beautiful blonde Carol (Brooke), the wife of the older Forrest (James). Forrest is badly injured when his boat has an accident in the fog, and Carol throws him overboard. After first refusing to go along with her attempt to call it an accident, Kendrick agrees when they plan to meet in a month's time and live off her dead husband's money. But when the coroner calls the death an accident, she secretly marries another old flame three weeks later and changes residences. When Kendrick finds out about the betrayal he angrily confronts her and she sneers at him that she only used him and that there's nothing he could do about it. Mark confesses, knowing that doing so would only mean a prison sentence for him. ...,
Les Diaboliques is a 1955 black-and-white film directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, starring Simone Signoret and Véra Clouzot. The title translates as 'The Devils'. It was called The Fiends when released in the UK, while the US release is entitled Diabolique. It is based on the novel Celle qui n'était plus by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. Boileau and Narcejac, are credited with early use, if not coinage, of the term film noir, which has also been used to describe Les Diaboliques.[citation needed]Variously described as a "mystery" a "thriller" and even a "horror film,"[citation needed] the film created a sensation on its original release. It has often been likened to the films of Alfred Hitchcock in that it is still creepy even when one has seen it and knows the ending. The end credit contains an early example of an "anti-spoiler message", requesting the audience not to disclose the plot to others who have not seen the film.
The film gained additional press when...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046911
The Big Heat is a 1953 Fritz Lang-directed film noir.
Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) is an honest cop who learns that one of his fellow officers has committed suicide. As Bannion digs deeper into what now he suspects is a murder, he becomes more and more driven to solve the mystery. He keeps digging even when the gangster violence and terror hits home. Complicating matters is Bertha Duncan, the corrupt wife of a dead police officer who has committed suicide. She is in possession of a letter, written by her husband, implicating the criminals, and Ford needs to get the letter so that he can blow the case wide open.
Critical reaction to the film was positive when it was released, and today The Big Heat is considered a classic. Film critic Roger Ebert lists the film in his 100 Greatest Films. In Ebert's review he praises the film's supporting actors and questions the actions of the apparently strait-laced Bannion: "Does it ever occur to him that he is at least partly responsible for their...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045555
City That Never Sleeps (1953) is a film noir produced and directed by John H. Auer with cinematography by John L. Russell.
Johnny Kelly is a Chicago cop from a long line of police officers. He's grown tired of the job and his married life. He plans on leaving his wife for exotic dancer Sally "Angel Face" Connors. When Penrod Biddel, a corrupt, powerful attorney, wants him for a job, Johnny is tempted. He needs money in order to get quick money to escape Chicago and start life anew with "Angel Face". Kelly accepts an assignment to escort a low-life former magician now criminal across the border to Indiana. Not all is what it seems and the more Kelly learns the more he's determined to do right.
Some of the movie's writing ends up in a 2001 Bob Dylan song "Honest With Me" from the CD "Love and Theft":
...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045631
Shot in just 20 days, Pickup on South Street is writer-director Samuel Fuller's 1953 film noir released by the 20th Century Fox studio. The film stars Richard Widmark, Jean Peters and Thelma Ritter.
Ritter would go on to receive an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress and Samuel Fuller was awarded the Bronze Lion at the Venice Film Festival for his direction of the picture. In June of 1954, Ritter co-stared alongside Terry Moore and Stephen McNally in a Lux Radio Theatre presentation of the story.
One afternoon, FBI agents Zara and Enyart are following an attractive woman named Candy as she takes the subway in New York City. Unknown to Candy, her wallet is stolen by a "cannon," a pickpocket who targets women, and when she realizes that her wallet is gone, she calls her former boyfriend, Joey. With Enyart following her, she returns to Joey's apartment, where Joey upbraids her for losing the microfilm that she was supposed to deliver to a mysterious higher-up in Joey's...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046187
The Hitch-Hiker is a 1953 film noir film which tells the story of two hunting buddies who pick up a mysterious hitchhiker.The movie was written by Robert L. Joseph, Ida Lupino and Collier Young. Uncredited writing help was provided by Out of the Past screenwriter Daniel Mainwaring, who was blacklisted at the time. It was directed by Lupino. It is considered the first film noir directed by a woman. The Director of Photography was RKO Pictures regular Nicholas Musuraca.The story was based on a true story and director Lupino interviewed some of the victims of the criminal Billy Cook for whom the film is based.A review of the film in Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style by Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward praised Lupino's use of the films shooting locations: "The Hitch-Hiker's desert locals, although not so graphically dark as a cityscape at night, isolate the deadly as any in film noir."In 1998, this film was selected for preservation in the United States National...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045877
The Blue Gardenia is a 1953 black-and-white film noir directed by Fritz Lang. The first of Lang's "newspaper noir" movie trio -- with While the City Sleeps and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt -- The Blue Gardenia criticizes newspaper coverage of a sensational murder case. Nat King Cole sings the title song and appears in the movie. The theme song was written by Nelson Riddle. Film director and writer Peter Bogdanovich called the film "A particularly venomous picture of American life." The director of cinematography was RKO regular, Nicholas Musuraca then working at Warner Brothers.
Anne Baxter (All About Eve) stars as Norah Larkin, a single woman heart broken after a "Dear John" letter, who wakes up after a night of drinking to find herself accused of murder. This was after passing out in the apartment of victim Harry Prebble (Raymond Burr). Named The Blue Gardenia Murderess by a newspaper columnist Casey Mayo (Richard Conte), Norah tries to remember the details of her ill-fated night. She...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045564
I Confess is a 1953 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock starring Montgomery Clift as Fr. Michael William Logan, a Catholic priest, Anne Baxter as Ruth Grandfort, and Karl Malden as Inspector Larrue. The film is based on a 1902 French play by Paul Anthelme called Nos Deux Consciences, a play Hitchcock saw in the 1930s. The screenplay was written by George Tabori. The movie is filmed on location in Québec, Canada, with numerous outdoor shots of the city and interior scenes of its churches.
Otto Kellar (O. E. Hasse) and his wife Alma (Dolly Haas) work as caretaker and housekeeper at a Catholic church in Québec. While robbing a house where he gardens, Otto is surprised and inadvertently murders the owner. Feeling guilty, he confesses to Father Michael William Logan (Montgomery Clift) back at the church.
Father Logan has secrets of his own. An old girlfriend (from before he was a priest) was being blackmailed by the murdered man. Police investigators, finding out about the priest's past,...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045897
Niagara (1953) is a dramatic thriller feature film with film noir elements. Unlike other film noir movies of the time, Niagara was shot in Technicolor and was one of 20th Century Fox's biggest box office hits of the year.
Although it was not written as a star vehicle for Marilyn Monroe, she would dominate the film nonetheless. Along with Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire, it solidified Monroe's status as a bona fide box office draw.
On a delayed honeymoon (they have, in fact, been married three years), Ray and Polly Cutler (Casey Adams and Jean Peters) arrive at their Niagara Falls area cottage for some romance and relaxation. However, when they arrive they find out that their reserved cabin is in fact occupied by another couple, George and Rose Loomis (Joseph Cotten and Marilyn Monroe). They politely offer to take another cabin, but the two couples become unavoidably tangled as time goes on.
The Cutlers quickly catch on to the Loomis' bizarre relationship. ...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046126
Angel Face is a 1952 black-and-white film shot in the film noir style. The film was directed by Otto Preminger and is one of his many films noir that also include Laura (1944), Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), and Fallen Angel (1945). The movie was filmed on location in Beverly Hills, California. Dimitri Tiomkin composed the music for the film.
One night, Beverly Hills ambulance driver Frank Jessup and his partner Bill are called to the cliffside estate of Charles and Catherine Tremayne. By the time they arrive, Catherine has already been treated for gas inhalation, which the police believe occurred accidentally, but which the wealthy Catherine suspects was deliberate. As he is leaving the house, Frank notices Catherine's beautiful English stepdaughter Diane playing a melancholy piano piece and assures her that her stepmother will be fine. When Diane becomes hysterical, Frank slaps her face to calm her. Confused, she slaps him back, then apologizes. Later, after getting off work,...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044357
Kansas City Confidential is a 1952 film noir directed by Phil Karlson and starring John Payne. Karlson and Payne teamed up a year later for another dark black-and-white noir, 99 River Street and again in 1955, this time in color, for the noir Hell's Island. Perennial movie bad guys Lee Van Cleef, Neville Brand and Jack Elam play the film's heavies. Although the title would suggest that the story takes place in Kansas City, most of the film takes place in Mexico. This was director Karlson's second film noir. He also directed Scandal Sheet, a modest success, also released in 1952. The tag line for the film was, "Exploding like a gun in your face!"
Four robbers hold up an armored truck getting away with over a million dollars in cash. Joe Rolfe (John Payne), a down-on-his-luck flower delivery truck driver is accused of being involved and is beaten up by the local police. Released due to lack of evidence, Joe, following the clues to a Mexican resort, decides to look for the men who...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044789
Sudden Fear is a 1952 film noir which tells the story of an actor who attempts to seduce a successful Broadway playwright in order to prove to her that he can play a romantic lead. It stars Joan Crawford, Jack Palance, Gloria Grahame, Bruce Bennett, Virginia Huston and Mike Connors.
Marlon Brando was originally offered the role of Lester Blaine (Palance's role). The film was shot in San Francisco, California.
The movie was adapted by Lenore J. Coffee and Robert Smith from the novel by Edna Sherry. It was directed by David Miller.
Sudden Fear was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Jack Palance), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Joan Crawford), Best Cinematography, Black-and-White and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White.
Writer Spencer Selby calls Sudden Fear "Undoubtedly one of the most stylish and refined woman-in-distress noirs."...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045205
Clash by Night is a 1952 black-and-white film noir/drama starring Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas, Marilyn Monroe and Robert Ryan. The movie was based on a play by Clifford Odets, adapted by writer Alfred Hayes. The play takes place in Monterey, California. This was the first film in which Monroe was credited before the movie's title. It was directed by Fritz Lang.
During the shooting, the now famous naked calendar photos of Monroe surfaced and reporters hounded the actress during the filming of the movie.
There is also a 1964 British film of the same name.Mae (Stanwyck) returns to her home in a small town after breaking up with a rich man. What follows is a love triangle between her, fisherman Jerry (Douglas) and film projectionist Pfeiffer (Ryan), even though Mae and Jerry have a baby together. The subplot covers the blossoming romance between youths Monroe and Keith Andes.
While Clash by Night hasn't often been ranked among Lang's best works, it has mostly garnered positive...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044502
The Narrow Margin is a 1952 film directed by Richard Fleischer and released by RKO Radio Pictures.
Detective Walter Brown (Charles McGraw) is tasked to protect a mob boss's widow (Marie Windsor) as she rides a train from Chicago, on her way to Los Angeles to testify at a grand jury. Brown and the widow bicker all the way. Brown's partner (Don Beddoe) was killed by the mob while picking her up for the long haul. On the train, Brown makes friends with a woman (Jacqueline White) and her young son. As the trip continues, Brown finds out the people he knows on the train may not be who he thinks they are.
Windsor landed a part in Stanley Kubrick's low-budget noir The Killing after he saw her in this film.
The film is considered by many to be the perfect B movie; according to the New York Times movie review.
The film was remade as Narrow Margin with Anne Archer and Gene Hackman in 1990.
...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044954
Macao is a black-and-white 1952 film noir adventure film. Only stock footage of the film was shot on location in Hong Kong and Macau. Producer Howard Hughes fired director Josef von Sternberg while the film was being shot and then hired director Nicholas Ray to finish it. When many of Von Sternberg's scenes made no sense dramatically, Ray asked Mitchum to write several bridging scenes. Noted cinematographer Harry J. Wild worked on the film. Filming was completed in 1950 but the film was not released until 1952.Three strangers arrive at the port town of Macao. Nick (Mitchum) is a world-traveling, cynical-but-honest everyman. Julie (Russell) is an equally cynical sultry night club singer. They arrive in Macao on the same boat as Lawrence Trumbel (Bendix), a traveling salesman who deals in both silk stockings and contraband.At the center of the plot is a jewel-smuggling casino owner and his neglected croupier girl friend. The "international police" want to get him beyond the safety of...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044863
On Dangerous Ground is a 1952 film released by RKO Radio Pictures, directed by Nicholas Ray and produced by John Houseman. The screenplay was written by A. I. Bezzerides based on the novel Mad with Much Heart, by Gerald Butler. The film's score was composed by Bernard Herrmann. On Dangerous Ground, now labeled a film noir, is a psychologically complex drama generally considered to be one of director Nicholas Ray's best works.Some have observed On Dangerous Ground's influence on Psycho, the renowned film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, in particular, the characterization of the shy young psychopath living in isolation from "normal" society. There is also a notable resemblance in setting and plot to the Norwegian movie Insomnia (later remade in a version directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Al Pacino): each film involves a burnt-out city cop dispatched to an icy wasteland to investigate the murder of a young girl and finding redemption. Online claims that the city in which the movie...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043879
I Was a Communist for the FBI was an American espionage thriller radio series with 78 episodes syndicated by Ziv to more than 600 stations in 1952-54. Made without FBI cooperation, the series was adapted from the book by undercover agent Matt Cvetic, who was portrayed by Dana Andrews. The series was crafted to warn people about the threat of Communist subversion of American society. The tone of the show is very jingoistic and ultra-patriotic. Communists are evil incarnate and the FBI can do no wrong. As a relic of the Joe McCarthy era, this show is a time capsule of American society during the Second Red Scare. Frank Lovejoy appeared as Cvetic in the 1951 movie, I Was a Communist for the FBI. The film was directed by Gordon Douglas. The radio program, starring Dana Andrews, frequently dealt with the great stress that Matt Cvetic was under. There were many personal and family problems caused by his being a Communist, as well as a certain amount of mental torment. He saw the party...,
Ace in the Hole is a 1951 film starring Kirk Douglas, directed by Billy Wilder and released by Paramount Pictures.
Wilder examines the seedy relationship between the media and the news it reports in this cynical satire. Originally released theatrically as Ace in the Hole, The Big Carnival is the title used for the film's re-release and most early television airings. The "carnival" in the title refers to the media circus surrounding the events in the movie.
The film has been seldom shown on television over the years (with the exception of a few recent showings on Turner Classic Movies), and became available on home video for the first time via The Criterion Collection DVD in July 2007.
Kirk Douglas portrays Charles 'Chuck' Tatum, a cynical, down-on-his-luck reporter for a small New Mexico paper. While on assignment covering a rattlesnake hunt Tatum finds out about a man, played by Richard Benedict, who has become trapped in a cave collapse. Tatum sees his chance to make it big again...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043338
The Man with My Face is a 1951 United Artists film noir crime/thriller motion picture starring Barry Nelson, Carole Mathews, Lynn Ainley, John Harvey, Jim Boles, and Jack Warden.
Directed by Edward Montagne, and produced by Ed Gardner for his company, Edward F. Gardner Productions, the script was by Vin Bogert, Tom McGowan, Edward Montagne and Samuel W. Taylor, based on Taylor's 1948 novel The Man with My Face. Original music was by Robert McBride. Cinematography was by Fred Jackman, Jr.The Man with My Face holds the distinction of being the only film noir shot on location in Puerto Rico.
Set in Puerto Rico, where Charles "Chick" Graham (played by Nelson) settled down after the war to run a small business with his old Army buddy, now his brother-in-law, Buster Cox (played by Harvey), Graham comes home one evening to find his wife, Cora (played by Ainley), acting as if he is an insane stranger.
He finds that a double has taken his place. There is a man who looks exactly like him,...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121515
Update Sources