The Secret of Convict Lake (1951)

The Secret of Convict Lake (1951) is a pressure cooker ensemble cast prison break snow-bound gang on the run innocent-man-accused Western movie with film noir tendencies aplenty and a few side comments too on the social roles of men and women, as such relate to heroism, homesteading and justice.

The 1951 Western The Secret of Convict Lake emerges as a unique entry in the genre, distinguished by its noir-inflected atmosphere and an unusually strong female presence. 

Directed by Michael Gordon, the film tells the story of a group of escaped convicts who, after enduring a harrowing journey through the snow-covered Sierra Nevadas, stumble upon a remote settlement populated solely by women. 

Blind Alley (1939)

Blind Alley (1939) is a psychoanalytic home invasion psychopath on the run crime film noir directed by Charles Vidor and stars Chester Morris, Ralph Bellamy and Ann Dvorak. The film was adapted from the Broadway play of the same name by James Warwick.

Blind Alley may well be a fairly unique prospect — it appears to be a fully-enough formed film noir production — produced at a time before the film noir style and approach was fully formed.

In terms of solid film noir elements we do have a few firm foundations in place which must classify Blind Alley as a film noir.

Firstly, Blind Alley features psychoanalysis as the tool which solves the crime, and gets to the bottom of the psychopathic criminal's dilemma.

G Men (1935)

G Men (1935) is a Proto-Noir Post-Code Warner Bros. crime and police procedural action film starring James Cagney, Ann Dvorak, Margaret Lindsay and Lloyd Nolan in his film debut. 

G Men, one of the top-grossing films of 1935 was a shot at portraying crime successfully within the confines of the newly enforced Hayes Code, by creatively casting crime favourite James Cagney in a non-criminal role -- in this case supporting the law and maintaining the action by becoming a federal agent.

The supporting cast features Robert Armstrong and Barton MacLane and the surrounding tension arises from the fact that Cagney's character, Brick Davis changes sides and bides farewell to the mob boss who financed his education as a lawyer, to become a full on nark, a fed or what passed for it in the long-past and unarmed days of 1935.