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Edgar G. Ulmer's Ruthless (1948) stands as a merciless anatomy of social ambition and spiritual bankruptcy, constructed with the formal ingenuity of a master denied the budgets and acclaim he deserved.
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Yes, even though Mirage (1965) was made by Edward Dmytryk in the 1960s it rolls with the full flavour of all iconic and classic film noir, from the paranoiac lost in the city, to the hats and hoods of a mysterious underworld. Great motor cars and docu-noir style street action, a dream-like quality, and mystery intimate quick flashback visions as Gregory Peck pieces the cliches together, with the unique addition of Walther Matthau.
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The Web (1947) is in effect a Private Investigator film noir (P.I. Noir) although the character played by Edmond O'Brien is supposed to be a lawyer, although he functions entirely as a P.I,. being hired to be a bodyguard, carrying and using a gun, hanging with his coat collars up in alleyways, and more and more traditional and common P.I. behaviours.
He doesn't get down to none legal work, that is for sure. Other than the top and tail styling back of his maligned blue collar character, played by Tito Vuolo, with typical Vuoloism.
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Solid film noir technique and actors including a star turn from Claire Trevor and the normative mustachoed noirisms of Brian Donlevy.
For a film that fix to flips flashbacks like flying filmic tales there is epic wobbly fades and wipes to indicate the passage of time, back to World War 2, offering a creditable treasure trove of tropes for all to look and learn.
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One of five films to star both Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson, Brother Orchid is a shenanigan-based production which manages to eke out comedy from gangsterism — never truly easy in the era — while combing a spiritual and moral aspect, which doesn't quite pull the criminality from crime, but refashions it for social purpose.
The story kicks off with crime boss Little John Sarto (played by Edward G. Robinson) retiring suddenly, giving leadership of his gang to Jack Buck (played by Humphrey Bogart) while he leaves for a tour of Europe to acquire 'class'. However, Sarto is repeatedly swindled and finally loses all his money in a series of daft newspaper headlines.
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As an exercise in casting, The Racket (1951) is a film noir which pulls together so many favourite actors and even directors, that it might appear hard to miss. You'll maybe want to know why The Racket ain't a classic film noir — given that it features Robert Ryan, Robert Mitchum and Lizabeth Scott, supported by William Conrad and William Talman, and with direction from not just the credited John Cromwell, but from Nicholas Ray and Tay Garnett also.
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Usually, if a Mr and Mrs are sitting down to a home cooked steak, and the baby girl is playing nearby, something may be afoot. The family is the unseen locus of much of film noir.
Here, Mr and Mrs Cop are seen at home perhaps a little too much; and its a signal that bad things are a-coming.
Although there are spoilers all across this website, a special SPOILER ALERT need be issued for Fritz Lang's 1953 noir, The Big Heat.
It isn't so much around the ending or the way things work out, its just that the likely most significant thing which takes this almost lackadaisical Langian noir out of the realms of the mere crime film en passant, is what happens at home, and the tragedy that befalls that home.
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