Kitty Foyle (1940)

Kitty Foyle (1940) is an almost or proto feminist classic woman's picture white collar girl class and women's rights flashback romance and melodrama Oscar-winning smoochie love and marriage triangle tale of high sadness and existential mid-century womanly angst in both Philly and Manhattan, facing death of hope and an illegitmate baby, and really not the only film of 1940 to make a massive deal out of a snow globe, starring Ginger Rogers, Katharine Stevens, Dennis Morgan, and James Craig, based on Christopher Morley's 1939 bestselling novel of the same name. 

Tender Comrade (1943)

Tender Comrade (1943) is a Edward Dmytryk and Dalton Trumbo anti-fascist furloughed wife home front World War 2 morale and community enrichment rousing patriotic drama that also managed to be interpreted by HUAC as a socialistic sinkhole of evidence of communist messaging and infiltration in Hollywood movie-making, melodramatic newlyweds flashback style 'pre-democracy' diverse female housemates drama and war baby and returning and departing veteran tear-inspirer or 'jerker' if you prefer, starring Ginger Rogers, Robert Ryan, Ruth Hussey and Kim Hunter.

The Hollywood Ten (1950)

The Hollywood Ten (1950) is a documentary short from the heart of the film noir era dealing with the heart of the film noir issue as it deals HUAC-style with the predictive enforced persecution of American citizens in the form of ten Hollywood working men who were found in contempt of the House Un American Committee in the early hey day of American political persecution, indeed back in the days when it meant so much more, to so many more. 

This was not a social media event, but prefigures some of our crazed modern censoring in a few material manners.

Terror in a Texas Town (1958)

Terror in a Texas Town (1958) is an extended flashback wild west whaler revenge tale of corruption and gun slinging oil grabbing landlordism and violence, created in the wake of the HUAC hearings which terrorised and attempted to sterilise and de-communise the media of the 1950s.

A low budget western with a deep moral message, Joseph H. Lewis’s Terror in a Texas Town (1958) is an underappreciated Western that defies many of the conventions typically associated with the genre. At first glance, it may seem to be yet another run-of-the-mill B-western, but beneath its low-budget exterior, the film raises deeply disturbing questions about justice, morality, and societal complicity.

The Boss (1956)

The Boss (1956) is a loveless marriage mean-ass mob boss epic biopic historical tale of cynical criminal cruelty, manipulation and lavish corrupt money making and spending, spanning the early to mid years of the twentieth century.

We’re talkin’ about a loveless marriage, a union colder than a corpse in a meat locker. Picture this: a dame and a fella, shackled together by vows they’d rather break than a stool pigeon under pressure. Ain’t no sweet nothings whispered here, just the hollow echo of empty promises.

The Boss stands out as a character-driven film within its frame of historical epic-ish film noir, focusing on Brady's (John Payne) descent into corruption and subsequent downfall. 

The film opens with the following written prologue: 

"The boss is a creature of no political party. He appears in the wake of public apathy fostering crime and corruption. Years ago an outraged citizenry arose against him. Only you, a vigilant people, can combat the menace of a boss." 

The Prowler (1951)

The Prowler (1951) is a modest and excitingly unpredictable doomed-love-affair obsessional-voyeur and adulterer crooked-cop film noir starring Van Heflin and Evelyn Keyes as two lovers who find themselves in an evil mess of murderous ill happenings after starting an affair that is set from the off to go badly wrong, premised as it is on prowling, envy, lust and a crooked copper's cravings.

Although The Prowler promises voyeurism and terror, it is not exactly this type of film, and spends its time following cop Van Heflin as he pushes his way into this victim's life.

Van Heflin is excellent at this character, Webb Garwood, who is unhappy in his job and just simply can't get why some people have got rich houses and classy women, when all he has is his crummy boarding house room and for company, his sharp shooting targets.