Le rouge et mis (1957)

Le rouge et mis (1957) is a classic jazz riffs all out good time Parisienne one last job-styled heist and gangsters in pyjamas motor car chase and crash French crime film directed by Gilles Grangier and starring Jean Gabin, with the original French title Le rouge est mis, meaning "the red light is on", and with a screenplay based on a novel by Auguste Le Breton, and which not only mentions the 'serie noire' as its own originator, in a metafictional coup, but which stars French legends Jean Gabin, Lino Ventura, with Paul Frankeur, Marcel Bozzuffi, Annie Girardot, Jean-Pierre Mocky and Lucien Raimbourgand it was 100% réalisé par Gilles Grangier, assisté de Jacques Deray, Jacques Rouffio, et sorti en 1957.

Trois jours à vivre (1957)

Trois jours à vivre (1957) is a French film noir witness to murder paranoia romance in theatreland procedural condemned man doomed to die Gilles Grangier fifties Francophile psychological thriller with Daniel Gélin, Lino Ventura Georges Flamant and Jeanne Moreau.

The facile dogmas propagated by the critics of Cahiers du Cinéma have too long consigned Gilles Grangier to the purgatory of the supposedly mediocre. They accused him of failing to innovate, as if innovation were a gaudy ornament to be affixed for the pleasure of theoreticians rather than an organic necessity arising from the material of a film.

Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

Witness for the Prosecution (1957) is a Billy Wilder classic court room drama classic film noir murder suspenser did he or didn't he? Hitchcockian love-that-Laughton Agatha Christie mystery plot twister puzzle game millinery-provoking murder character and melodrama film noir production based on a play and starring Marlene Dietrich, Elsa Lanchester, Tyrone Power, Charles Laughton, Ian Wolfe and Henry Daniell.

Pick Up Alley (1957)

Pick Up Alley (1957) is a black and white Cinemascope Euro Yankee and Limey narcotics violence against women police procedural film noir so paradoxically conspicuous and elusive as the Euro American production circulated under the blunt sobriquet Pick Up Alley (1957), though it materialised originally beneath the more institutional title Interpol (1957). 

Hot Rod Rumble (1957)

Hot Rod Rumble (1957) is a teen exploitation road-racing juvenile delinquent post-noir kind of suburban shock low budget drag racing crime drama produced by Norman T. Herman and directed by Leslie H. Martinson. 

It stars Leigh Snowden and Richard Hartunian. The film tells the story of a clash within the Road Devils hot rod club when some of its members jump to a wrong conclusion following the accidental death of one of them in a car crash.

The Strange One (1957)

The Strange One (1957) is a homosexuality Southern military bullying barely suppressed gay love film noir rough and ready with handsome recruits and serious acting styles, alongside ubercruel supersoldiers of the military south, at ease in the wilds of the barracks, boy on boy on boy.

An interesting look at gay themes from the 1950s, The Strange One is a film that reflects the era's attitudes towards homosexuality. At the time of its release, homosexuality was still criminalized in most states and considered a mental illness until much later. 

My Gun Is Quick (1957)

My Gun Is Quick (1957) is a Mike Hammer late period P.I. violent woman-thrashing chase and murder deception thuggery exploitation noir, which barely carries the name film noir staggering out of the 1950s, yet probably capturing some of the maddened spirit of the early 40s noir as it inadvertently and rather ogrishly does so.

My Gun Is Quick is a Mike Hammer adventure that defies expectations and stands strong despite numerous challenges. Originating from the mind of Mickey Spillane, the film navigates the inherent issues of its creator's style, its largely unknown cast and crew, and the general dismissiveness of its existence. However, like the curate's egg, parts of it are quite good.

The Night Runner (1957)

The Night Runner (1957) is a social issue mental health exploitation psycho patient in the community murder film noir directed by Abner Biberman and starring Ray Danton as Roy Turner, a psychiatric patient who is released into the community as a bad board level decision made by an overcrowded Californian sanatorium.

As an interesting take on an unusual social issue, The Night Runner is one of a run of film noir B pictures from Universal, offers a unique and intense viewing experience as serious but seriously misunderstood social and medical issues are collided into exploitation fiction. 

Hell Drivers (1957)

Hell Drivers (1957) is a blue-collar ex-con high energy British exploitation truck noir tale of violence, corruption and the unscrupulous carriage of aggregates across small distances within the British countryside.

Stanley Baker as per the script of this still popular tale of truckery does the ex-con going straight routine with heavy nods and grave expressions from start to finish, indicating that he has been 'away' and that he has been living 'here and there' and doing 'this and that' while being from 'around' and having lived at 'around' for several years.

It isn't really full explained what this ex-con with an upright galvanised steel morality did to wind up in prison, but we know that because of his escapade he did one year of time, although more meaningfully, it seems that his younger — brother played by the mysterious Klae Corporation's very own invisible man David McCallum — seems to have been permanently injured during the crime, and reduced to working in his mother's Welsh corner shop for life.

Night of the Demon (1957)

Night of the Demon (1957) is a Jacques Tourneur British horror demon special effects creepy supernatural sceptical disappearance and mystery magic murder movie, that is not a film noir, but which like all of the fifties horrorouevre does confine itself to noir, insofar as noir themes, effects and personnel will dominate. 

For who could be more noir than noir's Jacques Tourneur, director of the quintessential expression of the style, that is of course Out Of The Past from 1947, one ten year decade hence, noir incarnate no less.

Yet still who more noir than Dana Andrews, too, quite the figure of the film style, a man of noir, and one of the solids of the medium?

She Played With Fire (1957)

She Played With Fire (1957) is a psychological Limey thriller noir sort of Brit insurance fraud melodrama mystery with widespread stiff upper lippery and confusion raining doubt on a lovely couple of paranoiacs.

She Played with Fire, also known as Fortune Is a Woman, is a captivating British-American film noir from 1957, directed by Sidney Gilliat. The film stars Jack Hawkins as Oliver Branwell, an insurance investigator who finds himself entangled in a web of arson, blackmail, and murder after a chance encounter with an old flame, Sarah Moreton, played by Arlene Dahl.

I Am Waiting (1957)

I Am Waiting (1957) is a violent love noir boxing and lonely youth alienation revenge seeker tale from the Japanese noir boom of the mid to late 1950s.

It is seeker and mood noir, with many a pose of a beautiful young man in peril and even more poses of the beautiful young suicidal chanteuse wanderer, who hang around the docks, most amazingly of all in the young hero's completely empty and almost abandoned bar restaurant.

This dive of a bar is only metres from the industrially smoky and noisy dock railway and likewise only metres from the water too, truly the most horrendous place to play any kind of trade.

Appointment with a Shadow (1957)

Appointment with a Shadow (1957) is an alcoholic journalist switcheroo murder pursuit battle with the booze film noir from the far end of the noir style.

As well as a searing enough tale of conflict between man and bottle, Appointment with a Shadow (1957) tells a strange criminal face-lift noir, back from when face changes as plot device were as firm a fantasy as film could enjoy, and so in this instance it seems credible that a criminal mastermind has only to put it about that he has had his face changed, and confusion reigns.

Short Cut To Hell (1957)

Short Cut to Hell (1957) is a  sure fire curious hitman revenge kidnap detective pursuit film noir, shot in black-and-white VistaVision, featuring Robert Ivers and Georgann Johnson in lead roles. 

Notably, it marks the sole directorial production by renowned actor James Cagney.

The film serves as a remake of the 1941 Alan Ladd classic "This Gun for Hire," itself based on Graham Greene's 1936 novel, "A Gun for Sale."

In the plot, professional hitman Kyle Niles (Ivers) accepts a contract for two murders, only to be betrayed by his employer, Bahrwell (Aubuchon). Seeking retribution, Kyle kidnaps Glory Hamilton (Johnson), a singer and girlfriend of the detective pursuing him (Bishop). As the story unfolds, Kyle confronts Bahrwell, ultimately revealing a dormant sense of morality as he seeks justice.

Man Afraid (1957)

Man Afraid (1957) is a morality murder widescreen revenge, religion and child film noir from late in the cycle, dealing with issues of culpability and trauma, in the light of a Christian minister accidentally killing a young burglar.

This fascinating tale is told as mentioned in ludicrous wide-screen, giving extra inches of enjoyment on either side of the action, and often leaving large black and white expanses of unfilled space, ready to be made into any flavour director Harry Keller can conceive.

Despite the religious consultant mentioned int he credits however this is not a religious movie, but just so happens to be a movie about a religious man.

Crime Of Passion (1957)

Crime Of Passion (1957) is a cops in suburbia story of female subjugation by the American Dream, and the story of how one career woman in love regrets her decision to quit her job in the media and become a housewife.

Many of the favourite flavours of noir are evident in a curiously uncorrupted and happy cop shop whereas the subtle rot of suburban morality that is often unsubtly recorded in film noir is placed on a slow burn beneath the lot of this movie.

The men are the men and the women are the women in this vision of 1950s USA, and most especially of all this is a noir of suburbia, a tale of the middle classes and the stifling inability of the new American Dream to cope with any abnormality in the moral and gender relations of the day.

Edge of the City (1957)

Edge of the City (1957) is a drifter stevedore race relations buddy film noir starring Sidney Poitier and John Cassavetes as two dockside workers involved in one of the worst workplace bullying stories in all of film noir.

Down at the docks where the men are we witness the petty trials of labour teams and the spilling over of race relations into murder. John Cassavetes is an insecure war deserter, a peripheral social figure and not one we see often enough in noir — where historically the hero has seen action.

This is different however, and the tough and realistic noir drama that takes place is as great a testament to left wing politics as it is to humanity and the value of integrity in all things.

Also in the cast are Kathleen Maguire, Ruby Dee, Robert F Simon, Ruth White, Val Avery, William A Lee, John Kellogg and David Clarke.

The Tattered Dress (1957)

The Tattered Dress (1957) is a small town courtroom corruption drama film noir which pits a supposedly corrupt New York lawyer against the definitely corrupt Sherriff of a small town California resort.

A mixture of commentary and caper, sexual molestation and revenge, domesticity versus barbarism and big city manners versus straight-talking small town mentality, The Tattered Dress (1957) is a combination of tropes, all of which are settled in courtroom scenes dark alleys and in the luxury homes of the wealthy resort dwellers.

A slick and effective tale of violence, corruption, foul play, conspiracy, lies and relentless vengefulness, The Tattered Dress evokes late film noir style. Not the obfuscous and stygian shadowy affair that might be typical of 1940s film noir, the evolved style fits the wider screen and the greater amount of light, almost anticipating the later life the movies would have on television, there are longish courtroom scenes which rely on light and not the indistinct flavours of light which make up classic noir.

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) is a nuclear era paranoia and social humiliation weakened male lead fantasy science fiction horror shocker film directed by Jack Arnold based on Richard Matheson's 1956 novel The Shrinking Man. The film stars Grant Williams as Scott and Randy Stuart as Scott's wife Louise. 

Not a film noir, The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) is a noir era view of paranoia, and while classic era noir offers style, theme and technique to both horror and science fiction, The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) is also a great period exploration of masculinity —  or in fact it's an exploration of masculinity for all time.

Best appreciated for the complex and brilliant effects, The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) is one of the decade's major artworks. 

Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

Sweet Smell of Success is a 1957 film noir drama starring Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster as two men working in the sleazier side of the media in New York, a gossip columnist and a press agent.

The film tells the story of powerful and newspaper columnist J.J. Hunsecker, portrayed by Burt Lancaster and based on Walter Winchell, the syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator.

Playing JJ Hunsecker with a huge amount of control and menace, Burt Lancaster creates a character who uses his connections to ruin his sister's relationship with a man he deems unworthy of her.

The character of JJ, an unrepentant manipulator in a world of unrepentant manipulators, is based on the real life figure of Walter Winchell, who was well known for this kind of activity.