Apology for Murder (1945)

Apology for Murder (1945) is a cheapie-rip-off ten-cent-copycat journalism and media femme fatale film noir "single indemnity" lol female killer thriller rich husband and married for money fantasy mid century noir motion picture adapted from a true story by Fred Myton about a man who falls in love with a married woman, married to a much older man who she wants to kill for the insurance on him, directed by Sam Newfield and starring Ann Savage, Hugh Beaumont, Russell Hicks and Charles D. Brown.

James M. Cain and the Boom of Sex and Violence in 1940s Film Noir

JAMES M. CAIN

It hadn't always been that way.  Back in the very earliest days of cinema, the films themselves had been novelties, simplistic selections of short scenes, and  often quite random.  

On many occasions, the film wasn't even the main attraction, but having said that, the content of the films began to come to the attention of the more morally minded members of society.

A good example from this time might be Carmencita (1894), a 21 second film directed and produced by Edison employee William K.L. Dickson.

In the film, shot in New Jersey, a Spanish dancer named Carmencita was quite possibly the first female to appear in a US motion picture. In some states, the projection of this scandalous film was forbidden, however, because it revealed Carmencita's legs and undergarments as she twirled and danced - - making this one of the earliest cases of censorship in the moving picture industry.

Mildred Pierce (1945)

Mildred Pierce (1945) is  a Michael Curtiz James M. Cain flashback but barely any voiceover detourned woman's picture murder mystery femme fatale female success story lousy husband children-in-film-noir family tragedy tragic love triangle rags to riches to darkened beach house classic film noir starring Joan Crawford, Ann Blyth, Eve Arden, Zachary Scott, Jack Carson, Bruce Bennett and Veda Ann Borg.

A classic film noir indeed, and also a great melodrama, a story which from the off when it bangs iunto beach house action followed by a suicidal moment at the docks, this melodrama is not a film noir in its immediate sea-sweeping seconds, and the theme music is that of a woman's picture, that so-called real entity of the era, the project that is detoruned ce noir la.