The Reckless Moment (1949)

The Reckless Moment (1949) is a murder and blackmail domestic noirodrama Christmas film noir woman's picture suspense love melodrama and tragedy film noir classic of suburban panic and paranoia with Joan Bennett and James Mason, and a classic film noir as well, supported by Geraldine Brooks, directed by Max Ophüls and suggestive of the Suburban Disturbin 1950s to come, with the additional actor talents of Henry O'Neill, Shepperd Strudwick, David Bair and Roy Roberts as Nagel, and of course, Frances E. Williams.

The Upturned Glass (1947)

The Upturned Glass (1947) is a British flashback and voiceover brain surgeon and love affair murder madness and suicide sanity-searching wicked lady and high quality limey 1940s criminologist revenge introspective and calculated insanity intriguer with star of the show James Mason, and Rosamund John, Pamela Kellino and Ann Stephens.

Bigger Than Life (1956)

Bigger Than Life (1956) is a Cinemascope James Mason Nicholas Ray film noir masterpiece of drug addiction, marital survival school teaching depression mania, cortisone abuse, parenting folly and the suburban collapse of the male mind, pharmacy lurking and the horrors of drug abuse, drug cautionary and high dosage psychosis, pharmamerican tragedy, the American Dream | Nightmare scenario middle class suburban disturbin melodrama, starring James Mason, Barbara Rush and Walter Matthau.

A Star is Born (1954)

A Star is Born (1954) is a Judy Garland comeback star vehicle musical scratch the surface portrayal of Hollywood stardom and its machinery love story and doomed romance tale of alcohol, fame, and every day studio and star system misogyny, big production piece musical action and suicide and love and success and failure and the scheming folly of the industry that produced it, and while not only not a film noir but emphatically not a noir nor noir film, is still in its narrative and meta-narrative and reflective qualities, one of the darker musicals one might see, in its reflections made upon the place and time of Hollywood at the end of the golden era of the silver screen.

The Man Between (1953)

The Man Between (1953) is a post war Cold War Trümmerfilm-styled Carol Reed espionage and defection and rebuilding of German and Europe The Third Man style Cold War thriller film noir starring James Mason, Claire Bloom and the queen of Cold War Euro noir cinema, Hildegard Knef. 

Carol Reed's The Man Between (1953) is a sure fire melancholic echo of his earlier triumphs, a film of shadows, silences, and moral indecision, set amidst the frost-bitten rubble of postwar Berlin. A lot of snow went into the making of this cold Cold War thriller.

The Night Has Eyes (1942)

The Night Has Eyes (1942) is a Limey lunar mystery old-dark-house horror quicksand post-Spanish Civil War thriller starring the man of that moment James Mason, and which has variously been known as Moonlight Madness and Terror House.

Directed by Leslie Arliss and also starring Joyce Howard, Wilfrid Lawson, Mary Clare and Tucker McGuire, it is based on the 1939 novel of the same title by Alan Kennington.

It's a tale of hidden and permanent recurrent madness, and viewers are exposed to James Mason . . . "I've made my kill for the night" he says with the placidity typical of his style  . . . murdering a monkey and then resolving himself to the firm Englishness for which he is renowned.

One Way Street (1950)

One Way Street (1950) is a couple on the run in Mexico killer gangster thriller starring James Mason, Märta Torén and Dan Duryea.

The full cast list is impressive however, with some solid noir delivered by some of its finest character exponents, like Jack Elam, King Donovan, William Conrad and even Rock Hudson making a showing.

As the city of Los Angeles pulsates with the wail of sirens, the stage is set for a tale of intrigue and betrayal. From the window of her apartment, the enigmatic Marta Toren observes the chaos below, her cigarette smoke curling into the night. She relays her findings to the cunning Dan Duryea, the architect of a daring heist. But when one of his henchmen falls to a bullet, it's James Mason's turn to shine, using his surgical skills to extract both the slug and Duryea's coveted prize - Toren herself.

Their flight takes them across the border to the rugged terrain of Mexico, where the pace slows to a languid crawl. In a rustic village, Mason's talents as a healer are put to the test, while Toren finds herself drawn to the simplicity of their surroundings. 

5 Fingers (1952)

5 Fingers (1952) is an espionage noir thriller drama directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and produced by Otto Lang. 

The screenplay written by Michael Wilson was based on the 1950 book Operation Cicero (original German: Der Fall Cicero) by Ludwig Carl Moyzisch, Nazi commercial attaché at the German embassy in Ankara, Turkey (1943–44).

James Mason plays the spy on a mission, darkly manoeuvring around in in ambience of espionage rather well, with his dark and sneaking ways, selling big secrets to some big Nazis.

Fabulous and famous, the spy code-named Cicero was one of the biggest names of World War II. The resulting drama film about the trusted but hugely amoral Albanian valet who had superb access to British secrets, was thrilling and cerebral and different enough to be nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Director for Mankiewicz and Best Screenplay for Wilson. 

East Side, West Side (1949)

East Side, West Side (1949) is melodrama crime film with noir overtones, starring Barbara Stanwyck, James Mason, Van Heflin, and Ava Gardner. 

It's a film of socialites and infidelity, one of these glimpse-into-the-lives of the rich and popular, and a look at their habits, drinks, dresses, affairs, apartments, moeurs and murders.

In this world it's always a beautiful morning, and the jewels and the dresses sparkle, and platonic relationships spring up, as does the rekindling of old flames. There is a club where they hang out, and a friendly barman called Bill — and it's always time for a straight Scotch.

Odd Man Out (1947)

Odd Man Out (1947) by Carol Reed and starring James Mason is a classic British film noir set largely on the streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland, following one man's episodic flight in the night, as he evades the law, while partially aided in his delirious and wounded state, by a variety of comrades, sympathetic locals and other colourful characters.

The noir chops of this outstanding thriller are evident first in the central character of Johnny McQueen, who is a sympathetic villain — almost a double villain if this is a permissible description.

As a handsome and wounded hero pulling off a passable Irish accent, James Mason is fully sympathetic despite his being both an armed robber and a terrorist — the latter at least in the eyes of the state.

The noir feel is further evident in the photography which is stunning in its use of shadows and light on the streets, corners and alleyways. These in fact do presage the similar, more famous and more elaborate work done by Carol Reed in the film The Third Man (1949), which was filmed two years later than this. 

Caught (1949)

Caught (1949) is a film noir melodrama from Max Ophüls starring Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Ryan and James Mason, laying bare the perils of middle class marriage and the bullying and controlling which waits any eager young bride, keen to live the fantasy life which the magazines of the time were selling.

Caught is a film which appears more vicious the closer we look at it. 

To kick off, we have some young women who are planning to live their lives through catalogues, an excellent introduction to the mating game as America enters the 1950s.

It is stressed over and over again, in fact. Young model Maude, who changes her name to a more charming 'Leonora', played by Barbara Bel Geddes is seen with her friend and flatmate Dorothy (played by Natalie Shafer) constructing the fantasy life she shall lead via the pages of the many magazines and lifestyle publications that occupy their evenings in their rather downbeat and crummy digs.

Cry Terror! (1958)

Cry Terror! (1958) is an end-of-film-noir cycle home-invasion paranoia thriller, starring James Mason, Rod Steiger, Inger Stevens and Angie Dickinson.

There is terror to be cried about in the air too, as well as the home, as Cry Terror! is one of the first films to have a good look at airline security. As the American world and all its dreams came together in the 1950s, so the seams of those dreams split, and out oozed film noir.

Everything that remains unspeakable as an aspect of the all-American dream, can be found in film noir.

So as the film noir cycle ends, there are a couple of new appearances on the psychological landscape of the USA. One is the threat of nuclear war, as began its life in the film noir favourites at the end of that decade, for which see Kiss Me Deadly (1955) for more.

Another may be the threat of teenage rebellion, which picked up speed in this decade; as did the threat of terrorism.

The Seventh Veil (1945)

The Seventh Veil (1945) is a variety of woman’s film. 

This may sound dismissive but the so-called 'woman's picture' is a sometimes unacknowledged genre from in particular the 1940s, a similarly themed series of films which focus on the mental health of domestic, middle class women. 

Often the women in these films are prisoners, either physcial or mental, or as here ― both. 

Because of this, these heroines are also generally quite paranoid.

You can tell The Seventh Veil is one such ‘paranoid woman film’ because of how it opens ― a woman in a sick bed. 

It’s Ann Todd (playing Francesca) and she is in the traditional pose of the ‘sick’ woman, in a bed, asleep one second, and the next frighteningly alert to the disturbances of her mind. 

It doesn’t matter necessarily that this bed is in a sanatorium ― these beds are just as often in houses, generally creepy, weird houses, but domestic situation nonetheless.