Johnny Trouble (1957)

Johnny Trouble (1957) is not a film noir despite its posturing title and potential eagerness to be classed as such using the classic Johnny ― Noir naming motif.

Instead Johnny Trouble is a softly presented teen tearaway inter-generational whimsical drama about one elderly lady's grief and her longing for a society and a family in which everything will turn out all right.

The elderly lady in this matter is none other than Ethel Barrymore and this was her final film role which does lead to some interesting places including a fond fade to farewell when she bows out as well as 

Hell's Half Acre (1954)

Hell's Half Acre (1954) is a female seeker film noir about a woman who travels to Hawaii to investigate her missing or dead racketeer husband.

As a rather unique slice of Hawaii noir, Hell's Half Acre stars Evelyn Keyes as the seeker hero on the trail and Wendell Corey as the lousy husband, who is actually still alive but changed his identity due to his own criminal activities. 

Hell's Half Acre was written screen by Steve Fisher, who also wrote I Wake Up Screaming which is a sure-fire classic film noir 

It's set in a rundown section of Honolulu, incredibly well photographed it has to be said, and down there on Honolulu's skid row there are all kinds.

City That Never Sleeps (1953)

City That Never Sleeps (1953) is a criminal-spirit-of-the-city film noir drama directed by John H. Auer and starring Gig Young, Mala Powers, William Talman, Edward Arnold, Chill Wills, Marie Windsor, and Paula Raymond, with cinematography by John L. Russell.

In an film noir canon now advanced by several hundred film noir presentations, the 1953 movie City That Never Sleeps is self-conscious enough to be looking at noir from the inside. Certain noir conventions appear to be so perfectly understood by the time that City That Never Sleeps came to be produced in 1953, that they are not even explained.

For example the head and corporate villain of the piece, the rather articulately named Penrod Biddel (Edward Arnold) is most likely the head of a crime organisation which we never see, and is certainly a business man — although we do not see very much of his business as such — and is certainly a criminal — although likewise we see very little of his criminal activity.