House of Strangers (1949)

House of Strangers (1951) is a corporate crime Italian-American family drama revenge and rags to riches corruption film noir with fragments of boxing noir and courtroom noir included, which stars Edward G. Robinson as a patriarch in a family of boys who can't sort their succession planning.

Richard Conte is the star of the show and its his story we follow as he smoothly and suavely negotiates this house of would-be strangers, acting as his own father's attorney in the courtroom and beyond, convinced that his rich and domineering banker of a dad is innocent of making his fortune on the backs of the misery of others.

This misery is present as usury, played out by character actor Tito Vuolo, the man who became the stand-by Italian American in many a film noir.

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. 

Somewhere in the Night (1946)

From the moment we see John Hodiak’s bandaged faced staring at the field hospital ceiling, we know that Somewhere in the Night is going to be a tale of film noir identity.

Combined with another staple of the style ― the male, recently returned from World War Two, and lost in the city ― Somewhere in the Night (1946) offers true noir chops: the disoriented soul, lost in a city of crime, seeking identity and of course redemption in the arms of a female.

One of several high period film noirs directed by Joseph L.Mankiewicz ― see also Escape (1948) ―House of Strangers (1949) ― No Way Out (1950) and 5 Fingers (1952) ― there is something contained in this mystery that is bursting to be free, and which almost comes loose at several points.

This makes Somewhere in the Night for the most gripping. John Hodiak is the ex-soldier bereft of identity, afloat in the city, seeking himself. He is something of a pinball, bashed from clue to clue as he tries to pick up the trail left by the mysterious Larry Cravat. This is name I read appears to be spoken some 85 times in this movie!

This winds up taking him into an abstruse riddle, focused on the retrieval of some Nazi loot, and through some great locations ― there’s The Cellar nightclub ― and every film noir needs a good nightclub at its heart ― an interesting cabal of thugs who live in an amusingly dressed fortune-telling parlour ― and an insane asylum, another staple haunt of the broken and de-militarised male.

A Letter To Three Wives (1949)

Just as they are about to take a group of less fortunate children on a riverboat ride and a special picnic, Deborah Bishop (Jeanne Crain), Rita Phipps (Ann Sothern) and Lora Mae Hollingsway (Linda Darnell) receive a letter from their mutual friend Addie Ross informing them that she has run off with one of their husbands. 

However, she leaves them in suspense as to which one. 

This is the setup for A Letter To Three Wives (1949), and the main body of the movie describes in portmanteau fashion, how all three marriages are in fact strained, or in some difficulty or other.

This is the work of Joseph L. Mankiewicz, one of the more versatile talents in Hollywood at the time, and he even won a Best Screenplay Academy Award for this film.

This is one reason A Letter To Three Wives finds its way on to the Classic Film Noir website, but the reason it particularly appealed was the character of Linda Darnell.