High Noon (1952)

High Noon (1952) is a renowned suspense classic Western that is not in any sense of the term a film noir, although it yet reflects many film noir values, and was made by many film makers associated by the style, while at the same time being a product of its exact age, and so reflects many of the concerns social and political of the film noir style, while remaining faithful to its own underlying genre. That of the Western.

Not even in this sense then can High Noon (1952) be quantified as a film noir western, like many movies of the period may be. And yet there are so many minute noir markers placed within, and a certain sensitivity to the ailing male and some more complex female relations, as well as commentary on the public body politic, and the influence on community of criminal fear, direct from the government as much as from the villains in our midst, those determined unto lawlessness. 

The Limping Man (1953)

The Limping Man (1953) is a murder and blackmail American in England post-war mystery thriller film noir from Cy Endfield and starring Lloyd Bridges, and one with a classic unwelcome and rather dire trope ending which renders most of it somewhat pointless.

Terror Street, which is also 1953, and starring Dan Duryea is quite a similar production in many respects. There is first the trope of the American in England, a man who spreads glamour wherever he goes.

Both films of course commence in mid air, as the American hero lands in London, ready for action, love and mystery. Both films unravel in a leading mystery across the city, joined by the police, but focused on uncertain crimes and small culture clashes.

Ramrod (1947)

Ramrod (1947) is a darkness on the range film noir western tale of bullying double crossing and rivalry from one of the style's favourite directors, André De Toth, one of the pioneers in the film noir western genre jam of the 1940s.

The permutations of film noir began to play across nightmare scenarios in the urban, criminal, historical and now western styles of story telling,.

In the shadow-draped alleys of 1947, it was not all shadow-draped alleys and the Western too felt the noir influence from time to time. This picture called Ramrod hit the silver screen, helmed by the Hungarian maestro Andre de Toth, and is now considered to be an example of cross-over style, that most amazing of constructs, the film noir western.

Trapped (1949)

Trapped (1949) is counterfeiting undercover cop documentary style cop procedural noir from the absolute height of the classic film noir era.

Directed by Richard Fleischer film noir Trapped (1949) gained historical importance due to its restoration and rediscovery in later years. 

The film's significance lies in various aspects, including its place in the film noir genre, its unique production history, and the restoration efforts that brought it back into the spotlight.

Trapped (1949), a semi-documentary crime thriller film noir story, weaves a narrative tapestry that echoes the shadows of film noir, with intriguing parallels and deviations from its genre counterparts. Directed by Richard Fleischer, the film thrusts counterfeiters against Secret Service agents, a thematic echo of the acclaimed semi-doc T-Men (Anthony Mann, 1947). 

However, Trapped takes daring strides in new and unexpected directions.

Moonrise (1948)

Moonrise (1948) is a rural redemption murder and forgiveness film noir crime film directed by Frank Borzage starring Dane Clark, Gail Russell and Ethel Barrymore.

Atypical in the classic film noir canon, Moonrise is a small-town story of bullying and fate — of how the sins of one man reflect upon his son, and ruin and determine his son's life. 

What is remarkable about Moonrise is how true it is to some regular film nor themes —  most surely of all those of fate and paranoia, and the haunting effect of the past — combined with a story that presses hard into notions of redemption and transcendence.

The Sound of Fury (1950)

The Sound of Fury (1950) is a hard hittin' tale of narcissism, sensational journalism, criminality and mob violence from the very heart of film noir and a classic of its kind.

It's a film that fires on all cylinders and one of the few from the era that still has the power to shock — the full on shocks coming in the final scenes, when a mob gathers to hit a jailhouse. 

In the long build up to this however, there is a full film noir panoply of crime, saps, weak males, money-minded females, a brutal murder that is just as gratuitous and frightening as the justice it inspires, and classic spiral-into-alcoholism that is every bit the quintessential sign of public failure — wrapped up in a hard hittin' tale of crime, punishment and yellow journalism.

The dramatic set up for The Sound of Fury (also known as Try and Get Me!) is a classic of its kind. Frank Lovejoy is the honest family man who is out of work and getting dissed like a jerk wherever he goes. Back home he's got an honest family life in the form of a wife and kid to support  — but there is still a sense there that he is going to crack.