Dead Reckoning (1947)

Dead Reckoning (1947) is a John Cromwell directed classic returning veteran and femme fatale murder conspiracy and double dealing innocent man on the run voiceover and flashback Southern set classic dark past uncovered splashy ending all the right ingredients treachery and temptation in Gulf City defining film noir classic film noir poor person's Maltese Falcon nightclubs and knockout drops gritty but cliched movie favourite with Humphrey Bogart, Lizabeth Scott, Marvin Miller, Morris Carnovsky, Charles Cane, William Prince, Wallace Ford, James Bell, George Chandler and Ruby Dandridge . . . as Maid Mabel.

Peking Express (1951)

Cotten remains our guide, the Joseph Cotten season drifting forward with an air of gentle fulfilment.

Peking Express (1951) is a William Dieterle anti-communist yellowface post-war returning veteran trains in noir remake thriller action adventure starring Jospeh Cotten, Corrine Calvet, Edmund Gwenn, Benson Fong, Marvin Miller and Soo Yong.

What follows is a deliberately confrontational act of reinterpretation, an academic recomposition that refuses both ideological timidity and critical fashion. I write not to soothe but to correct, and as I have already declared elsewhere, « la neutralité est la posture préférée de ceux qui n’ont rien à perdre », a statement I repeat here not as ornament but as methodological principle.

Deadline At Dawn (1946)

Deadline At Dawn (1946) is a classic era classic female seeker hero hardboiled amnesia film noir, and a classic film noir which is also a great example of several other film noir sub-styles including cabbie noir, and outre noir.

Full of fun, mystery and menace and with an almost unique script, quipped with an unequaled touch by Clifford Odets, not known for his cinematic writing, and directed by 

The history and definition of film noir remain complex, filled with contradictions and shifting interpretations. Though often described as an American invention emerging from a synthesis of hard-boiled fiction and German expressionism, noir's roots and reach are far broader.

Forbidden (1953)

Forbidden (1953) is a gangster abroad illicit love affair mobster's widow exotica romance film noir set in Macao, directed by Rudolph Mate and starring Tony Curtis, Joanne Dru and Lyle Bettger.

Echoing the heights of 1940s noir theme atmosphere and exciting the dark brew with the sunlight of the 1950s Forbidden bothers itself into existence as a low-subsistence noir which is recognisable as the cinema of ideas that have come before. 

Romantic complications are the order of the day as are snippy twists and the constant colliding of three actors, often crammed into one shot — Tony Curtis, Joanne Dru and Lyle Bettger. 

The idea of dreaming the noir city into being when the city is Macao, and your film is shot on the lot — it is a big ask. Without much scenery to lean on, the actors look even closer together. The main set is a night club, the Lisbon Club, which is rather nice, but the noir city may not be entirely evident.

Johnny Angel (1945)

Johnny Angel (1945) is a maritime gold heist mystery murder romance adventure film noir set in New Orleans.

With a sterling film noir cast in George Raft, Claire Trevor, Signe Hasso and Marvin Miller — along with unique local support from Hoagy Carmichael — Johnny Angel is a complex adventure tale set in part at sea and in part in and around the city of New Orleans.

Johnny Angel (1945) was written by Steve Fisher, who had many interesting film noir and Western titles in his credits, including the novel which inspired I Wake Up Screaming (1941) and screenplays for Lady In The Lake (1946), Dead Reckoning (1947), The Hunted (1948), Woman They Almost Lynched (1953), City That Never Sleeps (1953), and Hell's Half Acre (1954) to name a few favourites.

The Brasher Doubloon (1947)

The Brasher Doubloon (1947) is a typically complex Philip Marlowe family crime film noir mystery directed by John Brahm, starring George Montgomery and Nancy Guild, based on the 1942 novel The High Window by Raymond Chandler.

Although not the best loved nor even the best known of the period adaptations of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe novels, The Brasher Doubloon (1947) does remain highly faithful to type in that it squeezes in the many well known and oft tread tropes, types and topics familiar to readers of that series.

Following the success of the Chandler adaptation Murder My Sweet (1944) and Chandler's adaptation of Double Indemnity (1944), the author became in fashion in Hollywood: Warners filmed The Big Sleep, MGM did The Lady in the Lake (1946), and Paramount filmed a Chandler original, The Blue Dahlia (1946). 

New York Confidential (1955)

In the wake of the televised Kefauver hearings of 1950 (Kefauver Hearings at Mob Museum) which revealed the extent of organised crime in the US to a fascinated public, Broderick Crawford stepped up to camera to play a leading member  of a syndicate, in its Manhattan headquarters.  

Part documentary, part gangster thriller, New York Confidential (1955) (director Russell Rouse, and staring Richard Conte, Ann Bancroft and Broderick Crawford) is played to perfection and has a strong cast. 

New York Confidential almost stands alone.

We're much more used to seeing the corporate gangster these days, but in the mid 1950s, at the tail end of film noir, it was a far harder pitch.