Edge of the City (1957)

Edge of the City (1957) is a drifter stevedore race relations buddy film noir starring Sidney Poitier and John Cassavetes as two dockside workers involved in one of the worst workplace bullying stories in all of film noir.

Down at the docks where the men are we witness the petty trials of labour teams and the spilling over of race relations into murder. John Cassavetes is an insecure war deserter, a peripheral social figure and not one we see often enough in noir — where historically the hero has seen action.

This is different however, and the tough and realistic noir drama that takes place is as great a testament to left wing politics as it is to humanity and the value of integrity in all things.

Also in the cast are Kathleen Maguire, Ruby Dee, Robert F Simon, Ruth White, Val Avery, William A Lee, John Kellogg and David Clarke.

Storm Center (1956)

Storm Center (1956) is a book-burning Red Scare small-town film noir starring Bette Davis as a local librarian who is shunned after she refuses the City Council's request to remove a book on Communism from the shelves.

The picture which packs a certain punch for its ultimate lack of 1940s style chiaroscuro, hoods, slayings, femmes fatales — and other recognisable forms of film noir — is one of the more subversive of the later film noir era and bravely enough is thought to be the first overtly anti-McCarthyism film to be produced in Hollywood.

It is said that in the year of 1950, the United States' share of the entire world Gross Domestic Product was in the region of 50% — and this from a nation that contained only 4% of the world's population.