Winchester '73 (1950)

Winchester '73 (1950) is a weapon worshippin road movie adventure mortal peril survival on the range revenge western film noir picture following the journey of a prized brand new state of the art lever action rifle the Winchester 1873 a formidable weapon on the range, from one ill-fated owner to another, as well as a cowboy's search for a murderous fugitive, and plenty side swipes at native American victims and dispossessed savages, a la Hollywood.

Winchester '73 (1950), directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart, is widely regarded as a milestone in the development of the Western genre. It is a film that transcends the conventions of its time, bringing a darker, more psychologically complex approach to the genre, while still maintaining the essential elements that define a great Western. Those elements are not as varied as you might like ti imagine, it's a tight set of tropes on the range. Here though and in western noir, psychological western film noir, the cultural impact of Winchester '73 as a transformative film in Hollywood's portrayal of the American frontier should be manifest as much as it's a manifesto.

Flesh And Fury (1952)

Flesh And Fury (1952) is a rise and fall glamour and gloves biting the dust deaf and mute boxing exploitation film noir with Tony Curtis, Jan Sterling, Joseph Pevney, Mona Freeman and Wallace Ford.

It is almost in a way a new and undiscovered media, what might be called simpleton noir. Joseph Pevney’s Flesh and Fury occupies a fascinating position within the boxing genre, offering a melodramatic yet compelling exploration of identity, class, and vulnerability. 

The Lady Gambles (1949)

The Lady Gambles (1949) is a gambling addiction, social and moral descent romance women's film noir starring Barbara Stanwyck, turning in a stunning and brutal performance as a woman who is overcome with addiction, so as to the point of ruination.

As the film opens prepare to see Barbara Stanwyck punched 11 or 12 times in the face by three mooks in an alley, each bruising face-breaking blow leaving a great ouch across the style. It has to be one of the more terrifying noir beatings.

This leads to a hospital managed by a cynical hard smoking medical stoic played by John Hoyt, and the whole flashback, fading screen, voiceover here-is-how-it happened commences, and Double Indemnity style, the story unravels, although it ain't such a hot story.

I Was A Shoplifter (1950)

I Was A Shoplifter (1950) is a docu-noir gangland outré procedural blackmail paranoid shoplifter exploitation film noir starring Mona Freeman as a middle class lady gone awry, slipping into a ridiculous but nonetheless dangerous noir world of slippery conspiracy and dangerous wrong-side-of-the-tracks-style lessons in life.

In 1950s California, the police force tries to infiltrate and neutralize a shoplifting crime ring operating in major department stores.

I Was a Shoplifter (1950) stars Mona Freeman as Faye Burton, a judge’s daughter turned kleptomaniac, in this gripping crime drama. Scott Brady plays undercover cop Jeff Andrews, who shadows Faye as she’s forced to join a shoplifting ring led by the merciless pawnbroker Ina Perdue, portrayed by Andrea King.

Take One False Step (1949)

Take One False Step (1949) is an innocent-man-accused murder mystery comedy-toned film noir by Chester Erskine, which follows decent upstanding citizen Andrew Gentling (played by William Powell) as he negotiates the criminal backdrops of San Francisco, trying to clear his name from the frame, and deal with a rabid dog bite in the process.

In town for a conference, Powell's character bumps into an old flame in the form of Shelley Winters, and she relentlessly hits on him until he drives her home, and she disappears, leaving him suspected of murder.

It's a murder without a body however, and an ordinarily tense noir setup falls into place and the hacks of film noir will argue that it winds up lacking in the tension that is traded for comedy.

Johnny Dark (1954)

Johnny Dark (1954) is not a film noir title, despite Johnny Dark being a provocatively film noir style title.

Instead Johnny Dark is a rather pleasant and fairly swift drama film about a motor car engineer who builds a super-efficient sports car, but finds himself sanctioned by the owner of the firm he works for, who is so stuck in his ways that he only wants to make super chunky American family cars that take six people —  a man who sees the sports car as a sign of corruption and decline in civic standards.

There is surprisingly little else to the story of Johnny Dark. The men are test racers and engineers and they used to be USAF pilots.

The owner of the company is fighting with a group of investors, each trying to gain control and this causes him to back the project, and kill it once the proxy vote is over.

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.

Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

Sweet Smell of Success is a 1957 film noir drama starring Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster as two men working in the sleazier side of the media in New York, a gossip columnist and a press agent.

The film tells the story of powerful and newspaper columnist J.J. Hunsecker, portrayed by Burt Lancaster and based on Walter Winchell, the syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator.

Playing JJ Hunsecker with a huge amount of control and menace, Burt Lancaster creates a character who uses his connections to ruin his sister's relationship with a man he deems unworthy of her.

The character of JJ, an unrepentant manipulator in a world of unrepentant manipulators, is based on the real life figure of Walter Winchell, who was well known for this kind of activity.

Johnny Stool Pigeon (1949)

Johnny Stool Pigeon (1949) is a film noir caper which satisfies with its buddy-movie flavour, and location-hopping road movie feel.

Starring Howard Duff, Dan Duryea, Shelley Winters and a young Tony 'Anthony' Curtis, Johnny Stool Pigeon cuts its chops on role reversal, as dyed-in-the-wool copper Howard Duff toughens up to the wrong side of the law, becoming an undercover hood in order to bust a massive drug ring.

Not many films from the 1940s tackle the new-ish science of drug abuse, but Johnny Stool Pigeon does. 

Evidence of product itself and its effects are kept to a minimum, and so most of the caper is spent as Dan Duryea, already a criminal on the inside, helps show conservatively acting and dressing Howard Duff, how it is done on the dark side.

First, you gotta wear a snappy suit, and thirty dollar shoes. But is that enough for Howard Duff to lose his straight-guy copper flavour?

We'll have to see. He's up against amazing rising young star Anthony Curtis; and veteran John McIntire in a villainous suit of rodeo gear.

Criss Cross (1949)

Hitting the grounds of Bunker Hill running, Criss Cross (1949) opens with great excitement in the midst of several dramas.

There’s a fight at a night club ― or is it a fight? There’s a panicky couple of lovers ― Burt Lancaster and the incredible and much loved Yvonne De Carlo ― and there is a sizeable team of men, who have clearly come together with larceny in mind.

One long flashback and many moments of indecision from Lancaster’s character ‘Steve Thompson’ later, and the movie concludes with its high-octane combination of heist-gone-wrong meets triple-cross.

In Criss Cross, Robert Siodmak made a restless film noir, giving the story an exciting structure that raises the drama higher than it might otherwise be. The art here is in complicating something that might under other circumstances be quite straightforward.

One way this is achieved is through some regular film noir favourite tropes, moves and signals.

The first of these is the idea of returning. This isn’t just a favourite theme in film noir, and it is the start of many a good story. But film noir does use this to a great extent. Thus the flashback commences with Burt Lancaster’s character returning to Bunker Hill ― full of melancholy ― full of wisdom ― full of questions ― replete with memories ― weighed down with experience ― and looking for a lost love.