Island of Lost Men (1939)

Island of Lost Men (1939) is a undercover cop exotica yellowface Teutonic expatriate adventure crime romp up the dark rivers of the racists century and hard into the orienticals in more ways than just the music and the music is bullying and harassing of a certain type of perfectly exampled nature of the era, for which engaging in ridicule as a proceeding was the tone of reckoning, even for horror, in its serious moments of introspection.

What is horror? It's a bit like being stuck in a watery hole, maybe as in The Deer Hunter (1978). The young Broderick Crawford finds out in Island of Lost Men (1939). Broderick Crawford may be the most film noir aspect of this non-noir branch reform of the form.

Island of Doomed Men (1940)

Island of Doomed Men (1940) is an undercover cop prison exploitation lousy husband film noir adventure shocker about sadistic capitalistic island owner in conspiratorial league with the US prison system, who runs a mean slave labour based penal island where he keeps his wife a captive, and where he is bothered to his downfall by a domestic monkey.

Peter Lorre is that island owner in Island of Doomed Men (1940), the prosaically named Stephen Darnel who runs a mean slave colony, with a sophisticated home enclave of dreams, flowers, a kitchen, grand piano, electric fence and a domestic monkey.

Rimfire (1949)

Rimfire (1949) is a shoddy wild west justice undercover cop revenge journalism and media mystery semi-supernatural ghost of a gambler low budget thriller western film noir starring Reed Hadley, and directed by B. Reeves Eason.

Eason, who directed his first film in 1915, proving something about the Hollywood machine, and it must have been wonderful for him to see it in these glorious nascent and then silver and golden stages. This film starts too with a stage, a rather arbitrary and somehow unexciting stagecoach chase, which trails round the bends in a high speed action for the sake of action-sequence.

Jamaica Inn (1939)

Jamaica Inn (1939) is an Alfred Hitchcock Daphne Du Maurier historical wrecker and robber grog-swilling smuggler undercover cop old dark house family tragedy and at times pleasantly ham-laden melodrama, which also doubles as Alfred Hitchcock's last British film and the last feature film the great director made which did not feature one of his directorial cameos within it.

Alfred Hitchcock’s oeuvre is rife with complex and often tyrannical parental figures. This recurring motif not only shapes his narratives but also deepens the psychological tension in his films. 

Stray Dog (1949)

Stray Dog (1949) is an Akira Kurosawa buddy-cop Japanese film noir undercover heatwave detective police procedural homicide back-street illicit arms market absolute classic of Japanese noir, that stars  Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura.

It was Kurosawa's second film of 1949 produced by the Film Art Association and released by Shintoho and while considered a noir, it should also be fully considered as a fully formed detective movie and indeed you should know it as being among the earliest films in that genre.

The Sleeping City (1950)

The Sleeping City (1950) is an undercover cop murder metropolitan hospital criminal nurse film noir starring Richard Conte and Coleen Gray, and directed by George Sherman.

Less well known than many inferior film noirs, The Sleeping City does offer a disturbing vision of one of the world's most famous hospitals — Bellevue in New York — in which black market drugs are smuggled out of the hospital in a sting and scam gambling operation.

Richard Conte is the cop who goes undercover, after some suitable screening, and his investigations bring him into contact with a rugged elderly elevator operator, a tormented roommate, and a mysteriously criminal nurse. an authority figure — here the actor Richard Conte — offers some message of public authority and often warning.

Borderline (1950)

Borderline (1950) is an undercover female cop narcotic smuggling romantic copper couple on the run chase caper noir starring Fred MacMurray and Claire Trevor as undercover narcotic cops on the job in Mexico, unaware that each of the other is an undercover narcotic cop on the job in Mexico.

A gentle noir, with no profound moments of existential threat, anxiety, peril nor paranoia, Borderline (1950) is an undecided film noir, capering with the caper format at times and nudging on occasion into comedy, especially as it adopts and parades a standard series of idle Mexicana, example in the made up typecast stereo of the bumbling sombrero and the old "Si senor" routine, which blocks out the light at every turn in this cheapish escapade.

Undercover Girl (1950)

Undercover Girl (1950) is a female undercover cop film noir in which all of femininity suffers the indignities of the history of the world up to 1950, and since 1950 too in some workplaces.

Definitely the target of workplace bullying as well as workplace sexual harassment from  smug mug himself Scott Brady, undercover girl Alexis Smith is also a good cop in an embarrassingly male world, only a few years out of wartime and no years into the 1950s, it is going to be a place where a woman is going to be muscled into the film noir environment of the home, this is going to happen.

She's on the range but they want her in apron, and it takes a touch cookie like Alexis Smith to break this patriarchy right open.

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.

Running Wild (1955)

Running Wild (1955) is an undercover cop teenage-tearaway hot roddin' 1950s crime movie in which a rookie cop goes undercover to infiltrate an auto-theft ring operated by juvenile delinquents.

While the ring itself is operated by juveniles, the man behind it is Ken Ossanger, played by Keenan Wynn, and he is a nasty slice of low-life, and up to more than just sarcasm.

In fact, as well as running the operation which steals strips and resprays vehicles stolen on demand, he is also blackmailing the young and attractive Leta Novak (Kathleen Case) into more than just going on dates with him.

Their dates take them to the hive of local night time action, a roadside joint called The Cove, where all the teens meet, dance, drink and make merry, until a punch up breaks up the fun.

Appointment with Danger (1950)

Appointment with Danger (1950) is a modestly fun film noir from the lesser regions of the canon, telling the exciting story of a postal inspector who goes undercover to break a crime gang that is planning a heist.

Beginning with the only clue that he has, a nun as a witness, Alan Ladd (playing postal cop Al Goddard) proves a tenacious force, driving his way from clue to clue until he has tracked down the gang.

When he has finally got the gang in his sights, he then poses as a corrupt postal cop in order to infiltrate the gang and foil the crime. 

Although things go reasonably well, we're invited to take a look at Al's character as agent of authority, which is established early on. Al, it appears, is driven only by one thing, and that is his work. Even his colleagues are bemused in fact by Al's attitude. He foregoes everything, and lives in a kind of existential isolation, with only his work, which even in itself does not appear to be enough for him.