The Reckless Moment (1949)

The Reckless Moment (1949) is a murder and blackmail domestic noirodrama Christmas film noir woman's picture suspense love melodrama and tragedy film noir classic of suburban panic and paranoia with Joan Bennett and James Mason, and a classic film noir as well, supported by Geraldine Brooks, directed by Max Ophüls and suggestive of the Suburban Disturbin 1950s to come, with the additional actor talents of Henry O'Neill, Shepperd Strudwick, David Bair and Roy Roberts as Nagel, and of course, Frances E. Williams.

No Trace (1950)

No Trace (1950) is a writer hero blackmail and bad disguise British mysterious sailor suspenser film noir which has a female seeker hero aspect as it is the writer stabber hero's secretary figure who solves the crime and legworks the solution out of the cheap boartding house walls with Hugh Sinclair and Dinah Sheridan, and starring John Laurie and Barry Morse, yes to le deux, a full and rare "British" combo, John Laurie and Barry Morse, and is at the same time a classic of classic actors who do not for various and whatever reasons feature on this weblog.

Assassin For Hire (1951)

Assassin For Hire (1951) is a contract killer stricken with remorse murder sleuth and plod procedural family hitman Limey British film noir with Sydney Tafler voicing an uncomfortably cliched and inappropriate Italian accent, a secret life or identity noir, in which, pretending to be a rare stamp dealer, a Tafler man supports his wife, and in an embarrasmenta of mama-style Italiante clichés, his musically talented younger brother, lives a secret nocturnal life as a hitman, nipping out of the same card game at the same café, to bump off unworthy Limey marks.

The Green Man (1956)

A classic in its own style, time and place, and an essential highpoint of any Basil Dearden season.

The Green Man (1956) is splendid if not classic British comedy two act farcical assassination Basil Dearden black comedy about international terrorism with a zany lady orchestrazia, starring Alistair Sim, George Cole, Jill Adams, Avril Angers, Terry Thomas LOL, Dora Bryan, John Chandos, Colin Gordon, Cyril Chamberlain, Doris Yorke, Vivienne Wood, Arthur Brough, Marie Burke, Peter Bull, Willoughby Goddard, Arthur Lowe, Michael Ripper and Terence Alexander.

A Life of Her Own (1950)

The Ray Milland season does not advance so much as unfold — temporally, tentatively, beautifully. Its path is all digression and delay, yet within that slow meander there trembles a strange coherence, the whisper of a destination it cannot name.

A Life of Her Own (1950) is a George Cukor woman's picture young model from Kansas trying to make it big in New York, doomed romance and suicide driven depression discussing psychological critique lousy husband melodrama starring Lana Turner and Ray Milland, Louis Calhern and Ann Dvorak, Jean Hagen and Phyllis Kirk.

Main Street After Dark (1945)

Main Street After Dark (1945) is a bunco-detail  criminal family crime drama pawn-brokered pistol packing mugging conspiracy Edward L. Cahn cheapso randomly told film noir thriller, etched into the back of the noir alley paper hoardings, seen only when you pull away from the possibility of sensible thriller cinematics, says The Noircades Project.

Rififi (1955)

Rififi (1955) is a classic for-all-time French crime heist criminal gang suspense film noir adaptation of Auguste Le Breton's novel of the same name.

Directed by American blacklisted filmmaker Jules Dassin, the film stars Jean Servais as the aging gangster Tony "le Stéphanois", Carl Möhner as Jo "le Suédois", Robert Manuel as Mario Farrati, and Jules Dassin as César "le Milanais". 

This equippe du crime collab to commit an almost impossible theft, the burglary of an exclusive jewelry shop in the Rue de la Paix. 

The centerpiece of the film is an intricate half-hour heist scene depicting the crime in detail, shot in near silence, without dialogue or music. The fictional burglary has been mimicked by criminals in actual crimes around the world, making of Rififi (1955) more than just a classic of cinema, but a criminal touchstone in tis own right.

The Secret Of The Whistler (1946)

The Secret Of The Whistler (1946) is an infidelity lousy husband greed and murder noir tale from The Whistler series, starring Richard Dix and Leslie Brooks, directed by George Sherman.

A wealthy wife suspects her artist husband's affair with his model. He poisons his wife for inheritance but faces unexpected consequences after her death. A thriller exploring greed, betrayal, and the consequences of criminal actions.

Of all the serial movie concepts, icons, characters and themes, from the earliest moments of serialisation through the incredible eras of the 1930s and 1940s which developed the serial movie, the absolute prototypes of the infinite tankerloads of television shows we have created since 1960, through what are now generations of streaming services, the absolute origin of these is the movie serial, and of those serials none is no more noir than The Whistler.

The Devil Thumbs a Ride (1947)

The Devil Thumbs a Ride (1947) is a psycho bad guy ill-fated pick-up robbery and murder fraud and cop crunching road and beach house thriller from the high era of stranger danger handsome sociopathic lone killer pictures.

Lawrence Tierney shines as he rides down a cop in this wonder-a-minute fast moving loose livin and wild ride of a sizeable slab of American underbelly, thrilling with multiple characters on a road ride to the beach house bar of doom.

Cigarette flickin mean as can be mutha of the night Lawrence Tierney serves up almost at times a solo show of evil forties noir, although more the ably supported by Nan Leslie and Betty Lawford with superstar contrastin actin roles, way into this long night of very noir film noir.

Port of New York (1949)

Port of New York (1949) is a police procedural narcotics semi-documentary tough guy cheapo crime thriller film noir with location shooting, earnest voiceovers and striking dark camera work.

Drug gangsters abound in this early tale of the war against drugs, back in the day when packages were suspicious and the drug evil and crackdowns were both new.

Loud and operatic music accompanies K T Stevens and Yul Brunner as she offers herself to him in exchange for her freedom, in tough amoral crime kingpin fashion.

The opium-laden S.S. Florentine slinks into the murky harbor of New York City, its sleek exterior betraying the sinister cargo concealed within. 

A chill wind whips through the air as cool blonde K.T. Stevens, embodying the enigmatic Toni Cardell, steps onto the rain-slicked dock, her presence dripping with an aura of mystery and danger. But beneath her icy exterior lies a tumult of emotions, fuelled by a brutal murder that stains the ship's deck with black and white bloodshed.

The Beat Generation (1959)

The Beat Generation (1959) is an outré exploitation rapist versus cop beatnik beat thriller which manages to deal with the worst social topics imaginable and do so in a madly unorthodox and spoof manner, while working hard to retain narrative dignity.

Featuring an array of daft and hip beats, beat songs, beat drinks, a beat with a rat, a beat who goes scuba diving and is a kind of harpoon beat, a wrestling beat which is hard to beat, Louis Armstrong, one of the greatest musicians of all time who is playing with some tuneless white dropout cats and a noisy mime, some straight ladies who are not beats, and some other squares who are raped.

Then there is a serious discussion of abortion wedged in between the acting of Fay Spain and Steve Cochran, Cochran playing the cop who is thrown into the world of the beats while tracing a rapist beat.

Manhandled (1949)

Manhandled (1949) is a lousy husband psychiatric jewel thievery crooked private eye wife-murder film noir crime drama directed by Lewis R. Foster and starring Dorothy Lamour, Sterling Hayden and Dan Duryea. It is based on the 1945 novel The Man Who Stole a Dream by L. S. Goldsmith.

Dan Duryea plays a crooked private eye, which is the first twist in this serpentine and sinuous noir drama, which is a lot of fun as any classy high period film noir should be. The convoluted plot is at the best of times a feature of film noir, and not to be sneered at in such a circuitous story as Manhandled tells.

The Seventh Victim (1943)

Infused with confused lesbian undertones, The Seventh Victim (1943) is a fascinating horror film, which sits as neatly in the film noir style as it does in the canon of early horror thrillers.

It is true to say that of all the common genres of film we know as standard, horror was not a large field in the 1940s. Much of what we now appreciate as horror did however set its roots in film noir. The psychopath is a character straight out of film noir ― or at least he made his first major appearances there. 

The dark settings however, with fog, basements, gothic buildings and terrorised women ― are similarly found in the 1940s in the film noir style. 

While The Seventh Victim may be a psychological chiller and mystery movie, it does contain horror elements which directly precede many classic tropes, such as the urban coven ― for which of course see Rosemary's Baby (1968).

The Lost Weekend (1945)

The Lost Weekend (1945) by Billy Wilder, and starring Ray Milland as writer Don Birnam, and starring alcohol as itself, perfectly in character as a marvellous and demonic fixe-fatale, is a low-key and visionary tale of alcoholic failure, and as such uniquely emotional and modern, for the 1940s.

The Lost Weekend is also a landmark in film noir and a high station in Hollywood history, being among other things the winner of  a Best Picture Oscar . . . in fact The Best Picture Oscar, in fact, and there may be little more significant when assessing the history of one style, genre or cinema

This Best Picture Oscar was a deserved win for many reasons, and that included morality which always plays a part in this decision, each year, no matter what the style of picture.

It was a deserved win for the modernity and humanity of The Lost Weekend, which is a film that does not dazzle so much as invite the viewer on a slow and focused ride to the bottom. There is no complexity other than in the acting, and even the script does not veer, even when it surprises with its hidden bottles of rye and constant feeling of domestic and internal desperation.

The Lost Weekend is still a film noir however. Even though there is no murder, there is above all else a psychological horror which in cinematic terms could only find its feet in film noir in the 1940s.

Destination Murder (1950)

Destination Murder (1950) is a blackmail and murder mystery queer-coded cinema-fantasy delivery boy fantasy psychopathic gang leader fantasy female seeker hero classic Edward L. Cahn film and also a classic film noir, by any sane and sober measure of the style, and doubtless listed as such because as far as Edward L. Cahn film noir output goes and is, this must be his noir masterpiece, the most classical and memorable of his out pout in that style and canon, Cahn's classic expression of the classic film noir style, and perfection ahoy.

In the 1940s and 1950s, the female seeker hero was a new twist in storytelling, and she was unique to film noir. 

Destination Murder (1950) is a good time. It is a film of stupidity greed and fo sho sho fire murder. It is not possible to relate any information regarding this cine-fayre without mention of the player piano which is a large part of its attraction.