The Amazing Mr. X (1948)

The Amazing Mr. X (1948) is a 1948 American horror thriller film noir directed by Bernard Vorhaus with cinematography by John Alton. It is also known as The Spiritualist, which is just as well, because nobody in it is called Mr X, or referred top as Mr X, although it's true that it does make a fairly sensational title.

The film tells the story of a phony spiritualist racket, which is rather excellently described with the various tricks of the trade merrily on display, much as they are in fairground noir Nightmare Alley (1947), which also reveals some of the tricks of the trickster's trade in all their shabby glory. 

The film is prominently featured in Alton's book on cinematography Painting with Light (1949) and , the photography does certainly have a full-on film noir feel, with its massive plays of dark and light around doorways and stairways and other architectural corners — including an interesting and repeated shot of the spiritualists at work via the crystal ball — shot from below. Some of the most memorably and recognisable film noir photography on the block.

Another of the stranger angles places the viewer inside a sink.

I Wouldn't Be In Your Shoes (1948)

Film noir tropes, jokes, styles, flavours and fashions aplenty are the reward for watching I Wouldn't Be In Your Shoes, a 1948 noir with a heart. 

It's got humour too, and a fairly silly story, but it's delightful how much could be shoe-horned into 71 minutes of silver screen entertainment, at the height of the film noir era.

Two of the best tropes include the wifelet seeker hero, a staple of the early genre; and the falsely accused heel. He's hapless too, and actually quite hatless for noir.

Although the hero of this noir - Tom J Quinn, played by the relatively obscure Don Castle - works with his feet. So hapless and hatless he rides to his fate, a film noir heel nonetheless, with the solid backing of a good woman.

He's a dancer and this is a film noir of shoes, a graspable premise, summed up as: Vaudeville dancer Tom Quinn (Castle) is convicted for murder after his shoe prints are found at the scene of the crime. His wife Ann (Knox) follows the trail of clues to the real killer.

Woman on the Run (1950)

Woman on the Run (1950), starring Ann Sheridan and directed by Norman Foster, is a gripping if minor race-against-time film noir, with enough pleasing twists and conceits to keep most admirers of the style happy.

There is excellent location photography of San Francisco, the likes of which is seen in very few features. Woman on the Run entirely makes a virtue of the streets, alleys, spectacles and scenery of San Francisco, with more location shots than anyone could shake a .44 at.

These include concluding scenes at the fairground at Santa Monica, which perhaps disappoint. This is because most of the questions posed by the drama have been resolved by this stage; we know who is who and what is going to happen, and so by the time the scene is set for the conclusion, there isn't much left to conclude.

The promise here at the ending is that the fairground and the rollercoaster ride are going to be a super-exciting finish, but it doesn't quite pan out like that. 

The true excitement of Woman on the Run involves the passing and pursuing around the streets, through various bars, clubs, apartments and diners; and where the mystery of the race against time which keeps things going. 

Destination Murder (1950)

For devilish double-crossing and deceit, Destination Murder makes a decent stab. 

The central wise-ass is a total scuzzball, a murderer and two-timer who takes up blackmail and loves to think he’s in charge. 

His boss is Armitage, an evil nightclub owner, who has a player piano which plays the Moonlight Sonata every time he throttles someone to death.

Weirdly, when he kills his fiancée in the apartment of his right-hand man, the player piano is present, begging the question — did Armitage actually bring the piano with him to the murder scene?  

This and many other stupid questions trip quickly offa da brain while watching this low grade film noir, which both perlexes and pleases in equivalent degrees.