Suddenly (1954)

Suddenly (1954) is a presidential assassination Lewis Allen home invasion children in film noir classic film noir Frank Sinatra and Sterling Hayden small town crime suspense thriller, which is not only a good time, but a beautiful item of film nostalgia, noir history, cinematic escapism, and an all round document of mid fifties optimism, conservatism, paranoia, and social confidence.

Yeah this is a town in which the lil boys want to be police officers when they grow up. The truth was break America fairly soon, but for the time this suburban aspic is a gelatinous capturing of some of the best known American dream-style tropes, characters and idiomes en scene.

Dangerous Crossing (1953)

Dangerous Crossing (1953) is a maritime murder conspiracy mystery paranoid woman heiress in distress missing husband silly-newlywed-woman version of the well tested film noir trope of the vulnerable woman, lost in a world of romance that is fear-bitten, weird and underwritten by criminal conspiracy.

That most classic of mystery setups is no longer employed by the movies, the one in which all the world seems to be a conspiracy. No, madam, the purser has not seen your husband. No, madam, this is not your cabin and your bags were never here, your husband was never on this ship. This story is used again and again by da moviemakers, and here it is in a well-formed and perfect trope, creating rough ripples and mystery.

The Night Runner (1957)

The Night Runner (1957) is a social issue mental health exploitation psycho patient in the community murder film noir directed by Abner Biberman and starring Ray Danton as Roy Turner, a psychiatric patient who is released into the community as a bad board level decision made by an overcrowded Californian sanatorium.

As an interesting take on an unusual social issue, The Night Runner is one of a run of film noir B pictures from Universal, offers a unique and intense viewing experience as serious but seriously misunderstood social and medical issues are collided into exploitation fiction. 

Pickup On South Street (1953)

Pickup On South Street (1953) is an urban Red Scare espionage and petty crime classic film noir directed by Samuel Fuller, and starring Richard Widmark, Thelma Ritter and Jean Peters.

Telling the story of how an innocent couple of low life New York petty criminals, a pickpocket and a vaguely defined B-girl, come to be involved in a highly dangerous Communist plot to smuggle some microfilm out of the city, and away from the pursuing FBI.

It goes without saying that the FBI are rather inefficient in handling this affair, relying on assumption, framing and the good will of the petty criminals who know the streets and their denizens better than they ever could. In the favour of the FBI, the commies are not much better organised, although they are quite well funded as cash bribes and payments seem to be their main approach.