M 
● NOIR-PRECURSOR / GERMAN NOIR
1931, Germany, 99m, BW, Thriller-Drama-Crime
Screenplay Fritz Lang, Thea von Harbou Producer Seymour Nebenzal Photography Fritz Arno Wagner Editor Paul Falkenberg Music Edvard Grieg Cast Peter Lorre, Otto Wernicke, Ellen Widmann, Gustaf Grundgens, Theodor Loos, Inge Landgut, Theo Lingen, Georg John, Ernst Stahl-Nachbaur, Paul Kemp.
1931, Germany, 99m, BW, Thriller-Drama-Crime
Screenplay Fritz Lang, Thea von Harbou Producer Seymour Nebenzal Photography Fritz Arno Wagner Editor Paul Falkenberg Music Edvard Grieg Cast Peter Lorre, Otto Wernicke, Ellen Widmann, Gustaf Grundgens, Theodor Loos, Inge Landgut, Theo Lingen, Georg John, Ernst Stahl-Nachbaur, Paul Kemp.
"It’s hard to believe that M was made in 1931. If we allow for the fact that it’s in black and white, it is more engaging to the eye, more incisive in its irony, more firm in its grasp of social complications than most of the films that come along today... The screenplay, by Thea von Harbou, then Lang’s wife, deals with a serial killer of children terrorizing Berlin. But this is not a mystery story: we know virtually from the beginning who the criminal is. We see him writing to the press, begging to be caught. The suspense is in the effect of this murderer and his murders on the structure of a large city—how two kinds of order are galvanized by the murderer’s disorder." - Stanley Kauffman (The Criterion Collection)
M
1951, USA, 88m, BW, Crime-Drama-Thriller
Screenplay Norman Reilly Raine, Leo Katcher (with additional dialogue by Waldo Salt, based on the 1931 screenplay by Thea von Harbou and Fritz Lang) Producer Seymour Nebenzal Photography Ernest Laszlo Editor Edward Mann Music Michel Michelet Cast David Wayne, Howard da Silva, Luther Adler, Martin Gabel, Steve Brodie, Raymond Burr, Glenn Anders, Norman Lloyd, Walter Burke, Karen Morley.
Screenplay Norman Reilly Raine, Leo Katcher (with additional dialogue by Waldo Salt, based on the 1931 screenplay by Thea von Harbou and Fritz Lang) Producer Seymour Nebenzal Photography Ernest Laszlo Editor Edward Mann Music Michel Michelet Cast David Wayne, Howard da Silva, Luther Adler, Martin Gabel, Steve Brodie, Raymond Burr, Glenn Anders, Norman Lloyd, Walter Burke, Karen Morley.
"As the Hollywood blacklist swung into high gear, Losey found an ideal vehicle for his increasing alienation from the studio system in this striking and much admired reinterpretation of Fritz Lang's classic tale of a tortured child killer and the malignant society that is unable to help him. Losey assembled many of his stellar cast from the New York theater, including Howard da Silva, Norman Lloyd and the talented David Wayne, who adds a new level of perversity and poignant loneliness to his portrayal of M's hunted psychopath. A key American film of the early 1950s, Losey's M offers a dark cautionary tale for the television age that sees the corrupt intertwining of politics and media fanning the flames of mass hysteria." - Harvard Film Archive
Macao
1952, USA, 80m, BW, Crime-Romance-Drama
Screenplay Bernard C. Schoenfeld, Stanley Rubin (from an unpublished story by Bob Williams) Producer Alex Gottlieb Photography Harry Wild Editors Robert Golden, Samuel E. Beetley Music Anthony Collins Cast Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, William Bendix, Gloria Grahame, Thomas Gomez, Brad Dexter, Philip Ahn, Vladimir Sokoloff, Rico Alaniz, Edward Ashley.
Screenplay Bernard C. Schoenfeld, Stanley Rubin (from an unpublished story by Bob Williams) Producer Alex Gottlieb Photography Harry Wild Editors Robert Golden, Samuel E. Beetley Music Anthony Collins Cast Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, William Bendix, Gloria Grahame, Thomas Gomez, Brad Dexter, Philip Ahn, Vladimir Sokoloff, Rico Alaniz, Edward Ashley.
"Not an entirely happy production - Sternberg, according to Mitchum, shot and cut it in such a way that characters kept walking into themselves, with the result that Nicholas Ray was called in to reshoot (uncredited) many of the action scenes - but still a delightful bit of RKO exotica. The thin story, set in the port of the title, sees Mitchum's drifter joining up with Russell's sultry singer and helping the local cops catch a criminal bigwig. But what is so enjoyable, apart from Harry Wild's shimmering camerawork, is the tongue-in-cheek tone of the script and performances, best evidenced in the sparkling banter and innuendo between Mitchum and Russell." - Geoff Andrew (Time Out)
The Macomber Affair
1947, USA, 89m, BW, Adventure-Drama
Screenplay Casey Robinson, Seymour Bennett (based on the short story The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber by Ernest Hemingway) Producers Benedict Bogeaus, Casey Robinson Photography Karl Struss Editors George Feld, Jack Wheeler Music Miklós Rózsa Cast Gregory Peck, Joan Bennett, Robert Preston, Reginald Denny, Carl Harbord, Earl T. Smith, Jean Gillie, Vernon Downing, Frederic Worlock, Hassain Said.
Screenplay Casey Robinson, Seymour Bennett (based on the short story The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber by Ernest Hemingway) Producers Benedict Bogeaus, Casey Robinson Photography Karl Struss Editors George Feld, Jack Wheeler Music Miklós Rózsa Cast Gregory Peck, Joan Bennett, Robert Preston, Reginald Denny, Carl Harbord, Earl T. Smith, Jean Gillie, Vernon Downing, Frederic Worlock, Hassain Said.
"The Macomber Affair is an unsuccessful attempt to translate one of Ernest Hemingway's best-known short stories to the screen. Hemingway is a hard one to make work on film… On the page, it seems clear that the wife's shooting of her husband was no accident; on the screen, this is cleaned up to allow the possibility that it was an accident, thus negating the impact of the story. Zoltan Korda's direction is surprisingly tame, given the ferocity of the material. Gregory Peck is likewise much too tame, uncomfortable in a role for which he is not ideal casting. Joan Bennett is somewhat better, but she too is not the best choice for the role. Only Robert Preston turns in a good performance, and his makes up for many of the film's flaws." - Craig Butler (Allmovie)
Madigan
● LATE NOIR (1960s) / COLOUR NOIR
1968, USA, 101m, Col, Crime-Thriller-Police Detective Film
Screenplay Abraham Polonsky, Howard Rodman (from the novel The Commissioner by Richard Dougherty) Producer Frank P. Rosenberg Photography Russell Metty Editor Milton Shifman Music Don Costa Cast Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Inger Stevens, Harry Guardino, James Whitmore, Susan Clark, Michael Dunn, Steve Ihnat, Don Stroud, Sheree North.
1968, USA, 101m, Col, Crime-Thriller-Police Detective Film
Screenplay Abraham Polonsky, Howard Rodman (from the novel The Commissioner by Richard Dougherty) Producer Frank P. Rosenberg Photography Russell Metty Editor Milton Shifman Music Don Costa Cast Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Inger Stevens, Harry Guardino, James Whitmore, Susan Clark, Michael Dunn, Steve Ihnat, Don Stroud, Sheree North.
"A film that marks a crossroads in Siegel's career. The methods of the two strongarm cops (Richard Widmark and Harry Guardino), given seventy-two hours to find a killer, invite comparisons with those of the two professional gunmen in Siegel's earlier The Killers. But the film also looks forward to Coogan's Bluff and Dirty Harry as the first to exploit the ambivalent enforcer/protector role of the police in society, with Henry Fonda as the martinet police commissioner enforcing strict public morality while practising marital infidelity at home." - Time Out
Make Haste to Live
1954, USA, 90m, BW, Crime-Thriller-Drama
Screenplay Warren Duff (from the novel by Mildred Gordon and Gordon Gordon) Producer William A. Seiter Photography John L. Russell Editor Fred Allen Music Elmer Bernstein Cast Dorothy McGuire, Stephen McNally, Mary Murphy, Edgar Buchanan, John Howard, Ron Hagerthy, Pepe Hern, Eddy Waller, Carolyn Jones, Argentina Brunetti.
Screenplay Warren Duff (from the novel by Mildred Gordon and Gordon Gordon) Producer William A. Seiter Photography John L. Russell Editor Fred Allen Music Elmer Bernstein Cast Dorothy McGuire, Stephen McNally, Mary Murphy, Edgar Buchanan, John Howard, Ron Hagerthy, Pepe Hern, Eddy Waller, Carolyn Jones, Argentina Brunetti.
"The spooky opening sequence of Make Haste to Live is prototypically noir: a sinister stranger looms in the bedroom where Benson (McGuire) tosses in restive sleep. But having set up an intriguing situation Make Haste to Live loses its way so that an interesting noir narrative becomes a muddled mess. Credulity is strained well past the snapping point, as Benson flip-flops between resourceful adversary for Blackford (McNally) and the most feckless of battered wives… As the narrative meanders from one thing to another, Makes Haste to Live has no urgent destination in mind." - Bill MacVicar (Film Noir: The Encyclopedia)
The Maltese Falcon
Dangerous Female (alternative title)
● NOIR-PRECURSOR
1931, USA, 80m, BW, Mystery-Drama-Detective Film
Screenplay Brown Holmes, Maude Fulton (based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett) Photography William Rees Editor George Marks Music Joseph A. Burke Cast Bebe Daniels, Ricardo Cortez, Dudley Digges, Una Merkel, Robert Elliott, Thelma Todd, Otto Matieson, Walter Long, Dwight Frye, J. Farrell MacDonald.
● NOIR-PRECURSOR
1931, USA, 80m, BW, Mystery-Drama-Detective Film
Screenplay Brown Holmes, Maude Fulton (based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett) Photography William Rees Editor George Marks Music Joseph A. Burke Cast Bebe Daniels, Ricardo Cortez, Dudley Digges, Una Merkel, Robert Elliott, Thelma Todd, Otto Matieson, Walter Long, Dwight Frye, J. Farrell MacDonald.
"Sometimes known as Dangerous Female, Roy Del Ruth's 1931 adaptation isn't a bad film, but it does have the clunkiness of early Hollywood. The story is essentially the same as its more famous descendent--private dick Sam Spade is hired by a dazzling dame to chase after a pack of lies, leading him into a nest of crooks all searching for a fabled jewel-encrusted statue of a bird--but without any of the hardbitten dialogue. What really sets the two apart, however, are the actors. Ricardo Cortez, who would also later play Perry Mason in The Case of the Black Cat, doesn't really pull off Sam Spade. He's a little too flip, trading on his sarcastic Cheshire cat grin rather than commanding the room. If he were under the gun with John Huston's villainous 1941 cast, he'd never get out alive." - Jamie S. Rich (DVD Talk)
The Maltese Falcon 
1941, USA, 100m, BW, Mystery-Detective Film
Screenplay John Huston (from the novel by Dashiell Hammett) Producer Henry Blanke Photography Arthur Edeson Editor Thomas Richards Music Adolph Deutsch Cast Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, Gladys George, Peter Lorre, Barton MacLane, Elisha Cook Jr., Lee Patrick, Ward Bond, Jerome Cowan.
Screenplay John Huston (from the novel by Dashiell Hammett) Producer Henry Blanke Photography Arthur Edeson Editor Thomas Richards Music Adolph Deutsch Cast Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, Gladys George, Peter Lorre, Barton MacLane, Elisha Cook Jr., Lee Patrick, Ward Bond, Jerome Cowan.
"Huston's first film displays the hallmarks that were to distinguish his later work: the mocking attitude toward human greed; the cavalier insolence with which plot details are treated almost as asides; the delight in bizarre characterisations... What makes it a prototype film noir is the vein of unease missing from the two earlier versions of Hammett's novel. Filmed almost entirely in interiors, it presents a claustrophobic world animated by betrayal, perversion and pain, never - even at its most irresistibly funny, as when Cook listens in outraged disbelief while his fat sugar daddy proposes to sell him down the line - quite losing sight of this central abyss of darkness, ultimately embodied by Mary Astor's sadly duplicitous siren." - Tom Milne (Time Out)
The Man Between
● BRIT-NOIR
1953, UK, 100m, BW, Spy-Drama-Thriller
Screenplay Harry Kurnitz (based on a story by Walter Ebert) Producer Carol Reed Photography Desmond Dickinson Editor Bert Bates Music John Addison Cast James Mason, Claire Bloom, Hildegard Knef, Geoffrey Toone, Aribert Wascher, Ernst Schroder, Dieter Krause, Hilde Sessak, Karl John, Ljuba Welitsch.
1953, UK, 100m, BW, Spy-Drama-Thriller
Screenplay Harry Kurnitz (based on a story by Walter Ebert) Producer Carol Reed Photography Desmond Dickinson Editor Bert Bates Music John Addison Cast James Mason, Claire Bloom, Hildegard Knef, Geoffrey Toone, Aribert Wascher, Ernst Schroder, Dieter Krause, Hilde Sessak, Karl John, Ljuba Welitsch.
"When reviewing Carol Reed’s postwar thrillers, it’s usual to dismiss The Man Between (1953) as the poor relation of Odd Man Out (1947) and The Third Man (1949). Watching the newly released 2K restoration, however, a different impression emerges. The plot centres on a British woman’s (Bloom) trip to Berlin to visit her doctor brother (Toone) and his German wife (Knef), but she is waylaid by her involvement with a charming rogue (Mason) and a plot to lure a pimpernelish agent into East Berlin. As he did with Dublin (Odd Man Out) and Vienna (The Third Man), Reed again demonstrates his genius for conveying the sinister side of an iconic city. But he also contrasts the complacency of the victor with the cynicism of the vanquished and, thus, captures the excruciating everyday reality of life in a country with a shameful past and a daunting future." - David Parkinson (BFI)
The Man I Love
1946, USA, 96m, BW, Crime-Melodrama
Screenplay Catherine Turney, Jo Pagano (from the novel Night Shift by Maritta M. Wolff) Producer Arnold Albert Photography Sidney Hickox Editor Owen Marks Music Max Steiner Cast Ida Lupino, Robert Alda, Bruce Bennett, Andrea King, Martha Vickers, Alan Hale, Dolores Moran, Warren Douglas, Don McGuire, John Ridgely.
Screenplay Catherine Turney, Jo Pagano (from the novel Night Shift by Maritta M. Wolff) Producer Arnold Albert Photography Sidney Hickox Editor Owen Marks Music Max Steiner Cast Ida Lupino, Robert Alda, Bruce Bennett, Andrea King, Martha Vickers, Alan Hale, Dolores Moran, Warren Douglas, Don McGuire, John Ridgely.
"The Man I Love isn’t a crime film per se, but it’s far more than a typical melodrama, thanks in large part to the strong, tough direction of Raoul Walsh. Set in the post-war era of swank nightclubs and the seedy types they attract, it’s a refreshingly mature film rich with stories of frustrated lives, unrequited loves and tough times just getting by in the world without selling your soul. Lupino is the calloused heroine, a New York chanteuse who goes home to Los Angeles to see her family – a married sister with a child and a soldier husband in the hospital for shellshock, a sweet younger sister infatuated with the married man next door and a cocky brother who sees his future as a hired thug for sleazy nightclub lothario Robert Alda.” - Sean Axmaker (seanax.com)
Man in the Attic
1953, USA, 82m, BW, Crime-Mystery-Whodunit
Screenplay Barré Lyndon, Robert Presnell Jr. (based on the novel The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes) Producer Robert L. Jacks Photography Leo Tover Editor Marjorie Fowler Music Hugo Friedhofer Cast Jack Palance, Constance Smith, Byron Palmer, Frances Bavier, Rhys Williams, Sean McClory, Leslie Bradley, Tita Phillips, Lester Matthews, Harry Cording.
Screenplay Barré Lyndon, Robert Presnell Jr. (based on the novel The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes) Producer Robert L. Jacks Photography Leo Tover Editor Marjorie Fowler Music Hugo Friedhofer Cast Jack Palance, Constance Smith, Byron Palmer, Frances Bavier, Rhys Williams, Sean McClory, Leslie Bradley, Tita Phillips, Lester Matthews, Harry Cording.
"Unlike its immediate predecessor which was an "A" picture directed by John Brahm with a first rate cast including George Sanders, Merle Oberon, and Cedric Hardwicke, Man in the Attic was clearly a B-movie with Palance as the only high profile name in the cast. Still, the film is atmospheric, faithful to Lowndes's storyline, and an entertaining diversion for Palance fans who enjoy his particular brand of moody self-absorption and intensity. Here he plays a reclusive pathologist named Slade who is looking for lodgings where his privacy will be respected and he can come and go unobserved since he works irregular hours at a nearby university hospital." - Jeff Stafford (Turner Classic Movies)
Man in the Dark
1953, USA, 70m, BW, Crime-Drama-Mystery
Screenplay George Bricker, Jack Leonard, William Sackheim (from a story by Tom Van Dycke and Henry Altimus) Producer Wallace MacDonald Photography Floyd Crosby Editor Viola Lawrence Music Russ di Maggio Cast Edmond O'Brien, Audrey Totter, Ted De Corsia, Horace McMahon, Nick Dennis, Dayton Lummis, Dan Riss, Chris Alcaide, Fred Aldrich, Leonard Bremen.
Screenplay George Bricker, Jack Leonard, William Sackheim (from a story by Tom Van Dycke and Henry Altimus) Producer Wallace MacDonald Photography Floyd Crosby Editor Viola Lawrence Music Russ di Maggio Cast Edmond O'Brien, Audrey Totter, Ted De Corsia, Horace McMahon, Nick Dennis, Dayton Lummis, Dan Riss, Chris Alcaide, Fred Aldrich, Leonard Bremen.
"Columbia chief Harry Cohn's commitment to 3-D had its limits, as Man in the Dark is a real quickie distinguished only by its cast of noir icons. The adapted storyline is packed with somewhat limp 'smart' dialogue. Indicating how conscious writers of this time were of previous hardboiled thrillers. One speech even borrows a line about money "being a piece of paper with germs on it" from Edgar Ulmer's Detour. Man in the Dark is sometimes listed as a sci-fi movie, owing to its notion of using surgery to correct criminal behavior. If that idea had been developed beyond gimmick status the movie might connect with later sci-fi efforts like A Clockwork Orange." - Glenn Erickson (DVD Savant)
Man in the Vault
1956, USA, 73m, BW, Crime-Drama-Thriller
Screenplay Burt Kennedy (based on the novel The Lock and the Key by Frank Gruber) Producer Robert E. Morrison Photography William Clothier Editor Danford B. Greene Music Henry Vars Cast William Campbell, Karen Sharpe, Anita Ekberg, Berry Kroeger, Paul Fix, James Seay, Mike Mazurki, Robert Keys, Nancy Duke, Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez.
Screenplay Burt Kennedy (based on the novel The Lock and the Key by Frank Gruber) Producer Robert E. Morrison Photography William Clothier Editor Danford B. Greene Music Henry Vars Cast William Campbell, Karen Sharpe, Anita Ekberg, Berry Kroeger, Paul Fix, James Seay, Mike Mazurki, Robert Keys, Nancy Duke, Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez.
"This low-budget crime thriller is produced by John Wayne’s Batjac company and directed by the inexperienced Andrew V. McLaglen (Something Big/Fools’ Parade/Hellfighters), the son of Victor McLaglen–one of the Duke’s favorite costars. Too bad the kid doesn’t have much ability as a director, as there were things that could have been done much better to make this more of a classic film noir than just a forgettable programmer… This predictable caper film is only mildly entertaining; its most memorable scene has a lifeless locksmith, William Campbell (a cult actor best known for his long association with Star Trek), inside a bank vault trying to make keys on the fly for a safety deposit box that is not his and contains $200,000." - Dennis Schwartz (Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews)
The Man is Armed
1956, USA, 70m, BW, Crime-Drama
Screenplay Richard H. Landau, Robert C. Dennis (based on a story by Don Martin) Producer Edward J. White Photography Bud Thackery Editor Tony Martinelli Music R. Dale Butts Cast Dane Clark, May Wynn, William Talman, Barton MacLane, Robert Horton, Fredd Wayne, Richard Benedict, Richard Reeves, Harry Lewis, Bobby Jordan.
Screenplay Richard H. Landau, Robert C. Dennis (based on a story by Don Martin) Producer Edward J. White Photography Bud Thackery Editor Tony Martinelli Music R. Dale Butts Cast Dane Clark, May Wynn, William Talman, Barton MacLane, Robert Horton, Fredd Wayne, Richard Benedict, Richard Reeves, Harry Lewis, Bobby Jordan.
"This is another programmer from that seemingly endless supply produced by Republic Pictures. Truck driver Dane Clark has just gotten out of prison after serving a one year bit. He is hitching his back way back to LA. Fred Wayne, who works for the same trucking outfit Clark had, picks him up… Not a world-beater by any means, but at only 70 minutes it passes the time quite well… The director here was Franklin Adreon. Adreon started out as a director of serials such as Panther Girl of the Congo, Canadian Mounties vs The Atomic Invaders, and Trader Tom of the China Seas. His noir output includes No Man's Woman and Terror at Midnight." - Film Noir of the Week
The Man Who Cheated Himself
1950, USA, 81m, BW, Drama-Crime-Thriller
Screenplay Philip MacDonald, Seton I. Miller (from an unpublished story by Seton I. Miller) Producer Jack M. Warner Photography Russell Harlan Editor David Weisbart Music Louis Forbes Cast Lee J. Cobb, John Dall, Jane Wyatt, Lisa Howard, Harlan Warde, Alan Wells, Tito Vuolo, Mimi Aguglia, Charles Arnt, Marjorie Bennett.
Screenplay Philip MacDonald, Seton I. Miller (from an unpublished story by Seton I. Miller) Producer Jack M. Warner Photography Russell Harlan Editor David Weisbart Music Louis Forbes Cast Lee J. Cobb, John Dall, Jane Wyatt, Lisa Howard, Harlan Warde, Alan Wells, Tito Vuolo, Mimi Aguglia, Charles Arnt, Marjorie Bennett.
"The Man Who Cheated Himself emerges as an interesting and entertaining film noir, a "second tier" noir that deserves to be better known. (The title doesn't really fit the story to a T, but it's a great title nonetheless.) Felix E. Feist directs with all the requisite tension and atmosphere, pulling the viewer in and leading him along in a perfect, acceptable manipulative fashion. Feist's direction lacks some of the great flourishes of the masters of the genre, but it's more than competent and gets no complaints from this corner. Lee J. Cobb gives a very solid performance in the lead, as Lt. Ed Cullen, capturing the conflicting aspects of the character and making him sympathetic, even as he treads down the path of murder." - Craig Butler (Allmovie)
The Man Who Wasn’t There
● NEO-NOIR
2001, USA-UK, 116m, BW, Crime-Drama
Screenplay Ethan Coen, Joel Coen Producer Ethan Coen Photography Roger Deakins Editors Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Tricia Cooke Music Carter Burwell Cast Billy Bob Thornton, Frances McDormand, Michael Badalucco, James Gandolfini, Katherine Borowitz, Jon Polito, Scarlett Johansson, Richard Jenkins, Tony Shalhoub, Christopher Kriesa.
2001, USA-UK, 116m, BW, Crime-Drama
Screenplay Ethan Coen, Joel Coen Producer Ethan Coen Photography Roger Deakins Editors Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Tricia Cooke Music Carter Burwell Cast Billy Bob Thornton, Frances McDormand, Michael Badalucco, James Gandolfini, Katherine Borowitz, Jon Polito, Scarlett Johansson, Richard Jenkins, Tony Shalhoub, Christopher Kriesa.
"The work is a thriller in the style of James M. Cain, set in suburban California in 1949 and obviously influenced by the movies of the period, yet somehow transmitting the atmospheric crackle of a strange tale from The Twilight Zone… The Man Who Wasn't There is shot in black-and-white by the Coens' long-standing cinematographer Roger Deakins, with superbly observed locations and sets: exquisitely lit, designed and furnished… Noir is the catch-all term given to movies like this - yet the Coens achieve their greatest, most disturbing moments in fierce sunlight, in the outdoors and in the dazzling white light of the final sequence. So I propose a new genre for this film - noir-blanc, a seriocomic masterpiece which transforms the quotidian ordinariness of waking lives.” - Peter Bradshaw (The Guardian)
The Man with My Face
1951, USA, 86m, BW, Crime-Thriller
Screenplay Samuel W. Taylor, Vin Bogert, Tom McGowan, Edward Montagne (from the novel by Samuel W. Taylor) Producer Ed Gardner Photography Fred Jackman Jr. Editor Gene Milford Music Robert McBride Cast Barry Nelson, Carole Mathews, Lynn Ainley, John Harvey, Jim Boles, Jack Warden, Henry Lascoe, Johnny Kane, Chinita, Hazel Sherman.
Screenplay Samuel W. Taylor, Vin Bogert, Tom McGowan, Edward Montagne (from the novel by Samuel W. Taylor) Producer Ed Gardner Photography Fred Jackman Jr. Editor Gene Milford Music Robert McBride Cast Barry Nelson, Carole Mathews, Lynn Ainley, John Harvey, Jim Boles, Jack Warden, Henry Lascoe, Johnny Kane, Chinita, Hazel Sherman.
"The Man with My Face is a better-than-average B movie with some of the attending convenient plot devices, but enough twists and turns to satisfy most Noir fans. Visually, it has enough Noir style to appear connected to the main Noir cycle. The film's plot fits Noir expectations neatly, and it's only limited by a few B movie contrivances. With its unusual setting and well-played lead performance, this is a movie deserving a look by all Noir enthusiasts… The Man with My Face has a combination of the "wrong man" theme (best seen in Hitchcock's The Wrong Man) and the doppelganger idea (exemplified in The Scar). The film has a strongly Noir sense of oppression, felt mainly in the narrative and not supported very much by the visual style. It's a well-done B movie with some exciting episodes and a fine performance by Barry Nelson." - MackJay (Film Noir of the Week)
The Man with the Golden Arm
1955, USA, 119m, BW, Melodrama-Addiction Drama
Screenplay Lewis Meltzer, Walter Newman (based on the novel by Nelson Algren) Producer Otto Preminger Photography Sam Leavitt Editor Louis Loeffler Music Elmer Bernstein Cast Frank Sinatra, Kim Novak, Eleanor Parker, Arnold Stang, Darren McGavin, Robert Strauss, Doro Merande, George Mathews, John Conte, George E. Stone.
Screenplay Lewis Meltzer, Walter Newman (based on the novel by Nelson Algren) Producer Otto Preminger Photography Sam Leavitt Editor Louis Loeffler Music Elmer Bernstein Cast Frank Sinatra, Kim Novak, Eleanor Parker, Arnold Stang, Darren McGavin, Robert Strauss, Doro Merande, George Mathews, John Conte, George E. Stone.
"Otto Preminger’s 1955 adaptation of Nelson Algren’s novel is something of a crossroads movie, suspended between the swirling expressionism of Preminger’s early career and the balanced realism that would later become his forte. Frank Sinatra, as the drug-addicted poker dealer, plays a reasonably naturalistic character, but he’s surrounded by a collection of bizarre archetypes (Eleanor Parker as his demanding, crippled girlfriend; Kim Novak as an “entertainer” with a heart of gold) and trapped in one of the most audaciously unreal studio sets ever designed for a Hollywood film. The tension is intriguing and expressive (perhaps this is what Beineix had in mind for The Moon in the Gutter), though the unstable mixture is clearly limited as a sustainable style." - Dave Kehr (Chicago Reader)
The Manchurian Candidate
● LATE NOIR (1960s)
1962, USA, 126m, BW, Political-Thriller-Drama
Screenplay George Axelrod (from the novel by Richard Condon) Producers George Axelrod, John Frankenheimer Photography Lionel Lindon Editor Ferris Webster Music David Amram Cast Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury, Henry Silva, James Gregory, Leslie Parrish, John McGiver, Khigh Dhiegh, James Edwards.
1962, USA, 126m, BW, Political-Thriller-Drama
Screenplay George Axelrod (from the novel by Richard Condon) Producers George Axelrod, John Frankenheimer Photography Lionel Lindon Editor Ferris Webster Music David Amram Cast Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury, Henry Silva, James Gregory, Leslie Parrish, John McGiver, Khigh Dhiegh, James Edwards.
"There are conspiracy movies, there are political thrillers, there are films that spark entirely new cinematic genres — and then there’s The Manchurian Candidate… John Frankenheimer’s masterpiece was the first great conspiracy film — and the movie by which all other conspiracy flicks have been, and always will be, measured… Beyond the heart-racing plot and the tremendous acting (Frank Sinatra is especially good as Laurence Harvey’s old Army buddy), The Manchurian Candidate retains it status as a one-of-a-kind classic in large part because of Frankenheimer’s inventive, highly stylized direction and the film’s confident, propulsive pacing. This is politics, and filmmaking, the way they’re meant to be: breathless." - Ben Cosgrove (TIME)
Manhandled
1949, USA, 97m, BW, Crime-Drama-Detective Film
Screenplay Lewis R. Foster, Whitman Chambers (from the short story The Man Who Stole a Dream by L.S. Goldsmith) Producers William C. Thomas, William H. Pine Photography Ernest Laszlo Editor Howard Smith Music Darrell Calker Cast Dorothy Lamour, Sterling Hayden, Dan Duryea, Irene Hervey, Phillip Reed, Harold Vermilyea, Alan Napier, Art Smith, Irving Bacon, Benny Baker.
Screenplay Lewis R. Foster, Whitman Chambers (from the short story The Man Who Stole a Dream by L.S. Goldsmith) Producers William C. Thomas, William H. Pine Photography Ernest Laszlo Editor Howard Smith Music Darrell Calker Cast Dorothy Lamour, Sterling Hayden, Dan Duryea, Irene Hervey, Phillip Reed, Harold Vermilyea, Alan Napier, Art Smith, Irving Bacon, Benny Baker.
"Produced by Paramount's Pine-Thomas unit, Manhandled is a no-nonsense film noir with a well-chosen cast. Small-time hoodlum Karl Benson (Dan Duryea) uses and abuses several innocent people in his efforts to get ahead. Among Benson's victims is Merl Kramer (Dorothy Lamour), who doesn't find out about her boyfriend's perfidy until it's almost too late. Sterling Hayden co-stars as insurance investigator Joe Cooper, who likewise exploits poor Merl, albeit for a good cause… Manhandled's level of tension never lets up, not even in its final scenes." - Hal Erickson (Allmovie)
Manhunter
Red Dragon (alternative title)
● NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1986, USA, 119m, Col, Crime-Thriller
Screenplay Michael Mann (based on the novel Red Dragon by Thomas Harris) Producer Richard Roth Photography Dante Spinotti Editor Dov Hoenig Music Michel Rubini, The Reds Cast William Petersen, Kim Greist, Joan Allen, Brian Cox, Dennis Farina, Stephen Lang, Tom Noonan, David Seaman, Benjamin Hendrickson, Michael Talbott.
● NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1986, USA, 119m, Col, Crime-Thriller
Screenplay Michael Mann (based on the novel Red Dragon by Thomas Harris) Producer Richard Roth Photography Dante Spinotti Editor Dov Hoenig Music Michel Rubini, The Reds Cast William Petersen, Kim Greist, Joan Allen, Brian Cox, Dennis Farina, Stephen Lang, Tom Noonan, David Seaman, Benjamin Hendrickson, Michael Talbott.
"With Manhunter, Mann takes all the instincts he learned as a Miami Vice producer and trims them of their excesses, and the result is an unsettling thriller whose detached style perfectly complements its psychological intensity. When a serial killer begins targeting happy families across a broad geographical area, the FBI summons a specialist (William L. Petersen) whose last case sent him, shaken, into premature retirement… Gripping from its first shot through a finale that should forever taint viewers' pleasant memories of Iron Butterfly, Manhunter lacks only one of the strong male leads from Mann's later work. Petersen fills the role effectively enough… But he makes it hard not to wish for a Pacino or a Crowe, even if the film around him makes their absence easy to forget, and makes it hard to wish for the story to be done any better." - Keith Phipps (A.V. Club)
Marilyn
Roadhouse Girl (USA title)
● BRIT-NOIR
1953, UK, 70m, BW, Crime-Drama
Screenplay Wolf Rilla (based on the play Marion by Peter Jones) Producer Ernest G. Roy Photography Geoffrey Faithfull Editor Peter Seabourne Music Wilfred Burns Cast Maxwell Reed, Sandra Dorne, Leslie Dwyer, Vida Hope, Ferdy Mayne, Hugh Pryse, Kenneth Connor, Ben Williams, Gerald Rex, Hugh Munro.
● BRIT-NOIR
1953, UK, 70m, BW, Crime-Drama
Screenplay Wolf Rilla (based on the play Marion by Peter Jones) Producer Ernest G. Roy Photography Geoffrey Faithfull Editor Peter Seabourne Music Wilfred Burns Cast Maxwell Reed, Sandra Dorne, Leslie Dwyer, Vida Hope, Ferdy Mayne, Hugh Pryse, Kenneth Connor, Ben Williams, Gerald Rex, Hugh Munro.
"Writer-director Wolf Rilla’s 1953 noir crime drama Roadhouse Girl [Marilyn] stars Maxwell Reed as Tom Price, the new mechanic at the roadside garage and pub owned by middle-aged George Saunders (Leslie Dwyer), whose sexy young wife Marilyn (Sandra Dorne) gets dangerously involved with Tom. It is not long, of course, before old George catches Tom and Marilyn together. Wolf Rilla turns this cheap, obscure and humble British B-movie unofficial version of The Postman Always Rings Twice into something interesting, with the help of decent acting from a a well-chosen cast, and Geoffrey Faithfull’s black and white cinematography." - Derek Winnert (Derek Winnert)
The Mark of Cain
● BRIT-NOIR / COSTUME NOIR
1947, UK, 88m, BW, Drama-Crime
Screenplay Christianna Brand, Francis Crowdy (based on the novel Airing in a Closed Carriage by Marjorie Bowen) Producer W.P. Lipscomb Photography Erwin Hillier Editor Sidney Stone Music Bernard Stevens Cast Eric Portman, Sally Gray, Patrick Holt, Dermot Walsh, Denis O'Dea, Therese Giehse, Edward Lexy, Maureen Delaney, James Hayter, Helen Cherry.
1947, UK, 88m, BW, Drama-Crime
Screenplay Christianna Brand, Francis Crowdy (based on the novel Airing in a Closed Carriage by Marjorie Bowen) Producer W.P. Lipscomb Photography Erwin Hillier Editor Sidney Stone Music Bernard Stevens Cast Eric Portman, Sally Gray, Patrick Holt, Dermot Walsh, Denis O'Dea, Therese Giehse, Edward Lexy, Maureen Delaney, James Hayter, Helen Cherry.
"Edwardian period noir. When vivacious Richard Howard (Portman) and his stolid brother, John (Patrick Holt), both woo Sarah Bonheur (Sally Gray), she decides on John. A few years later, though, their marriage is in trouble. When John falls sick, Richard poisons him; then realizing Sarah will never be his, he frames her for the crime. Only when she is in her death cell is Jerome Thorn (Dermot Walsh), who has fallen in love with her, able to put psychological pressure upon Richard to make him confess. A clumsy script dooms all." - John Grant (A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir)
The Mark of the Whistler
1944, USA, 60m, BW, Mystery-Drama
Screenplay George Bricker (based on the short story Dormant Account by Cornell Woolrich) Producer Rudolph C. Flothow Photography George Meehan Editor Reg Browne Music Lucien Moraweck, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco Cast Richard Dix, Janis Carter, Porter Hall, Paul Guilfoyle, John Calvert, Matt Willis, Walter Baldwin, Willie Best, Edgar Dearing, Otto Forrest.
Screenplay George Bricker (based on the short story Dormant Account by Cornell Woolrich) Producer Rudolph C. Flothow Photography George Meehan Editor Reg Browne Music Lucien Moraweck, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco Cast Richard Dix, Janis Carter, Porter Hall, Paul Guilfoyle, John Calvert, Matt Willis, Walter Baldwin, Willie Best, Edgar Dearing, Otto Forrest.
"The Whistler, the unseen mystery-story narrator of radio fame, relates another tale that he's gleaned from "walking by night" in Mark of the Whistler. Richard Dix stars as a drifter who poses as the owner of an unclaimed bank account. Dix's new identity brings him nothing but misery as he falls victim to the actual claimant's startling secrets, lost loves and dangerous enemies--including one bent on killing for revenge. The second of Columbia's Whistler series, Mark of the Whistler was an enormous improvement on the first film, with a healthy number of unexpected plot twists within its 60-minute time frame. Mark of the Whistler was based on a story by Cornell Woolrich and directed by future horror specialist William Castle." - Hal Erickson (Allmovie)
Marlowe
● LATE NOIR (1960s) / COLOUR NOIR
1969, USA, 96m, Col, Mystery-Crime-Detective Film
Screenplay Stirling Silliphant (based on the novel The Little Sister by Raymond Chandler) Producers Gabriel Katzka, Sidney Beckerman Photography William Daniels Editor Gene Ruggiero Music Peter Matz Cast James Garner, Gayle Hunnicutt, Carroll O'Connor, Rita Moreno, Sharon Farrell, William Daniels, H.M. Wynant, Jackie Coogan, Kenneth Tobey, Bruce Lee.
1969, USA, 96m, Col, Mystery-Crime-Detective Film
Screenplay Stirling Silliphant (based on the novel The Little Sister by Raymond Chandler) Producers Gabriel Katzka, Sidney Beckerman Photography William Daniels Editor Gene Ruggiero Music Peter Matz Cast James Garner, Gayle Hunnicutt, Carroll O'Connor, Rita Moreno, Sharon Farrell, William Daniels, H.M. Wynant, Jackie Coogan, Kenneth Tobey, Bruce Lee.
"Quite surprising that Chandler's The Little Sister - if memory serves, the only Marlowe novel to deal at all with the Hollywood film colony - had never been filmed before. This snappy and stylish update is certainly watchable, even if it lacks the definitive status of The Big Sleep (first version) and The Long Goodbye. Garner's rumpled charm is engaging enough as he takes on a missing persons case and finds himself sinking into ever more murky waters, while Paul Bogart's solid direction and some fine supporting performances (particularly O'Connor) help to create an atmosphere of almost universal corruptability. Surprisingly, even the inclusion of some fashionable martial arts - courtesy of Bruce Lee - actually works rather well." - Geoff Andrew (Time Out)
The Mask of Diijon
1946, USA, 73m, BW, Drama-Mystery-Horror
Screenplay Griffin Jay, Arthur St. Claire Producer Alfred Stern, Max Alexander Photography Jack Greenhalgh Editor Roy V. Livingston Music Karl Hajos Cast Erich von Stroheim, Jeanne Bates, William Wright, Denise Vernac, Edward Van Sloan, Hope Landin, Mauritz Hugo, Shimen Ruskin, Antonio Filauri, George Chandler.
Screenplay Griffin Jay, Arthur St. Claire Producer Alfred Stern, Max Alexander Photography Jack Greenhalgh Editor Roy V. Livingston Music Karl Hajos Cast Erich von Stroheim, Jeanne Bates, William Wright, Denise Vernac, Edward Van Sloan, Hope Landin, Mauritz Hugo, Shimen Ruskin, Antonio Filauri, George Chandler.
"Erich Von Stroheim's bravura performance is easily the most entertaining aspect of The Mask of Diijon, though it should be noted that the film itself is better than usual for a PRC production. "The Man You Love to Hate" is cast as Diijon, a stage magician specializing in a gruesome guillotine act. Long retired, Diijon refuses to return to work, despite the urgings of his young wife Victoria (Jeanne Bates). But when he runs out of money, Diijon is forced to make a comeback as a nightclub hypnotist… Mask of Diijon is so well directed (by the usually uninspired Lew Landers) and cleverly scripted that one can't help but think that Von Stroheim submitted a few creative suggestions along the way." - Hal Erickson (Allmovie)
The Mask of Dimitrios
1944, USA, 95m, BW, Spy-Crime-Mystery
Screenplay Frank Gruber (from the novel A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler) Producer Henry Blanke Photography Arthur Edeson Editor Frederick Richards Music Adolph Deutsch Cast Zachary Scott, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Faye Emerson, George Tobias, Victor Francen, Eduardo Ciannelli, Steven Geray, Florence Bates, Kurt Katch.
Screenplay Frank Gruber (from the novel A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler) Producer Henry Blanke Photography Arthur Edeson Editor Frederick Richards Music Adolph Deutsch Cast Zachary Scott, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Faye Emerson, George Tobias, Victor Francen, Eduardo Ciannelli, Steven Geray, Florence Bates, Kurt Katch.
"Ambler’s twisty and resourceful influence towers over the thriller genre, and the sordid Dimitrios (Scott) might have inspired Graham Greene’s more sophisticated and ambiguous Harry Lime in The Third Man. Director Jean Negulesco and great photographer Arthur Edeson (The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca) maneuver the camera closely around the characters and their densely decorated surroundings of shadowy bric-a-brac. This visual pleasure combines with the pleasure of Greenstreet, Lorre and the character actors around them to offer a film that’s sleekly watchable if ultimately as insubstantial as a rumour." - Michael Barrett (PopMatters)
Mean Streets
● NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1973, USA, 110m, Col, Crime-Urban Drama-Gangster Film
Screenplay Mardik Martin, Martin Scorsese Producer Jonathan T. Taplin Photography Kent Wakeford Editor Sidney Levin Cast Harvey Keitel, Robert De Niro, David Proval, Amy Robinson, Richard Romanus, Cesare Danova, Robert Carradine, David Carradine, Victor Argo, George Memmoli.
1973, USA, 110m, Col, Crime-Urban Drama-Gangster Film
Screenplay Mardik Martin, Martin Scorsese Producer Jonathan T. Taplin Photography Kent Wakeford Editor Sidney Levin Cast Harvey Keitel, Robert De Niro, David Proval, Amy Robinson, Richard Romanus, Cesare Danova, Robert Carradine, David Carradine, Victor Argo, George Memmoli.
"Mean Streets hasn't lost any of its power - it's the template for how to produce a small, personal film for next to no money and make it compulsive viewing… It was made in 1973 with virtual unknowns Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel, playing roles that have defined them ever since - De Niro the dangerous, reckless, anarchic outsider, Keitel the reasonable, sensible one trying to make the best of a bad situation (OK, except in Bad Lieutenant). Mean Streets has been an acclaimed classic for a long time but what doesn't get said too often is how wonderfully funny it is. The pool-hall "mook" confrontation is one of best comedy scenes ever shot - as well as being visceral, very violent and immaculately choreographed to the Marvelettes." - Rob Mackie (The Guardian)
Memento
● NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
2000, USA, 113m, Col, Thriller-Mystery-Drama
Screenplay Christopher Nolan (based on the story Memento Mori by Jonathan Nolan) Producer Suzanne Todd Photography Wally Pfister Editor Dody Dorn Music David Julyan Cast Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Mark Boone Jr., Stephen Tobolowsky, Harriet Sansom Harris, Callum Keith Rennie, Larry Holden, Russ Fega, Jorja Fox.
2000, USA, 113m, Col, Thriller-Mystery-Drama
Screenplay Christopher Nolan (based on the story Memento Mori by Jonathan Nolan) Producer Suzanne Todd Photography Wally Pfister Editor Dody Dorn Music David Julyan Cast Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Mark Boone Jr., Stephen Tobolowsky, Harriet Sansom Harris, Callum Keith Rennie, Larry Holden, Russ Fega, Jorja Fox.
"For cinephiles of a certain disposition, Memento has become the expert-level Sudoku of the ’00s, a puzzle that takes a lot of scribbling and erasing before the numbers add up. But the wonkery of it sometimes obscures the fact that it’s a hugely entertaining movie, too, exploiting Leonard’s (Pearce) memory lapses for big laughs and constantly scrambling our perceptions in much the same way Natalie (Moss) and Teddy (Pantoliano) scramble Leonard’s. Nolan later teased viewers on a much larger scale with Inception, a nesting doll of dreams within dreams, but Memento is cleaner and more complex, with better insight into how the human mind works. Nolan delights in playing head games with Leonard’s amnesia, but his hidden strategy is to expose us, too. If Leonard is a freak, so are we all." - Scott Tobias (A.V. Club)
Miami Blues
● NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1990, USA, 97m, Col, Crime-Comedy-Drama
Screenplay George Armitage (based on the novel by Charles Willeford) Producers Gary Goetzman, Jonathan Demme Photography Tak Fujimoto Editor Craig McKay Music Gary Chang Cast Fred Ward, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Alec Baldwin, Nora Dunn, Charles Napier, Jose Perez, Paul Gleason, Martine Beswick, Obba Babatunde, Ron Bozman.
1990, USA, 97m, Col, Crime-Comedy-Drama
Screenplay George Armitage (based on the novel by Charles Willeford) Producers Gary Goetzman, Jonathan Demme Photography Tak Fujimoto Editor Craig McKay Music Gary Chang Cast Fred Ward, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Alec Baldwin, Nora Dunn, Charles Napier, Jose Perez, Paul Gleason, Martine Beswick, Obba Babatunde, Ron Bozman.
"People like myself who often despair of finding a cop-and-crime movie that isn't encrusted in cliches should take to this wonderful sleeper by writer-director George Armitage (Vigilante Force), based on a novel by Charles Willeford (Cockfighter) and coproduced by Jonathan Demme… Some of the characters and situations, such as the thief's stylish chutzpah and his relationship to the hooker, recall Godard's Breathless, but Armitage's handling of the material is consistently fresh and pungent. The three lead actors all manage to be terrific without showing off—Leigh, in the course of an exquisite performance, does one of the best impersonations of a country southern accent I've ever heard—and the use of Miami locations is a consistent delight." - Jonathan Rosenbaum (Chicago Reader)
Miami Exposé
1956, USA, 73m, BW, Crime-Drama-Police Detective Film
Screenplay Robert E. Kent Producer Sam Katzman Photography Benjamin Kline Editor Al Clark Music Mischa Bakaleinikoff Cast Lee J. Cobb, Patricia Medina, Edward Arnold, Michael Granger, Eleanore Tanin, Alan Napier, Harry Lauter, Chris Alcaide, Hugh Sanders, Barry L. Connors.
Screenplay Robert E. Kent Producer Sam Katzman Photography Benjamin Kline Editor Al Clark Music Mischa Bakaleinikoff Cast Lee J. Cobb, Patricia Medina, Edward Arnold, Michael Granger, Eleanore Tanin, Alan Napier, Harry Lauter, Chris Alcaide, Hugh Sanders, Barry L. Connors.
"Dependable B-film filmmaker Fred F. Sears (Badman’s Country/Don’t Knock the Rock/Earth vs. the Flying Saucers) directs this cheapie black and white crime drama produced by Sam Katzman, who was noted for making films taken straight from the newspaper’s sordid headlines. In this case, it used the attention the Kefauver Senate hearings into organized crime’s influence in government was getting to tell about the efforts of a shady lawyer to bring legalized gambling to Florida. This B-film was influenced by Fritz Lang’s brilliant film noir The Big Heat (1953), but only turns out to be a second-rate wannabe film noir." - Dennis Schwartz (Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews)
The Midnight Story
1957, USA, 90m, BW, Mystery-Crime-Detective Film
Screenplay Edwin Blum, John Robinson Producer Robert Arthur Photography Russell Metty Editor Ted J. Kent Music Hans J. Salter, Henry Vars Cast Tony Curtis, Marisa Pavan, Gilbert Roland, Jay C. Flippen, Argentina Brunetti, Ted De Corsia, Richard Monda, Kathleen Freeman, Herb Vigran, Peggy Maley.
Screenplay Edwin Blum, John Robinson Producer Robert Arthur Photography Russell Metty Editor Ted J. Kent Music Hans J. Salter, Henry Vars Cast Tony Curtis, Marisa Pavan, Gilbert Roland, Jay C. Flippen, Argentina Brunetti, Ted De Corsia, Richard Monda, Kathleen Freeman, Herb Vigran, Peggy Maley.
"The 1950s saw the birth of a movement of socially conscious drama, and The Midnight Story would fit comfortably as the 'B' picture on a double bill with something like 12 Angry Men. Its final scene is remarkably progressive in its attitude to crime, punishment and forgiveness… While Joseph Pevney's direction is workmanlike (he would later become a staple of TV, helming 14 episodes of Star Trek), the film boasts some classy black and white cinematography from the great Russell Metty, better known for his outstanding colour work on the films of Douglas Sirk." - Eric Hillis (The Movie Waffler)
Mike's Murder
● NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1984, USA, 109m, Col, Mystery-Crime-Drama
Screenplay James Bridges Producer Jack Larson Photography Reynaldo Villalobos Editors Dede Allen, Jeff Gourson Music John Barry Cast Debra Winger, Mark Keyloun, Darrell Larson, Paul Winfield, Brooke Alderson, William Ostrander, Dan Shor, Lorraine Butler, James Carrington, Frank Cavestani.
1984, USA, 109m, Col, Mystery-Crime-Drama
Screenplay James Bridges Producer Jack Larson Photography Reynaldo Villalobos Editors Dede Allen, Jeff Gourson Music John Barry Cast Debra Winger, Mark Keyloun, Darrell Larson, Paul Winfield, Brooke Alderson, William Ostrander, Dan Shor, Lorraine Butler, James Carrington, Frank Cavestani.
"Long-delayed and barely released, this murky thriller reunites Debra Winger with her Urban Cowboy director, James Bridges. Nothing Winger does or says (isn't that the throatiest voice this side of June Allyson?) is without interest, but sometimes her choice of material leaves a lot to be desired. Here she does a little sleuthing following a drug deal that went wrong, though not half as wrong as the movie itself, which spent a couple of years being edited, restructured, cut again and then finally dubbed in England. Legend has it Bridges asked for some odd sound effects: listen hard to those car doors closing and you'll hear gunshots. Still, there's a clever cameo from Paul Winfield as a blasé record producer, while Joe Jackson provides sterling support on the soundtrack." - Tony Sloman (Radio Times)
Mildred Pierce
1945, USA, 109m, BW, Melodrama-Family Drama-Crime
Screenplay Ranald MacDougall, William Faulkner, Catherine Turney (from the novel by James M. Cain) Producer Jerry Wald Photography Ernest Haller Editor David Weisbart Music Max Steiner Cast Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth, Bruce Bennett, George Tobias, Lee Patrick, Moroni Olsen, Jo Ann Marlowe.
Screenplay Ranald MacDougall, William Faulkner, Catherine Turney (from the novel by James M. Cain) Producer Jerry Wald Photography Ernest Haller Editor David Weisbart Music Max Steiner Cast Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth, Bruce Bennett, George Tobias, Lee Patrick, Moroni Olsen, Jo Ann Marlowe.
"James Cain's novel of the treacherous life in Southern California that sets house-wife-turned waitress-turned-successful restauranteur (Crawford) against her own daughter (Blyth) in competition for the love of playboy Zachary Scott, is brought fastidiously and bleakly to life by Curtiz' direction, Ernest Haller's camerawork, and Anton Grot's magnificent sets. Told in flashback from the moment of Scott's murder, the film is a chilling demonstration of the fact that, in a patriarchal society, when a woman steps outside the home the end result may be disastrous." - Phil Hardy (Time Out)
Miller's Crossing
● NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1990, USA, 115m, Col, Crime-Gangster Film
Screenplay Ethan Coen, Joel Coen (based, uncredited, on the novels Red Harvest and The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett) Producer Ethan Coen Photography Barry Sonnenfeld Editor Michael R. Miller Music Carter Burwell Cast Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney, Marcia Gay Harden, John Turturro, Jon Polito, J.E. Freeman, Mike Starr, Al Mancini, Richard Woods, Steve Buscemi.
1990, USA, 115m, Col, Crime-Gangster Film
Screenplay Ethan Coen, Joel Coen (based, uncredited, on the novels Red Harvest and The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett) Producer Ethan Coen Photography Barry Sonnenfeld Editor Michael R. Miller Music Carter Burwell Cast Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney, Marcia Gay Harden, John Turturro, Jon Polito, J.E. Freeman, Mike Starr, Al Mancini, Richard Woods, Steve Buscemi.
"It has always been one of the special pleasures of movies that they dream worlds and map them at the same time. Miller’s Crossing dreams a beaut, no less so for the fact that Joel and Ethan Coen’s film is a reverent, rigorous reimagining of the world of Dashiell Hammett, especially as limned in The Glass Key and Red Harvest. The look is right, from first frame to last – even the aural “look” of that ice: this is a movie that knows what drinking is about in Hammett, what it has to do with rumination and gravity, coolheadedness and rash error, and every coloration of brown study. The mood is instinct with the private pain that separates reticence from caring and conceals itself, with desperation and anger, in seeming not to care." - Richard T. Jameson (Film Comment via Parallax View)
Mine Own Executioner
● BRIT-NOIR
1947, UK, 108m, BW, Drama-Thriller
Screenplay Nigel Balchin (based on his novel) Producers Anthony Kimmins, Jack Kitchin Photography Wilkie Cooper Editor Richard Best Music Benjamin Frankel Cast Burgess Meredith, Dulcie Gray, Michael Shepley, Christine Norden, Kieron Moore, Barbara White, Walter Fitzgerald, Edgar Norfolk, John Laurie, Martin Miller.
1947, UK, 108m, BW, Drama-Thriller
Screenplay Nigel Balchin (based on his novel) Producers Anthony Kimmins, Jack Kitchin Photography Wilkie Cooper Editor Richard Best Music Benjamin Frankel Cast Burgess Meredith, Dulcie Gray, Michael Shepley, Christine Norden, Kieron Moore, Barbara White, Walter Fitzgerald, Edgar Norfolk, John Laurie, Martin Miller.
"Two cases from the files of psycho-therapist Meredith. The first concerns a violently schizophrenic ex-PoW, the other relates to the shrink himself, and his compulsion to mistreat his wife. One case ends in provisional success, the other in utter disaster. Unlike most 1940s movies dealing with psychiatry, this refuses to be awe-struck by its subject or to put it to the service of melodrama. Kimmins, a middling, unexciting sort of director, at least had common sense, a virtue which this film exemplifies. He does allow himself one, quite successful, stylistic flourish, a subjectively shot flashback to the capture and torture of the PoW." - Bob Baker (Time Out)
Ministry of Fear
1944, USA, 85m, BW, Mystery-Thriller-War Spy Film
Screenplay Seton I. Miller (from the novel by Graham Greene) Producer Seton I. Miller Photography Henry Sharp Editor Archie Marshek Music Victor Young Cast Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds, Carl Esmond, Hillary Brooke, Percy Waram, Dan Duryea, Alan Napier, Erskine Sanford, Frank Dawson, Aminta Dyne.
Screenplay Seton I. Miller (from the novel by Graham Greene) Producer Seton I. Miller Photography Henry Sharp Editor Archie Marshek Music Victor Young Cast Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds, Carl Esmond, Hillary Brooke, Percy Waram, Dan Duryea, Alan Napier, Erskine Sanford, Frank Dawson, Aminta Dyne.
"This 1944 thriller represents an epochal meeting of two masters of Catholic guilt and paranoia, novelist Graham Greene and director Fritz Lang. Ray Milland, just released from a sanitorium, finds the outside world more than a fit match for his delusions as he stumbles into an elaborate Nazi plot. The hallucinatory quality of the opening scene (an innocent country fair turns out to be a nest of spies) is reminiscent of Lang's expressionist films of the 20s, but this is a more mature, more controlled film, Lang at his finest and purest." - Dave Kehr (Chicago Reader)
Minority Report
● SCI-FI NOIR / NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
2002, USA, 144m, Col, Thriller-Science Fiction-Action
Screenplay Jon Cohen, Scott Frank (based on the short story by Philip K. Dick) Producers Bonnie Curtis, Gerald R. Molen, Jan De Bont, Walter F. Parkes Photography Janusz Kaminski Editor Michael Kahn Music John Williams Cast Tom Cruise, Max von Sydow, Steve Harris, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton, Lois Smith, Tim Blake Nelson, Neal McDonough, Patrick Kilpatrick, Jessica Capshaw.
2002, USA, 144m, Col, Thriller-Science Fiction-Action
Screenplay Jon Cohen, Scott Frank (based on the short story by Philip K. Dick) Producers Bonnie Curtis, Gerald R. Molen, Jan De Bont, Walter F. Parkes Photography Janusz Kaminski Editor Michael Kahn Music John Williams Cast Tom Cruise, Max von Sydow, Steve Harris, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton, Lois Smith, Tim Blake Nelson, Neal McDonough, Patrick Kilpatrick, Jessica Capshaw.
"Completed the same month Joseph McCarthy was censured by the U.S. Senate, Philip K. Dick's paranoid sci-fi story The Minority Report posits a future in which prophets wired to a supercomputer enable the cops to bust people for crimes they haven't yet committed. To a nation that wants potential terrorists detained indefinitely, this premise might not seem as dystopian as the filmmakers seem to think, but Steven Spielberg has turned the material into a highly effective thriller whose futuristic panoramas rival those of A.I. Artificial Intelligence… The first 15 minutes are masterful, as Cruise hunts down a killer-to-be; the last 30 are mediocre, as screenwriters Scott Frank and Jon Cohen untangle the mystery they've grafted onto Dick's story." - J.R. Jones (Chicago Reader)
Mirage
● LATE NOIR (1960s)
1965, USA, 109m, BW, Mystery-Psychological Thriller
Screenplay Peter Stone (based on the novel Fallen Angel by Walter Ericson [Howard Fast]) Producer Harry Keller Photography Joseph MacDonald Editor Ted J. Kent Music Quincy Jones Cast Gregory Peck, Diane Baker, Walter Matthau, Kevin McCarthy, Jack Weston, Leif Erickson, George Kennedy, Robert H. Harris, Walter Abel, Anne Seymour.
1965, USA, 109m, BW, Mystery-Psychological Thriller
Screenplay Peter Stone (based on the novel Fallen Angel by Walter Ericson [Howard Fast]) Producer Harry Keller Photography Joseph MacDonald Editor Ted J. Kent Music Quincy Jones Cast Gregory Peck, Diane Baker, Walter Matthau, Kevin McCarthy, Jack Weston, Leif Erickson, George Kennedy, Robert H. Harris, Walter Abel, Anne Seymour.
"This 1965 feature doesn't have much of a critical reputation, yet it's an unusually gripping and compelling thriller of the diabolical puzzler variety, about a man (Gregory Peck) who suffers amnesia during a New York power blackout, during which an executive plunges to his death from a skyscraper. The ensuing conspiracy plot is full of disquieting and effective twists as the hero's memory gradually leaks back into consciousness and various goons try to kill him; there's also a nice actorly turn by Walter Matthau as a private detective. The denouement is something of a corny letdown, but prior to that Edward Dmytryk's direction is adroit and purposeful." - Jonathan Rosenbaum (Chicago Reader)
The Mob
1951, USA, 87m, BW, Crime-Drama-Police Detective Film
Screenplay William Bowers (from the novel Waterfront by Ferguson Findley) Producer Jerry Bresler Photography Joseph Walker Editor Charles Nelson Music George Duning Cast Broderick Crawford, Betty Buehler, Richard Kiley, Otto Hulett, Matt Crowley, Neville Brand, Ernest Borgnine, Walter Klavun, Lynn Baggett, Jean Alexander.
Screenplay William Bowers (from the novel Waterfront by Ferguson Findley) Producer Jerry Bresler Photography Joseph Walker Editor Charles Nelson Music George Duning Cast Broderick Crawford, Betty Buehler, Richard Kiley, Otto Hulett, Matt Crowley, Neville Brand, Ernest Borgnine, Walter Klavun, Lynn Baggett, Jean Alexander.
"Familiar gang-busting stuff set in On the Waterfront territory, with Crawford as a cop who, inadvertently goofing on duty, is officially reported as suspended and sent undercover to make good the damage by finding out who is masterminding the brutal extortion racket among longshoremen. William Bowers' script manages one or two genuine surprises - with Crawford at one point being hired to eliminate himself - but its main contribution is a nice line in sharp, waywardly witty dialogue. Given fast, flexible direction by Parrish, excellent camerawork (Joseph Walker) and a full house of vivid performances, the result is an unusually tense and enjoyable genre piece. Pity about the last reel, when everything collapses (though not too destructively) into routine histrionics." - Tom Milne (Time Out)
Mona Lisa
● BRIT-NOIR / NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1986, UK, 104m, Col, Crime-Drama-Romance
Screenplay Neil Jordan, David Leland Producer Patrick Cassavetti, Stephen Woolley Photography Roger Pratt Editor Lesley Walker Music Michael Kamen Cast Bob Hoskins, Cathy Tyson, Michael Caine, Clarke Peters, Kate Hardie, Robbie Coltrane, Zoe Nathenson, Sammi Davis, Rod Bedall, Joe Brown.
1986, UK, 104m, Col, Crime-Drama-Romance
Screenplay Neil Jordan, David Leland Producer Patrick Cassavetti, Stephen Woolley Photography Roger Pratt Editor Lesley Walker Music Michael Kamen Cast Bob Hoskins, Cathy Tyson, Michael Caine, Clarke Peters, Kate Hardie, Robbie Coltrane, Zoe Nathenson, Sammi Davis, Rod Bedall, Joe Brown.
"Touching, and sometimes dwelling, on issues of race, class, sexual identity, voyeurism, and the passing of time, Neil Jordan's 1986 film Mona Lisa might have seemed too busy for its own good had Jordan not sensibly wrapped it all in a brisk, involving thriller. Playing a low-level London gangster out of jail after a long stint, Bob Hoskins returns to a world that passed him by long ago… As a thriller, Jordan's film chillingly conveys the depths dug by one person's willingness to exploit the needs of another, his underworld London serving as a topography of greed and repackaged desire. His vision is most immediately reminiscent of from the hellish New York of Scorsese's Taxi Driver, but Hoskins provides the crucial difference, spiking the nihilism by emerging from the abyss with a glimmer of hope instead of a thousand-yard stare." - Keith Phipps (The A.V. Club)
Money Madness
1948, USA, 73m, BW, Mystery-Crime
Screenplay Al Martin Producer Sigmund Neufeld Photography Jack Greenhalgh Editor Holbrook N. Todd Music Leo Erdody Cast Hugh Beaumont, Frances Rafferty, Harlan Warde, Cecil Weston, Ida Moore, Danny Morton, Joel Friedkin, Lane Chandler, Gladys Blake, Carole Donne.
Screenplay Al Martin Producer Sigmund Neufeld Photography Jack Greenhalgh Editor Holbrook N. Todd Music Leo Erdody Cast Hugh Beaumont, Frances Rafferty, Harlan Warde, Cecil Weston, Ida Moore, Danny Morton, Joel Friedkin, Lane Chandler, Gladys Blake, Carole Donne.
"In this lean and efficient programmer from the middle of the cycle, Beaumont impresses as moody crook-on-the-lam Steve Clark (an alias). Desperate to construct a front that will deceive the authorities and disgruntled fellow thugs alike - he blows into a strange town and rapidly spins the tangled web he deems necessary… Director Peter Stewart (aka Sam Newfield) shows no visual flair, but knows how to keep things moving - and draws strong performances from his perfectly-cast leads. As the dupe du jour, fresh-faced Frances Rafferty delivers a natural and quietly assured performance - holding her own with the more seasoned cast members. Beaumont's pallet of moods and tones proves rewarding - especially upon multiple viewings. His confident sociopath being one of noir's many under appreciated turns." - Film Noir of the Week
The Money Trap
● LATE NOIR (1960s)
1965, USA, 91m, BW, Crime-Drama-Thriller
Screenplay Walter Bernstein (from the novel by Lionel White) Producer David Karr, Max E. Youngstein Photography Paul Vogel Editor John McSweeney Jr. Music Hal Schaefer Cast Glenn Ford, Elke Sommer, Rita Hayworth, Joseph Cotten, Ricardo Montalban, Tom Reese, James Mitchum, Argentina Brunetti, Fred Essler, Eugene Iglesias.
1965, USA, 91m, BW, Crime-Drama-Thriller
Screenplay Walter Bernstein (from the novel by Lionel White) Producer David Karr, Max E. Youngstein Photography Paul Vogel Editor John McSweeney Jr. Music Hal Schaefer Cast Glenn Ford, Elke Sommer, Rita Hayworth, Joseph Cotten, Ricardo Montalban, Tom Reese, James Mitchum, Argentina Brunetti, Fred Essler, Eugene Iglesias.
"The Money Trap is one of the last of the films noir produced in Hollywood before the industry became conscious of its own legacy of atmospheric crime thrillers. The 1965 film is a key title for screenwriter Walter Bernstein, a blacklistee who had definite grudges to air. Crime author Lionel White, the author of the source book for Stanley Kubrick's The Killing, provides the skeleton of a story of police corruption. Bernstein's screenplay adds a sour taste of seedy avarice… The Money Trap is a perfectly acceptable bad cop story, but it doesn't distinguish itself. The fault really lies with director Burt Kennedy, a great writer whose films became less interesting when he moved behind the camera. The Money Trap plays like a movie and looks like a movie but isn't particularly well directed for camera or for actors." - Glenn Erickson (DVD Savant)
Moonrise
1948, USA, 90m, BW, Crime-Melodrama
Screenplay Charles Haas (from the novel by Theodore Strauss) Producer Charles Haas Photography John L. Russell Editor Harry Keller Music William Lava Cast Dane Clark, Gail Russell, Ethel Barrymore, Allyn Joslyn, Rex Ingram, Harry Morgan, Lloyd Bridges, Selena Royle, David Street, Harry Carey Jr.
Screenplay Charles Haas (from the novel by Theodore Strauss) Producer Charles Haas Photography John L. Russell Editor Harry Keller Music William Lava Cast Dane Clark, Gail Russell, Ethel Barrymore, Allyn Joslyn, Rex Ingram, Harry Morgan, Lloyd Bridges, Selena Royle, David Street, Harry Carey Jr.
"Moonrise is Frank Borzage's sensual scrutiny of a man's free will. In the film's striking opening moments, a dazzling spectacle of black-and-white chiaroscuro conveys a throbbing sense of madness cattle-branded into the imagination of a young Danny Hawkins, who is terrorized by bullies from childhood to adulthood because of his father's execution. When Danny (Dane Clark) kills one of his tormentors, he must struggle with the terrible push-pull effect of the past and the memory of his father on his psyche. Borzage magnificently frames the film along very severe, richly layered diagonal angles, catching nervous hands and faces from odd positions and giving startling visual expression to Danny's loose grip on his moral compass." - Ed Gonzalez (Slant Magazine)
Moontide
1942, USA, 94m, BW, Thriller-Crime-Drama
Screenplay John O'Hara (based on the novel Moon Tide by Willard Robertson) Producer Mark Hellinger Photography Charles G. Clarke Editor William Reynolds Music Cyril J. Mockbridge, David Buttolph Cast Jean Gabin, Ida Lupino, Thomas Mitchell, Claude Rains, Jerome Cowan, Helene Reynolds, Ralph Byrd, William Halligan, Victor Sen Yung, Chester Gan.
Screenplay John O'Hara (based on the novel Moon Tide by Willard Robertson) Producer Mark Hellinger Photography Charles G. Clarke Editor William Reynolds Music Cyril J. Mockbridge, David Buttolph Cast Jean Gabin, Ida Lupino, Thomas Mitchell, Claude Rains, Jerome Cowan, Helene Reynolds, Ralph Byrd, William Halligan, Victor Sen Yung, Chester Gan.
"Jean Gabin was in his early forties when he made his first American film during the Second World War, when he was stranded in Hollywood. This was Moontide… Fritz Lang worked on the film for four days… Archie L. Mayo, whose ethnicity I do not know, took over Moontide, and the result is a slow though extraordinarily beautiful black-and-white film, with a titanic performance by Gabin that nearly matches his work, in France… Mayo and his cinematographer, Oscar-nominated Charles G. Clarke, conjure a haunting, poetic vision of suspended lives in a suspended time and place—a San Francisco Bay of the mind. (The studio set thus helps, not hinders Mayo’s artistic achievement.) The film noir elements perhaps count for less; a blackout dream sequence, for example, is close to ridiculous.“ - Dennis Grunes
The Morning After
● NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1986, USA, 103m, Col, Thriller-Mystery-Crime
Screenplay James Cresson Producer Bruce Gilbert Photography Andrzej Bartkowiak Editor Joel Goodman Music Paul Chihara Cast Jane Fonda, Jeff Bridges, Raul Julia, Diane Salinger, Richard Foronjy, Geoffrey Scott, Bruce Vilanch, James Haake, Rick Rossovich, Frances Bergen.
1986, USA, 103m, Col, Thriller-Mystery-Crime
Screenplay James Cresson Producer Bruce Gilbert Photography Andrzej Bartkowiak Editor Joel Goodman Music Paul Chihara Cast Jane Fonda, Jeff Bridges, Raul Julia, Diane Salinger, Richard Foronjy, Geoffrey Scott, Bruce Vilanch, James Haake, Rick Rossovich, Frances Bergen.
"Sometime promising actress turned lush Fonda wakes up to find, in her bed, a dead man with a knife through his heart. She panics and tries to flee the state, but thwarted by airport bureaucracy, ends up taking her chances with redneck ex-cop Bridges. Focusing on the central character's struggle towards a tentative moral redemption, Lumet creates a film more intense than tense, more low-key character study than thriller. Fonda captures the duplicity of an actress playing a role, while Bridges' restraint provides the perfect foil for her neurotic mannerisms. But Lumet's narrative economy, sympathetic handling of actors, and superb eye never quite jell. It's as if a talented director has made the most of what he had, when what he had was never quite enough." - Nigel Floyd (Time Out)
Moss Rose
1947, USA, 82m, BW, Mystery-Thriller-Crime
Screenplay Jules Furthman, Tom Reed, Niven Busch (based on the novel The Crime of Laura Saurelle by Joseph Shearing) Producer Gene Markey Photography Joseph MacDonald Editor James B. Clark Music David Buttolph Cast Peggy Cummins, Victor Mature, Ethel Barrymore, Vincent Price, Margo Woode, George Zucco, Patricia Medina, Rhys Williams, Norman Ainsley, Harry Allen.
Screenplay Jules Furthman, Tom Reed, Niven Busch (based on the novel The Crime of Laura Saurelle by Joseph Shearing) Producer Gene Markey Photography Joseph MacDonald Editor James B. Clark Music David Buttolph Cast Peggy Cummins, Victor Mature, Ethel Barrymore, Vincent Price, Margo Woode, George Zucco, Patricia Medina, Rhys Williams, Norman Ainsley, Harry Allen.
"Don't look too closely at the plot of this slice of Edwardian Gothic about a chorus girl (Cummins, not yet immortalised by Gun Crazy) who worms her way into an olde English household by blackmailing an invitation out of the young master (Mature, no less) who supposedly murdered her friend. Soon, silly girl, she is next in line to be done away with. Motivation is nobody's strong point, and poor Price's police inspector has to play singularly dumb (sitting on the fact that two murders are linked by a Bible and a pressed rose) to keep the pot boiling. Enjoyable, though, and beautifully shot by Joe MacDonald, with Ethel Barrymore rather splendidly doing her thing as a possessive matriarch." - Tom Milne (Time Out)
Mr. Arkadin
Confidential Report (alternative title)
● INTERNATIONAL NOIR
1955, France-Spain-Switzerland, 99m, BW, Mystery-Thriller
Screenplay Orson Welles Producer Orson Welles Photography Jean Bourgoin Editor Renzo Lucidi Music Paul Misraki Cast Orson Welles, Paola Mori, Robert Arden, Michael Redgrave, Patricia Medina, Akim Tamiroff, Mischa Auer, Katina Paxinou, Jack Watling, Gregoire Aslan.
● INTERNATIONAL NOIR
1955, France-Spain-Switzerland, 99m, BW, Mystery-Thriller
Screenplay Orson Welles Producer Orson Welles Photography Jean Bourgoin Editor Renzo Lucidi Music Paul Misraki Cast Orson Welles, Paola Mori, Robert Arden, Michael Redgrave, Patricia Medina, Akim Tamiroff, Mischa Auer, Katina Paxinou, Jack Watling, Gregoire Aslan.
"Orson Welles's 1955 film seems a deliberate, bitter parody of Citizen Kane, with the grandeur turned to transparent theatrical fakery and the quest for truth deflected into shoddy opportunism. The film has the eerie, placeless quality of international coproduction (France and Spain in this case); many of the minor characters have been dubbed with Welles's voice, which increases the sense of a sinister puppet show. Sporting an outrageously false beard, Welles plays the mysterious title character, an international businessman who lures a young hustler (Robert Arden) into investigating his past. For all of the film's perversity, there is greatness in it—a greatness harshly criticizing itself." - Dave Kehr (Chicago Reader)
Ms. 45
Angel of Vengeance (alternative title)
● NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1981, USA, 84m, Col, Thriller-Crime-Drama
Screenplay Nicholas St. John Producer Rochelle Weisberg Photography James Momel Editor Christopher Andrews Music Joe Delia Cast Zoë Tamerlis, Albert Sinkys, Darlene Stuto, Peter Yellen, Helen McGara, Nike Zachmanoglou, Abel Ferrara, Steve Singer, Jack Thibeau, Editta Sherman.
● NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1981, USA, 84m, Col, Thriller-Crime-Drama
Screenplay Nicholas St. John Producer Rochelle Weisberg Photography James Momel Editor Christopher Andrews Music Joe Delia Cast Zoë Tamerlis, Albert Sinkys, Darlene Stuto, Peter Yellen, Helen McGara, Nike Zachmanoglou, Abel Ferrara, Steve Singer, Jack Thibeau, Editta Sherman.
"Ms. 45 stands as the best of the 'golden age' of that sordid subgenre known as the 'rape and revenge' film. On its face, such a distinction is dubious at best, but Abel Ferrara’s sophomore feature epitomizes the first stage of his filmmaking career (or second, if you count his short stint in softcore). Rape and revenge movies are inherently muddled in their ideology, eroticizing every assault while pretending that the subsequent bloodletting stands as an unambiguously pro-woman stance. But Ms. 45 expressly foregrounds its thematic confusion; it’s not a movie about justified comeuppance, but the mental collapse of a deeply traumatized individual, whose actions are merely a perpetuation of senseless violence." - Jake Cole (Slant Magazine)
Mulholland Dr.
Mulholland Drive (alternative title)
● NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
2001, France-USA, 147m, Col, Mystery-Drama-Psychological Thriller
Screenplay David Lynch Producers Alain Sarde, Mary Sweeney, Michael Polaire, Neal Edelstein, Tony Krantz Photography Peter Deming Editor Mary Sweeney Music Angelo Badalamenti Cast Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring, Ann Miller, Justin Theroux, Dan Hedaya, Robert Forster, Katharine Towne, Lee Grant, Billy Ray Cyrus, Chad Everett.
● NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
2001, France-USA, 147m, Col, Mystery-Drama-Psychological Thriller
Screenplay David Lynch Producers Alain Sarde, Mary Sweeney, Michael Polaire, Neal Edelstein, Tony Krantz Photography Peter Deming Editor Mary Sweeney Music Angelo Badalamenti Cast Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring, Ann Miller, Justin Theroux, Dan Hedaya, Robert Forster, Katharine Towne, Lee Grant, Billy Ray Cyrus, Chad Everett.
"Mulholland Drive parts the veil on a totally cracked, utterly convincing world with David Lynch its brooding demiurge... Fashioned from the ruins of a two-hour TV pilot rejected by ABC in 1999, Lynch's erotic thriller careens from one violent non sequitur to another. The movie boldly teeters on the brink of self-parody, reveling in its own excess and resisting narrative logic. This voluptuous phantasmagoria is certainly Lynch's strongest movie since Blue Velvet and maybe Eraserhead. The very things that failed him in the bad-boy rockabilly debacle of Lost Highway—the atmosphere of free-floating menace, pointless transmigration of souls, provocatively dropped plot stitches, gimcrack alternate universes—are here brilliantly rehabilitated." - J. Hoberman (The Village Voice)
Mulholland Falls
● NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1996, USA, 107m, Col, Drama-Crime-Mystery
Screenplay Peter Dexter (based on a story by Peter Dexter and Floyd Mutrux) Producers Lili Fini Zanuck, Richard D. Zanuck Photography Haskell Wexler Editor Sally Menke Music Dave Grusin Cast Nick Nolte, Melanie Griffith, Chazz Palminteri, Michael Madsen, Christopher Penn, Treat Williams, Jennifer Connelly, Daniel Baldwin, Andrew McCarthy, John Malkovich.
1996, USA, 107m, Col, Drama-Crime-Mystery
Screenplay Peter Dexter (based on a story by Peter Dexter and Floyd Mutrux) Producers Lili Fini Zanuck, Richard D. Zanuck Photography Haskell Wexler Editor Sally Menke Music Dave Grusin Cast Nick Nolte, Melanie Griffith, Chazz Palminteri, Michael Madsen, Christopher Penn, Treat Williams, Jennifer Connelly, Daniel Baldwin, Andrew McCarthy, John Malkovich.
"An odd kettle of fish, though a pretty alluring one. Lee Tamahori (Once Were Warriors) directs a Pete Dexter and Floyd Mutrux script, a noirish crime story set in Los Angeles during the 50s; thanks in part to gorgeous cinematography by Haskell Wexler and a yearning Dave Grusin score, the lyrical style often recalls Chinatown. An elite police unit nicknamed the “Hat Squad” (Nick Nolte, Chazz Palminteri, Michael Madsen, and Chris Penn) finds a routine murder investigation leads to the Atomic Energy Commission, and the troubled personal involvement of Nolte in the case makes matters even more vexing… If some of the plot twists are predictable, the performances and dialogue do plenty to make up for them. This has craft, feeling, and atmosphere you can taste." - Jonathan Rosenbaum (Chicago Reader)
Murder by Contract
1958, USA, 81m, BW, Thriller-Drama-Crime
Screenplay Ben Simcoe, Ben Maddow [uncredited] Producer Leon Chooluck Photography Lucien Ballard Editor Carlo Lodato Music Perry Botkin Cast Vince Edwards, Phillip Pine, Herschel Bernardi, Caprice Toriel, Michael Granger, Kathie Browne, Joseph Mell, Frances Osborne, Steven Ritch, Janet Brandt.
Screenplay Ben Simcoe, Ben Maddow [uncredited] Producer Leon Chooluck Photography Lucien Ballard Editor Carlo Lodato Music Perry Botkin Cast Vince Edwards, Phillip Pine, Herschel Bernardi, Caprice Toriel, Michael Granger, Kathie Browne, Joseph Mell, Frances Osborne, Steven Ritch, Janet Brandt.
"A quickie shot in eight days on a microscopic budget, it's a potent reminder of how less can be more, centered on Vince Edwards' loner killer for hire. Cool on the outside, tightly coiled on the inside, Edwards' Claude, priding himself on having put his emotions on ice, exemplifies a sort of cusp noir, a harbinger of postwar American change... Clean, lean and mean, tight, tense and satisfyingly reverberant, Murder by Contract vaults over its Poverty Row origins. We can understand why the young Scorsese was much more taken by it than by the A-movie on the double bill he saw. We see in Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976) Travis Bickle's genuflections to Edwards' ascetic preparations.... In its pared-down imperative, and its distant early warning signals of postwar societal upheaval, Murder by Contract, with its fade to white, is a big little film noir turned film blanc." - Jay Carr (Turner Classic Movies)
Murder by Proxy
Blackout (USA title)
● BRIT-NOIR
1954, UK, 87m, BW, Mystery-Crime-Drama
Screenplay Richard H. Landau (based on the novel Gold Coast Nocturne by Helen Nielsen) Producer Michael Carreras Photography Walter J. Harvey Editor Maurice Rootes Music Ivor Slaney Cast Dane Clark, Belinda Lee, Betty Ann Davies, Eleanor Summerfield, Andrew Osborn, Harold Lang, Jill Melford, Alvys Maben, Michael Golden, Nora Gordon.
● BRIT-NOIR
1954, UK, 87m, BW, Mystery-Crime-Drama
Screenplay Richard H. Landau (based on the novel Gold Coast Nocturne by Helen Nielsen) Producer Michael Carreras Photography Walter J. Harvey Editor Maurice Rootes Music Ivor Slaney Cast Dane Clark, Belinda Lee, Betty Ann Davies, Eleanor Summerfield, Andrew Osborn, Harold Lang, Jill Melford, Alvys Maben, Michael Golden, Nora Gordon.
"An American ex-patriot with a drinking problem gets propositioned in a high-falutin' jazz bar by a gorgeous blonde. She'll pay him a healthy sum of money if he marries her. Doesn't sound too bad, does it? Next thing Casey (Dane Clark) knows, he's waking up in a strange bed, unsure of whether or not he's a newlywed… Blackout is a taut thriller. It doesn't necessarily move at D.O.A. speeds, but it barely pauses as Casey goes on the hunt to find out who really killed his maybe father-in-law and clear his name. Along the way, he runs afoul of Phyllis' real fiancé (Andrew Osborn), his goons, and a pair of mothers, Phyllis' mom and his own." - Jamie S. Rich (DVD Talk)
Murder is My Beat
1955, USA, 77m, BW, Mystery-Police Detective Film
Screenplay Aubrey Wisberg (from an unpublished story by Aubrey Wisberg and Martin Field) Producer Aubrey Wisberg Photography Harold Wellman Editor Fred R. Feitshans Jr. Music Albert Glasser Cast Paul Langton, Barbara Payton, Robert Shayne, Tracey Roberts, Jay Adler, Roy Gordon, Harry Harvey, Kate MacKenna, Selena Royle, William Fawcett.
Screenplay Aubrey Wisberg (from an unpublished story by Aubrey Wisberg and Martin Field) Producer Aubrey Wisberg Photography Harold Wellman Editor Fred R. Feitshans Jr. Music Albert Glasser Cast Paul Langton, Barbara Payton, Robert Shayne, Tracey Roberts, Jay Adler, Roy Gordon, Harry Harvey, Kate MacKenna, Selena Royle, William Fawcett.
"Fans of pointy Fifties boobs take note: this poverty row noir is for you. The first half of Edgar Ulmer’s 1955 film economically unravels a seemingly bland murder mystery through stock footage and the narrated flashbacks of detective Ray Patrick (Paul Langton). But what raises doubts about whodunit in the mind of the Brylcreem-addicted cop—and effectively ends his career—are the curves and possible innocence of tried-and-convicted Eden Lane (the tragic starlet Barbara Payton, in her penultimate screen appearance). Jumping with Eden from the train taking her to prison, Patrick attempts to find the man who actually committed the murder and instead discovers a blackmail plot. Most of its expressionist-tinged visual flourishes are withheld until the very end, with a final twist that’s legitimately thrilling." - Violet Lucca (Film Comment)
Murder, My Sweet
Farewell, My Lovely (alternative title)
1944, USA, 95m, BW, Mystery-Crime-Thriller
Screenplay John Paxton (from the novel Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler Producer Adrian Scott Photography Harry Wild Editor Joseph Noriega Music Roy Webb Cast Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley, Otto Kruger, Mike Mazurki, Miles Mander, Esther Howard, Douglas Walton, Don Douglas, Ralf Harolde.
1944, USA, 95m, BW, Mystery-Crime-Thriller
Screenplay John Paxton (from the novel Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler Producer Adrian Scott Photography Harry Wild Editor Joseph Noriega Music Roy Webb Cast Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley, Otto Kruger, Mike Mazurki, Miles Mander, Esther Howard, Douglas Walton, Don Douglas, Ralf Harolde.
"Fine adaptation of Chandler's novel (which had served as plot fodder for The Falcon Takes Over only two years earlier), evocatively creating a seedy, sordid world of shifting loyalties and unseen evil as Marlowe goes in search of the young and missing Velma at the urgent behest of Moose Malloy (Mazurki in fine form), a brutish ex-con unaware that the girl he left behind when he went to jail has metamorphosed into the dangerously duplicitous Claire Trevor (another marvellous performance). Powell is surprisingly good as Marlowe, certainly more faithful to the writer's conception than Bogart was in The Big Sleep, while the supporting cast make the most of John Paxton's superb dialogue. And Harry Wild's chiaroscuro camerawork is the true stuff of noir." - Geoff Andrew (Time Out)
The Murderers Are Among Us
Die Mörder sind unter uns (original title)
● GERMAN NOIR
1946, Germany, 85m, BW, Romance-War Drama
Screenplay Wolfgang Staudte Producer Herbert Uhlich Photography Eugen Klagemann, Friedl Behn-Grund Editor Hans Heinrich Music Ernst Roters Cast Hildegard Knef, Wilhelm Borchert, Arno Paulsen, Elly Burgmer, Erna Sellmer, Hilde Adolphi, Marlise Ludwig, Ursula Krieg, Robert Forsch, Albert Johannes.
● GERMAN NOIR
1946, Germany, 85m, BW, Romance-War Drama
Screenplay Wolfgang Staudte Producer Herbert Uhlich Photography Eugen Klagemann, Friedl Behn-Grund Editor Hans Heinrich Music Ernst Roters Cast Hildegard Knef, Wilhelm Borchert, Arno Paulsen, Elly Burgmer, Erna Sellmer, Hilde Adolphi, Marlise Ludwig, Ursula Krieg, Robert Forsch, Albert Johannes.
"In the pulverized ruins of Berlin, a concentration camp survivor returns to her damaged apartment to find a surgeon living there and moves in with him; he’s haunted by a Christmas massacre of civilians ordered by the captain of his army unit… This 1946 film was the first postwar production in Germany, though its acknowledgment of war crimes was probably dictated by the occupying powers. As in American film noir of the period, director Wolfgang Staudte borrows heavily from the German expressionists, though the results can be choppy: dramatic contrasts between light and dark, extreme close-ups, and tilted camera angles that destabilize space, suggesting a moral vacuum. The film’s visual symbolism can be heavy-handed, but many images are stunningly evocative, and the scene in which the doctor begins his own recovery by performing a tracheotomy on a dying girl is genuinely affecting." - Fred Camper (Chicago Reader)
My Favorite Brunette
● COMEDY NOIR
1947, USA, 87m, BW, Mystery-Comedy
Screenplay Edmund Beloin, Jack Rose Producer Daniel Dare Photography Lionel Lindon Editor Ellsworth Hoagland Music Robert Emmett Dolan Cast Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Peter Lorre, Lon Chaney Jr., Charles Dingle, John Hoyt, Reginald Denny, Frank Puglia, Ann Doran, Willard Robertson.
1947, USA, 87m, BW, Mystery-Comedy
Screenplay Edmund Beloin, Jack Rose Producer Daniel Dare Photography Lionel Lindon Editor Ellsworth Hoagland Music Robert Emmett Dolan Cast Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Peter Lorre, Lon Chaney Jr., Charles Dingle, John Hoyt, Reginald Denny, Frank Puglia, Ann Doran, Willard Robertson.
"Brunette is a send-up of the "private dick" film, with Hope's take on a Phillip Marlowe type, giving him the chance to play his favorite "fish out of water" routine for all it's worth. For most of the film, the gags come fast and furious here, often making no sense but accumulating an irresistible force nonetheless. Unfortunately, about two-thirds of the way through, the tangled plot (an essential feature of the genre being spoofed) takes precedence and slows things down a little; it isn't a fatal change of pace, but it does keep the film from being the full-length laugh-fest it could have been. Hope is right at home with the material, and, of course, he gets good assistance from Dorothy Lamour. What's surprising is how delightfully funny Peter Lorre and (especially) Lon Chaney Jr. are. If My Favorite Brunette just misses being a classic comedy, it still has a great deal to recommend it." - Craig Butler (Allmovie)
My Gun is Quick
1957, USA, 90m, BW, Mystery-Crime-Detective Film
Screenplay Richard Collins, Richard Powell (based on the novel by Mickey Spillane) Producers Victor Saville (as Phil Victor), George White Photography Harry Neumann Editor Frank Sullivan Music Marlin Skiles Cast Robert Bray, Whitney Blake, Patricia Donahue, Donald Randolph, Pamela Duncan, Booth Colman, Jan Chaney, Genie Coree, Richard Garland, Charles Boaz.
Screenplay Richard Collins, Richard Powell (based on the novel by Mickey Spillane) Producers Victor Saville (as Phil Victor), George White Photography Harry Neumann Editor Frank Sullivan Music Marlin Skiles Cast Robert Bray, Whitney Blake, Patricia Donahue, Donald Randolph, Pamela Duncan, Booth Colman, Jan Chaney, Genie Coree, Richard Garland, Charles Boaz.
"The cheap sets which alternate between a greasy spoon diner, Hammer's sparse office, and a seedy hotel room, complete with a flashing neon sign outside, perfectly capture the seedy ambiance that permeates Mickey Spillane's novels. Just as effective are the exterior scenes, shot in unfamiliar sections of Los Angeles, which convey a sense of desolation and emptiness. And while some may argue that Robert Bray's performance is stolid and unnatural, it is this artificial quality that adds to the film's effectiveness. In fact, the very artlessness of the entire production seems intentional and perfectly in keeping with Spillane's rather cold-blooded view of the world." - Jeff Stafford (Turner Classic Movies)
My Name is Julia Ross
1945, USA, 65m, BW, Mystery-Thriller
Screenplay Muriel Roy Bolton (from the novel The Woman in Red by Anthony Gilbert) Producer Wallace MacDonald Photography Burnett Guffey Editors Henry Batista, James Sweeney Music Mischa Bakaleinikoff Cast Nina Foch, George Macready, Dame May Whitty, Roland Varno, Anita Sharp Bolster, Doris Lloyd, Leonard Mudie, Joy Harrington, Queenie Leonard, Harry Hays Morgan.
Screenplay Muriel Roy Bolton (from the novel The Woman in Red by Anthony Gilbert) Producer Wallace MacDonald Photography Burnett Guffey Editors Henry Batista, James Sweeney Music Mischa Bakaleinikoff Cast Nina Foch, George Macready, Dame May Whitty, Roland Varno, Anita Sharp Bolster, Doris Lloyd, Leonard Mudie, Joy Harrington, Queenie Leonard, Harry Hays Morgan.
"He [Lewis] had more than 20 features to his credit when he was handed the script that would give him the opportunity to bring his experiments together in a single, stand-out film: My Name is Julia Ross, a modest little thriller made for Columbia's B-movie unit. The story is a gothic thriller about an unemployed London secretary hired as a live-in assistant to a seemingly sweet old lady... Compared to Lewis' best work, notably his thrilling masterpiece Gun Crazy [1950] and the film noir classic The Big Combo [1955], My Name is Julia Ross is a minor but impressive showpiece: crisply directed, smartly shot, handsomely mounted. It showed producers that Lewis had talent and ambition and, if he never quite broke out of the low-budget end of studio filmmaking, it at least moved him out of the B-movie units." - Sean Axmaker (Turner Classic Movies)
Mysterious Intruder
1946, USA, 61m, BW, Mystery-Crime-Detective Film
Screenplay Eric Taylor Producer Rudolph C. Flothow Photography Philip Tannura Editor Dwight Caldwell Music George Duning Cast Richard Dix, Barton MacLane, Nina Vale, Regis Toomey, Helen Mowery, Mike Mazurki, Pamela Blake, Charles Lane, Paul E. Burns, Kathleen Howard.
Screenplay Eric Taylor Producer Rudolph C. Flothow Photography Philip Tannura Editor Dwight Caldwell Music George Duning Cast Richard Dix, Barton MacLane, Nina Vale, Regis Toomey, Helen Mowery, Mike Mazurki, Pamela Blake, Charles Lane, Paul E. Burns, Kathleen Howard.
"Though the title doesn’t reflect this, this movie was part of The Whistler series from Columbia, and, like most of those movies, the sole fantastic element is the presence of the Whistler himself, who serves as narrator. It’s also one of the best of the series; the plot is complex and full of surprising revelations, the story has a grim noirish feel, and our central character of focus, the detective, is a questionable person; for most of the movie, you won’t know whether his hunt for the object that will bring the money is being done to help a client, or for his own profit. This ambiguity plays a big role in making the surprisingly powerful ending work as well as it does. The movie also features some fun character actors, including Regis Toomey, Charles Lane, and the always memorable Mike Mazurki." - Dave Sindelar (Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings)
The Mysterious Mr. Valentine
1946, USA, 56m, BW, Drama-Crime-Mystery
Screenplay Milton Raison Producer Donald H. Brown Photography Alfred S. Keller Editor Richard L. Van Enger Music Mort Glickman Cast William Henry, Linda Stirling, Virginia Christine, Thomas Jackson, Barbara Woodell, Kenne Duncan, Virginia Brissac, Lyle Latell, Ernie Adams, Tristram Coffin.
Screenplay Milton Raison Producer Donald H. Brown Photography Alfred S. Keller Editor Richard L. Van Enger Music Mort Glickman Cast William Henry, Linda Stirling, Virginia Christine, Thomas Jackson, Barbara Woodell, Kenne Duncan, Virginia Brissac, Lyle Latell, Ernie Adams, Tristram Coffin.
"In a small Californian town, Janet Spencer (Stirling) is framed by blackmailers - one of whom, Sam Priestly (Duncan), calls himself Mr. Valentine in the blackmail notes - for the hit-and-run death of industrial chemist Ralph Doane. PI Steve Morgan (Henry), taking a fancy to Janet, is able to show this was part of a plot by Doane's business partner John Armstrong (Coffin) and mistress Lola Carlson (Christine) to get hold of Doane's insurance money… A busily plotted, entertaining filler in which Christine shines as femme fatale Lola." - John Grant (A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir)
Mystery Street
1950, USA, 93m, BW, Thriller-Police Detective Film
Screenplay Richard Brooks, Sydney Boehm (from an unpublished story by Leonard Spigelgass) Producer Frank E. Taylor Photography John Alton Editor Ferris Webster Music Rudolph G. Kopp Cast Ricardo Montalban, Sally Forrest, Marshall Thompson, Bruce Bennett, Elsa Lanchester, Jan Sterling, Edmon Ryan, Betsy Blair, Wally Maher, Ralph Dumke.
Screenplay Richard Brooks, Sydney Boehm (from an unpublished story by Leonard Spigelgass) Producer Frank E. Taylor Photography John Alton Editor Ferris Webster Music Rudolph G. Kopp Cast Ricardo Montalban, Sally Forrest, Marshall Thompson, Bruce Bennett, Elsa Lanchester, Jan Sterling, Edmon Ryan, Betsy Blair, Wally Maher, Ralph Dumke.
"A neat thriller, despite getting itself a little hung up on the contemporary vogue for documentary trimmings. The opening sequences, set in Boston for a change and magnificently shot by John Alton, are classic film noir, detailing the circumstances leading inexorably to the murder of Jan Sterling, a girl on the make and not above a bit of blackmail. Next comes the police procedural bit, featuring a didactic (but not uninteresting and cleverly integrated) sequence set in the Harvard Department of Legal Medicine. The temperature never fully recovers, although Sturges handles the rest... with considerable deftness and some subtlety. Nice performances, too, especially from Montalban as the zealous but still self-questioning cop, while Elsa Lanchester revels in one of her inimitably batty, gin-swilling landladies." - Tom Milne (Time Out)
The 100 Most Cited Noir Films Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)