Over 200 capsule reviews of films noir.  The listing is up-dated continuously.   Longer film noir reviews here.

• 711 Ocean Drive (1950 – US)
  You have to wait till the end to get an adrenalin fix, with a slam-bam chase and shoot-out at Boulder Dam.
• 99 River Street (1953 – US)
  Essential Phil Karlson b. Pulp poetry from DP Franz Planer. Matches the best of Mann and Fuller. Evelyn Keys is hot!
• A Woman’s Secret (1949 – US)
  Nick Ray feature starts off noir but plays out as sophisticated melodrama with an acid wit. Shades of All About Eve.
• Ace in the Hole (1952 – US)
  A savage critique of a corrupted and corrupting modern mass media. Billy Wilder’s best movie. Kirk Douglas owns it.
• Act of Violence (1948 – US)
  Long-shot and deep focus climax filmed night-for-night on a railway platform: the stuff noirs are made of.
• Alias Nick Beal (1949 – US)
  The Devil wears Armani. “I don’t do much business with preachers”. Ray Milland is Beelzebub in a sharp suit and fedora.
• Allotment Wives (1945 – US)
  Climax is brutal with Kay Francis plugging a dame without qualm or remorse, but justice triumphs in the end. Camp!
• The Amazing Mr. X (1948 – US)
  Brilliant gothic satire. John Alton expressionist lens, Bernard Vorhaus fluid direction, and ace Alex Laszlo score.
• Angel Face (1952 – US)
  Gothic noir. Preminger’s sardonic detachment makes it one-dimensional. Final denouement is still a shocker.
• Apology for Murder (1945 – US)
  Entertaining PRC rip-off of Double Indemnity. Hugh Beaumont plays the sap to Anne Savage’s femme-fatale.
• Armored Car Robbery (1950 – US)
  Cops chase hoods on the streets of LA with dark noir atmospherics. A tight 67 minutes of b-movie mayhem.
• The Asphalt Jungle (1950 – US)
  Quintessential heist movie transcends melodrama and noir. A police siren wails: “Sounds like a soul in hell.”.
• Betrayed (aka When Strangers Marry) (1944 – US)
  Monogram b by William Castle. The noir city in all its desperate foreboding: a dancing sign flashes in the angel’s face.
• The Big Combo (1955 – US)
  “I live in a maze… a strange blind backward maze’. Obsessed cop hunts down a psychotic crime boss in best noir of 50s.
• The Big Heat (1953 – US)
  Gloria Grahame as existential hero in Fritz Lang’s brooding socio-realist noir critique.
• The Big Night (1951 – US)
  Joseph Losey’s last American movie is a powerful and affecting drama of a boy crossing into manhood one big noir night.
• The Big Sleep (1946 – US)
  Love’s Vengeance Lost. Darker than Dmytryk’s Murder, My Sweet. Bogart is tougher, more driven, and morally suspect.
• The Big Steal (1949 – US)
  “Oh Mexico” A fun ride with real magic between Mitchum and Greer -any guy with blood in his veins will fall for her.
• Black Angel (1946 – US)
  Visually elegant psycho-noir from Cornell Woolrich story. Dan Duryea and June Vincent impress. Hypnotic dream climax.
• The Black Cat (1934 – US)
  Edgar G. Elmar’s elegant camp thriller. A1 art deco set & costume design. Ravishingly erotic expressionist masterpiece!
• Blood on the Moon (1948 – US)
  Moody noir western. Mysterious drifter with divided loyalties courts virginal rancher’s daughter in britches.
• The Blue Dahlia (1946 – US)
  Ladd to Veronica Lake: ‘Every guy’s seen you before – somewhere’. Camp turn by Doris Dowling as the “murdered dame”.
• The Blue Gardenia (1953 – US)
  Minor Fritz Lang effort. Not really noir but some moody scenes from cameraman Nick Musuraca. Anne Baxter shines.
• Blues in the Night (1941 – US)
  Unusual melodrama cum musical with a leftist heart and a killer performance by Betty Field as cheap femme-fatale.
• Body and Soul (1947 – US)
  A masterwork. Melodramatic expose of the fight game and a savage indictment of money capitalism. Garfield’s picture.
• Boomerang (1947 – US)
  Kazan’s early verite-story of integrity in the face of political corruption & police expediency while dated remains strong.
• Breaking Point (1950 – US)
  Great John Garfield vehicle with strong social subtext. Much stronger than from the same source To Have and Have Not.
• The Bribe (1949 – US)
  How not to film a noir. Ava Gardner looks great in peasant garb & Charles Laughton hams it up as a low-life.
• Brick (2005 – US)
  Though technically competent with clever noir allusions, confusing plot with unintelligible mumbled dialog of tribal argot.
• Brighton Rock (1947 – UK)
  Greatest British noir is dark and chilling. A cinematic tour-de-force: from the direction and cinematography to top cast and editing.
• Caged (1950 – US)
  Eleanor Parker leads a great female cast in a dark women’s prison picture with a savage climax and a gutsy downbeat ending
• Call Northside 777 (1948 – US)
  Chicago paper investigates a murder conviction. Solid script and exceptional cinematography from Joe MacDonald.
• Cat People (1942 – US)
  The cat woman a captive of her accursed fate and imprisoned by her very sexuality unleashes her demonic self. Brilliant.
• Caught (1949 – US)
  Max Ophuls renders the most elegant and romantic noir you will ever see. Robert Ryan, Barbara Bel Geddes and  James Mason are superb!
• The Chase (1946 – US)
  Insane hoods pursue shell-shocked vet. Totally surreal obscure noir melodrama (?) like no other movie you have ever seen.
• Clash By Night (1952 – US)
  Cheating wife Stanwyck faces the music. Fritz Lang puts sexual license and existential entitlement on trial and wins.
• The Clay Pigeon (1949 – US)
  Amnesic ex-POW accused of treason. Tight b set in LA’s Chinatown: nail-biting chase and A1 climax on a night train.
• A Colt is My Passport (1967 – Japan)
  Hip acid nikkatsu noir with surreal spaghetti-western score.
• Cornered (1945 – US)
  Dmytryk’s atmospheric latin noir thriller. Harry Wild’s expressionist camera-work and a solid turn by Dick Powell add value.
• Crack-Up (1946 – US)
  Entertaining b-thriller. Pat O’Brien & Claire Trevor hunt down art forgery racket. Some noir overtones and  moody photography.
• Crime Wave (1954 – US)
  Andre de Toth noir masterwork set on the streets of LA is so authentic it plays for real with each character deeply drawn.
• The Crimson Kimono (1959 – US)
  Little Tokyo Rift. Fuller’s deft study of race, love, jealousy, and friendship. Jumpy takes and cool jazz score.
• Criss-Cross (1949 – US)
  Accomplished noir. Aerial opening shot into parking lot onto a passing car exposing the doomed lovers to the spotlight.
• Crossfire (1947 – US)
  Predictable and preachy. Paul Kelly steals the movie as weird spurned lover of young taxi-dancer Gloria Grahame.
• Cry Danger (1951 – US)
  About as noir as white coffee. Over-rated and dull. How not to make a noir.
• A Cry in the Night (1956 – US)
  A solid b from Frank Tuttle surveys parenthood & rebel teens in story of girl’s abduction by disturbed mama’s boy.
• Dark City (1998 – US)
  A visually stunning and enigmatic sci-fi noir exploring the nature of consciousness and memory in a stylized noir city.
• The Dark Corner (1946 – US)
  Solid B-noir. Lucille Ball looks good smoothing her size-9 nylons over those long legs while making snappy innuendo.
• The Dark Mirror (1946 – US)
  Wraith in the cracked mirror. Siodmak noir with a hot Olivia de Havilland in dual role as twin sisters – one insane.
• Dark Passage (1947 – US)
  Escaped con Bogart beats murder rap with Bacall’s help. Flat, but Houseley Stevenson as bootleg plastic surgeon a hoot.
• Dead Reckoning (1947 – US)
  Bogart & Lizabeth Scott in the first noir parody: not that anyone called it. Fun mash-up of ersatz-pi & femme-fatale.
• Decoy (1946 – US)
  Overblown plot, average acting, and pedestrian direction add up to a camp oddity. Jean Gillie is the maniacal femme-criminale.
• Desert Fury (1947 – US)
  Color-b with Lizabeth Scott as precocious daughter of casino operator Mary Astor, and Wendell Corey a queer homme-fatale.
• Desperate (1947 – US)
  Uber cool Anthony Mann noir. Raymond Burr dominates as avenging hood. Brilliant chiaroscuro lensing & crazy angles satisfy.
• Destination Murder (1950 – US)
  The alter-ego and the pianola. A scheming blonde, suave villain, a hint of sexual ambiguity, and a novel twist.
• Detective Story (1951 – US)
  Intense account of few hours in a NY police-station. Kirk Douglas as an inflexible embittered detective dominates.
• Detour (1945 – US)
  Edgar Ulmer’s cult b-noir. Story of a guy so dumb he blames fate for his own foolishness.
• The Devil Thumbs A Ride (1947 – US)
  Dark little gem with Lawrence Tierney. High-jinks, crackling dialog, and absurd twists keep you mesmerised.
• DOA (1950 – US)
  Gritty on-the-street in-your-face melodrama of innocent act a decent man’s un-doing. Edmund O’Brien is intense. The goons rock!
• Double Indemnity (1944 – US)
  All the elements of the archetypal film noir are distilled into a gothic LA tale of greed, sex, and betrayal.
• Double Jeopardy (1955 – US)
  Republic-b. High sleaze with boring good guys. A boozy blackmailer and his cheap wife carry the picture. Pulp heaven.
• Drunken Angel (aka Yoidore tenshi) (1948 – Japan)
  Great Kurosawa noir. A loser doctor with soul takes on the fetid moral swamp of Yakuza degradation.
• Elevator to the Gallows (1958 – France)
  Chic nihilism packaged as a noir take on romantic obsession and teenage angst.
• Endless Desire (1958 – Japan)
  Dark comedy of greed punished by relentless fate. Bravura direction and cinematography, with hip 50s jazz score.
• Escape (1948 – UK)
  Gem of a thriller directed by Joe Mankiewicz. Moody noir photography on fog-laden moors at night and chance add noir feel.
• The Face Behind the Mask (1941 – US)
  Iconic proto-noir has bleakest downbeat ending of any noir. Presages the motifs of a score of later noirs.
• Fallen Angel (1945 – US)
  Tight and elegant noir. Otto Preminger steers a solid cast through an ethical labyrinth. Linda Darnell sends the male ibidos haywire.
• Fear in the Night (1947 – US)
  Guy wakes from a murderous dream to find it’s true. A nightmare Cornell Woolrich world of existential dread.
• The File On Thelma Jordan (1950 – US)
  Deterministic melodrama but psychological element provides depth. Siodmak disappoints though Stanwyk is great.
• Five-Star Final (1931 – US)
  Uneven Warner’s social protest picture about newspapers, but packs a heavy pre-Code punch and Edward G. chews it up!
• Force of Evil (1948 – US)
  Polonsky transcends noir in a tragic allegory on greed & family. Garfield adds signature honesty & gritty complexity.
• Follow Me Quietly (1949 – US)
  Text-book 59-min b-noir written by Anthony Mann and directed by Dick Fleischer (The Narrow Margin). Not iconic but has its moments.
• The Fountainhead (1949 – US)
  King Vidor’s expressionist bizarro noir of Ayn Rand’s unreadable novel of black-shirted super-man in phallic city.
• Full Confession (1939 – US)
  Essential early noir with the themes of fate dealing losing cards, physical entrapment and mental anguish, and redemption as a two-edged sword.
• Fury (1936 – US)
  Powerful critique telegraphs recurring theme in Fritz Lang’s later noirs: fate of the individual when social institutions fail.
• Gambling House (1950 – US)
  Gritty b-thriller with a social angle and deep-focus NY location shooting. Victor Mature charms as a reforming hood.
• The Garment Jungle (1957 – US)
  Flat expose of bosses & racketeers vs. unions. Gia Scala shines: by turns sensual, fiery, gentle, and despairing.
• The Ghost Ship (1943 – US)
  Mad see captain terrorises rookie officer in entrapment psychodrama. Insinuates itself into your memory. Must see.
• Gilda (1946 – US)
  Hayworth is one hot dame: ‘if I had been a ranch, they would have named me ‘Bar Nothing’. Homo-erotic misogyny goes noir.
• The Glass Key (1942 – US)
  Flat Hammett adaptation. Hero uses surrogates for dirty deeds. William Bendix a knockout as queer(?) sadistic hood.
• The Glass Web (1953 – US)
  50s TV-style noir. Not even Edward G. Robinson can redeem this old chestnut. Two thumbs down.
• The Good Die Young (1954 – UK)
  WW2 vets in need of cash are easy targets for wastrel toff – a man so venal he is loathed by his own father.
• Gun Crazy (1950 – US)
  A potent mix of sex and violence, layered with psycho-sexual motifs and fetishes. Peggy Cummins is hot urban gun-slinger.
• The Harder They Fall (1956 – US)
  Mediocre boxing movie. Bogart in his last role as a front-man and Rod Steiger as mobster keep the interest up.
• He Walked by Night (1948 – US)
  Killer stalked by cops. Amazing climax in underground drains. Alton’s visual poetry offsets zero characterisation.
• Highway 301 (1950 – US)
  Taut crime-doesn’t pay b. Steve Cochran dominates as savage hood. Drawn-out tour-de-force climax on dark city streets.
• The Hitch-Hiker (1953 – US)
  Ida Lupino’s desert noir. Two Joes on a fishing trip waylaid by psycho-killer William Talman, who steals picture.
• Hollow Triumph (1948 – US)
  Baroque journey to perdition traversing a noir topography redolent with noir archetypes. Audacious and enthralling.
• Hotel du Nord (1938 – France)
  Poetic realist melodrama of lives at provincial French hotel. As moody as noir with a darkly absurd resolution.
• The House Across the Lake (1954 – UK)
  Toff rip-off of JM Cain. Hack writer falls for ice-cold blonde wife of country gent. Competent only.
• Human Desire (1954 – US)
  Lang’s unrelenting gaze into the dark underside of modern America is stark and without visible shadows.
• I Can Get It for You Wholesale (1951 – US)
  Abe Polonksy’s last script before HUAC. Acid drama about NY garment business marred by soft ending.
• I Love Trouble (1948 – US)
  Hot-jive noir. Laughs and smooth-as-nylons repartee, while guys get slapped hard, drugged, and slugged from behind.
• Impact (1949 – US)
  Cheating wife conspires with her lover to kill her wealthy husband. Starts off noir but veers into bucolic redemption hokum.
• I Married a Communist (1949 – US)
  Commies as hoods. Never flags. Erotic fission and violent noir pyrotechnics make for enthralling & wild ride.
• In A Lonely Place (1950 – US)
  Nick Ray deftly explores effect of isolation, frustration, and anxiety on the creative psyche as noir entrapment.
• The Iron Curtain (1948 – US)
  Intelligent anti-Soviet thriller with noir aesthetics presages the cold war. Dana Andrews great as ‘simple Russian’.
• I Wake Up Screaming (1941 – US)
  Early crooked cop psycho-noir. Redolent noir motifs, dark shadows, off-kilter framing and expressionist imagery.
• I Walk Alone (1948 – US)
  Great Haskin noir sleeper. Kirk Douglas frames Burt Lancaster, who falls for Lizabeth Scott. Wendell Corey the fall guy.
• I Was a Communist for the FBI (1951 – US)
  Slick reds-under-the-bed homage to HUAC. FBI plant saves pinko dame in great noir rail-yard shoot-out.
• Journey Into Fear (1943 – US)
  Moody Welles’ noir. Exotic locales, sexy dames, weird villains, politics, wisdom, philosophy, and a wry humor.
• Key Largo (1948 – US)
  WW2 vet Bogart fights has-been gangster Ed G in claustrophobic guest-house boarded-up against a hurricane. Bacall helps.
• The Killer That Stalked New York (1950 – US)
  B re-enacting 1946 smallpox scare in NY. Evelyn Keys is great as the ‘killer’. Some Ok vignettes.
• The Killers (1946 – US)
  Siodmak’s classic noir. Burt Lancaster’s masterful debut performance in a tragedy of a decent man destroyed by fate.
• The Killing (1956 – US)
  Kubrick’s heist movie has a bloody savage climax. ‘Individuality is a monster, and it must be strangled in its cradle… ‘
• Kiss Me Deadly (1955 – US)
  Anti-fascist Hollywood Dada. Aldrich’s surreal noir a totally weird yet compelling exploration of urban paranoia.
• Kiss of Death (1947 – US)
  Reformed hood squeals to save family from giggling psychotic hit-man. Sordid streets of noir city a dark counterpoint.
• Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (1948 – US)
  Atmospheric Norman Foster noir lensed by Metty with Rózsa score. Burt Lancaster and Joan Fontaine shine.
• Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950 – US)
  A labored late gangster flick not even Jimmy Cagney can torch into action. The philosopher hood says it sucks.
• Knock on Any Door (1949 – US)
  Nick Ray directs Bogart as lawyer with a social conscience, but closing sermon to jurors is hammered and too late.
• LA Confidential (1997 – US)
  Visually stunning thriller but no soul and lacks a true noir sensibility. Mickey Spillane on steroids
• The Lady From Shanghai (1947 – US)
  Welles’ brilliant jigsaw noir with a femme-fatale to die for and a script so sharp you relish every scene.
• A Lady Without Passport (1950 – US)
  Romance, humour, intrigue, and sensuality. A minor Casablanca filmed with a casual elegance that enthralls.
• Laura (1944 – US)
  Gene Tierney is an exquisite iridescent angel and Dana Andrews a stolid cop who nails the killer after falling for a dead dame.
• The Locket (1946 – US)
  Bizarre Freudian melodrama. Compulsive story of entrapment layered in audacious flashback in a flashback in a flashback.
• The Long Night (1947 – US)
  RKO Henry Fonda vehicle from Anatole Litvak. WW2 vet melodrama with strong supporting cast. I’m stuck on Ann Dvorak.
• The Lost Weekend (1945 – US)
  ‘Most men lead lives of quiet desperation. I can’t take quiet desperation.’ Ray Milland against type on a bender.
• Lucky Nick Cain (1950 – US)
  Joe Newman films a small Italian town as a locale of exquisite mystery, peril, and sinister shadows. Camp interludes.
• Lured (1947 – US)
  Camp thriller is loads of fun. Douglas Sirk directs a cavalcade of stars including George Sanders and a luscious Lucille Ball.
• Macao (1952 – US)
  Boring stupid pastiche. A tawdry tantrum scene from Von Sternberg with Jane Russell exposing a full leg is as good as it gets.
• Macao, L’enfer Du Jeu (aka Gambliming Hell) (1939 – France)
  A sexy, funny, and uber dark adventure-melodrama. The spin of the roulette wheel offers no escape nor redemption: only the innocent survive.
• Manèges (1950 – France)
  A cynical, dark and savage history of a femme-fatale and the sucker she destroys. But fate has the final say.
• The Man Who Cheated Himself (1949 – US)
  Frisco cop Lee J Cobb covers-up murder by his rich girlfriend. Superbly crafted action-packed film noir.
• Mildred Pierce (1945 – US)
  Joan Crawford in classy melodrama by Michael Curtiz lensed by Ernest Haller. Self-made woman escapes morass of greed.
• Moontide (1944 – US)
  Resplendent pairing of Jean Gabin and Ida Lupino in a moody melodrama by the sea aching with love, humor, fog, and angst.
• Murder My Sweet (1944 – US)
  Most noir fun you will ever have. Raymond Chandler’s prose crackles with moody noir direction from Edward Dmytryk.
• My Name Is Julia Ross (1945 – US)
  Gothic noir Joseph H. Lewis’ first notable film. Richly atmospheric but marred by hurried ending after 60 mins.
• Mysterious Intruder (1946 – US)
  Richard Dix in Whistler series. Off-beat noir ending has sleazy PI Don Gale go straight in vain. Totally weird!
• The Naked City (1948 – US)
  “There are 8 million stories…A police procedural of little irony or depth but with a then gutsy magazine expose feel.
• The Naked Kiss (1964 – US)
  Pulp Noir from Sam Fuller. Story of b-girl remaking her life in the face of social prejudice is perversely involving.
• The Narrow Margin (1952 – US)
  Opening scene of a train screeching through the night has you hooked. Incendiary vixen Marie Windsor dominates.
• Night And the City (1950 – US)
  Dassin’s stark existential journey played out in the dark dives of post-war London as a quintessential noir city.
• Night Editor (1946 – US)
  Sexually charged cult noir starring the queen of b Janis Carter as a rotten rich dame who double-crosses her cop lover.
• Nightfall (1957 – US)
  Story of innocent man on the run from cops & hoods lacks tension. Even at 78 mins takes too long to reach pat resolution.
• Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948 – US)
  Edward G Robinson magnificent as a man trapped by an accursed gift. Redemption a zero sum game. Moody and unsettling.
• Nightmare Alley (1947 – US)
  Predatory femme-fatale uses greed not sex to trap her prey in a hell of hangmen at the bottom of an empty gin bottle.
• Nora Prentiss (1947 – US)
  Doctor is plunged into a dark pool of noir angst in a turbo-charged melodrama of tortured loyalty and thwarted passion.
• No Way Out (1950 – US)
  ”Is it a question or an answer?” A young black intern’s struggle against prejudice confronts racism head-on – a great noir.
• La Nuit de Carrefour (1931 – France)
  Early Jean Renoir poetics. Magically delicious femme-noir and a brilliant car chase at night. Moody & bizarrre!
• Obsession (1948 – UK)
  Macabre and sardonic. Psychopath shrink plans perfect murder. Taut direction from Edward Dmytryk with a Nino Rota score!
• Of Missing Persons (1956 – Argentina)
  Lurid adaptation of 1950 pulp novel by David Goodis. Appalling yet mesmerizing latin melodrama.
• On Dangerous Ground (1951 – US)
  City cop battling inner demons is sent to ‘Siberia’. A film of dark beauty and haunting characterisations.
• Out of the Past (1947 – US)
  Quintessential film noir. Inspired direction, exquisite expressionist cinematography, and legendary Mitchum & Greer.
• Panic In the Streets (1950 – US)
  Tautly directed by Elia Kazan with real street cred. Climax on a ship’s mooring rope is elegantly metaphoric.
• Party Girl (1958 – US)
  30s Chicago mob lawyer falls for Cyd Charisse gorgeous in Nick Ray’s Technicolored Cinemascope, but Robert Taylor wooden.
• Patterns (1956 – US)
  Corporate noir. Ruthless entrapment in the executive suite. Dynamic portrayals by Van Heflin and Ed Begley. Superb drama.
• Phantom Lady (1944 – US)
  Woody Bredell’s noir photography and an orgasmic jazz jam session add jive to Siodmak’s otherwise lackluster direction.
• The Phenix City Story (1955 – US)
  Expose confidential based on true story. Unrelenting and chilling portrayal of decent people fighting crime.
• Pickup On South Street (1953 – US)
  Weak story anchored by Fuller’s spirited direction & strong performances from Richard Widmark & female leads.
• Pitfall (1948 – US)
  Deceit leads to murder and innocent lives destroyed. What happens when ordinary people at home can pull a gun from a drawer.
• Port of New York (1949 – US)
  Cut-out Cops. Hoods with depth that belies the earnestness of the script. Yul Brenner kills with psychotic empathy.
• Port of Shadows (1938 – France)
  Fate a dank existential fog ensnares doomed lovers Jean Gabin and Michèle Morgan after one night of happiness.
• Possessed (1947 – US)
  Joan Crawford soapie. Repressed woman is pushed into schizophrenia by unrequited love. More melodrama on steroids than noir.
• The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946 – US)
  Fate ensures adulterous lovers who murder the woman’s husband, suffer definite and final retribution.
• Private Hell 36 (1954 – US)
  Flat crooked cop flic from Don Siegel. Ida Lupino, who co-wrote the screenplay, and Steve Cochran make it interesting.
• The Prowler (1951 – US)
  Van Heflin is homme-fatale in Tumbo thriller. Director Losey is unforgiving – each squalid act is suffocatingly framed.
• Pursued (1947 – US)
  Noir Western from Raoul Walsh. Robert Mitchum is trapped by his past. Solid but inferior to the moody Blood on The Moon (1948) .
• Pushover (1954 – US)
  Wide-screen noir. Hip as an LA martini. Bravura direction by Richard Quine. Fred MacMurray & Kim Novak in 1st role: awesome!
• Railroaded (1947 – US)
  Anthony Mann’s poverty-row pulp-b is very noir, cut with acid, and photographed in the deafening blaze of gun-fire.
• Raw Deal (1948 – US)
  Sublime noir from Anthony Mann and John Alton. Knockout cast in a strong story stunningly rendered as expressionist art.
• The Reckless Moment (1949 – US)
  Max Ophuls takes a blackmail story and infuses it with a complexity and subtlety rarely matched in film noir.
• Ride the Pink Horse (1946 – US)
  Disillusioned WW2 vet arrives in a New Mexico town to blackmail a war racketeer. Imbued with a rare humanity.
• Rififi (1955 – France)
  Dassin’s classic heist thriller culminating in the terrific final scenes of a car desperately careening through Paris streets.
• Road House (1948 – US)
  Widmark as schizoid road-house owner who covets sultry cabaret singer Ida Lupino in memorable love triangle melodrama.
• Roadblock (1951 – US)
  B-noir is dated but Joan Dixon is an elegant femme-fatale to Charles McGraw. Nick Musuraca’s climactic car chase thrills.
• Ruthless (1948 – US)
  Edgar G. Ulmer’s Citizen Kane. A tycoon ruthlessly pursues wealth as some sort of revenge against a deprived childhood.
• San Quentin (1946 – US)
  Lawrence Tierney in shoot-em-up with message. Mean on-the-streets car chase and gripping fisticuffs finale hit the spot.
• Scarlet Street (1946 – US)
  Classic noir from Fritz Lang. Unremitting in its pessimism. A dark mood and pervading doom of devastating intensity.
• Scandal Sheet (1952 – US)
  Lacklustre realisation of Sam Fuller’s expose novel on yellow journalism. Broderick Crawford is strong as the bad guy.
• The Second Woman (1950 – US)
  From producer Harry M. Popkin (DOA and Impact) A neat b-noir lensed by Hal Mohr has you guessing with a nice twist.
• Secret Beyond the Door (1948 – US)
  Gothic Fritz Lang noir. Intelligent use of Freudian tropes explicates the motivations of a disturbed mind.
• The Set-Up (1949 – US)
  Robert Ryan is great as washed-up boxer in Robert Wise’ sharp expose of the fight game. Brooding and intense 5-star noir.
• The Seventh Victim (1943 – US)
  “Despair behind, and death before doth cast”. The terror of empty existence. Brilliant Lewton gothic melodrama.
• Shock (1946 – US)
  Perverse b-noir. Murder witness goes catatonic. Her shrink is the killer. A dark Lynn Bari smolders. Enticingly preposterous!
• The Sleeping City (1950 – US)
  Sleep inducer about drug racket in NY hospital. Could have been interesting if made by talented film-makers.
• The Sniper (1952 – US)
  Dmytryk off-target in Frisco. Angle shots and off-kilter staging sustain visual interest, but lacks a noir sensibility.
• The Sound of Fury (1950 – US)
  Great noir! Outdoes Lang’s Fury & brilliantly prefigures Wilder’s Ace in the Hole. Climactic mob scenes mesmerise.
• Split Second (1953 – US)
  Nuclear paranoia and cruel destiny deal the protagonists a raw deal in an explosive finale. No heroes here just fate…
• Strange Illusion (1945 – US)
  Bizarre Hamlet remake. Edgar Ulmer turns PRC b into camp expressionist noir of foul villains with a knockout finale.
• The Stranger (1946 – US)
  Nazi war criminal stalked in a sleepy Connecticut town. Welles directs and Russell Metty lenses moody intelligent noir.
• Stranger on the 3rd Floor (1940 – US)
  Claustrophobic thriller in a city where paranoia runs deep. Expressionist nightmare sequence is best ever!
• Strangers in the Night (1944 – US)
  Early Anthony Mann b-thriller. Off-beat gothic story of sexual frustration morphing into delusions & murder.
• Stray Dog (1949 – Japan)
  Kurosawa’s ying and yang take on reality informs this 5-star noir: the pursuer could as easily have been the pursued.
• Suspense (1946 – US)
  Monogram’s costliest feature a melodrama on ice only fires at the end when the absurd plot is put on ice;) Belita is hot!
• Sunset Boulevard (1950 – US)
  Wilder’s sympathetic story of four decent people each sadly complicit in the inevitable doom that will engulf them.
• Sweet Smell of Success (1957 – US)
  James Wong Howe’s sharpest picture. As bracing as vinegar and cold as ice. Ambition stripped of all pretense.
• They Drive by Night (1938 – UK)
  On-the-run ex-con tries to beat a murder rap on dark London streets and long-haul lorries. Abrupt ending though.
• They Live by Night (1948 – US)
  Nicholas Ray’s first feature. A tragedy of Shakespearean dimensions which transcends film noir.
• They Made Me a Criminal (1939 – US)
  Early Garfield boxing hokum. First 20 mins delicious noir. A very young & nubile Ann Sheridan adds interest.
• They Made Me a Killer (1946 – US)
  ‘Go away will ya. Gotta get this barrel straight. Too bad that gun can’t cook! Well that makes you both even.’
• They Won’t Believe Me (1947 – US)
  Intriguing noir melodrama with Robert Young against type. Jesuitical resolution – fate punishes bad intentions.
• Thieves’ Highway (1949 – US)
  Moody Richard Conte hauling fruit to Frisco. Rich socio-realist melodrama from Jules Dassin and A.I. Bezzerides. AAA.
• The Third Man (1949 – US)
  Sublime. An engaging cavalcade of characters in a human comedy of love, friendship, and the imperatives of conscience.
• This Gun For Hire (1942 – US)
  Weaves a spy story into a taught and moody thriller, with breakthrough performances from Alan Ladd & Veronica Lake.
• T-Men (1947 – US)
  Mann & Alton offer a visionary descent into a noir realm of dark tenements, nightclubs, mobsters, and hellish steam baths.
• Tomorrow Is Another Day (1951 – US)
  Rare Warner-b. Felix Feist helms redemption noir with true pathos. Shades of Grapes of Wrath. Engaging leads.
• Too Late For Tears (1948 – US)
  Preposterous chance event launches wild descent into dark avarice and eroticised violence as relentless as fate.
• Touch of Evil (1958 – US)
  Welles’ masterwork is a disconnected emotionally remote study of moral dissipation. Crisp b&w lensing by Russell Metty.
• Tread Softly Stranger (1958 – UK)
  Brilliant British noir set in hellish steel town. Gritty and taut Diana Dors vehicle. Moody poetic photography.
• Underworld USA (1961 – US)
  Fast & furious pulp from Sam Fuller. Revenge finds redemption in death up a back alley the genesis of dark vengeance.
• Une Si Jolie Petite Plage (aka Riptide) (1949 – France)
  Iron in the soul: savage irony, withering subversion, and desolation mark the rain-sodden angst of a young man’s end.
• Union Station (1950 – US)
  Noir action in Chicago. Hood faces decapitation by train & shoot-out in labyrinthine underground tunnels is a classic.
• The Unsuspected (1947 – US)
  Camp noir! Curtiz directs, Woody Bredell lenses, Waxman scores, Claude Rains over-acts, and Audrey Totter is a hoot!
• Vertigo (1958 – US)
  Far-fetched and heavy-handed. Hitchcock’s usual contempt for his protagonists makes the affair rather bleak and alienating.
• Voici le temps des assassin (1956 – France)
  Young twisted femme-fatale & her off-the-wall mere try & destroy aged Paris restauranter. Climax a bitch.
• Walk Softly, Stranger (1950 – US)
  Slow romantic noir rewards with an honest story and sensitive performances from Joseph Cotten & Alida Valli.
• The Web (1947 – US)
  Entertaining thriller with dumb lawyer framed for murder. Snappy patter from solid leads, but about as noir as an albino cat.
• The Well (1951 – US)
  Deals explosively with race and mob hysteria. Up there with Lang’s Fury & Cy Endfield’s The Sound of Fury. AAN for editing.
• Where Danger Lives (1950 – US)
  It’s a long road. Uneven melodrama made memorable by Faith Domergue & a stunning climax lensed by Nick Musuraca.
• Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950 – US)
  Preminger’s elegant direction & La Shelles’ crisp noir lensing are aloof & Dan Andrews in the lead is wooden.
• Whirlpool (1949 – US)
  Otto Preminger turns preposterous frame-up by hypnosis premise into a polished melodrama. Jose Ferrer a suave homme-fatale.
• White Heat (1949 – US)
  Fission Noir. Taut electric thriller straps you in an emotional strait-jacket released only in the final explosive frames.
• Witness to Murder (1954 – US)
  Involving thriller with noir angle. Barbara Stanwyck and George Sanders hold it all together. Lensed by John Alton.
• The Woman On the Beach (1947 – US)
  Intriguing cerebral noir melodrama from Jean Renoir…  what’s left of it after hacking by RKO suits.
• Woman on the Run (1950 – US)
  Intelligent b-thriller set on the streets, tenements, dives, and wharves of Frisco, with a roller-coaster climax.
• World For Ransom (1954 – US)
  Dan Duryea a good guy! Robert Aldrich takes a boys own script and fashions a noir take on love, loyalty & illusion.
• Young Man with a Horn (1950 – US)
  A fine melodrama with true pathos, great jazz, and an intelligent screenplay by HUAC blacklistee Carl Foreman.
• You Only Live Once (1937 – US)
  Fritz Lang & Hollywood kick-start poetic realism! Henry Fonda and Sylvia Sidney are the doomed lovers on the run.