WORTH A LOOK

“That’s life. Whichever way you turn, fate sticks out a foot to trip you.” If this were Noir 101, Detour would be required watching. Here is grit and crime, the weight of fate, and lost souls who take detours to a dead end. The plot is pure pulp: a hapless, unemployed piano player unwittingly tumbles down a rabbit hole of murder, blackmail and betrayal, done-in by a tough, cunning dame played by Ann Savage - a "B-actress" with a well deserved cult noir following as a "bad

“Hidden gem” is a tired phrase but it deserves one more outing for Two Seconds, a 1932 “proto-noir” that explores many of the themes filmmakers would place center stage in the noirs of the 1940s and ’50s. Not that anyone involved had the slightest idea they were making “film noir.” The term—and the genre itself—would be invented a generation later and bestowed on films posthumously. Two Seconds opens with John Allen, played by Edward G. Robinson, being led to the electric cha

A tough but vulnerable hero, a dastardly femme fatale, a ruthless crime boss, and a fate that tightens its grip with every wrong turn are orchestrated in a visually rich road to perdition. Eddie Muller calls Out of the Past the pinnacle of film noir style. Private detective Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) is hired by gangster Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas) to track down Kathie Moffat (Jane Greer), who shot Sterling and supposedly fled with $40,000 of his money. Sterling wants Jeff

Long before social media could whip up public frenzy and flash mobs, we got by remarkably well with word-of-mouth. Rumor, suspicion, and a willing crowd were all it took. This 1946 French film noir will haunt you. A middle-aged woman is found murdered in a small French town. The eccentric, reclusive Monsieur Hire somehow knows who did it. The killer and his girlfriend—an amoral, high-functioning psychopath and a compliant femme fatale—conspire to frame him, exploiting Hire’s

J. J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) is one of the most powerful men in New York City - a newspaper gossip columnist presented as a thinly veiled caricature of the best known exposé journalist of that era, Walter Winchell. Malicious, controlling and accustomed to getting whatever he wants, right now Hunsecker wants to break up his young sister’s relationship with a jazz musician. Enter Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis), a born hustler and ambitious press agent willing to do this dirty

1947 2021 The movie is based on William Lindsay Gresham’s acclaimed and controversial 1946 novel Nightmare Alley, which was intermittently banned and appeared in censored editions for decades. His depiction of human nature was regarded as obscene, along with his prose. This tale of karma follows ambitious carnival barker Stanton Carlisle (Tyrone Power/Bradley Cooper) who masters an ingenious mentalist act. Reinventing himself as a sophisticated nightclub performer, his char

An unscrupulous reporter fired for bad behavior by a dozen newspapers banishes himself to the unheralded, low-circulation Albuquerque Sun-Bulletin. While covering a rattle snake hunt, he learns of a man trapped in a cave and callously manipulates the story into a sensational media circus, drawing big crowds to the remote locale as television and radio stations race to cover the unfolding rescue operation. The original name of the movie, “The Big Carnival,” is based on a real-

Some say this is not a true film noir. Noir is as noir does, and Face in the Crowd does. It's as downright cynical and pessimistic as you could want, brimming with ruthless dysfunctional characters. The story follows a charismatic drifter who shoots from obscurity to national fame, only to have his ambition and contempt for the public ultimately devour him. If you know Andy Griffith only as a good ol' boy single-dad Sheriff, this movie will shock you. It shocked him, too. Gr

Some film noirs were box office bombs and critical flops when released, only to be resurrected and acclaimed by the next generation. No movie fits that bill better than Orsen Wells’ 1958 tour de force. In a corrupt Mexican American border town, narcotics officer Mike Vargas investigates a car bombing and clashes with crooked police captain Hank Quinlan. As Quinlan plants evidence to secure convictions, Vargas exposes his corruption while his own wife becomes a target. It’s

Some noir "classics" had inauspicious releases, receving a lukewarm response from critics and audiences, only to be appreciated later. Others were acclaimed at the time. This is one. Sudden Fear (1952) is anchored on a familiar noir plot: two lovers have a whirlwind romance and marriage; for one it is love at first sight, for the other it is manipulation at first sight. Successful playwright (Joan Crawford) overhears new husband (Jack Palance) plot with his secret lover (Glor

An acclaimed “gothic” noir - which is a blend of psychological terror, horror, and mystery, often in a "period' setting. After the first fifteen minutes, you enter - never to leave - a dark, suffocating Victorian mansion where a young mute caretaker is stalked by a notorious serial killer who targets women with disabilities. Stunning set design by Albert D’Agostino, one of the best Golden Age art directors, and a master class in film noir chiaroscuro, a high-contrast techniqu

This cast directed by Sam Fuller is worth the price of admission alone. Thelma Ritter was nominated for Best Supporting Actress and Richard Widmark continued to polish his bad-boy noir credentials playing a petty pickpocket suddenly ensnarled with dangerously beautiful Jean Peters and a lethal foreign spy ring. Perhaps the best of the anti-Communist film noirs. Intrigue, a rough-and-tumble love affair, and gritty action in that urban underbelly. The film has gone up in critic

If there is a first or “proto” film noir, this is it - 1931 German Expressionist thriller directed by Fritz Lang. The screen role established Peter Lorre. Shortly after M, the rise of Nazis forced both artists to flee Europe for Hollywood. Some of the most talented writers and directors of German cinema were in that migration. It will be an important part of the foundation for what we today call film noir. Fritz Lang would go on to direct some of the greatest American noirs.

Directed by a young Robert Aldrich (The Dirty Dozen, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? ) and now regarded as a classic. Tough-as-nails P.I. Mike Hammer gets ensnarled with a mysterious and lethal “Great Whatsit” box - a mad chase saturated in Cold War paranoia with people literally dying to possess it. Watch Cloris Leachman in a riveting first screen role, plus extended looks at two iconic sports cars: the 1954 Chevrolet Corvette C1, one of the earliest screen appearances for