richard-1's - Film Noir List

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Jigger Pine (Richard Whorf) is the moody leader of a touring jazz ensemble that's mired in setbacks on the road to success.

The ragtag big-band unit includes Jigger on piano, upbeat Nickie (Elia Kazan) on clarinet, cocky Leo (Jack Carson) on trumpet and Leo's angelic wife, Ginger (Priscilla Lane) on vocals. They land a break when they score a regular gig at a roadhouse. But things take a turn for the worse when Jigger falls for a bar diva with a heart of coal.

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Jane Palmer (Lizabeth Scott) and her husband Alan (Arthur Kennedy) mysteriously have $60,000 literally dropped in their laps. The circumstances seem mighty suspicious to Alan, who wants to turn the money over to the police. But in a materialistic rapture, Jane won't let it go.

She doesn't care where it came from, or what danger might ensue - not if it will bring her the luxury she craves. Enter shady Danny Fuller (Duryea, as cocky and menacing as ever), who claims the money belongs to him. Let the games begin! Roy Huggins' snappy script (adapted from his novel) is a complex, breezy and black-hearted homage to James M. Cain and Raymond Chandler. Rapacious housewife Jane Palmer is one of the juiciest female villains in Hollywood history, and Liz Scott's best role ever.

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In this engaging melodrama, Stanton Carlisle (Tyrone Power) is a lowlife working in a carnival. Knowing a good con when he sees one, he learns the tricks of a mind-reading act from Zeena (Joan Blondell), then tosses her aside.

In time, he becomes "The Great Stanton", star attraction of swanky nightclubs and the darling of society. But with all his notoriety built on lies, it's only a matter of time before exposure brings Stanton's world crashing down around him.

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Bogie's on the run and Bacall's at his side in Delmer Daves' stylish film-noir thriller that's the third of four films Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall made together. Bogart is Vincent Parry, a prison escapee framed for murder who emerges from plastic surgery with a new face.

Bacall is Irene Jansen, his lone ally. In sharp support, Agnes Moorehead plays a venomous harpy finding pleasure in the unhappiness of others. The leads' chemistry is undeniable, augmented here with exceptional tenderness. Exceptional too are San Francisco locations and creative camerawork that shows Vincent's point of view - but not his face - until bandages are removed. Lest Irene get ideas, post-surgery Vincent tells her: "Don't change yours. I like it just as it is". So do we.

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As a psychotic thug devoted to his hard-boiled ma, James Cagney - older, scarier and just as electrifying - gives a performance to match his work in 'The Public Enemy' as 'White Heat's's' cold-blooded Cody Jarrett.

Bracingly directed by Raoul Walsh, this fast-paced thriller tracing Jarrett's violent life in and out of jail is also a harrowing character study. Jarrett is a psychological time bomb ruled by impulse. He murders a wounded accomplice and revels in the act. He neglects his sultry wife (Virginia Mayo) and adores his doting mother. It is among the most vivid screen performances of Cagney's career, and the excitement it generates will put you on top of the world!

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Jean Servais is Tony le Stephanois, a master thief with a battered face and a tubercular cough, souvenirs of a recent stint in the pen.

The ageing Tony is reluctant to return to a life of crime, but when he realizes his girlfriend has thrown him over for a rival gangster, he agrees to attempt one last job. Together with three collaborators – a young father, a boisterous Franco-Italian and a sentimental Milanese safecracker – Tony meticulously engineers his biggest heist yet: robbing the most heavily guarded jewelry store in Paris.

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The Best Picture of 1945 has lost none of its bite or power in this uncompromising look at the devastating effects of alcoholism.

Ironically, this brilliant Billy Wilder film was almost never released because of poor reaction by preview audiences unaccustomed to such stark realism from Hollywood, but the film has since gone on to be regarded as one of the all-time great dramas in movie history. Ray Milland's haunting portrayal of would-be writer's dissatisfaction with his life leads him on a self-destructive three-day binge.

When a university professor (Alberto Closas) and his well-heeled mistress (Lucia Bosé) accidentally run down a cyclist, they flee the scene to keep their affair under wraps - but guilty consciences and a slimy extortionist (Carlos Casaravilla) soon take their toll on the couple

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Charles McGraw stars as Detective Walter Brown, a cop with a simple mission - get mobster's wife Frankie Neale (Marie Windsor) on the train and take her to the grand jury in Los Angeles, where she's going to testify against her late husband's colleagues.

But the mob don't want her to spill the beans and they'll stop at nothing to stop her taking the stand; Brown realises they've planted assassins on the train with them and it's up to him to keep her safe. It's going to be one hell of a journey...

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Overworked true crime magazine editor George Stroud (Ray Milland) has been planning a vacation for months.

However, when his boss, the tyrannical media tycoon Earl Janoth (Charles Laughton), insists he skips his hols, Stroud resigns in disgust before embarking on an impromptu drunken night out with his boss's mistress, Pauline York (Rita Johnson). When Janoth kills Pauline in a fit of rage, Stroud finds himself to have been the wrong man, in the wrong place, at the wrong time: his staff have been tasked with finding a suspect with an all too familiar description...Stroud's very own!

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Scott Henderson (Alan Curtis) is drowning his sorrows after yet another fight with his wife. At a local bar, he meets a woman and they strike up a conversation. Sensing the woman is also feeling down and not wishing to be alone, he invites her to the theatre.

She agrees under one condition; she does not wish to divulge her name, preferring to remain anonymous. When Henderson returns home he finds police officers waiting for him. His wife has been murdered, strangled with one of his neckties, and he is the main suspect. Maintaining his innocence he suggests they go back and speak with someone who might provide an alibi. But no one seems to remember the mysterious lady. Charged with the murder of his wife, it seems Scott Henderson will face the electric chair if he cannot prove his innocence. His only hope just might be his loyal secretary Carol "Kansas" Richman (Ella Raines). Can she find the phantom lady before it's too late?

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Richard Wanley (Edward G. Robinson), a middle aged, world-weary, psychology professor, who finds himself suddenly captivated by a portrait of a beautiful young woman in the window of a local gallery.

In a strange twist of fate the woman in the picture (a radiant Joan Bennett) appears before Richard and invites him back to her apartment. Everything seems to be going fine until Wanley is attacked by her possessive boyfriend and ends up murdering him in self-defence. Alice convinces Richard to cover up the crime, but as Richard's district attorney friend (Raymond Massey) investigates and the boyfriend's bodyguard (Dan Duryea) begins to apply pressure to Richard, the walls begin to close in...

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Police detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) is drawn into Manhattan high society as he investigates the death of stunning ad exec Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney), apparently shotgunned in her own apartment.

The slithery suspects are numerous, led by effete, snobbish columnist Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb), and Laura's philandering fiancee Shelby (Vincent Price), who's also been cavorting with Laura's wealthy aunt (Judith Anderson). McPherson begins to fall in love with Laura through a portrait in her home and the memories relayed by those who knew her...just as it becomes apparent that even the basic facts of the case might not be what they seemed.

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L.A. private eye Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) takes on a blackmail case...and follows a trail peopled with murderers, pornographers, nightclub rogues, the spoiled rich and more.

But Raymond Chandler's legendary gumshoe solves it in hard-boiled style - and style is what 'The Big Sleep' is all about.