A mobster is hiding from the law in a small town and he’s running out of money, so he robs a bank and rakes in some big bucks. However, now, not only are the cops after him, but so is the local mob boss who is jealous that an outsider pulled such a job in …
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The suave Don Juan Ricardo ‘Rick’ De Villa (John Bromfield) and his married lover Fritzi Darvel would like to take off together, but his lack of money prevents them from doing so. A chance encounter introduces Rick to the young, but terminally ill socialite Valerie Bancroft (Martha Vickers), in whom Rick sees the solution to …
Read More “The Big Bluff (1955) [Film Noir] [Drama]”
A car containing a bullet ridden blackmailer’s corpse is left in front of the police station. The daughter of a mayoral candidate had visited the blackmailer that day, and is brought in for questioning. A newspaper editor, who does not want that candidate to win, visits Lt. Carson and pressures him to tarnish the daughter’s …
Read More “Behind Green Lights (1946) [Film Noir] [Drama] [Mystery]”
During World War II, J. Carrol Naish plays an optometrist who is really a Nazi spy. A book of his that he uses to decode a Nazi spy code is stolen from him while he was walking on the San Francisco waterfront at night. A Nazi agent who comes to meet him (John Carradine) is …
Read More “Waterfront (1944) [Drama] [War]”
The film tells the story of a psychiatrist, Dr. Cross (Vincent Price), who is treating a young woman, Janet Stewart (Anabel Shaw), who is in a coma-state, brought on when she heard loud arguing, went to her window and saw a man strike his wife with a candlestick and kill her. It also stars Lynn …
Read More “Shock (1946) [Film Noir] [Thriller]”
Police Lt. Leonard Diamond is on a personal crusade to bring down sadistic gangster Mr. Brown. He’s also dangerously obsessed with Brown’s girlfriend, the suicidal Susan Lowell. His main objective as a detective is to uncover what happened to a woman called “Alicia” from the crime boss’s past. Mr. Brown, his second-in-command McClure and thugs …
Read More “The Big Combo (1955) [Film Noir] [Crime]”
Wealthy socialite Lois Frazer wants a divorce from her husband, but he’s not ready to let her go so easy. Suspecting that he intends to murder her, she calls Lieutenant Ed Cullen, with whom she’s been having an affair, in an effort to save herself from her husband’s wrath. When Ed arrives someone dies, but …
Read More “The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950) [Film Noir] [Crime]”
A physician, whose license has been revoked, poses as a practicing doctor aboard a train passing through Arizona. His presence there is part of a caper involving a fictitious patient, on whose behalf he gains access to his checked baggage, including his physician’s “black bag,” in the baggage car, whereupon he blows and then robs …
Read More “Time Table (1956) [Film Noir] [Drama]”
“The Amazing Mr. X”, also known as “The Spiritualist”, is a film noir directed by Bernard Vorhaus with cinematography by John Alton. Like “Nightmare Alley” (1947), this film tells the story of a phony spiritualist racket. The film is prominently featured in Alton’s book on cinematography “Painting with Light” (1949). The film stars Turhan Bey, …
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Fear in the Night is an American low budget black-and-white film noir directed by Maxwell Shane and starring Paul Kelly and DeForest Kelley (in his film debut). It is based on the Cornell Woolrich story “And So to Death” (retitled ‘”Nightmare” in 1943). Woolrich is credited under pen name William Irish. The film was remade …
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