The Big Bluff (1955) [Film Noir] [Drama]

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 …

Behind Green Lights (1946) [Film Noir] [Drama] [Mystery]

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 …

The Big Combo (1955) [Film Noir] [Crime]

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 …

The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950) [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 …

Time Table (1956) [Film Noir] [Drama]

A physician, whose license has been revoked, poses as a practicing doctor aboard a train passing through Arizona.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 …

The Amazing Mr. X (1948) [Film Noir] [Thriller]

“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, …

Fear in the Night (1947) [Film Noir] [Drama]

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 …