14 Hours

In 14 Hours (1951) Robert Cosick (Richard Basehart) has decided he is not worthy of his former fiancée. He stands on a ledge outside a hotel window for 14 hours. Why? Why won't he come in? Or, why won't he jump? Robert is an emotional wrec...

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Angel Face

WELL-MADE WITH A FILM NOIR STYLE - Otto Preminger's 1952 melodrama Angel Face was more enjoyable than I expected. Jean Simmons and Robert Mitchum offer compelling performances in this well-directed film noir. Robert Mitchum plays Frank J...

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Boomerang

Love him or hate him for his politics, there's no denying that Elia Kazan could make one heck of a film. Pictures like On the Waterfront and A Streetcar Named Desire remain as true classics. One of his earliest films is 1947's Boomerang, st...

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D.O.A.

Not all film noir roads lead back to 1950's D.O.A., but I'm willing to bet that a good chunk of them do. Though its overall form can be attributed back to the Sam Spade novels and movies, D.O.A. nevertheless gets a healthy amount of credit ...

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Dark Corner, The

The Dark Corner (1946) is a typical film noir. The mood is heavy. The heroine is feisty and will stand by her man at all costs. And that man is in a whole lot of trouble. The shadows are deep, and there are plenty of cigarettes to go around. Howe...

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I Wake Up Screaming

I Wake Up Screaming (1941) is among the many Film Noirs made in during this Hollywood era. Based on the novel by Steve Fischer, the film was originally titled Hot Spot, which was the title of a 1932 short comedy. The name was later changed, and is ...

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Letter, The

In the 1940 film version of W. Somerset Maugham's The Letter, Bette Davis plays Leslie Crosbie, the wife of a manager of a rubber plantation near Singapore. In the opening scene, the moon is casting long shadows as Leslie walks out of her house...

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Macao

Macao (1952), about two mysterious people who meet on a boat sailing from Hong Kong to Macao, is a somewhat intriguing noir that often falls into the ho-hum category, only to be rescued again by it's formidable cast. Robert Mitchum, Jane Russel...

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Moontide

    A seedy California coastal town serves as the backdrop for a group of people trying to eke out a life for themselves in Moontide (1942), a noir film of love and betrayal. The mist swirling in from the ocean sets th...

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Out of the Past

Among Robert Mitchum's 133 films, Out of the Past (1947) is one of his best. The film, added to the National Registry of the Library of Congress in 1991 as a National Treasure, has all the elements that make up a good film noir - light-key lighti...

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