Angered that her sister Celia has stolen her fiance, Dell Faring kills her and allows Celia’s husband David, knocked out in an argument with Celia, to take the blame and end up on death row. Later Dell, finding out that David’s young daughter Susan was witness to the crime and is undergoing psychiatric treatment, plans to eliminate her before her memory returns.
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Film-Noir
Loan Shark (1952) Seymour Friedman, George Raft, Dorothy Hart, Paul Stewart, Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A vicious loan shark ring has been preying on factory workers. When several workers at a tire factory suffer violence at the hands of the loan sharkers, a union leader and the factory owner try to recruit ex-con Joe Gargan to infiltrate to the gang. At first Joe does not want to get involved, but changes his mind when his brother-in-law dies at the hands of a savage loan shark hood. Joe works his way into the mob, but in order to keep his cover, Joe can’t tell anyone what he is up to. This results in him being disowned by his sister and girl friend.
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Dust Be My Destiny (1939) Lewis Seiler, John Garfield, Priscilla Lane, Alan Hale, Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Embittered after serving time for a burglary he did not commit, Joe Bell is soon back in jail, on a prison farm. His love for the foreman’s daughter leads to a fight between them, leading to the older man’s death due to a weak heart. Joe and Mabel go on the run as he thinks no-one would believe a nobody like him.
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Strangers in the Night (1944) Anthony Mann, William Terry, Virginia Grey, Helene Thimig
A lonely, mentally unbalanced woman invents a fictitious daughter and has the “daughter” write to a Marine stationed in the South Pacific. Read More »
Dangerous Crossing (1953) Joseph M. Newman, Jeanne Crain, Michael Rennie, Max Showalter, Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
A young bride is set to begin her honeymoon aboard a luxury liner. Her happiness does not last when she finds that her husband has disappeared. Trouble is, no one else ever saw him board the ship with her and his name has mysteriously dropped from the passenger list.
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The Sniper (1952) Edward Dmytryk, Arthur Franz, Adolphe Menjou, Gerald Mohr, Crime, Film-Noir, Drama
Apparently rejected by women all his life, a loner with a high-power rifle starts on a trail of murder. The police are baffled by the apparently random killings until their psychologist comes up with some ideas.
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They Won’t Forget (1937) Mervyn LeRoy, Claude Rains, Gloria Dickson, Edward Norris, Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
A southern town is rocked by scandal when teenager Mary Clay is murdered on Confederate Decoration Day. Andrew Griffin, a small-time lawyer with political ambitions, sees the crime as his ticket to the Senate if he can find the right victim to finger for the crime. He sets out to convict Robert Hale, a transplanted northerner who was Mary’s teacher at the business school where she was killed. Despite the fact that all the evidence against Hale is circumstantial, Griffin works with a ruthless reporter to create a media frenzy of prejudice and hate against the teacher.
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Undercurrent (1946) Vincente Minnelli, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Taylor, Robert Mitchum, Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
Middle-aged bride Ann Hamilton soon begins to suspect that her charming husband is really a psychotic who plans to murder her.
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The People Against O’Hara (1951) John Sturges, Spencer Tracy, Pat O’Brien, Diana Lynn, Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
James Curtayne has retired from law but he returns to defend John O’Hara on a murder charge. Curtayne’s drinking and rustiness result in O’Hara’s being found guilty, but Curtayne makes further efforts to prove him innocent.
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Thieves’ Highway (1949) Jules Dassin, Richard Conte, Valentina Cortese, Lee J. Cobb, Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
The soldier Nick Garcos returns back home from the war very happy with gifts for his parents Yanko and Parthena Garcos and money in his pocket to open a business and get married with his girlfriend Polly Faber. Out of blue, Nick realizes that his father lost both legs and Yanko, who was a truck driver, tells that he was cheated by the dealer Mike Figlia in the San Francisco’s market when he delivered a truckload of tomatoes and was not paid. He believes that his accident was provoked by Figlia’s gangsters. He also tells that he sold the truck to a driver named Ed Kinney that has not paid him. Nick meets Ed and tells that he will bring the truck back, but Ed proposes a deal with apples, where they may earn a great amount. Nick invests his savings in another truck and buys apples from a Polish farmer. They need to drive directly to the market in San Francisco without sleeping to keep the fruits fresh, but Ed’s truck has problem on its axle and Nick arrives first.
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The Big Knife (1955) Robert Aldrich, Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Wendell Corey, Drama, Film-Noir
Charles Castle is a successful Hollywood actor who has opted for screen success over art. He must make critical decisions regarding his career, his marriage, his art & morality. In this screen adaptation of a Clifford Odets play, Castle is pressured by his studio boss and manipulated into a potentially murderous cover-up to protect his career. An indictment of the amoral world of 50’s Hollywood and its corrosive effect upon the artist.
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The Dark Past (1948) Rudolph Maté, William Holden, Nina Foch, Lee J. Cobb
When a detective scoffs at his suggestion that an 18 year-old criminal be referred for psychiatric examination Read More »
Inner Sanctum (1948) Lew Landers, Charles Russell, Mary Beth Hughes, Dale Belding, Film-Noir, Mystery, Thriller
A man accidentally kills his fiancée as he exits a train. Just as the train pulls out, he drops her body on the rear platform. No one saw him do it, but someone does see him at the otherwise deserted station: a mischievous, freckle-faced boy. Later, he’s walking along a road when the town’s newspaper editor stops and gives him a lift. The editor tells his passenger that a flood has washed out the bridge. For now, there’s no way out of town, so he takes the stranger to a boarding house. Fate decrees that of all houses, this is the one where the boy lives. The boy thinks he recognizes the new boarder. The new boarder thinks it’s time to get rid of the boy. And a sexy blonde living at the house thinks it’s time to run off with a man she knows is a murderer.
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Crime of Passion (1957) Gerd Oswald, Barbara Stanwyck, Sterling Hayden, Raymond Burr, Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Kathy is a smart and tough 1950’s advice columnist at a San Francisco newspaper, with her name plastered on billboards all over the city. One day, Bill Doyle, a Los Angeles detective, walks into her office – it is instant attraction. After marrying Bill, Kathy gives up her career and becomes a homemaker. However, she is not your typical 1950’s homemaker. After hosting several cocktail parties in their San Fernando Valley home, she realizes that Bill is content with his position, and shows no ambition in furthering himself. Kathy will not sit idly by while everyone around her is “moving up in the world”. She personally takes upon herself the task of pushing Bill’s career along, even if it comes down to murder.
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The Big Heat (1953) Fritz Lang, Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Jocelyn Brando, Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller
Dave Bannion is an upright cop on the trail of a vicious gang he suspects holds power over the police force. Bannion is tipped off after a colleague’s suicide and his fellow officers’ suspicious silence lead him to believe that they are on the gangsters’ payroll. When a bomb meant for him kills his wife instead, Bannion becomes a furious force of vengeance and justice, aided along the way by the gangster’s spurned girlfriend Debbie. As Bannion and Debbie fall further and further into the Gangland’s insidious and brutal trap, they must use any means necessary (including murder) to get to the truth.
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