Force of Evil (1948)

"According to Martin Scorsese nobody portrayed guilt on the American screen better than John Garfield in Abraham Polonsky's hard-hitting Force of Evil (1948). As Joe Morse, 'a crooked little lawyer,' Garfield has reason to feel guilty. He's in league with Ben Tucker, a former beer-runner, who's planning to takeover the numbers racket by fixing the old liberty number, 776, to fall on July 4th. After 776 hits, the big Tucker corporation will move in and consolidate the small numbers banks that can't pay off their debts and form a monopoly."
Images Journal, Wikipedia, YouTube, Twenty Four Frames, amazon, Noir of the Week

Union Station (1950)

"Union City (1951) directed by Rudolph Mate is a period crime action movie set in Chicago that marks the transition from the classic period of film noir to the 50′s police procedural. While the picture is weakened by a conventional plot and a fairly laconic performance from William Holden as the railway cop, the location shooting (actually on the streets of LA) has a 'naked city' feel and the action played out in Union Station is made interesting by certain noirish episodes.
films noir, Wikipedia, amazon, YouTube

The Big Clock (1948)

"If there is one thing I learned from Ray Milland’s most famous performance, it’s that a booze bender makes for a great narrative. Milland’s Oscar winning role in The Lost Weekend was as one of film history’s most memorable and voracious alcoholics. Battling his personal bacchant demons, as well as the people trying to sober him up, made for a great movie (especially when flying bats are hallucinated). In director John Farrow’s The Big Clock we know that Milland may find himself in trouble again because of lady liquor after he is fired from his job and confides that the first thing he is going to do is “have a good stiff couple of drinks.” In this film he ties one on with the wrong woman, in the wrong place and as the title may allude, at the wrong time. The fatal result is a murder committed in the heat of passion."
Noir of the Week, Wikipedia, , YouTube, amazon

The Stranger (1946)

"The dark nature of this movie of course is what consigns it to the noir category, that plus the moody but still dazzling black-and-white photography, complete with unusual camera angles, especially during the many trips up and down the inside of the bell tower facing the green in a small one-horse town in Connecticut right after the war. But is it really a noir film? Not really by subject matter, that of a post-World War II manhunt."
Mystery File, Twenty Four Frames, Wikipedia, YouTube

Crime Wave (1954)

"A late night gas station knock-over goes South for a trio of escaped thugs when one is killed and an intervening cop is killed. The L.A.P.D. suspect the culprits will converge on - and hole up at - the home of Steve Lacey (Gene Nelson), an ex-con anxious to leave the life and that ilk far behind."
Noir of the Week, Goodfella Movies, amazon, YouTube, The City is Dark

Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)

"Seeing Otto Preminger's film Where the Sidewalk Ends recently has made me regard it as a very odd companion piece with his earlier, more well-known film Laura. With this film, Preminger was reunited not only with his two principal Laura actors, Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney, but also his director of photography, Joseph LaShelle. However, it's similarities end there. Laura with its urbane, sophisticated characters and its high society setting, succeeds as an elegant murder mystery. On the flipside, the crime in Where the Sidewalk Ends takes place in tenement apartments, police precincts, parking garages, and gambling dens. It is for this reason that, of the two films, Where the Sidewalk Ends better represents the classic noir period."
Noir of the Week, Wikipedia, amazon, Twenty Four Frames, senses of cinema, YouTube

His Kind of Woman (1951)

"That pretty much nails it, although it says something interesting about what one might call Farber's critical ecumenism that he could deem this both 'nonsense' and a 'best film' of the year. It is a thoroughly enjoyable picture, and its enjoyable qualities stem in no small part from its being something of a mess—more nonsensical than your average bit of studio nonsense. Blame then-RKO-head Howard Hughes, whose obsession with his discovery Russell compelled him to micro-manage the production, firing original director Farrow and bringing in RIchard Fleischer to preside over a grueling series of re-shoots, during which the principle actors took the liberty of revising their own dialogue."
Some Came Running, Wikipedia, amazon

Brute Force (1947)

"Prison films were most popular in the 1930s when dozens of movies about men serving hard time were churned out. The films were an allegory for the bigger problems in society. Depression era movie goers liked seeing prisoners in Invisible Stripes or Hell's Highway have victories -even small ones- against authority. The men, usually serving time because of mitigating circumstances, were surrounded by violent men and tried to survive despite oppressive living conditions."
Noir of the Week, Wikipedia, amazon, Ferdy on Films, YouTube, Brooklyn Rail

Thieves' Highway (1949)

"From director, Jules Dassin, whose earlier films included the noirs, Brute Force (1947) and The Naked City (1948), Thieves’ Highway about the struggles of truckers trying to make a buck hauling fruit to the San Francisco produce markets, is great melodrama with a strong social conscience. It tells a story strongly rooted in the southern European migrant experience. The screenplay was adapted by Albert Isaac Bezzerides from his novel Thieves’ Market (1949). Bezzeridis’ noir credits include Desert Fury (1947), Kiss Me Deadly (1955), On Dangerous Ground (1952), and They Drive by Night (1948). Dassin was blacklisted by the HUAC and left the US before the final cut was made, and word has it the studio axed his original 'noir' ending and added a 'happy-ending' re-take. But even with a darker ending, I would not say it is a film noir."
films noir, Criterion, amazon, YouTube, Precious Bodily Fluids, Log In Films Worth Reading About

Criss Cross (1949)

"Criss Cross (1949) is a film noir, directed by Robert Siodmak from a novel by Don Tracy. This black and white film was shot partly on location in the Bunker Hill section of Los Angeles. The film was written by Daniel Fuchs. Franz Planer's cinematography creates a black-and-white film noir world. Miklós Rózsa scored the film's soundtrack. The production nearly derailed when producer Mark Hellinger died suddenly before filming began. Lancaster claimed he was unhappy with the way Siodmak and Fuchs had reworked Hellinger's idea of a racetrack heist into a fatal romantic triangle."
Wikipedia, YouTube, Noir of the Week, Dear Old Hollywood, amazon, RoughTeam: Social Bookmark,, Goodfella's Movie Blog

Kansas City Confidential (1952)

"From a hotel room window a man observes the delivery of millions of dollars in cash to a bank across the street. Through several days the man observes and times the routine of the armored truck crew, noticing how a panel truck always arrives to deliver flowers to the shop located next door to the bank just before the armored car arrives. The unnamed man (Preston Foster) recruits three criminals to help him rob the armored truck- Pete Harris (Jack Elam), Boyd Kane (Neville Brand), and Tony Romano (Lee Van Cleef). The master mind keeps himself masked in these encounters and explains to all the thieves they will remain masked throughout the heist to avoid identification. During the robbery they use a delivery truck identical to the florist truck. The police chase and arrest the driver of the delivery truck, Joe Rolfe (John Payne), an ex-convict. As they escape the master mind tells the thieves they will be contacted later to collect their share of the money, as a countermark each of the thieves is given half of a playing card, the mastermind keeping the other half."
Noir of the Week, Wikipedia, amazon, Goodfella's Movie Blog, YouTube

Black Angel (1946)

"Black Angel is a 1946 B-Noir, directed by Roy William Neill and based on a Cornell Woolrich novel. Woolrich apparently disliked the film, and the script veers quite a bit from the novel, save the atmospheric twist ending. While it is not among the very greatest noirs, it comes smack in the middle of the classic 40's cycle and so doesn't present the rehashed feel that some early 50s noirs do, for me anyway. I must say I like the 40's noirs the best, as they are visually more stylish: more shadows, hulking cars, more walk-up tenements. Black Angel is not very stylized in this way, however; cinematographer Paul Ivano does a competent job, and there are several close-ups, especially of Dan Duryea while drunk or hallucinating that are very well done. In my opinion, the payoff of an evening spent watching Black Angel has to be the ensemble cast."
Noir of the Week, Wikipedia, amazon, YouTube, The Realm of Ryan

The Set-Up (1947)

"The Set-Up from noir director, Robert Wise, is a sharp expose of the fight game packed into a lean 72 minutes. From RKO and filmed at night on a studio lot, this movie is brooding and intense, with Robert Ryan, as the aging boxer, 'Stoker' Thompson, in perhaps his best role, with a great supporting cast. The boxing scenes are as real as they get: Ryan himself was a college boxing champ. The arena is brilliantly filmed with focused and repeated shots on selected spectators, which portray not only the excitement, but also the unadorned mob brutality, that reaches fever pitch as the fighters struggle to a climactic finish. The film opens and ends with zoom shots of a street clock: starting at 9.05pm and ending at 10.17pm – yes – the actual length of the picture…"
Films Noir, Wikipedia, amazon, YouTube, Only the Cinema, Goodfella's Movie Blog

White Heat (1949)

"White Heat (1949) is one of the top classic crime-heist dramas of the post-war period, and one of the last of Warner Bros' gritty crime films in its era. White Heat is an entertaining, fascinating and hypnotic portrait of a flamboyant, mother-dominated and fixated, epileptic and psychotic killer, who often spouts crude bits of humor. The dynamic film, with both film noir and documentary-style elements, is characterized by an increased level of violence and brutality along with classical Greek elements."
AMC, Wikipedia, YouTube, White Heat: Top of the World 01, 02, Doctor Macro, Google - White Heat (1949), Scott's Film Watch

Niagara (1953)

"Released in 1953, Niagara is one of a handful of noir movies that were exclusively intended as a star vehicle for a single personality—oddly enough in this case, Marilyn Monroe. The majority of A-list noirs of the classic period were packed with characters, especially in cases of urban detective stories. A jungle of characters and subplots is one of the genre’s strengths, resulting in consistently complex plot lines unheard of in other genre films. At the same time, the intricacies of film noir are sometimes an Achilles heel, serving only to confuse even the most attentive audience (John Huston’s The Big Sleep is notorious for its various ‘inexplicables,’ due more to editing-under-pressure than anything else). That being said, Niagara is the exception to the rule; though produced by 20th Century Fox, it appears that the studio didn’t care much for having a Byzantine story or a large cast—the film is strictly meant to be an eye-popping, figure-hugging, titillating introduction to a gal named Marilyn Monroe."
Film Monthly, Wikipedia, YouTube - Niagara 1953 TRAILER, Niagara (part 1), amazon, Noir of the Week, Coleman's Corner in Cinema..., Another Old Movie Blog

The Narrow Margin (1952)

"Landscapes and environment were undeniably integral aspects of many classic film noirs. They seemed nearly as important in conveying the crucial noir elements of suspense and dread as the actors starring in them. From the cobblestone streets of Vienna in The Third Man, the seedy underworld of London in Night and the City, the sprawling metropolis of Los Angeles in Double Indemnity and Sunset Boulevard, and of course the concrete jungle of Manhattan in Scarlet Street, The Naked City and Pickup on South Street are just few of some of the numerous possible match-ups. These environments breathed aesthetic life into these films and literally set the stage for the players to interact, investigate, pursue, be chased, live and die on their streets."
Noir of the Week, Coleman Corner in Cinema, amazon, YouTube, Films Noir

The Big Steal (1949)

"‘The Big Steal’, starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer and scripted by Geoffrey Holmes (Daniel Mainwaring) often appears to be best known and least admired for what it isn’t, namely ‘Out of the Past’. The latter, released in 1947 - starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer and scripted by Geoffrey Holmes - is regarded as an elegant and sublime evocation of noir. The ‘Big Steal’ is hardly referenced and not much regarded at all."
Noir of the Week, amazon, Films Noir, YouTube

The Enforcer (1951)

Wikipedia - "The Enforcer is a black-and-white 1951 film noir starring Humphrey Bogart. Based on the Murder, Inc. trials, the film is largely a police procedural directed by Bretaigne Windust with uncredited help from Raoul Walsh, who shot most of the film's suspenseful moments, including the ending. The opening narration is voiced by Estes Kefauver who, at the time, was chairing a US Senate investigation into organized crime."
Wikipedia, The Night Editor, YouTube, amazon

Out of the Past (1947)

"Jacques Tourneur’s riveting 1947 film noir, usually ranked as one of the best of the genre, was adapted from Daniel Mainwaring’s evocatively titled novel Build My Gallows High (published under the name Geoffrey Homes by Mainwaring, later blacklisted). Late in the film, world-weary gumshoe Jeff Markham (Robert Mitchum) quotes this phrase to Kathie Moffat (Jane Greer), one of the most fatale of cinema’s femmes. When he realizes she’s behind a series of murderous maneuvers that have smashed any chance of hope or happiness in his life, he looks at her and quietly remarks, 'You built my gallows high, baby.' As grimly appropriate as the original title is, the changed version has its own resonance. It’s the past’s death-grip on the present that dominates this film and its doomed characters, threatening the lives of Jeff, Kathie, and the third member of what becomes a lethal triangle, wealthy gambler Whit Stirling (Kirk Douglas)."
Bright Lights Film, filmsite, amazon, YouTube, Noir of the Week

Pickup on South Street (1953)

"Petty crook Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) has his eyes fixed on the big score. When the cocky three-time convict picks the pocketbook of unsuspecting Candy (Jean Peters), he finds a haul bigger than he could have imagined: a strip of microfilm bearing confidential U.S. secrets. Tailed by manipulative Feds and the unwitting courier’s Communist puppeteers, Skip and Candy find themselves in a precarious gambit that pits greed against redemption, Right versus Red, and passion against self-preservation. With its dazzling cast and director Samuel Fuller’s signature raw energy and hardboiled repartee, Pickup on South Street is a true film noir classic by one of America’s most passionate cinematic craftsmen."
Criterion, Wikipedia, YouTube - Pickup On South Street, 10 Shades of Noir, amazon, senses of cinema, Fcourt, Noir of the Week, Peter's Picture of the Week

Act of Violence (1948)

"Act of Violence has one of the all-time great openings, which director Fred Zinnemann amazingly manages to stretch it out over the first half-hour: a wild-eyed man (Robert Ryan) retrieves a gun from his hotel room and hops a cross-country train to a small town in California. When he arrives, he circles a name in a phone book: Frank R. Enley. He discovers that Enley (Van Heflin) owns a construction firm and is dedicating a monument to his fellow soldiers who fought in World War II. He's a war hero, and everybody in town loves him. So why does this guy want to kill him? Zinnemann's not telling, at least not for a while."
goatdog, Wikipedia, Noir of the Weeks, YouTube, The Night Editor, Goodfella's Movies

Mystery Street (1950)

"Vivian Holden (Jan Sterling) is having some problems. She’s dead broke, owes her landlady two weeks worth of rent and the mysterious Hyannis 3633 man she keeps trying to reach on the phone is giving her the run around. In desperation, Vivian takes advantage of innocent-bystander Henry Shanway (Marshall Thompson), a sad man drinking away his sorrows in attempt to forget his sick wife current hospital stay. Vivian drives Henry’s yellow Ford down to Hyannis from Boston, abandoning Henry along the way. When Vivian finally confronts the Hyannis man that has been eluding her, she finds herself face-to-face with the barrel of his gun."
Noir of the Weeks, Wikipedia, amazon, Turner Classic Movies

The Naked City (1948)

"Voice over in film has always been a particular point of interest for me; so much that I have even considered authoring a book on the topic as it pertains to movies made prior to 1970. The narrator, as he is employed in The Naked City, embodies amongst one of the most compelling manifestations of the voice-over. Narrating Naked City is producer Mark Hellinger, speaking as himself, which is the unusual aspect of his role. Typically a narrator is simply an omniscient unidentified voice. Is it supposed to represent 'god'? A collective human psyche? That it is up for us to debate."
Noir of the Week, amazon, Wikipedia, YouTube, Shooting in the Dark, Criterion

Murder, My Sweet (1944)

Wikipedia - "Murder, My Sweet is a 1944 American film noir directed by Edward Dmytryk, and starring Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, and Anne Shirley. The film was released in the United Kingdom under the title Farewell, My Lovely, which is the title of the 1940 Raymond Chandler novel it is based on, and also the film's original American title."
Wikipedia, amazon, YouTube, Bernards Chopen, Goodfell'a Movies, William Ahearn

Crossfire (1947)

"In 1947 World War II was fresh in the mind of every American. The life of the soldier was commonplace in most American homes. The difference between World War II and subsequent wars or military actions that our country decided to get involved with is very simple: a self-proclaimed dictator was exterminating persons of distinct racial groups and our country was of one mind in combating this atrocity. This unified front could only serve as the perfect cover for individuals with their own personal bias’, hatred, and persecutions. Crossfire tells one such story. Written by Richard Brooks (who later became a director of some note) and John Paxton, Crossfire is the story of a bigot who murders a Jewish-American and tries to pin it on the least likely member of his unit."
Film Monthly, Wikipedia, IMDb, amazon, The Roadshow Version, YouTube, 1

Road House (1948)

"Road House, the fifth and last of the noirs directed by Jean Negulesco is unquestionably his best effort in the genre. That is, if we are in fact comfortable with the film itself taking a spot upon the shelves with other more hard-boiled offerings. So the first question for this reviewer is; is Road House film noir or your typical love triangle drama?"
Noir of the Week, Wikipedia, YouTube, amazon, Examiner

Fallen Angel (1945)

Wikipedia - "Fallen Angel is a 1945 black-and-white film noir directed by Otto Preminger, with cinematography by Joseph LaShelle, who also worked with Preminger on the film Laura a year before. The film features Alice Faye, Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell, Charles Bickford, among others. The film is famous for being the last film Faye made as a major Hollywood superstar."
Wikipedia, Dennis Grunes, YouTube, senses of cinema, amazon, Noir of the Week

Night and the City (1950)

"This is a key noir film. Filmed in London in 1949, Darryl F. Zanuck, the head of production at Twentieth Century-Fox, sent director Jules Dassin to Britain as he was about to be expelled from the studio following orders from New York because of his left-wing political sympathies. Zanuck told Dassin to start filming Jo Eisinger’s script for Night and the City as soon as he could and he also told Dassin to film the most expensive scenes first so that it would be costly for the studio to remove him from the film. Zanuck also asked Dassin if he could develop a role for one of the studio’s most important female stars, Gene Tierney, as he wanted to get her away from Hollywood following a failed romance."
Noir of the Week, Wikipedia, YouTube, Twenty Four Frames, amazon, The Spinning Image, The film wot I watched

The Killing (1956)

Wikipedia - "Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) is a veteran criminal planning one last heist before settling down and marrying Fay (Coleen Gray). His plan is to rob the money-counting room of a racetrack of two million dollars during a featured race, and to do this he assembles a team consisting of a corrupt cop (Ted de Corsia); George Peatty (Elisha Cook Jr.), a betting window teller at the track to give access to the backroom; a sharpshooter (Timothy Carey) to shoot the favorite horse during the race, distracting the crowd; a wrestler (Kola Kwariani, born 1903, Republic of Georgia) to provide another distraction by provoking a fight at the track bar, and the bartender (Joe Sawyer)."
Wikipedia, The Stop Button, Noir of the Week, amazon, Twenty Four Frames, YouTube

Cornered (1945)

"In 1945’s Cornered Dick Powell plays a man exhausted, angry, and with little hope for the future. Though almost fatally marred by its serpentine plot, Cornered is worth seeing — it’s even an important film noir. It offers an extraordinarily bleak worldview, precocious even for noir, and helped pave the way for the spate of neurotic, cynical, and dark movies that would define the post-war classic period."
Noir of the Week, Wikipedia, YouTube - Cornered (1945) - 01

Gun Crazy (1950)

"That fact that Gun Crazy comes in at #48 only reiterates the glaringly obvious observation that I’ve pointed out a lot recently – it’s getting really, really hard to separate some of these films. From here on in, we’re dealing what I consider to be the cream of the crop of film noir. For me it, means sifting through longstanding and deserved classics and personal favorites that I feel deserve greater attention in a series like this. I might be repeating myself with this little preamble, but it’s just meant to emphasize the fact that from here on in we’re dealing with classics – if not universally recognized classics, then at least in the mind of this inveterate list-maker! Personal taste comes in huge now."
Goodfella's Movie Blog, Wikipedia, amazon, YouTube, "Shadows of Film Noir: Gun Crazy", New Yorker - "Gun Crazy", Noir of the Week

The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

"The Asphalt Jungle (1950) is a naturalistic film noir crime film classic (resembling numerous B-films) of the early 1950s from A-list director John Huston. The realistic, documentary-like, urban crime/heist film - advertised as 'A John Huston Production' - was one of the first films that completely and specifically detailed how to pull off an authentic-looking heist - something usually considered morally improper under the Production Code. The sparse, gritty and tense film with a linear narrative is often considered the definitive heist or caper film, often copied and paid homage to by later films, many made during the sub-genre's flourishing in the 1950s..."
AMC, Wikipedia, amazon, YouTube, Noir of the Week, Culture Court, Bobby Wise Criticism, Movie Zeal

The Film Noir Foundation

"The Film Noir Foundation is a non-profit public benefit corporation created as an educational resource regarding the cultural, historical, and artistic significance of film noir as an original American cinematic movement. It is our mission to find and preserve films in danger of being lost or irreparably damaged, and to ensure that high quality prints of these classic films remain in circulation for theatrical exhibition to future generations."
The Film Noir Foundation

In a Lonely Place (1950)

"Nicholas Ray’s In a Lonely Place, released by Columbia in 1950, was long regarded as one of star Humphrey Bogart’s lesser films, as were most of the Columbia released Santana productions he made both during and after his lengthy and legendary tenure at Warner Bros. It was the cult status bestowed upon director Ray in the following decades that led to a reevaluation of this moody, ambiguous character study and noir thriller. Now, Bogart’s portrayal of short-tempered, possibly homicidal screenwriter Dixon Steele is regarded as one of his best roles, one giving play to most of the qualities that made Bogart the archetypal figure he remains today. There’s the trace of paranoia in those expressive eyes that were equally capable of conveying a profound world weary sadness, an emotion he draws upon in his Steele characterization."
Angel Fire, Wikipedia, amazon, moviediva, senses of cinema, Bright Lights Film, Village Voice, YouTube

D.O.A. (1950)

"Incredulous, exhausted, and reeling from his shockingly nightmarish medical prognosis, Frank Bigelow rests against a corner newsstand (prominently displaying issues of 'LIFE') and gazes up at a sun whose nurturing rays seem to have turned toxic and cruelly disorienting. The viewer half-expects our doomed protagonist to address the heavens with an echo of his opening line, 'I'd like to see the man in charge..'- but no higher power is evidenced in 'D.O.A.', in which the apathetic and the duplicitous far outnumber the righteous, and a nondescript everyman can morph into a violent, fearless equalizer."
Noir of the Week, Wikipedia, amazon, YouTube, The Night Editor, The Lightning Bug's Lair

The Big Combo (1955),

Grant Tracey - "The Big Combo (1955), Allied Artists' seedy B-noir directed by Joseph H. Lewis and photographed exquisitely by John Alton, opens with Susan Lowell (Jean Wallace) splashed in slanting shadows as she runs through tunnels along a boxing ring. She's chased by two hitmen, Fanty and Mingo, who are hired by her Napoleonic lover, Mr. Brown (Richard Conte), to keep an eye on her. Cornered, she emerges from Alton's poetic darkness and agrees to stop running. By contrast, the hitmen remain in the evil dark, shapeless. Susan, centered in an almost spot-effect, looks stark, pale and naked."
images journal, Wikipedia, Noir of the Week, amazon

This Gun for Hire (1942)

senses of cinema - "This Gun For Hire has been described as 'one of the most important early films noir', and one that 'helps to establish a number of conventions of the genre'. The film's enduring significance lies in its influence on a particular subset of classic and post-classic noir films featuring the figure of the lone assassin. Directed by Frank Tuttle, himself something of a Paramount Studios gun for hire, the film's exploration of the last days of a solitary, embittered hitman reverberates through everything from Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samourai (France, 1968) to more recent meditations on the form - Luc Besson's The Professional (USA, 1994) and Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog (USA, 1999)."
senses of cinema, Wikipedia, amazon, THIS GUN FOR HIRE and THE MYSTERIOUS VERONICA LAKE, Noir of the Week, The Long Voyage Home

The Big Heat (1953)

The Big Heat / Grant Tracey - "A third of the way through Fritz Lang's brutally beautiful The Big Heat, Glenn Ford as detective Dave Bannion returns to his now bare home and stands separate, alone. He looks toward the kitchen, where his wife once cooked steaks and took drags off his cigarettes, sips off his beer. She's dead, blown up in a dynamited car, dynamite meant for him. Lang's eyeline match captures the noir mood of alienation and more importantly devastates the audience as he closes it off with a medium close up of Ford, eyes watered. Bannion was investigating the suicide of Tom Duncan and the evidence had lead him to the mobster, Lagana. Lagana's men took the corruption of the mean streets and spilled them into the detective's home, destroying his domestic space. Angry and alienated from humanity, the invasion spins Bannion in a new direction of personal revenge."
Images Journal, Wikipedia, amazon, Culture Court, senses of cinema

Kiss of Death (1947)

Wikipedia - "Kiss of Death is a 1947 film noir movie directed by Henry Hathaway and written by Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer from a story by Eleazar Lipsky. The story revolves around the story of the film's protagonist and antagonist (played by Victor Mature and Richard Widmark respectively). The movie also starred Brian Donlevy and introduced Coleen Gray in her first billed role."
Wikipedia, Noir of the Week, amazon

"The Development of Post-war Literary and Cinematic Noir" - Lee Horsley

Double Indemnity
Crimeculture - "The years immediately following the end of World War Two marked the start of a crucial phase in the creation, definition and popularising of both literary and cinematic noir. There were several concurrent developments: the Hollywood production of a growing number of pessimistic, downbeat crime films, the post-war release in Europe of a large backlog of American films, the publication in France of a new series of crime novels and the appearance in America of a new kind of book, the paperback original. Films released in America just before the end of the war, such as Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity and Edward Dmytryk's Murder, My Sweet (both 1944), were taken as evidence, when they appeared in France, that 'the Americans are making dark films too'."
Crimeculture

The Man from Cairo (1952)

AMC - "It's hardly a coincidence that George Raft made so many films outside the U.S. when he began to have income-tax problems in the early 1950s. The Man From Cairo casts Raft as an American vacationing in Algiers. In short order, he becomes involved with a group of mercenaries who are searching for a fortune in gold that was lost somewhere in the desert during WW II. Gianna Maria Canale co-stars as a sexy nightclub chanteuse who, like everyone else in the film, isn't all she seems to be. This Italian-financed melodrama was released in Great Britain as Crime Squad. by Hal Erickson"
AMC, amazon, Cold Fusion Video - The Man from Cairo (1952)