Directed by Roy William Neill • 1946 • United States
Starring Dan Duryea, June Vincent, Peter Lorre
Based (loosely) on a novel by legendary crime writer and master of existential dread Cornell Woolrich (REAR WINDOW, THE BRIDE WORE BLACK), this bleakly atmospheric noir stars everyone’s favorite sleazoid heel Dan Duryea in an uncharacteristically sympathetic role as a hard-drinking musician who must fight through a drunken haze to help clear an innocent man of murder—though he may not like what he finds out. Peter Lorre costars as a shadowy nightclub owner who is also a prime suspect.
Up Next in Blackout Noir
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Blackout
Directed by Terence Fisher • 1954 • United Kingdom
Starring Dane Clark, Belinda Lee, Betty Ann DaviesFuture Hammer-horror legend Terence Fisher helms this twisty British whodunit (also known as MURDER BY PROXY), in which Casey Morrow (Dane Clark)—an American in London with no visible means of s...
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Guilty Bystander
Directed by Joseph Lerner • 1950 • United States
Starring Zachary Scott, Faye Emerson, Mary BolandSet in a seamy milieu of cheap flophouses and skid-row social castoffs, this evocatively scuzzy B noir stars Zachary Scott, in one of his rawest and most compelling performances, as Max Thursday, a...
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Framed
Directed by Richard Wallace • 1947 • United States
Starring Glenn Ford, Janis Carter, Barry SullivanA bad pair of brakes strands gruff, takes-no-BS trucker Mike (Glenn Ford) in a small town where the locals aren’t all that friendly—save for blonde bartender Paula (Janis Carter), who soon has hi...