Shadowy atmosphere, seedy characters, pulp philosophy, and cynicism as thick as smoke: there’s nothing like film noir. As America returned from World War II, the national unconscious gave rise to a new breed of crime picture, populated by gumshoes, femmes fatales, and fall guys whose labyrinthine entanglements—captured in lush chiaroscuro cinematography—expressed a dark fatalism never before seen on the big screen. Where other Hollywood movies sought to recreate the magic of dreams, film noir aimed for the seductive danger of nightmares. Featuring some of the genre’s most ingenious directors (Edgar G. Ulmer, Otto Preminger, Henry Hathaway, Jules Dassin) and most magnetic stars (John Garfield, Veronica Lake, Burt Lancaster, Ida Lupino), this sampler will lead you down a few of noir’s darkest alleys.
Directed by Stuart Heisler • 1942 • United States
Starring Brian Donlevy, Veronica Lake, Alan Ladd
The second screen adaptation of the novel by Dashiell Hammett reteams popular pairing Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd for a hard-boiled tale of political intrigue, corruption, romance, and murder. Croo...
Directed by Frank Tuttle • 1942 • United States
Starring Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, Laird Cregar
Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd (making a splash in his steely, star-making breakthrough performance) became one of the most iconic screen couples of the 1940s with this tough-as-nails noir classic, ...
Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer • 1945 • United States
Starring Tom Neal, Ann Savage
From Poverty Row came a movie that, perhaps more than any other, epitomizes the dark fatalism at the heart of film noir. As he hitchhikes his way from New York to Los Angeles, a down-on-his-luck nightclub pianist ...
Directed by Otto Preminger • 1945 • United States
Starring Alice Faye, Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell
A shady Dana Andrews is caught between pure-hearted Alice Faye and a memorably dissolute Linda Darnell in this fatalistic journey into the dark underbelly of small-town America, which reunited the ...
Directed by George Marshall • 1946 • United States
Starring Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, William Bendix
This fast-paced and perfectly cast film noir reflects the grim wit of its Academy Award–nominated screenplay’s author, Raymond Chandler. Johnny Morrison (Alan Ladd) returns from World War II to f...
Directed by Henry Hathaway • 1946 • United States
Starring Lucille Ball, Clifton Webb, William Bendix
Bradford Galt (Mark Stevens) is a tough New York private detective with a checkered past. When he discovers that an old adversary has put a tail on him, it proves to be just the first strand in ...
Directed by Henry Hathaway • 1947 • United States
Starring Victor Mature, Brian Donlevy, Coleen Gray
Richard Widmark made a sensational screen debut, scoring an Academy Award nomination for his unforgettable turn as menacingly grinning, giggling psychopath Tommy Udo (don’t let him near your gran...
Directed by Jules Dassin • 1947 • United States
Starring Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Charles Bickford
As hard-hitting as its title, BRUTE FORCE was the first of Jules Dassin’s forays into the crime genre, a prison melodrama that takes a critical look at American society as well. Burt Lancaster ...
Directed by Jules Dassin • 1948 • United States
Starring Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Duff, Dorothy Hart
“There are eight million stories in the Naked City,” as the narrator immortally states at the close of this breathtakingly vivid film and this is one of them. Master noir craftsman Jules Dassin a...
Directed by Henry Hathaway • 1948 • United States
Starring James Stewart, Richard Conte, Lee J. Cobb
Lent a gritty authenticity through striking Chicago location shooting and quasi-procedural attention to detail, CALL NORTHSIDE 777 is a prime example of the docudrama-stye noirs that proliferated...
Directed by Abraham Polonsky • 1948 • United States
Starring John Garfield, Thomas Gomez, Marie Windsor
In this expressively tough and terse noir classic, shady lawyer Joe Morse (John Garfield) joins forces with a ruthless gangster (Roy Roberts) to consolidate control of the numbers racket in Ne...
Directed by Robert Siodmak • 1948 • United States
Starring Victor Mature, Richard Conte, Fred Clark
Film noir master Robert Siodmak brings a surfeit of expressionistic atmosphere to this gritty tale of two childhood friends whose lives take radically different paths. Lt. Candella (Victor Mature)...
Directed by Jules Dassin • 1949 • United States
Starring Richard Conte, Valentina Cortese, Lee J. Cobb
THIEVES’ HIGHWAY vividly depicts the perilous world of “long-haul boys,” who drive by night to bring their goods to the markets of America’s cities. Richard Conte stars as ex-GI Nick Garcos, a ...
Directed by Michael Curtiz • 1950 • United States
Starring John Garfield, Patricia Neal, Phyllis Thaxter
Michael Curtiz brings a master skipper’s hand to the helm of this thriller, Hollywood’s second crack at Ernest Hemingway’s “To Have and Have Not.” John Garfield stars as Harry Morgan, an hone...
Directed by Robert Wise • 1951 • United States
Starring Richard Basehart, Valentina Cortese, William Lundigan
This intriguing, richly atmospheric film noir unfolds in a spooky Victorian mansion below Coit Tower in San Francisco. Victoria Kowelska (Valentina Cortese) has lived through World War I...
