Directed by Robert Aldrich, written by A.I. Bezzerides (screenplay), Mickey Spillane (novel) “First you find a little thread. The little thread leads you to a string. The string leads you to a rope, and from the rope you hang by the neck.” At the film’s opening, Mike Hammer is driving his sports car down a... Continue Reading →

Directed by George Marshall, written by Raymond Chandler “You got the wrong lipstick on, Mister.” Johnny Morrison (Alan Ladd), a solider dismissed from the war, returns home with two of his buddies to find his harlot of a wife (Doris Dowling) cheating on him with a local club-owner and gangster Eddie Harwood (Howard Da Silva).... Continue Reading →

Directed by Fritz Lang, written by Sydney Boehm (screenplay), William P. McGivern (Saturday Evening Post serial) “The coming years are going to be just fine, Mr. Bannion.” “There aren’t going to be any coming years for you.” Noir is black, but black isn’t necessarily noir. Even though the translation is literally the same. (That old... Continue Reading →

Directed by Rudolph Maté, written by Russell Rouse and Clarence Greene (story and screenplay) “I don’t think you fully understand, Bigelow. You’ve been murdered.” At the outset a man walks into a police station to report his own murder. While half of everyone he met has lied to him, our womanizing anti-hero has hurled himself around... Continue Reading →

There have been disagreements on whether or not this film can be considered ‘film noir’, with the majority against its inclusion. But the movie is lit properly for the theme with its shadows and angles, the timing is right, it’s soaked in cynicism and despair, it’s got a small but murderous body count, it’s got... Continue Reading →

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, written by Maxwell Anderson and Angus MacPhail We deal in horror on this site because we deal in horror in this world, and it comes in many forms. Every second of every day we’re just one flick or click or glance away from the infinite terrors we inflict on one another. We’re... Continue Reading →

Written and directed by Leonard Kastle Lonely and self-conscious because of her weight, Martha Beck (Shirley Stoler) is talked into joining a Lonely Hearts correspondence club where she starts a pen pal relationship with Ray Fernandez (Tony Lo Bianco), a con man who makes his living seducing and swindling women. Martha's desperately in love with... Continue Reading →

Directed by Otto Preminger, written by Wendell Mayes (screenplay), John D. Voelker (novel, as Robert Traver) The People vs. Anatomy of a Murder The People intend to argue in this review an unlikely inclusion into the film noir landscape. Anatomy of a Murder is a courtroom drama. It’s a procedural. It’s serious. It’s also funny.... Continue Reading →

Directed by Fritz Lang, Dudley Nichols (screenplay), Georges De La Fouchardiere (novel) “You got him softened up. Now push him around a bit.” Bank cashier and amateur painter Christopher Cross (Edward G. Robinson) is celebrating 25 years with the bank when he interrupts a mugging and meets the gorgeous Kitty (Joan Bennet). With a wife who... Continue Reading →