These are some of the films that are being considered for our upcoming class on Film Noir. We hope you can join us for the class. If you are not able to join this upcoming class please consider this a a list of recommended list of films to seek out.
Scarlet Street (1945) A man in mid-life crisis befriends a young woman, though her fiancé persuades her to con him out of the fortune they mistakenly assume he possesses.
Gun Crazy (1950) Joseph H. Lewis, Peggy Cummins, John Dall, Berry Kroeger, Morris Carnovsky – Two disturbed young people release their fascination with guns.
Criss Cross (1949) Robert Siodmak, Burt Lancaster, Yvonne De Carlo, Dan Duryea – Steve Thompson returns to Los Angeles to find his ex-wife Anna Dundee eager to rekindle their love against all better judgment. He resumes his old job as a driver at an armored-truck company.
Detour (1945) Edgar G. Ulmer, Tom Neal, Ann Savage – an unemployed piano player, hitchhiking. After getting a ride, he arrives at a roadside diner in Reno, Nevada, where he sits at the counter and slowly drinks a cup of coffee.
Kiss Me Deadly (1955) Robert Aldrich, Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart, Juano Hernandez – A doomed female hitchhiker pulls Mike Hammer into a deadly whirlpool of intrigue, revolving around a mysterious “great whatsit”
Murder My Sweet (1944) Edward Dmytryk, Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley – Private detective Philip Marlowe is investigating a dead-end missing person case when he sees Moose Malloy, barging into a nightclub called Florian’s, looking for his ex-girlfriend Velma Valento.
Out of the Past ( 1947) Jacques Tourneur, Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming. – A private eye escapes his past to run a gas station in a small town, but his past catches up with him. Now he must return to the big city world of danger, corruption, double crosses and duplicitous dames.
The Killers (1946) Robert Siodmak, Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O’Brien, Albert Dekker. Hit men kill an unresisting victim, and investigator Reardon uncovers his past involvement with beautiful, deadly Kitty Collins.
Woman in the Window (1944) Fritz Lang, Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Raymond Massey, Dan Duryea. It tells the story of a psychology professor who meets a young femme fatale and murders her lover in self-defense.
The Big Sleep (Hawks, 1946) Howard Hawks, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely, Martha Vickers. – Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a wealthy family. Before the complex case is over, he’s seen murder, blackmail, and what might be love.