Film Noir (literally'black film or cinema') was coined by French film critics (first by Nino Frankin 1946) who noticed the trend of how 'dark', downbeat and black the looks andthemes were of many American crime and detective films released in France to theatresfollowing the war, such as 

 TheMaltese Falcon (1941), Murder, My Sweet (1944), 

 DoubleIndemnity (1944), The Woman in the Window (1944),

and Laura (1944). 

A widerange of films reflected the resultant tensions and insecurities of the timeperiod, and counter-balanced the optimism of Hollywood's musicals and comedies.Fear, mistrust, bleakness, loss of innocence, despair and paranoia are readilyevident in noir, reflecting the 'chilly' Cold War period when the threat ofnuclear annihilation was ever-present. The criminal, violent, misogynistic,hard-boiled, or greedy perspectives of anti-heroes in film noir were ametaphoric symptom of society's evils, with a strong undercurrent of moralconflict, purposelessness and sense of injustice. There were rarely happy oroptimistic endings in noirs.

Classic film noir developed during and afterWorld War II, taking advantage of the post-war ambience of anxiety, pessimism,and suspicion. It was a style of black and white American films that firstevolved in the 1940s, became prominent in the post-war era, and lasted in aclassic "Golden Age" period until about 1960 (marked by the 'last'film of the classic film noir era, Orson Welles' 

 Touch ofEvil (1958)).

Important Note: Strictly speaking, film noiris not a genre, but rather the mood, style, point-of-view, ortone of a film. It is also helpful to realize that 'film noir' usually refersto a distinct historical period of film history - the decade of film-makingafter World War II, similar to the German Expressionism or the French New Waveperiods. However, it was labeled as such only after theclassic period - early noir film-makers didn't even use the film designation(as they would the labels "western" or "musical"), and werenot conscious that their films would be labeled noirs.

Very often, a film noir story was developedaround a cynical, hard-hearted, disillusioned male character [e.g., RobertMitchum, Fred MacMurray, or Humphrey Bogart] who encountered a beautiful butpromiscuous, amoral, double-dealing and seductive femme fatale [e.g.,Mary Astor, Veronica Lake, Jane Greer, Barbara Stanwyck, or Lana Turner]. Shewould use her feminine wiles and come-hither sexuality to manipulate him intobecoming the fall guy - often following a murder. After a betrayal ordouble-cross, she was frequently destroyed as well, often at the cost of thehero's life. As women during the war period were given new-found independenceand better job-earning power in the homeland during the war, they would suffer-- on the screen -- in these films of the 40s.

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Greatest Femmes Fatales inClassic Film Noir

Titles of many film noirs often reflected the nature or tone ofthe style and content itself: Dark Passage (1947), TheNaked City (1948), Fear in the Night (1947),  Out ofthe Past (1947), Kiss Me Deadly(1955), etc.

Primary Characteristics and Conventions of Film Noir: Themesand Styles

Theprimary moods of classic film noir were melancholy,alienation, bleakness, disillusionment, disenchantment, pessimism, ambiguity,moral corruption, evil, guilt, desperation and paranoia.

Heroes (or anti-heroes), corrupt characters and villains included down-and-out,conflicted hard-boiled detectives or private eyes, cops, gangsters, governmentagents, a lone wolf, socio-paths or killers, crooks, war veterans, politicians,petty criminals, murderers, or just plain Joes. These protagonists were oftenmorally-ambiguous low-lifes from the dark and gloomy underworld of violentcrime and corruption. Distinctively, they were cynical, tarnished, obsessive(sexual or otherwise), brooding, menacing, sinister, sardonic, disillusioned,frightened and insecure loners (usually men), struggling to survive - and inthe end, ultimately losing.

Storylines were often elliptical, non-linear and twisting. Narrativeswere frequently complex, maze-like and convoluted, and typically told withforeboding background music, flashbacks (or a series of flashbacks), witty,razor-sharp and acerbic dialogue, and/or reflective and confessional,first-person voice-over narration. Amnesia suffered by the protagonist was acommon plot device, as was the downfall of an innocent Everyman who fell victimto temptation or was framed. Revelations regarding the hero were made toexplain/justify the hero's own cynical perspective on life.

Film noir films (mostly shot in gloomygrays, blacks and whites) thematically showed the dark and inhumane side ofhuman nature with cynicism and doomed love, and they emphasized the brutal,unhealthy, seamy, shadowy, dark and sadistic sides of the human experience. Anoppressive atmosphere of menace, pessimism, anxiety, suspicion that anythingcan go wrong, dingy realism, futility, fatalism, defeat and entrapment werestylized characteristics of film noir. The protagonists in filmnoir were normally driven by their past or by human weakness to repeat formermistakes.

Film noir films were marked visually byexpressionistic lighting, deep-focus or depth of field camera work,disorienting visual schemes, jarring editing or juxtaposition of elements,ominous shadows, skewed camera angles (usually vertical or diagonal rather thanhorizontal), circling cigarette smoke, existential sensibilities, andunbalanced or moody compositions. Settings were often interiors with low-key(or single-source) lighting, venetian-blinded windows and rooms, and dark,claustrophobic, gloomy appearances. Exteriors were often urban night scenes withdeep shadows, wet asphalt, dark alleyways, rain-slicked or mean streets,flashing neon lights, and low key lighting. Story locations were often in murkyand dark streets, dimly-lit and low-rent apartments and hotel rooms of bigcities, or abandoned warehouses. [Often-times, war-time scarcities were thereason for the reduced budgets and shadowy, stark sets of B-pictures and filmnoirs.]

Some of the most prominent directors of film noir included OrsonWelles, John Huston, Billy Wilder, Edgar Ulmer, Douglas Sirk, Robert Siodmak,Fritz Lang, Otto Preminger, Henry Hathaway and Howard Hawks.

Femmes Fatalesin Film Noir:

The females in film noir were either of two types (or archetypes)- dutiful, reliable, trustworthy and loving women; or femmes fatales -mysterious, duplicitous, double-crossing, gorgeous, unloving, predatory,tough-sweet, unreliable, irresponsible, manipulative and desperate women.Usually, the male protagonist in film noir wished to elude his mysterious past,and had to choose what path to take (or have the fateful choice made for him).

Invariably, the choice would be an overly ambitious one, to followthe dangerous but desirable wishes of these dames. It would be to pursue thegoadings of a traitorous, self-destructive femme fatale whowould lead the struggling, disillusioned, and doomed hero into committingmurder or some other crime of passion coupled with twisted love. When the majorcharacter was a detective or private eye, he would become embroiled and trappedin an increasingly-complex, convoluted case that would lead to fatalistic,suffocating evidences of corruption, irresistible love and death. The femmefatale, who had also transgressed societal norms with her independent andsmart, menacing actions, would bring both of them to a downfall.

Cinematic Origins and Roots of Classic Film Noir:

Thethemes of noir, derived from sources in Europe, were imported to Hollywood byemigre film-makers. Noirs were rooted in German Expressionism of the 1920s and1930s, such as in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920, Germ.) orFritz Lang's M (1931, Germ.), Fury (1936) and YouOnly Live Once (1937). Films from German directors, such as F. W. Murnau,G. W. Pabst, and Robert Wiene, were noted for their stark camera angles andmovements, chiaroscuro lighting and shadowy, high-contrast images - allelements of later film noir. In addition, the French sound films of the 30s,such as director Julien Duvivier's Pepe Le Moko (1937), contributedto noir's development.

Another cinematic origin of film noir was from the plots andthemes often taken from adaptations of American literary works - usually frombest-selling, hard-boiled, pulp novels and crime fiction by Raymond Chandler,James M. Cain, Dashiell Hammett, or Cornell Woolrich. As a result, the earliestfilm noirs were detective thrillers. Film noir was alsoderived from the crime/gangster and detective/mysterysagasfrom the 1930s (i.e., Little Caesar(1930), Public Enemy(1931) and Scarface (1932)), but very differentin tone and characterization. Notable film noir gangster films,such as They Drive By Night (1940), Key Largo (1948) and White Heat (1949) eachfeatured noir elements within the traditional gangster framework.

The Earliest Film Noirs: Inthe 1940s

Many sources have claimed that director Boris Ingster's and RKO's Strangeron the Third Floor (1940) was the first full-featuredfilm noir. The expressionistic film starred Peter Lorre as the sinister'stranger' (cast due to his creepy performance in M (1931)), in astory about the nightmarish after-effects of circumstantial testimony during amurder trial. Others claim Orson Welles' masterpiece  CitizenKane (1941) was also an early and influential pre-filmnoir.

Thefirst detective film to use the shadowy, nihilistic noir style in a definitiveway was the privotal work of novice director John Huston in the mysteryclassic  TheMaltese Falcon (1941), from a 1929 book by Dashiell Hammett.[Actually, Huston's film was not the first version - it had been directedearlier by Roy Del Ruth in 1931, starring Ricardo Cortez in the lead role.] Itwas famous for Humphrey Bogart's cool, laconic private eye hero Sam Spade inpursuit of crooks greedy for a jewel-encrusted statue, and Bogart's foil - MaryAstor as the deceptive femme fatale.

Noir Duo: Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake

Theacting duo of Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake was first teamed in the superb earlynoir thriller This Gun For Hire (1942) (with the tagline:"He's dynamite with a gun or a girl"). From the novel A GunFor Sale by renowned British novelist Graham Greene, the moody noirfeatured Ladd in a star-making role (his first lead role) as a ruthless,cat-loving, vengeful, unsmiling San Francisco professional hit-man named Ravenworking for a peppermint-candy loving fat man Willard Gates (Laird Cregar) andhis wheelchair-bound Nitro Chemicals executive Alvin Brewster (Tully Marshall)- both double-crossers who were selling secrets to foreign agents (theJapanese). Ladd was paired with popular wartime pinup star Lake as nightclubshowgirl singer Ellen Graham, his hostage (and unbeknownst to him working as afederal agent).

Another Dashiell Hammett book of political corruption and murderwas adapted for Stuart Heisler's The Glass Key (1942) forParamount Studios - again with the duo of Ladd and Lake, and noted as one ofthe best Hammett adaptations. Ladd starred as Ed Beaumont, a right-hand man andpolitical aide attempting to save his employer (Brian Donlevy) from a murder frame-up,while Lake played the seductive fiancee of the boss. The film was noted for thevicious beating given to Ladd by a crime lord thug (William Bendix).

The popular noir couple were brought together again in GeorgeMarshall's post-war crime thriller The Blue Dahlia (1946), with anOscar-nominated screenplay by Raymond Chandler (the only work he ever wrotedirectly for the screen). Alan Ladd portrayed returning war veteran JohnnyMorrison who discovered that his wife Helen (Doris Dowling) was unfaithfulduring his absence. When she turned up dead and he became the prime suspect, hewas aided in the case by the mysterious Joyce Harwood (Lake) - the seductiveex-wife of his wife's former lover.

Orson Welles and Film Noir:

Orson Welles' films have significant noir features, such as in hisexpressionistically-filmed  CitizenKane (1941), with subjective camera angles, dark shadowing anddeep focus, and low-angled shots from talented cinematographer Gregg Toland.Welles' third film for RKO, the war-time mystery Journey Into Fear(1943), was one in which he acted and co-directed (uncredited) - it was setin the exotic locale of Istanbul. The film's story was inspired by EricAmbler's spy thriller about the flight of an American arms engineer (JosephCotten) on a Black Sea tramp steamer where he was threatened by Nazi agentsintent on killing him.

The complex The Lady fromShanghai (1948) - with its plot (from Sherwood King'snovel If I Should Die Before I Wake), told about a destructive lovetriangle between Irish seaman Michael O'Hara (Welles himself), a manipulativeRita Hayworth as the platinum blonde-hairedfemme fatale Elsa (orRosalie), and her husband Arthur Bannister (Everett Sloane). Its final sequencein a San Francisco "hall of mirrors" fun-house was symbolic andreflective of the shattered relationships between the characters, exemplifiedby a wounded O'Hara's last words: "Maybe I'll live so long that I'llforget her. Maybe I'll die trying."

Welles' Mexican border-town B-movie classic  Touchof Evil (1958) is generally considered the last filmin the classic cycle of film noirs. It starred Charlton Heston as Vargas - anaive Mexican-American narcotics cop, Janet Leigh as his imperiled,honeymooning wife Susan, and Welles' own corrupt and corpulent local cop HankQuinlan. The film also featured a comeback appearance by cigar-smoking bordellomadam Marlene Dietrich, and a breathtaking opening credits sequence filmed in asingle-take. Later, Welles' expressionistic noir and psychological drama TheTrial (1962) was an adaptation of Franz Kafka's classic novel, withAnthony Perkins as Joseph K - a man condemned for an unnamed crime in anunknown country.

More Definitive 40s Noirs:

Earlyclassic non-detective film noirs included Fritz Lang's steamy andfatalistic Scarlet Street (1945) - one of the moodiest,blackest thrillers ever made, about a mild-mannered painter's (Edward G.Robinson) unpunished and unsuspected murder of an amoral femme fatale (JoanBennett) after she had led him to commit embezzlement, impersonated him inorder to sell his paintings, and had been deceitful and cruel to him - causinghim in a fit of anger to murder her with an ice-pick. Director AbrahamPolonsky's expressionistic, politically-subversive Force of Evil (1948) starredJohn Garfield as a corrupt mob attorney.

British director Carol Reed's tense tale of treachery set inpost-war Vienna,  TheThird Man (1949), with the memorable character of black marketracketeer Harry Lime (Orson Welles), ended with a climactic shootout in thecity's noirish underground sewer. And the nightmarishly-dark, rapid-paced anddefinitive D.O.A. (1949) from cinematographer-director RudolphMate - told the flashback story of lethally-poisoned and doomed protagonistFrank Bigelow (Edmond O'Brien), a victim of circumstance who announced in theopening: "I want to report a murder - mine." [It was remade as D.O.A.(1988) with Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan.]

Noirs with Raymond Chandler's 'Philip Marlowe':

Over the years from 1939 to 1958, Raymond Chandler wrote seven full-lengthPhilip Marlowe novels about the popular, hard-drinking detective-gumshoe. Sixof them were adapted into films (several more than once), and many differentactors have portrayed the hard-drinking PI, including Dick Powell, GeorgeMontgomery, Robert Montgomery, Elliott Gould, Robert Mitchum (twice), JamesGarner, and Humphrey Bogart.

[Note: Also, James Caan portrayed Philip Marlowe in the HBO film PoodleSprings (1998), based on Chandler's unfinished novelPoodle Springs -completed after his death by Robert B. Parker and published in 1989.]

• director Irving Reis' The Falcon Takes Over     (1942) was based on Chandler's book, Farewell, My Lovely,     and was the third installment in the Falcon series of     four films; it was the first of three film versions of Chandler's Farewell,     My Lovely; it was based on novelist Michael Arlen's 1940 fictional     crime short story Gay Falcon, with the gentleman sleuth     protagonist (portrayed by actor George Sanders) named Gay Stanhope Falcon     (later renamed Gay Lawrence) rather than Philip Marlowe

• singer Dick Powell starred as the down-and-out PI in     Edward Dmytryk's twisting story of intrigue Murder, My Sweet     (1944) (akaFarewell, My Lovely, Chandler's 1940 book     title) searching for ex-con Moose Malloy's (Mike Mazurki) missing lover     Velma/Helen Grayle (Claire Trevor) in wartime Los Angeles; the film was     especially noted for its expressionistic lighting

• Humphrey     Bogart, teamed with real-life wife Lauren Bacall, played the role of     private detective Philip Marlowe in the confusing, classic Howard Hawks     who-dun-it  The     Big Sleep (1946) involving blackmail, pornography, and     murder in Los Angeles - it was based on Chandler's 1939 novel and adapted     for the screen by co-writers William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules     Furthman

• director/star Robert Montgomery was Philip Marlowe     in Lady in the Lake (1947) - experimentally filmed from     the protagonist's first-person point of view

• Marlowe (1969), based on the Chandler     novel The Little Sister; with James Garner in the role of     Philip Marlowe

• Elliott Gould portrayed the detective in Robert     Altman's spoof The Long Goodbye (1973) (based upon     Chandler's 1953 novel) set in modern-day Los Angeles, in which the lone,     unconventional sleuth investigated the murder of a friend's wife

• Robert Mitchum was in the role in director Dick     Richards' Farewell, My Lovely (1975) - a remake of Murder,     My Sweet (1944) and The Falcon Takes Over (1942); the     film was set in Los Angeles with Charlotte Rampling as the seductive Helen     Grayle/Velma and Jack O'Halloran as Moose Malloy

• Robert Mitchum again starred as Marlowe in The     Big Sleep (1978) - a remake of Howard Hawks' 1946 film, with     Candy Clark and Sarah Miles as the two Sternwood daughters, and Oliver     Reed as corrupt gangster Eddie Mars

Romance Film Noirs with Great Femme Fatales:

Twisted, shocking melodramatic film noirs featuring deadly femmefatales on a path of romance and self-destruction (romance noirs) withthe men in their lives included the following examples:

• Fritz     Lang's second American film You Only Live Once (1937) with     a framed-for-murder, doomed ex-convict Henry Fonda in flight to the border     with loser wife Sylvia Sidney and child

• Jean Renoir's classic, tragic, and film-noirish     crime drama La Bête Humaine (1938, Fr.) (aka The Human Beast) about     murder, guilt and adulterous infidelity in a love triangle, adapted from     Emile Zola's 1890 novel, starring Jean Gabin as homicidal, tormented     railroad engineer Jacques Lantier - the "human beast," Le Havre     deputy station master Roubaud (Fernand Ledoux), and his sexy, manipulative     and troubled femme fatale wife Séverine Roubaud (Simone     Simon)

• William Wyler's The Letter (1940) featured     Bette Davis as a murdering wife whose professed innocence was compromised     by a damning letter

• Billy Wilder's (and Raymond Chandler's) adaptation     of James M. Cain's novel  Double     Indemnity (1944) included a persuasive, sinister     brassy blonde (Barbara Stanwyck) who convinced a smart-talking insurance     agent/lover (Fred MacMurray) to murder her unsuspecting husband so they     could share 'double indemnity' insurance proceeds; also with Edward G.     Robinson as a shrewd insurance investigator

• Fritz Lang's tense The Woman in the Window     (1944) told about a law-abiding college professor (Edward G.     Robinson) who became embroiled in a crime when he unintentionally     committed a murder and suddenly found himself on the run from blackmail     with a beautiful, strange model (Joan Bennett)

• Michael Curtiz' melodramatic, mother-daughter noir     classic Mildred     Pierce (1945) featured Best Actress-winning Joan     Crawford as a suspected murderess who covered up for her beloved but     venomous femme fatale daughter (Ann Blyth)

• the     psychological, melodramatic noir Leave Her to Heaven (1945),     one of the first noirs shot in color, highlighted a menacing,     father-fixated, unstable femme fatale (Gene Tierney) who     would stop at nothing (the drowning murder of her husband's younger     paraplegic brother in a lake, and a deliberate miscarriage to kill her     unborn child when she deliberately fell down stairs) to possessively hold     onto the man she loved

• Edgar G. Ulmer's gritty, cheaply-made ("Poverty     Row"), fatalistic, cultish crime film Detour (1945) was     about the bleak twists of fate; in a flashback story cynically narrated, a     world-weary, identity-stealing hitchhiker (Tom Neal) was haplessly     involved in an ambiguous death during his thumbing trek to Los Angeles,     and later became involved with a nasty hitchhiker - the film's     blackmailing, vindictive femme fatale con Vera (Ann     Savage) whom he accidentally strangled with a telephone cord through a     closed door; [the film was remade as Detour (1992) and     starred the son of the original ill-fated protagonist, Tom Neal, Jr.]

• Tay Garnett's stylish and moody The Postman Always Rings Twice     (1946), from James M. Cain's novel, starred "sweater     girl" Lana Turner as the libidinous, restless platinum blonde wife     Cora Smith - who was stuck in a roadside diner and loveless marriage and     convinced her illicit lover Frank Chambers (John Garfield) to murder her     good-hearted husband Nick (Cecil Kellaway)

• in Lewis Milestone's The Strange Love of     Martha Ivers (1946), Barbara Stanwyck's murderous past might be     revealed by her alcoholic, unrespected attorney husband Kirk Douglas

• Rita Hayworth was featured in a sultry performance     as the black glove-stripping Gilda (1946) to     the tune of "Put the Blame on Mame" in Charles Vidor's classic     film noir of a love triangle - the 'love goddess' portrayed the sexy,     hedonistic red-headed wife of South American casino owner Ballin Mundson     (George Macready) who became involved with her husband's abusive croupier     (Glenn Ford) - her ex-beau. She became notorious for her much-quoted line:     "If I'd been a ranch, they would have named me the Bar Nothing"

• Robert Siodmak's adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's     1927 short story of a twisting double-cross, The Killers (1946),     featured Burt Lancaster (in his film debut as the doomed ex-boxer Ole     "the Swede" Andersen) and the stunning Ava Gardner as the     manipulative vixen Kitty Collins (who was quoted as saying: "I'm poison,     Swede, to myself and everybody around me"); it was noted for its     exceptional beginning in which the Swede was assassinated by two     professional killers - and accepted his death stoically. [This film was     remade by director Don Siegel as the violent crime noir thriller The     Killers (1964) with Lee Marvin, Ronald Reagan (in his last     feature role), and Angie Dickinson]

• in     director John Cromwell's Dead Reckoning (1947), an on-the-run     WWII veteran's alluring Southern girlfriend (Lizabeth Scott) threatened     military buddy Humphrey Bogart

• director Jacques Tourneur's quintessential, slick     film noir  Out     of the Past (1947) (aka Build My Gallows High)     of underworld intrigue was filled with complex flashbacks; it featured     Robert Mitchum as the doomed, double-crossed ex-private eye Jeff Markham     with a sordid past who fell for the icy femme fatale Kathie     Moffat (Jane Greer) he was trailing for ruthless gangster Whit Sterling     (Kirk Douglas); Markham knew the dangers of falling in love with her     ("You're like a leaf that the wind blows from one gutter to     another"); [remade as Against All Odds (1984) with     an older Jane Greer as her original character's mother]

• Nicholas Ray's doomed lover film They Live     By Night (1949) starred Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell as     fugitive, misfit criminals on the run [remade as Thieves Like Us     (1974)]

• Joseph H. Lewis' tabloid romantic/crime B-movie     melodrama Gun Crazy     (1949) (aka Deadly Is the Female) - was another amour     fou 'Bonnie and Clyde' tale with two disturbed and doomed     protagonists/lovers on a crime spree - gun-loving Bart (John Dall) and     blonde carnival sharpshooter (Peggy Cummins); noted for one unbroken take     filmed in the getaway car during a bank robbery scene

• Billy Wilder's classic black comedy and film noirish     drama  Sunset     Boulevard (1950) was a "behind the scenes"     look at Hollywood and the price of fame, greed, narcissism, and ambition;     down-on-his-luck B-movie hack screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden)     spoke (in flashback with voice-over narraton) beyond the grave as a dead     man floating face-down in a swimming pool in Beverly Hills, about his     six-month struggle to produce screenplays to meet the demands of the     industry and satisfy the thirsty illusions of immortality and comeback of     aging, waspish, megalomaniacal silent film queen (and femme fatale) Norma     Desmond (Gloria Swanson) in her decaying Sunset Boulevard mansion

• Otto Preminger's Angel Face (1953) starred     Jean Simmons as a psychotic 'angel of death' who talked chauffeur Robert     Mitchum into a murder scheme

• Henry Hathaway's Techni-colored noir Niagara     (1953) provided the perfect star vehicle for curvy sexpot Marilyn     Monroe as Rose Loomis, a sinfully-wayward, unhappily married woman (to     unstable, WWII veteran George (Joseph Cotten)), in its tale of murder and     sexual jealousy; one of its taglines proclaimed: "A raging torrent of     emotion that even nature can't control!"

Documentary-Style Noirs:

There are numerous, pseudo documentary-style film noirs("docu-noirs"), often set in dark, rain-swept, crime-ridden urbanareas, made in a realistic, semi-documentary fashion and often filmed in actuallocations of real-life events:

• Henry Hathaway's docu-drama The House on     92nd Street (1945) about Nazi spies scheming to learn the atom     bomb formula, was based on actual FBI cases

• Henry Hathaway also directed the film noirish Kiss     of Death (1947), was derived from Stoolpigeon - a     story by Eleazar Lipsky (with a screenplay by Ben Hecht and Charles     Lederer); Victor Mature starred as paroled robber Nick Bianco opposite     chilling, sadistic gangster Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark in his stunning     screen debut, noted for the scene in which he giggled hysterically while     pushing a wheelchair-bound old woman down a flight of stairs)

• Call     Northside 777 (1948), another Henry Hathaway-directed film (based on a     true story), starred James Stewart as dogged Chicago reporter P.J.     "Mac" McNeal who uncovered a police coverup that sent Frank     Wiecek (Richard Conte), a wrongly-convicted, innocent man to jail for     killing a cop eleven years earlier in 1932; he originally investigated an     ad in which Frank's mother Tillie Wiecek (Kasia Orzazewski), offered     $5,000 for new evidence to clear her son, causing "Mac" to     become increasingly certain that Frank was unduly imprisoned

• Crane Wilbur's crime drama Canon City     (1948) - a re-enactment of a 1947 prison escape in Colorado

• director Jules Dassin's great crime drama The     Naked City (1948) featured Barry Fitzgerald as a New York City     cop investigating a murder over six days, and climaxed with a suspenseful     chase and shootout on the Williamsburg Bridge

• Anthony Mann's documentary style crime noir T-Men     (1948) told about two undercover US Treasury men (Dennis O'Keefe     and Alfred Ryder) who infiltrated a deadly counterfeiting gang; in one     memorable scene, one of the T-Men was executed while his partner watched

• the little-seen Abandoned (1949), from     director Joseph Newman, about a late 1940s LA newspaper reporter (Dennis     O'Keefe) pursuing a missing girl, along with her sister (Gale Storm known     for the TV series My Little Margie), into the sordid     black-market baby adoption racket, while encountering a corrupt private     investigator (Raymond Burr)

• Alfred L. Werker's (and uncredited Anthony Mann)     police procedural film noir He Walked By Night (1949) was     the story of the capture of psychopathic killer Erwin     "Machine-Gun" Walker; the film inspired actor Jack Webb to     create Dragnet - first a radio show and then a TV cop     show

• also, Joseph Newman's moralistic urban crime     drama 711 Ocean Drive (1950) told about the rise and fall     of an organized crime kingpin (Edmond O'Brien as a telephone company     repairman turned bad); the film capitalized on various book-making     scandals at the time sensationalized and exposed in the newspapers; with     on-location settings of L.A., Palm Springs and Nevada, particularly at     Hoover Dam

• Billy Wilder's The Big Carnival (1951) (aka     Ace in the Hole), an insightful expose of the media, starred Kirk     Douglas as a cynical and immoral newsman named Charles Tatum who exploited     a 'human interest' story to the public by orchestrating a media frenzy     around a man trapped in a Pueblo cliff dwelling tunnel collapse

• Alfred Hitchcock's noirish, true-life story     thriller The Wrong Man (1956) with Henry Fonda as a New     York musician framed and wrongly-accused of committing armed robbery - and     undergoing a nightmarish ordeal, including the mental breakdown of his     wife (Vera Miles) 

Prison Noirs:

Noirs have sometimes been set in prisons or jails:

• in Mervyn LeRoy's I Am a Fugitive From a Chain     Gang (1932), an innocent WWI veteran (Paul Muni) was     wrongly imprisoned as a chain gang convict, and after two escapes faced     life as a hunted fugitive; also the earlier RKO release by Rowland     Brown, Hell's Highway (1932) - with a similar bleak view     of a Southern chain-gang prison

• Fritz Lang's message film Fury (1936) -     his first American film - with Spencer Tracy as a falsely accused     kidnapper who was threatened and nearly-lynched by a mob in a small     Midwestern town

• Jules Dassin's dark prison drama Brute Force     (1947) - more harsh than noirish about the oppressive Westgate     prison (headed by ruthless and sadistic chief guard Captain Munsey (Hume     Cronyn)) with Burt Lancaster as an inmate seeking to escape to be with his     critically-ill girlfriend

Menaced-Women Noirs:

In menaced-women noirs, the tables are turned and women are menaced by themen in their lives (often their husbands), as in these examples:

• in George     Cukor's Gaslight     (1944), Ingrid Bergman was driven to near insanity by her     menacing, mentally-cruel husband Charles Boyer

• in Otto Preminger's hard-edged noir romance Laura (1944), a     police detective (Dana Andrews) investigated socialite Laura's (Gene     Tierney) murder until she reappeared - and was threatened a second time;     the film contained troubling necrophiliac themes and sexual obsession by     the hard-boiled detective for the dead woman; with a great supporting cast     including Vincent Price, Clifton Webb, and Judith Anderson; Oscar winner     for Best B/W Cinematography

• in Anatole Litvak's unnerving and tense Sorry,     Wrong Number (1948), bed-ridden hypochondriac/heiress Barbara Stanwyck     overheard a phone call plot that her weak husband Burt Lancaster planned     to kill her

• in Nicholas Ray's In A Lonely Place (1950),     Humphrey Bogart portrayed a burned-out, troubled, hot-tempered, and     near-psychotic Hollywood screenwriter and murder suspect while having an     affair with neighboring, alibi-providing, aspiring blonde starlet Laurel     Gray (Gloria Grahame) - their sexual attractiveness to each other was soon     torn apart by jealousy, fear, and suspicion

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