Dave Tompkins :: DVD Library :: 2-Genre Table :: Crime :: Film-Noir


(text-only version)

Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)

A priest tries to stop a gangster from corrupting a group of street kids.

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The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

A major heist goes off as planned, until bad luck and double crosses cause everything to unravel.

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The Big Bluff (1955)

When a scheming fortune hunter finds his rich wife is not going to die as expected, he and his lover make other plans to get her millions.

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The Big Heat (1953)

Tough cop Dave Bannion takes on a politically powerful crime syndicate.

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The Big Sleep (1946)

Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a rich family. Before the complex case is over, he's seen murder, blackmail, and what might be love.

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Bob le Flambeur (1956)

Bob, a old gangster and gambler is almost broke, so he decides in spite of the warnings of a friend...

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Casque D'or (1952)

In an open-air dance hall, the members of Leca's gang are relaxing with their ladies. One of them, Marie...

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Detour (1945)

Chance events trap hitch-hiker Al Roberts in a tightening net of film noir trouble.

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The Docks of New York (1928)

A blue-collar worker on New York's depressed waterfront finds his life changed after he saves a woman attempting suicide.

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Double Indemnity (1944)

An insurance rep lets himself be talked into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses an insurance investigator's suspicions.

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Drunken Angel (1948)

A drunken doctor with a hot temper and a violence-prone gangster with tuberculosis form a quicksilver bond.

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Elevator to the Gallows (1958)

A self-assured business man murders his employer, the husband of his adulterer, which unintentionally provokes an ill-fated chain of events.

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The Enforcer (1951)

A crusading district attorney finally gets a chance to prosecute the organizer and boss of Murder Inc.

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Gaslight (1944)

Years after her aunt was murdered in her home, a young woman moves back into the house with her new husband. However, he has a secret which he will do anything to protect, even if that means driving his wife insane.

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Gun Crazy (1950)

A well meaning crack shot husband is pressured by his beautiful marksman wife to go on an interstate robbery spree, where he finds out just how depraved and deadly she really is.

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He Walked by Night (1948)

This film-noir piece, told in semi-documentary style, follows police on the hunt for a resourceful criminal who shoots and kills a cop.

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The Hitchhiker (1953)

Two fishermen pick up a psychotic escaped convict who tells them that he intends to murder them when the ride is over.

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I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)

Wrongly convicted James Allen serves in the intolerable conditions of a southern chain gang, which later comes back to haunt him.

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Jigsaw (1949)

New York Assistant District Attorney Howard Malloy investigates a series of murders and uncovers an extremist group.

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Le Jour se Leve (1939)

After committing a murder, a man locks himself in the murdered man's apartment and recollects the events the led him to the killing.

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Kansas City Confidential (1952)

An ex-con trying to go straight is framed for a million dollar armored car robbery and must go to Mexico in order to unmask the real culprits.

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Key Largo (1948)

A man visits his old friend's hotel and finds a gangster running things. As a hurricane approaches, the two end up confronting each other.

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The Killers (1946)

Hit men kill an unresisting victim, and investigator Reardon uncovers his past involvement with beautiful, deadly Kitty Collins.

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The Killing (1956)

Crooks plan and execute a daring racetrack robbery.

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The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

Fascinated by gorgeous Mrs. Bannister, seaman Michael O'Hara joins a bizarre yachting cruise, and ends up mired in a complex murder plot.

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Little Caesar (1931)

The ambitious criminal Rico moves from the country to the big city in the east and joins Sam Vettori's gang with his friend Joe Massara...

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The Maltese Falcon (1941)

A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette.

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The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950)

A veteran homicide detective who has witnessed his socialite girlfriend kill her husband sees his inexperienced brother assigned to the case.

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The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)

A man and his wife receive a clue to an imminent assassination attempt, only to learn that their daughter has been kidnapped to keep them quiet.

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Mildred Pierce (1945)

After her cheating husband leaves her, Mildred Pierce proves she can become independent and successful, but can't win the approval of her spoiled daughter.

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Mr. Arkadin (1955)

An American adventurer investigates the past of mysterious tycoon Arkadin...placing himself in grave danger.

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Murder, My Sweet (1944)

This adaptation of the Raymond Chandler novel 'Farewell, My Lovely', renamed for the American...

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The Naked City (1948)

Amid a semi-documentary portrait of New York and its people, Jean Dexter, an attractive blonde model...

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Night and the City (1950)

Harry Fabian is a London hustler with ambitious plans that never work out. One day, when he encounters the most famous Greco-Roman wrestler in the world...

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The Night of the Hunter (1955)

A religious fanatic marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real daddy hid $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery.

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Pepe le Moko (1937)

Pépé le Moko is a gangster from Paris that hides in Algier's Casbah. In the Casbah, he is safe and is able to elude the police's attempts to capture him...

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Pickup on South Street (1953)

A pickpocket unwittingly lifts a message destined for enemy agents and becomes a target for a Communist spy ring.

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Port of New York (1949)

Two narcotics agents go after a gang of murderous drug dealers who use ships docking at the New York harbor to smuggle in their contraband.

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Port of Shadows (1938)

A military deserter finds love and trouble (and a small dog) in a smoky French port city.

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The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)

A married woman and a drifter fall in love, then plot to murder her husband... but even once the deed is done, they must live with the consequences of their actions.

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The Public Enemy (1931)

A young hoodlum rises up through the ranks of the Chicago underworld, even as a gangster's accidental death threatens to spark a bloody mob war.

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Quai des Orfevres (1947)

Jenny Lamour wants to succeed in music hall. Her husband and accompanist is Maurice Martineau, a nice but jealous guy...

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Quicksand (1950)

After borrowing $20 from his employer's cash register, an auto mechanic is plunged into a series of increasingly disastrous circumstances which rapidly spiral out of his control.

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The Raven (1943)

French village doctor becomes target of poison-pen letters sent to village leaders, accusing him of affairs and practicing abortion.

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Rififi (1955)

Four men plan a technically perfect crime, but the human element intervenes...

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The Roaring Twenties (1939)

Three men attempt to make a living in Prohibitionist America after returning home from fighting together in World War I.

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The Scar (1948)

Pursued by the big-time gambler he robbed, John Muller takes a new identity, with ironic results.

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Scarface (1932)

An ambitious and near insanely violent gangster climbs the ladder of success in the mob, but his weaknesses prove to be his downfall.

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Side Street (1950)

A struggling young father-to-be gives in to temptation and impulsively steals money from the office of a shady lawyer - with catastrophic consequences.

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The Stranger (1946)

An investigator from the War Crimes Commission travels to Connecticut to find an infamous Nazi.

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Strangers on a Train (1951)

A psychotic socialite confronts a pro tennis star with a theory on how two complete strangers can get away with murder...a theory that he plans to implement.

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Stray Dog (1949)

During a sweltering summer, a rookie homicide detective tries to track down his stolen Colt pistol.

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Suddenly (1954)

In the city of Suddenly, three gangsters trap the Benson family in their own house, on the top of a hill nearby the railroad station, with the intention of killing the president of the USA.

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The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933)

Berlin police inspector Lohmann investigates a case, in which all clues lead to a man, who's in a hospital for mental illnesses for since many years - Dr. Mabuse.

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They Live by Night (1949)

An escaped convict is injured and is helped by a woman with whom he has an ill-fated relationship.

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The Thin Man (1934)

Comedy-mystery featuring Nick and Nora Charles: a former detective and his rich, playful wife. They solve a murder case mostly for the fun of it.

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Too Late for Tears (1949)

Through a fluke circumstance a ruthless woman stumbles across a suitcase filled with $60,000, and she is determined to hold onto it even it if means murder.

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Touch of Evil (1958)

Stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping, and police corruption in Mexican border town.

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Touchez Pas au Grisbi (1954)

An aging, world-weary gangster is double-crossed and forced out of retirement when his best friend is kidnapped and their stash of eight stolen gold bars demanded as ransom.

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Whistle Stop (1946)

When beautiful Mary returns home to her ''whistle stop'' home town, long-standing feelings of animosity between two of her old boyfriends leads to robbery and murder.

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White Heat (1949)

A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist. Shortly after the plan takes place, events take a crazy turn

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The Wrong Man (1956)

True story of an innocent man mistaken for a criminal.

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