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


(text-only version)

Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)

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

tt0029870
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

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

tt0042208
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.

tt0047877
The Big Heat (1953)

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

tt0045555
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.

tt0038355+
Bob le Flambeur (1956)

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

tt0047892
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...

tt0043386
Detour (1945)

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

tt0037638
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.

tt0018839
Double Indemnity (1944)

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

tt0036775+
Drunken Angel (1948)

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

tt0040979
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.

tt0051378+
The Enforcer (1951)

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

tt0043503
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.

tt0036855
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.

tt0042530
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.

tt0040427
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.

tt0045877
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.

tt0023042
Jigsaw (1949)

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

tt0041523
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.

tt0031514
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.

tt0044789
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.

tt0040506
The Killers (1946)

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

tt0038669
The Killing (1956)

Crooks plan and execute a daring racetrack robbery.

tt0049406+
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.

tt0040525
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...

tt0021079
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.

tt0033870
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.

tt0042707
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.

tt0025452
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.

tt0037913+
Mr. Arkadin (1955)

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

tt0048393+
Murder, My Sweet (1944)

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

tt0037101
The Naked City (1948)

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

tt0040636
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...

tt0042788
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.

tt0048424+
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...

tt0029453
Pickup on South Street (1953)

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

tt0046187
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.

tt0041761
Port of Shadows (1938)

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

tt0030643
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.

tt0038854
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.

tt0022286
Quai des Orfevres (1947)

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

tt0039739
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.

tt0042869
The Raven (1943)

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

tt0035753
Rififi (1955)

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

tt0048021
The Roaring Twenties (1939)

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

tt0031867
The Scar (1948)

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

tt0040444
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.

tt0023427
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.

tt0042960
The Stranger (1946)

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

tt0038991
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.

tt0044079+
Stray Dog (1949)

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

tt0041699
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.

tt0047542
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.

tt0023563+
They Live by Night (1949)

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

tt0040872
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.

tt0025878
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.

tt0041968
Touch of Evil (1958)

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

tt0052311
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.

tt0046451
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.

tt0039101
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

tt0042041
The Wrong Man (1956)

True story of an innocent man mistaken for a criminal.

tt0051207