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


(text-only version)

Ace in the Hole (1951)

A frustrated former big-city journalist now stuck working for an Albuquerque newspaper exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to re-jump start his career, but the situation quickly escalates into an out-of-control circus.

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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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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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Champion (1949)

Boxer Midge Kelly rises to fame...mainly by stepping on other people.

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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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Gilda (1946)

The sinister boss of a South American casino finds that his right-hand man Johnny and his sensuous new wife Gilda already know each other.

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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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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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In a Lonely Place (1950)

A potentially violent screenwriter is a murder suspect until his lovely neighbor clears him. But she begins to have doubts...

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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 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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Laura (1944)

A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he's investigating.

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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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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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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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Notorious (1946)

A woman is asked to spy on a group of Nazi friends in South America. How far will she have to go to ingratiate herself with them?

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Out of the Past (1947)

Jeff Bailey, small-town gas pumper, has his mysterious past catch up with him one day when he's ordered to meet with gambler Whit Sterling...

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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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A Place in the Sun (1951)

Young up-and-comer George Eastman is thrust into the blue collar life of a rich uncle's family business...

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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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Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)

A ruthless, domineering woman is married to an alcoholic D.A., a childhood companion and the only living witness to her murder of her rich aunt seventeen years earlier.

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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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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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Sunset Boulevard (1950)

A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent-film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.

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Suspicion (1941)

A shy young English woman marries a charming gentleman, then begins to suspect him of trying to kill her.

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Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

A biting look at the ruthless world of a powerful and evil New York columnist.

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Thieves' Highway (1949)

A war-veteran-turned-truck driver attempts to avenge the crippling and robbing of his father at the hands of an amoral produce scofflaw.

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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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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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