Film Noir 40-50’s
by Marakasya | created - 09 Feb 2021 | updated - 1 week ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)
Approved | 64 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An aspiring reporter is the key witness at the murder trial of a young man accused of cutting a café owner's throat and is soon accused of a similar crime himself.
Director: Boris Ingster | Stars: Peter Lorre, John McGuire, Margaret Tallichet, Charles Waldron
Votes: 4,608
2. Force of Evil (1948)
Passed | 79 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An unethical lawyer who wants to help his older brother becomes a partner with a client in the numbers racket.
Director: Abraham Polonsky | Stars: John Garfield, Thomas Gomez, Beatrice Pearson, Marie Windsor
Votes: 7,666
3. Gun Crazy (1950)
Passed | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Two disturbed young people release their fascination with guns through a crime spree.
Director: Joseph H. Lewis | Stars: John Dall, Peggy Cummins, Berry Kroeger, Morris Carnovsky
Votes: 14,839
4. The Big Combo (1955)
Not Rated | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A police lieutenant is ordered to stop investigating deadly crime boss Mr. Brown because he hasn't been able to get any hard evidence against him. He goes after Brown's girlfriend, who despises him, for information instead.
Director: Joseph H. Lewis | Stars: Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte, Jean Wallace, Brian Donlevy
Votes: 8,621
5. Angel Face (1952)
Approved | 91 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Ambulance driver Frank Jessup is ensnared in the schemes of the sensuous but dangerous Diane Tremayne.
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons, Mona Freeman, Herbert Marshall
Votes: 9,030
6. Christmas Holiday (1944)
Not Rated | 93 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A young femme fatale-type woman realizes that the man she married is an incorrigible wastrel.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Deanna Durbin, Gene Kelly, Richard Whorf, Dean Harens
Votes: 1,645
7. The Blue Dahlia (1946)
Passed | 96 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
An ex-bomber pilot is suspected of murdering his unfaithful wife.
Director: George Marshall | Stars: Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, William Bendix, Howard Da Silva
Votes: 9,658 | Gross: $2.70M
8. This Gun for Hire (1942)
Passed | 81 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
When assassin Philip Raven shoots a blackmailer and his beautiful female companion dead, he is paid off in marked bills by his treasonous employer who is working with foreign spies.
Director: Frank Tuttle | Stars: Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, Laird Cregar
Votes: 10,615
9. The Bribe (1949)
Approved | 98 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Federal agent Rigby, in Central America to trace stolen plane engines, falls for the gorgeous wife of the chief suspect.
Directors: Robert Z. Leonard, Vincente Minnelli | Stars: Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner, Charles Laughton, Vincent Price
Votes: 2,161
10. Deception (1946)
Approved | 115 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Music
After marrying her long-lost love, a musician finds the relationship threatened by a wealthy composer who is besotted with her.
Director: Irving Rapper | Stars: Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, John Abbott
Votes: 4,133
11. I Walk Alone (1947)
Approved | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Frankie Madison leaves prison expecting a share from his ex-partner. But Prohibition bootlegging didn't prepare Frankie for Big Business.
Director: Byron Haskin | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Lizabeth Scott, Kirk Douglas, Wendell Corey
Votes: 3,287
12. Johnny Eager (1941)
Passed | 107 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
The step-daughter of a district attorney falls in love with a gangster on parole who her father originally imprisoned.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Robert Taylor, Lana Turner, Edward Arnold, Van Heflin
Votes: 3,420
13. Pickup on South Street (1953)
Passed | 80 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
A pickpocket unwittingly lifts a message destined for enemy agents and becomes a target for a Communist spy ring.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, Thelma Ritter, Murvyn Vye
Votes: 16,151
14. Nightmare Alley (1947)
Passed | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir
The rise and fall of Stanton Carlisle, a mentalist whose lies and deceit prove to be his downfall.
Director: Edmund Goulding | Stars: Tyrone Power, Joan Blondell, Coleen Gray, Helen Walker
Votes: 13,416
15. The Hit (1984)
R | 98 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Ten years after ratting on his old mobster friends in exchange for personal immunity, two hit men drive a hardened criminal to Paris for his execution. However, while on the way, whatever can go wrong, does go wrong.
Director: Stephen Frears | Stars: Freddie Stuart, Ralph Brown, A.J. Clarke, Terence Stamp
Votes: 9,538 | Gross: $0.88M
16. Deep Cover (1992)
R | 107 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A uniformed police officer is recruited by the DEA to infiltrate a drug smuggling ring looking to expand its operation.
Director: Bill Duke | Stars: Laurence Fishburne, Jeff Goldblum, Lira Angel, René Assa
Votes: 14,054 | Gross: $16.64M
17. Unfaithfully Yours (1948)
Approved | 105 min | Comedy, Music, Romance
A man dreams of revenge when he suspects his wife is unfaithful.
Director: Preston Sturges | Stars: Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Rudy Vallee, Barbara Lawrence
Votes: 5,862
18. Dark Passage (1947)
Passed | 106 min | Film-Noir, Thriller
A man convicted of murdering his wife escapes from prison and works with a woman to try to prove his innocence.
Director: Delmer Daves | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Bruce Bennett, Agnes Moorehead
Votes: 21,972
19. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Passed | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir
A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson
Votes: 236,437
20. Each Dawn I Die (1939)
Approved | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A corrupt D.A. (Thurston Hall) with political ambitions is angered by news stories implicating him in criminal activity and decides to frame the reporter (James Cagney) for manslaughter in order to silence him.
Director: William Keighley | Stars: James Cagney, George Raft, Jane Bryan, George Bancroft
Votes: 3,732
21. The Hitch-Hiker (1953)
Approved | 71 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Two fishermen pick up a psychopathic escaped convict who tells them that he intends to murder them when the ride is over.
Director: Ida Lupino | Stars: Edmond O'Brien, Frank Lovejoy, William Talman, José Torvay
Votes: 10,521
22. Ministry of Fear (1944)
Passed | 86 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Stephen Neale has just been released from an asylum during World War II in England when he accidentally stumbles onto a deadly Nazi spy plot and tries to stop it.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds, Carl Esmond, Hillary Brooke
Votes: 8,937
23. Kiss of Death (1947)
Approved | 99 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A crook arrested for a jewelry heist initially refuses to give up his accomplices, but he changes his mind once his wife dies under worrying circumstances.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: Victor Mature, Brian Donlevy, Coleen Gray, Richard Widmark
Votes: 9,569
24. Crime Wave (1953)
Approved | 73 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Reformed parolee Steve Lacey is caught in the middle when a wounded former cellmate seeks him out for shelter.
Director: André De Toth | Stars: Gene Nelson, Sterling Hayden, Phyllis Kirk, Ted de Corsia
Votes: 4,547
25. Possessed (1947)
Approved | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
After being found wandering the streets of Los Angeles, a severely catatonic woman tells a doctor the complex story of how she wound up there.
Director: Curtis Bernhardt | Stars: Joan Crawford, Van Heflin, Raymond Massey, Geraldine Brooks
Votes: 5,909 | Gross: $1.99M
26. Odd Man Out (1947)
Approved | 116 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A wounded Irish nationalist leader attempts to evade police following a failed robbery in Belfast.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: James Mason, Robert Newton, Cyril Cusack, F.J. McCormick
Votes: 11,417
27. Party Girl (1958)
Approved | 99 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Lawyer Tommy Farrell is a defender of crooks. Vicki Gaye encourages him to go straight, but mob king Rico Angelo insists otherwise.
Director: Nicholas Ray | Stars: Robert Taylor, Cyd Charisse, Lee J. Cobb, John Ireland
Votes: 3,747
28. The Big Knife (1955)
Not Rated | 111 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Hollywood actor Charles Castle is pressured by his studio boss into a criminal cover-up to protect his valuable career.
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Wendell Corey, Jean Hagen
Votes: 4,202
29. A Woman's Face (1941)
Passed | 106 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
A female blackmailer with a disfiguring facial scar meets a plastic surgeon who offers her the possibility of looking like a normal woman.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Joan Crawford, Melvyn Douglas, Conrad Veidt, Osa Massen
Votes: 3,778
30. The Narrow Margin (1952)
Approved | 71 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A woman planning to testify against the mob must be protected against potential assassins on the train trip from Chicago to Los Angeles.
Directors: Richard Fleischer, William Cameron Menzies | Stars: Charles McGraw, Marie Windsor, Jacqueline White, Gordon Gebert
Votes: 8,654
31. House of Bamboo (1955)
Approved | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Planted in a Tokyo crime syndicate, a U.S. Army Investigator attempts to probe the coinciding death of a fellow Army official.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Robert Ryan, Robert Stack, Shirley Yamaguchi, Cameron Mitchell
Votes: 4,093
32. Crossfire (1947)
Approved | 86 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A man is murdered, apparently by one of a group of demobilized soldiers he met in a bar. But which one? And why?
Director: Edward Dmytryk | Stars: Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame
Votes: 9,704 | Gross: $1.30M
33. Brute Force (1947)
Passed | 98 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
At a tough penitentiary, prisoner Joe Collins plans to rebel against Captain Munsey, the power-mad chief guard.
Director: Jules Dassin | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Charles Bickford, Yvonne De Carlo
Votes: 11,536
34. Clash by Night (1952)
Approved | 105 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
Mae Doyle comes back to her hometown a cynical woman. Her brother Joe fears that his love, fish cannery worker Peggy, may wind up like Mae. Mae marries Jerry and has a baby; she is happy but restless, drawn to Jerry's friend Earl.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Ryan, Paul Douglas, Marilyn Monroe
Votes: 7,356
35. Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Not Rated | 106 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
A doomed female hitchhiker pulls Mike Hammer into a deadly whirlpool of intrigue, revolving around a mysterious "great whatsit".
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart, Juano Hernandez
Votes: 22,080
36. The Strange One (1957)
Approved | 100 min | Drama, Film-Noir
Students faced with an ethical dilemma about the dehumanization associated with the tradition of hazing, at a military college in the Southern United States, take matters in their own hands.
Director: Jack Garfein | Stars: Ben Gazzara, Pat Hingle, Peter Mark Richman, Arthur Storch
Votes: 1,362
37. The Wrong Man (1956)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama, Film-Noir
In 1953, an innocent man named Christopher Emanuel "Manny" Balestrero is arrested after being mistaken for an armed robber.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Anthony Quayle, Harold J. Stone
Votes: 31,367
38. Criss Cross (1949)
Not Rated | 84 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An armored truck driver and his ex-wife conspire with a gang to have his own truck robbed on the route.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Yvonne De Carlo, Dan Duryea, Stephen McNally
Votes: 9,597
39. The Verdict (1946)
Approved | 86 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
After an innocent man is executed in a case for which he was not responsible, a Scotland Yard superintendent finds himself investigating the murder of his key witness.
Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Joan Lorring, George Coulouris
Votes: 2,829
40. Undercurrent (1946)
Passed | 116 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
Middle-aged bride Ann Hamilton soon begins to suspect that her charming husband is really a psychotic who plans to murder her.
Director: Vincente Minnelli | Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Robert Taylor, Robert Mitchum, Edmund Gwenn
Votes: 3,535
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