It doesn’t have to be a dark and stormy night for you to settle in with a film noir classic (but it sure does help!)
Noir and mystery films allow viewers to witness the dark side of life without having to experience it for themselves first hand — and living vicariously through this often surprising and tragic stories can often be a compelling movie experience.
Right now, our Fall Film Noir Sale helps you uncover great deals on milestone mysteries spanning the history of Hollywood. Here’s a look at some featured titles that will bring some shocks and suspense into your movie viewing!
On the lam during Prohibition, rumrunners Frankie Madison (Burt Lancaster) and Noll Turner (Kirk Douglas) agreed to split their gains 50-50, no matter what. The cops got Frankie, and after 14 years in stir, he showed up on the doorstep of his partner’s prosperous nightspot, looking for his cut. Noll wants out of the bargain…and his escape clause involves a frame-up for murder. Long-demanded noir tale, the first Lancaster-Douglas pairing, co-stars Lizabeth Scott, Wendell Corey, Marc Lawrence.
Before “Fatal Attraction,” there was this superb suspenser that marked Clint Eastwood’s directorial debut. Eastwood plays Dave Garver, a late-night California DJ who has a romantic fling with devoted listener Evelyn Draper (Jessica Walter). But when Garver attempts to end the affair, the unbalanced Evelyn’s obsession with him takes a dangerous and deadly turn. With Donna Mills, John Larch.
Classic suspense thriller stars Barbara Stanwyck in her Oscar-nominated role as Leona Stevenson, a bedridden woman who accidentally hears a murder being planned over the telephone. And as she slowly begins to realize that she is the intended victim, Leona must try and stop the plot before she’s disconnected…permanently. With Burt Lancaster, Ann Richards, Wendell Corey.
Director Roman Polanski and screenwriter Robert Towne’s marvelous blend of ’40s film noir mystery and ’70s sexual tensions stars Jack Nicholson as Jake Gittes, an L.A. private eye who sticks his nose where it doesn’t belong one time too many. Hired for what he believes to be a routine case involving a cheating husband, Jake is quickly caught up in a dangerous web of shady business dealings and corrupt politics. Faye Dunaway, John Huston, John Hillerman co-star.
When an old school chum of Watson (Nigel Bruce) is slain–seemingly over his possession of one of three innocuous, cheaply-made music boxes–Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) goes on a peril-filled pursuit of the remaining knickknacks, and strives to crack their lethal secret. The last of the fourteen Rathbone-Bruce Holmes entries also stars Patricia Morison, Edmund Breon, Frederick Worlock.
Olivia de Havilland turns in a pair of riveting performances as twin sisters─one good, the other evil─who undergo examinations from psychologist Lew Ayres (who becomes the object of both women’s affections) to determine who may have been responsible for the murder of a prominent physician. Robert Siodmak (“The Spiral Staircase”) helms this gripping, noir-flavored drama.
One of the final films to come from the first film noir cycle, Robert Wise’s crime thriller/race drama follows nightclub singer Johnny Ingram (Harry Belafonte), bigoted ex-con Earle Slater (Robert Ryan) and corrupt former cop Dave Burke (Ed Begley) as they try to rob an upstate New York bank, only to have the caper fall apart due to bad luck and Slater’s hatred of Ingram. With Gloria Grahame, Shelley Winters; look quickly for Wayne Rogers and Cicely Tyson.
John Garfield stars as Johnnie, a boxer who goes on the run wrongly believing he killed a man while drunk. Presumed dead, Johnnie hides out at Grandma Rafferty’s (May Robson) work farm for wayward boys (played by the Dead End Kids) where he steps back into the ring in order to help the kids raise money. But the crafty Detective Whelan (Claude Rains) is sure Johnnie is alive and is determined to bring him in. Gloria Dickson and Ann Sheridan co-star.
After inheriting $20,000, a fortune-seeking adventurer in South Africa books passage on a boat for America in order to travel to Texas and claim his loot. During his journey, he falls in love with a sultry singer while encountering a seedy lawyer and suffering through an attempt on his life. Robert Lowery, Phyllis Brooks, Charles Arnt star.
Striking film noir classic stars Ray Milland as a crime magazine editor who has a liaison with a beautiful woman who turns out to be the mistress of his boss, tyrannical publisher Charles Laughton. When a jealous Laughton murders the woman, he sets out to frame the “other man” for the crime and assigns the job of finding him to Milland. Rita Johnson, George Macready, and Elsa Lanchester also star in this suspenser that inspired 1987’s “No Way Out.”
Let us know what your favorite film noir movies are in the comments below, and be sure to check out at the titles included in our Fall Film Noir Sale here!