FILM-NOIR Watchlist: 1949
Films I Want to Watch.
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- DirectorAlfred ZeislerStarsMartha VickersJohn BealHillary BrookeA promising young composer is tempted away from his devoted wife by a fortune-seeking woman who cares more for his prospects than for him.
- DirectorWilliam BerkeStarsRobert LoweryAnne GwynneEdward BrophyAn arson investigator goes undercover to break up a ring that sets fires in order to collect the insurance.
- DirectorHarry KellerStarsRobert RockwellDorothy PatrickGerald MohrNewly arrived in a Western city, Kansan Gloria Dell waits at the train station to meet Larry Goodrich, the fiance' she has corresponded with, but never met. When he doesn't arrive, Mrs. Henley from the Women's Welfare League advises her to look for him at the address he has given her. Gloria walks to the nearby address, only to find a bar where the bartender says an employee, Larry Richards, was arrested earlier that day for bigamy. Gloria decides to follow the bartender's advice and sell her engagement ring to pay for a ticket home. She goes to a jeweler named Charles Winters, who offers her $1,000 for the ring, much more than it is worth. After Gloria leaves with the money, Winters quickly burns the sales receipt, ransacks the shop and phones the police to report that his shop has been robbed. When Gloria returns to the train station, an investigator is waiting to arrest her. At the police station, Gloria is placed in jail after they find the money Winters had given her for the ring. A short time later, Winters pays off a three-hundred dollar debt to mob boss Joe Sapelli, stating that he received the money as payment from his insurance company for the robbery. Joe suspects that Winters has framed Gloria, so he decides to post her $10,000 bail. Before she is discharged, District Attorney James Deveron insists she help him break up Joe's syndicate, threatening to tell her family about the charges if she refuses. Deveron gives her the money that Joe has left for her, but when she meets Joe for dinner that evening, she returns it and asks him for a job instead. Later, when the vice squad raids Joe's bookmaking operation, some of his men are arrested, but Joe, who had been forewarned by the corrupt Lt. Metzger and Capt. E. V. Roberts. Later, Joe takes Gloria to his restaurant, where they meet Metzger and Roberts. That evening, Joe takes Gloria to his mother's house, where he shows her the record book that Deveron says he needs for a conviction. Joe shows her the page noting that Winters' debt has been paid, saying that it proves her innocence. That evening, Joe takes Gloria for a flight aboard his private plane, and during the trip, he proposes, promising to retire from his life of crime if she accepts. Stunned, Gloria asks for a few days to think it over, but agrees to wear his ring in the meantime. She goes to Deveron and says she will no longer help him, but Metzger and Roberts have already delivered the stolen record book to Deveron. When Joe realizes his book is gone, Gloria confesses her involvement with Deveron. Although she explains she did not take the book, Joe hits her in the face and leaves. Moments later, Gloria overhears Metzger ordering his men to kill Joe and grabs a gun, asking Joe's mother to hold it while she goes to the airport to warn Joe. Deveron, who has learned of Metzger's and Roberts' involvement with Joe, follows them to the airport and is fired upon when he tries to arrest them. Gloria arrives just as Joe and his henchman Benny take off, but their plane crashes due to lack of fuel. Gloria pleads with Joe, saying she will wait for him, but he arranges for her to return to Kansas. As Gloria boards the train, Joe says goodbye, but when she returns his ring, Joe is convinced of her love and asks her to stay.
- DirectorJoseph LernerStarsDean JaggerJohn CarradineHarry LandersA Treasury Department agent is murdered. His best friend, a fellow agent, investigates and stumbles into a scheme involving smuggling and murder.
- DirectorLewis AllenStarsAlan LaddDonna ReedJune HavocOn Chicago's South Side reporter Ed Adams finds the body of a dead girl. Her address book leads to a host of names of men frightened by her death but claiming never to have known her. Adams comes to know quite a lot, dangerously so.
- DirectorSeymour FriedmanStarsHurd HatfieldJean WillesTom PowersIn San Francisco's Chinatown, a Chinese-speaking Caucasian criminal robs an antiquities shop and murders the owners, leaving the police with one clue, the killer's voice heard on the phone by a switchboard-operator.
- DirectorRichard FleischerStarsBill WilliamsBarbara HaleRichard QuineJim Fletcher, waking up from a coma, finds he is to be given a court martial for treason and charged with informing on fellow inmates in a Japanese prison camp during WWII. Escaping from the hospital he tries to clear himself by enlisting the aid of Martha Gregory, widow of a service buddy he was accused of informing on. Helped also by Ted Niles, a surviving fellow prisoner, he gets closer to finding the answers he needs, and becomes ensnared in a grandiose scheme involving his Japanese ex-prison guard, $10,000,000 of US currency forged by the Japanese and a burgeoning crime network poised to wreak havoc throughout southern California.
- DirectorAlfred E. GreenStarsWilliam BendixDennis O'KeefeBarbara BrittonAn insurance company investigator goes to a small town to probe into a case of supposed suicide. The natives are not very cooperative and some turn hostile, leading to suspicion of foul play.
- DirectorRobert FloreyStarsJohn PayneSonny TuftsEllen DrewWar hero recovers from amnesia and is confronted by his criminal past.
- DirectorTed TetzlaffStarsGeorge RaftElla RainesPat O'BrienLA ex-cop Vince Kane is a bail-bondsman who bails out the suspect of a securities bonds robbery but his client disappears, prompting Vince to investigate.
- DirectorW. Merle ConnellStarsLita GreyWill CharlesWilliam ThomasonThe head of an illegal drug ring uses a women's health spa as a front for his sleeping-pill racket.
- DirectorRichard L. BareStarsVirginia MayoZachary ScottDorothy MaloneMob attorney Walter Colby is manipulated by showgirl Flaxy Martin into taking the rap for a murder committed by mobster Hap Richie's goons but he escapes and tries to get revenge.
- DirectorPhilip FordStarsLloyd BridgesLorna GrayRay CollinsHannah Kelly and Edie Hanson vie for the attentions of the naive attorney George Browning. Browning wises up in a hurry when he takes on a gang of jewel thieves. This gang is headed by Philip J. Fogerty and his sinister chief henchman Evans.
- DirectorFrederick De CordovaStarsHoward DuffMärta TorénGeorge BrentA former pilot goes undercover to help break up a smuggling ring.
- DirectorFletcher MarkleStarsFranchot ToneJean WallaceMyron McCormickNew York Assistant District Attorney Howard Malloy investigates a series of murders and uncovers an extremist group.
- DirectorTed TetzlaffStarsGeorge RaftNina FochGeorge MacreadyTreasury Department officials recruit a florist (Raft) to lead them to a wanted criminal (Macready); but once he gets too close, he finds he's the hunted.
- DirectorWillis GoldbeckStarsWilliam BendixStanley ClementsHoagy CarmichaelYoung street tough sent to a reform farm is torn between friends from his past and those who are trying to help him change his life.
- DirectorWilliam CastleStarsHoward DuffShelley WintersDan DuryeaUS Treasury agent George Morton persuades convicted criminal Johnny Evans to help him destroy a drug smuggling ring in exchange for early parole.
- DirectorElmer CliftonStarsMilburn StoneKatherine DeMillePaul GuilfoyleA crooked lawyer blackmails a client into a murder plot against his wife.
- DirectorMichael GordonStarsBarbara StanwyckRobert PrestonStephen McNallyA desperate husband tries to find help for his wife suffering from addictive gambling.
- DirectorBurgess MeredithIrving AllenCharles LaughtonStarsCharles LaughtonFranchot ToneBurgess MeredithFrench police inspector Maigret investigates the murder of a rich Paris widow and ends up chasing the killer up the Eiffel Tower's girders.
- DirectorLewis R. FosterStarsDan DuryeaDorothy LamourSterling HaydenThe secretary to a psychiatrist finds herself caught up in the murder of a patient's wife and realizes that her life is also in danger.
- DirectorAbby BerlinStarsMarsha HuntJohn LitelJune VincentPolice detective Mary Ryan is given an assignment to break up a gang of jewel thieves and fences. She, using an alias as a convict, is placed in the cell with a suspected member of the gang. Upon release she becomes a gang member but the gang leader is suspicious of her.
- DirectorGeorge BlairStarsAudrey LongWarren DouglasJeff DonnellA young postman becomes involved in the theft of rare stamps featuring inverted images of the Statue of Liberty. Along the way he encounters attractive criminal Clara Kelso, double-crossing gang members, and Post Office Inspectors.
- DirectorRoy Del RuthStarsGeorge RaftVirginia MayoGene LockhartThe former employee of a trucking company, currently in prison for embezzlement, plans his eventual revenge against his former boss.
- DirectorR.G. SpringsteenStarsRobert RockwellHanna Axmann-RezzoriBetty Lou GersonAn ex-GI becomes involved with the American Communist party, and falls in love with his instructor. The pair quickly realise their mistake, when they see how party leaders handle a member who questioned the party's principles. When they try to leave, they're marked for assassination and hunted by the party killers.
- DirectorWilliam BerkeStarsRichard TravisPamela BlakeRochelle HudsonFBI Agent Steve Blair finds himself caught up in Cold War espionage when he boards a plane heading west. Some sensitive papers have disappeared and Steve must keep tabs on a suspect without giving himself away.
- DirectorMichael PowellEmeric PressburgerStarsDavid FarrarJack HawkinsMichael GoughAs the Germans drop explosive booby-traps on Britain in 1943, the embittered expert who'll have to disarm them fights a private battle with alcohol.
- DirectorCrane WilburStarsJune HavocJohn RussellDorothy HartAfter gang leader Rick is killed, his wife Molly takes over his gang but a robbery goes wrong and Molly finds herself in jail where she undergoes a personal transformation.
- DirectorWill PriceStarsMartha ScottJeffrey LynnHarry MorganIn order to cash-in a life insurance policy, a failing business owner asks one of his employees, who has financial woes of his own, to aid him in disguising his suicide into a robbery-murder.
- DirectorChester ErskineStarsWilliam PowellShelley WintersMarsha HuntDuring a conference-trip to L.A., an academic runs into an old-flame and into trouble with the police when she disappears, presumed murdered.
- DirectorFelix E. FeistStarsMichael O'SheaVirginia GreyCharles McGrawVicious hood 'Red' Kluger escapes from Folsom State Prison and follows through on his threats to the detective who arrested him and the D.A. who convicted him.
- DirectorStuart HeislerStarsHumphrey BogartAlexander KnoxFlorence MarlyAn American returns to Tokyo try to pick up threads of his pre-WW2 life there, but finds himself squeezed between criminals and the authorities.
- DirectorRichard FleischerStarsLloyd BridgesBarbara PaytonJohn HoytSecret Service agents make a deal with a counterfeiting inmate to be released on early parole if he will help them recover some bogus moneymaking plates, but he plans to double cross them.
- DirectorWilliam BerkeStarsGlenn LanganAdele JergensSteve BrodieThis modern tale borrows from an old story in establishing Langan, who works on a ship that docks in San Francisco, as a descendant of the Count of Monte Cristo. Crooked Lawyer Brodie sets up a scheme to get at the treasure of Langan's famed ancestor, and using the beautiful blonde Jergens, tries to lure Langan into a trap. Langan proves worthy of his heritage, using a gun instead of a sword, and wins legitimately both his forturne and Jergens.
- DirectorJoseph H. LewisStarsGlenn FordNina FochJames WhitmoreTreasury Department agent Frank Warren takes on the case of a mob leader who has evaded paying taxes on his ill-gotten gains.
- DirectorWilliam CastleStarsScott BradyJohn RussellDorothy HartA paroled convict is framed for murder and must clear himself before the police catch him.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsJennifer JonesJohn GarfieldPedro ArmendárizIn 1930's Cuba, a bank clerk and an American mercenary assist a revolutionary group in a plan to kill the President but the Cuban Secret Police chief and the dictator's military complicate the plan's execution.
- DirectorIrving PichelStarsLaraine DayDane ClarkFranchot ToneJane Bandle has recently married, but Bill, her husband's brother, tries to wreck her marriage because Jane rejected his sexual advances before her marriage.
- DirectorRobert StevensonStarsRobert RyanLaraine DayJohn AgarSuccessful, newly married Brad Collins once belonged to the Communist Party of the USA, and now the Party will stop at nothing to use him.
- DirectorNicholas RayStarsMaureen O'HaraMelvyn DouglasGloria GrahameFailed singer Marian Washburn confesses she shot her friend, successful singer Susan Caldwell, but her manager Luke Jordan and Detective Fowler doubt her story and cannot establish a reasonable motive.