17 Film Noir Movies - The Tyranny of Neighbors: Small-Town Noir
This film noir movies are mentioned in Chapter 4 of Imogen Sara Smith's excellent film noir book. It is entitled IN LONELY PLACES: Film Noir Beyond the City.
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17 titles
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsTeresa WrightJoseph CottenMacdonald CareyA teenage girl, overjoyed when her favorite uncle comes to visit the family in their quiet California town, slowly begins to suspect that he is in fact the "Merry Widow" killer sought by the authorities.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsHenry FondaVera MilesAnthony QuayleIn 1953, an innocent man named Christopher Emanuel "Manny" Balestrero is arrested after being mistaken for an armed robber.
- DirectorOrson WellesStarsOrson WellesEdward G. RobinsonLoretta YoungAn investigator from the War Crimes Commission travels to Connecticut to find an infamous Nazi.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsHumphrey BogartFredric MarchArthur KennedyThree escaped convicts move in on and terrorize a suburban household.
- DirectorCy EndfieldStarsFrank LovejoyKathleen RyanRichard CarlsonA man who is down on his luck falls in with a criminal.
- DirectorStuart HeislerStarsGinger RogersRonald ReaganDoris DayMarsha Mitchell, a traveling dress model, stops in a southern town to see her sister who has married a Ku Klux Klansman. Marsha witnesses the KKK commit a murder and helps District Attorney Burt Rainey bring the criminals to justice.
- DirectorLeo C. PopkinRussell RouseStarsGwendolyn LasterRichard RoberMaidie NormanA small, racially-mixed American town succumbs to violence and utter mayhem after a white man suspected of kidnapping a missing black girl is released by the white authority.
- DirectorJoseph LoseyStarsMacdonald CareyGail RussellJohnny SandsA newspaper editor in a small agricultural town finds himself going against the people in the town when he gets involved in the plight of the area's fruit pickers, who are mostly Mexican.
- DirectorPhil KarlsonStarsJohn McIntireRichard KileyKathryn GrantA crime-busting lawyer and his initially reluctant attorney father take on the forces that run gambling and prostitution in their small Southern town.
- DirectorRobert WiseStarsJohn ForsytheJoan CamdenHarold J. KennedyA small town newspaperman's investigation into a local bookie operation turns up a web of organized crime.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsJoan CrawfordZachary ScottSydney GreenstreetA corrupt small town sheriff manipulates local candidates to the state legislature but he eventually comes into conflict with a visiting carnival dancer.
- DirectorJack ArnoldStarsJeff ChandlerJeanne CrainJack CarsonAfter top lawyer James Blane gets an acquittal for a man who killed another man for sexually roughing up his trophy wife, the murderous town sheriff frames him for bribing a juror in the case.
- DirectorRichard FleischerStarsVictor MatureRichard EganStephen McNallyThree hoodlums carefully case a small town while planning to rob the bank on the upcoming Saturday. On Saturday, things turn violent and deadly.
- DirectorMichael GordonStarsIda LupinoStephen McNallyHoward DuffAfter her father is killed in an accident, mill heiress Deborah Chandler marries the plant manager, Selden Clark, but his motives are suspicious.
- DirectorSamuel FullerStarsConstance TowersAnthony EisleyMichael DanteA former prostitute relocates to a buttoned-down suburb, determined to fit in with mainstream society. But perverse secrets simmer beneath the wholesome surface.
- DirectorFrank BorzageStarsDane ClarkGail RussellEthel BarrymoreDanny is despised by his schoolmates because his father was accused of killing another man and sentenced to death.
- DirectorLewis MilestoneStarsBarbara StanwyckVan HeflinLizabeth ScottA man is reunited with his childhood friend and her husband who believes he knows the truth about the death of her rich aunt years earlier.