26 Film Noir movies from the WAR NOIR PERIOD
Daniel M. Hodges has written an excellent analysis of film noir movies released during World War II. He has specific criteria that must be meet: released between 1940 and 1944. The article is entitled "The Rise and Fall of the War Noir. It can be found in FILM NOIR Reader 4. These movies are listed by release date. Within a given year, the movies are listed alphabetically. 1944 was the year for the most frequent releases.
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26 titles
- DirectorBen HechtLee GarmesStarsDouglas Fairbanks Jr.Rita HayworthThomas MitchellA cuckolded embezzler on the verge of suicide is helped by a tout, an alcoholic playwright, and a pick-up girl to reimburse the money with a gambling sting.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsBette DavisHerbert MarshallJames StephensonThe wife of a rubber plantation administrator shoots a man to death and claims it was self-defense, but a letter written in her own hand may prove her undoing.
- DirectorBoris IngsterStarsPeter LorreJohn McGuireMargaret TallichetAn 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.
- DirectorRaoul WalshStarsGeorge RaftHumphrey BogartAnn SheridanWhen one of two truck-driving brothers loses an arm, they both join a transport company where the other is falsely charged as an accessory in the murder of the owner.
- DirectorGeorge CukorStarsJoan CrawfordMelvyn DouglasConrad VeidtA female blackmailer with a disfiguring facial scar meets a plastic surgeon who offers her the possibility of looking like a normal woman.
- DirectorH. Bruce HumberstoneStarsBetty GrableVictor MatureCarole LandisWhy is Inspector Ed Cornell trying to railroad Frankie Christopher for the murder of model Vicky Lynn?
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsHumphrey BogartMary AstorGladys GeorgeSan Francisco private detective Sam Spade takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar and their quest for a priceless statuette, with the stakes rising after his partner is murdered.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsWalter PidgeonJoan BennettGeorge SandersBritish hunter Thorndike vacationing in Bavaria has Hitler in his gun sight. He is captured, beaten, left for dead, and escapes back to London where he is hounded by German agents and aided by a young woman.
- DirectorAnatole LitvakStarsIda LupinoJohn GarfieldThomas MitchellA Brooklyn pier racketeer bullies boat-owners into paying protection money but two fed-up fishermen decide to eliminate the gangster themselves rather than complain to the police.
- DirectorW.S. Van DykeRobert B. SinclairRichard ThorpeStarsRobert MontgomeryIngrid BergmanGeorge SandersRobert Montgomery and George Sanders team-up to play against type in this probing psychological thriller that features Ingrid Bergman as the object of their obsessions.
- DirectorJosef von SternbergStarsGene TierneyWalter HustonVictor MatureIn Shanghai, dragon lady 'Mother' Gin Sling operates a gambling house for wealthy patrons but she clashes with influential land developer Sir Guy Charteris who wants to put her out of business.
- DirectorJack HivelyStarsBurgess MeredithClaire TrevorLouise PlattAfter an accident, a New York man with amnesia finds out the ugly truth about his real identity and past by interacting with people who seem to know him well.
- DirectorStuart HeislerStarsAlan LaddVeronica LakeBrian DonlevyA crooked politician finds himself being accused of murder by a gangster from whom he refused help during a re-election campaign.
- DirectorFrank TuttleStarsAlan LaddVeronica LakeRobert PrestonWhen 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.
- DirectorRichard WallaceStarsJohn GarfieldMaureen O'HaraWalter SlezakIn 1940, an American former Republican prisoner during the Spanish Civil War, John McKittrick, is determined to find the killer of NYPD Lieutenant Louie Lepetino, who had helped him escape.
- DirectorNorman FosterOrson WellesStarsOrson WellesJoseph CottenDolores Del RíoAn American ballistics expert in Turkey finds himself targeted by German agents. Safe passage home by ship is arranged for him, but he soon discovers that his pursuers are also on board.
- 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.
- DirectorAndré De TothStarsMerle OberonFranchot ToneThomas MitchellA woman returns to the USA after a German U-boat sank her ship, and finds out that someone wants to kill her for her inheritance.
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsFred MacMurrayBarbara StanwyckEdward G. RobinsonA Los Angeles insurance representative lets an alluring housewife seduce him into a scheme of insurance fraud and murder that arouses the suspicion of his colleague, an insurance investigator.
- DirectorJacques TourneurStarsHedy LamarrGeorge BrentPaul LukasIn 1903, a doctor suspects murder in the gothic Bederaux family.
- DirectorGeorge CukorStarsCharles BoyerIngrid BergmanJoseph CottenTen years after her aunt was murdered in their London home, a woman returns from Italy in the 1880s to resume residence with her new husband. His obsessive interest in the home rises from a secret that may require driving his wife insane.
- DirectorOtto PremingerRouben MamoulianStarsGene TierneyDana AndrewsClifton WebbA police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he is investigating.
- DirectorJean NegulescoStarsPeter LorreSydney GreenstreetZachary ScottMystery writer Cornelius Leyden becomes intrigued after the murdered body of a vicious career criminal washes up in the Bosphorus.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsRay MillandMarjorie ReynoldsCarl EsmondStephen 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.
- DirectorWilliam CastleStarsRobert MitchumKim HunterDean JaggerA naive small-town girl comes to New York City to meet her husband, and discovers that he may be a murderer.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsEdward G. RobinsonJoan BennettRaymond MasseyWhen a conservative middle aged professor engages in a relationship with a femme fatale, he's plunged into a nightmarish world of blackmail and murder.