This Gun for Hire (1942)

This Gun for Hire (1942)

[7] Alan Ladd (Shane) made his breakthrough performance in this unusually dark and violent film noir tale co-starring Veronica Lake and Robert Preston. Ladd plays a hit man hunting down a client (The Lodger's Laird Cregar) who double-crossed him. Lake…
The Lady Gambles (1949)

The Lady Gambles (1949)

[5] Barbara Stanwyck catches the gambling bug something fierce in this melodramatic film co-starring Robert Preston as her worried husband. Stanwyck dips her toes in a Las Vegas casino during a vacation and quickly falls under the spell of craps…
Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

[10] In this darkly comic noir masterpiece from Billy Wilder, a struggling Hollywood screenwriter (William Holden) moves in with a delusional silent film star named Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) who wants him to write the script for her big comeback.…
Invisible Stripes (1939)

Invisible Stripes (1939)

[7] George Raft, Humphrey Bogart, and William Holden star in this better-than-average gangster flick. Raft and Bogart play convicts just released from prison. Raft reunites with his mother (Flora Robson) and younger brother (Holden) and tries to start a clean,…
Touch of Evil (1958)

Touch of Evil (1958)

[8] Writer/director Orson Welles also co-stars in his adaptation of Whit Masterson's novel Badge of Evil, a sinister late-era film noir thriller set at the U.S.-Mexican border. Charlton Heston plays a Mexican narcotics officer who spars with Welles's corrupt American…
Dead End (1937)

Dead End (1937)

[8] Humphrey Bogart's star was on the rise when he appeared in this ensemble drama based on a popular Broadway play by Sidney Kingsley. Bogart plays a murderous gangster who returns to his riverside slum in New York City after…
The Dark Past (1948)

The Dark Past (1948)

[4] William Holden and Lee J. Cobb, who previously co-starred in Golden Boy, headline this snoozy bit of Freudian psychological propaganda. Holden plays an escaped convict who kills the warden before leading his getaway gang to a rural home where…
Fury (1936)

Fury (1936)

[8] In director Fritz Lang's first English-language film, Spencer Tracy stars as a man nearly lynched and presumed dead for a crime he didn't commit. His grieving fiancée, played by Sylvia Sidney, soon learns he's not only still alive, but…
Jeopardy (1953)

Jeopardy (1953)

[6] Barbara Stanwyck stars in this intimate thriller from director John Sturges (The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven) about a woman who is kidnapped by an escaped convict (Ralph Meeker) while trying to find help for her husband. While the…
Hollywoodland (2006)

Hollywoodland (2006)

[8] Adrien Brody (The Pianist, The Thin Red Line) plays a '50s Hollywood detective investigating the mysterious death of actor George Reeves, played by Ben Affleck (Gone Girl, The Town). Hollywoodland is based on the true story of Reeves, who…