More noirs
Framed - Glenn Ford is a down on his luck engineer who gets mixed up with a femme fatale that means him no good. Pretty middling
The Garment Jungle - now this is top notch. A pro-union noir staffing Lee J Cobb. Cobb is the co-owner of a garment business who has got the edge by paying gangsters to keep the union out. His son, returning from Korea, enters the business and stats to sympathise with the union. Surprised that this is not better known, looks good, has some good performances, is tight but develops its characters.
Between Midnight and Dawn - The story of two uniformed officers and their relationship with a woman. Not in the same quality as the garment jungle but a good solid b-noir, packing plenty into 90 minutes of action.
Johnny O’Clock - title character is part of owner of a gambling joint, surrounding more on his wits than violence, he’s got problems with a crooked cop, his gangsters partners wife and that he’s fallen for sister of a murder victim. Lee J Cobb turns up in this one too.
Kiss the Blood of My Hands - set in England (with some cor’blimey guvenor’s for good measure). Burt Lancaster is a Canadian solider who’s wartime experiences have left him with a filthy temper that gets him into trouble. Can Joan Fontaine get him onto the straight and narrow? Good, but despite the a-list cast it is not as good as some b-noirs
Sirocco - Humphrey Bogart is making a living selling arms to the rebels in post WWI Syria. Lee J Cobb (again) is the French intelligence officer trying to track him down and hoping to avert a blood bath. There’s a woman who also comes between them (of course). At the start you could mistake this for a Casablanca in the middle east, but it Bogarts character here has as much Queeg as Rick. The film drags a little, it lacks that tight drive that the best noir’s have. Bogart and Cobb are the selling points.
The Harder they Fall - This time Bogart is a former boxing writer who down on his luck takes a job from Roy Steiger as a PR man promoting a pretty useless fighter, in a long game to make some money. Bogart does that conflicted self-disgust he does so well and while Steiger is Steiger he’s not as scene chewing as he sometimes can be. Not in first class but decent enough
Naked Alibi - Sterling Hayden is a police chief sacked for intimidating a suspect he believes he has killed his officers, but he is not going to let that stop him. Even for a noir this has a preposterous plot, I’m not sure if Gene Barry, as the antagonist, is a lunatic or they just could not really be bothered to develop his motives. Still Hayden and Gloria Grahame are both excellent and make it worthwhile
And three British "noirs"
The Dark Man - Natasha Parry is a witness to a murder and the murderer is determined to hunt her down and close down the leads (seeing as she saw virtually nothing, he’d be better off just leaving her be, but then there’d be now film). Some nice scenes of windswept beaches but the lead actor is band and despite being short it could lose 15 minutes easily.
The Clouded Yellow - Much better, Jean Simmons is a disturbed young girl living with her aunt and uncle who is accused of murder. Luckily she has Trevor Howard an ex-spy who has fallen in love with her to help her. Tighter than The Dark Man, it also benefits from two good leads and some nice shots of Newcastle and the Lake District.
Footsteps in the Fog - Not really a noir, more a period thriller, with Jean Simmons as a maid ,but with her eye on being more, who discovers and covers for her master’s killing of his wife. There is then a psychological game between the two. Passable.
