Heart of Noir

22/08/2025

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Find yourself in film noir. Link in bio.

20/08/2025

15/08/2025

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Find yourself in film noir. Link in bio.

06/08/2025

Joseph H. Newman's 𝟩𝟣𝟣 𝘖𝘤𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘋𝘳𝘪𝘷e (1950) is where technology meets treachery in the underworld of illegal bookmaking. Edmond O’Brien stars as Mal Granger, a telephone tech turned mob kingpin whose rise is as entertaining as his inevitable fall.

https://heartofnoir.com/film/711-ocean-drive-1950/?utm_source=fb_page&utm_medium=Heart+of+Noir&utm_campaign=publer

Joseph H. Newman’s 711 Ocean Drive is a tale of technology and greed. In fact, with today’s breakthrough digital innovations and unprecedented Silicon Valley wealth creation, one could claim the film is more relevant to 21st century sensibilities than most noirs. The set-up: an ordinary telephon...

21/07/2025

A family man falls from grace in the arms of a shady lady in Vincent Sherman's outstanding 𝘕𝘰𝘳𝘢 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘴 (1947).

https://heartofnoir.com/film/nora-prentiss-1947/?utm_source=fb_page&utm_medium=Heart+of+Noir&utm_campaign=publer

“Nothing ever happens to your father,” says Dr. Talbot’s mother to her granddaughter at the start of Vincent Sherman’s Nora Prentiss; of course, this claim is thoroughly debunked once the action gets rolling in one of noir’s wildest stories. Popular pin-up girl Ann Sheridan shines in the t...

22/05/2025

Happy Birthday, Laurence Olivier. Seen here in one of his subtlest roles as Max De Winter in Hitchcock's Gothic noir masterwork, "Rebecca" (1940).

https://heartofnoir.com/film/rebecca-1940/

05/05/2025

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, let's take a moment to acknowledge Mexico's enormous contribution to the film noir cycle. For example, Emilio Fernández' "Salón México," a bleak yet lively Mexican noir from 1949.

A bleak film noir with a heart-breaking denouement, Emilio Fernández’ Salón México, elevated by the cinematography of Mexican legend Gabriel Figueroa, beautifully contrasts good and evil in a tale of two settings: the bright, pastoral boarding school where young and innocent Beatriz (Silvia Der...

01/04/2025

One of the most despicable villains in all of noir, Pinkie Brown (Richard Attenborough) infects "Brighton Rock" (1948) with all sorts of evil.

In John Boulting’s adaptation of Graham Greene’s Catholic-imbued crime novel, Brighton Rock, the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity find form in the naive Rose (Nancy Marsh), the soft-spoken seventeen-year-old who falls in love with the violent, selfish, undeserving Pinkie Brown (Ri...

18/03/2025

One of the only classic film noir performers still living, Jacqueline White's final -- and most famous -- role was with Charles McGraw in Richard Fleischer's "The Narrow Margin" (1952), pictured here. She retired from the industry to raise five children and is currently living in Houston, TX, at 102 years old.

02/03/2025

Charming, handsome, and just a little bit psychotic. Ray Danton plays a mental patient released too soon in Abner Biberman's "The Night Runner" (1957).

In the 1950’s, a combination of new financial incentives (Medicaid, Medicare) for community-based healthcare, the introduction of antipsychotic medications, and growing exposure of abusive mental hospital conditions started the deinstitutionalization process through which American mental hospitals...

02/02/2025

An entertaining whodunit with a genuinely surprising ending from a Poverty Row Studio. And a bonus: Helen Walker!

1946's "Murder in the Music Hall" is not to be missed.

For a Poverty Row studio, Republic Pictures often punched above its weight, giving it their all despite miniscule budgets and second (or third) tier talent, producing well-rounded entertainments combining crime, suspense, and big musical numbers, packaged in occasional light comedy like a candy wrap...