Pickup on South Street (1953)

Pickup on South Street (1953)

Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark), an amoral three-time-looser, picks the purse of Candy (Jean Peters), a crime that is witnessed by several government agents. They’ve been watching her because, without her knowing it, she’s carrying government secrets for her traitorous ex-boyfriend, Joey (Richard Kiley). Now both the cops and Candy use informant Moe (Thelma Ritter) to

Alias Nick Beal (1949)

Alias Nick Beal (1949)

Overly pure politician Joseph Foster (Thomas Mitchell) says out loud that he’d sell his soul to convict a mob boss. Nick Beal (Ray Milland) appears at that moment with the needed information. Foster begins to fall under Beal’s influence. Beal brings drunken actress Donna Allen (Audrey Totter) in to romance Foster, and gangster Frankie Faulkner

Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

Sleazy press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) survives by getting cruel, dictatorial J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) to mention his clients in his column. Hunsecker makes and destroys lives and careers on a whim. Outside of his own power, the only thing Hunsecker cares about is his sister (Susan Harrison), and he wants to keep her

Harper (1966)

Harper (1966)

Private detective Lew Harper (Paul Newman) is hired by rich invalid Mrs. Sampson (Lauren Bacall) to find her degenerate and neurotic husband who disappeared a day ago. Helping, or hindering, his investigation is Sampson’s spoiled daughter Miranda (Pamela Tiffin), the family pilot (Robert Wagner), and Sampson’s lawyer (Arthur Hill). The trail passes by an aging

Rage in Heaven (1941)

Rage in Heaven (1941)

Philip Monrell (Robert Montgomery) is the charming son of a wealthy steel family and good friends with the good natured playboy Ward Andrews (George Sanders). Well, that’s how it appears. Actually Philip is a paranoid psychopath who is jealous of Ward and recently escaped from an insane asylum. The pair visits Philip’s sickly mother who

Out of the Past (1947)

Out of the Past (1947)

Jeff (Robert Mitchum) runs a gas station in a small town and is dating the local good girl. His life is interrupted when a gangster’s hit-man shows up to tell him that his boss, Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas), wants to see him. Jeff used to be a detective, hired by Whit to find his mistress,

Murder, My Sweet (1944)

Murder, My Sweet (1944)

Private detective Philip Marlowe (Dick Powell) is hired by dim-witted, hulking, ex-con Moose (Mike Mazurki) to find “his Velma.” He’s also hired for a one night body guard job that ends up with his client dead, the killing somehow connected to a stolen jade necklace belonging to the Grayle family: ingénue daughter Ann (Anne Shirley),

Basic Instinct (1992)

Basic Instinct (1992)

Nick, a troubled policeman (Michael Douglas), becomes the mental and physical plaything of rich, educated, bisexual partier, Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone), a suspect in an ice pick murder.  His simple partner (George Dzundza) and ex-lover, psychologist Dr. Beth Garner (Jeanne Tripplehorn), try to help him, but he falls deeper and deeper into addiction and Catherine’s

The Big Sleep (1978)

The Big Sleep (1978)

In London, General Sternwood (James Stewart) hires American expatriate detective Philip Marlowe (Robert Mitchum) to deal with blackmail threats. However, what he really wants is for Marlowe to uncover what happened to his missing son-in-law.  Marlowe finds that both the blackmail and the disappearance are tied up with Sternwood’s wild daughters, Charlotte (Sarah Miles) and Camilla (Candy

Bitter Moon (1992)

Bitter Moon (1992)

Stuffy, British couple Fiona and Nigel Dobson (Kristin Scott Thomas, Hugh Grant) take a cruise to India in an attempt to bring some magic to their overly comfortable marriage.  On board they meet sexy, French, femme fatale, Mimi (Emmanuelle Seigner), and her obnoxious, crippled, American husband, Oscar (Peter Coyote), who pick Nigel to hear the

Blood Simple (1984)

Blood Simple (1984)

Abby (Frances McDormand) has an affair with Ray (John Getz) to distract herself from her life with Marty (Dan Hedaya), who is also Ray’s boss.  Marty has hired a detective (M. Emmet Walsh) to watch his wife.  With the best of these four people a cheat and liar, and the worst an amoral murderer and

Double Indemnity (1973)

Double Indemnity (1973)

Insurance salesman Walter Neff (Richard Crenna) is seduced by housewife Phyllis Dietrickson (Samantha Eggar) into killing her husband. Walter falsifies an accident policy for the husband that has a double indemnity clause: it pays double if the insured dies in a train accident. Their one foreseeable problem is Barton Keyes (Lee J. Cobb), a crack insurance investigator