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Film Noir
The AU Library Media Services collection includes many titles that have been labelled noir, though for the sake of brevity and research interests, the titles on this list are restricted to American films of the classic period ending in 1955.
See Neo-Noir filmogrphy for later titles.
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Kansas City confidential. 1952, 1 videodisc (99 min.). With three thugs as accomplices, disgruntled ex-cop Tim Foster, masterminds a foolproof million dollar bank robbery. But he's also hatched a scheme to double-cross his accomplices and frame an innocent man for the crime. Hapless truck driver, Joe Rolfe, becomes caught in Foster's corrupt plan. In order to set things right, Rolfe tries to clear his own name and seek vengeance on the bad guys, all while falling in love with Foster's daughter. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 8297
Key Largo. 1948. (101 min.). A disillusioned returning World War II veteran has lost the will to fight ... until he arrives at a rundown hotel in Key Largo. There a mobster holes up against a raging storm, holding the veteran, the hotel owner and the owner's widowed daughter-in-law at gunpoint. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4679
Killer bait. 1949, 1 videodisc (ca. 100 min.). "A couple interrupts their bickering to find a bag of money in the back seat of their car. The husband wants to turn the apparently illicit cash into the authorities, but his money-hungry wife has a different idea-- and she'll do anything to realize it." --from container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 934
Killer that stalked New York, The / Two of a kind. 1950 / 1951. 1 videodisc (156 min.). The Killer That Stalked New York: After helping to smuggle diamonds into the country and getting burned by her lastest flame, Sheila Bennet decides to get even. But she unwittingly puts herself and millions and others at risk, requiring an all-out manhunt for a killer. Two of a kind: Brandy Kirby is on a manhunt to locate a lookalike for a missing heir imposter in an inheritance scam. She finds a willing participant in Lefty Farrell who was raised in an orphanage and trained in small-time rackets. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7311
Killer's kiss. 1955. (67 min.). A boxer in New York protects a nightclub dancer, not knowing that her boss is a gangster. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3275
Killers, The. 1946. (102 min., 94 min.). Melodramatic thriller based on the Hemingway story about two hit men who become curious about the life and death of the man they were hired to kill. DVD 3064
Kiss me deadly. 1955. (106 min.). A detective gives a ride to a half-naked girl, who is abruptly killed by thugs. Almost killed himself, the detective tries to solve the murder. Along the way, he is told to back off by the Feds, a bomb is placed in his car, a friend is killed, and he himself is beaten, drugged, and held hostage. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1058
Kiss of death. 1947. (99 min.). A crime melodrama that set a new standard for realism in Hollywood. Nick Bianco, is a two-bit crook who is trying to go straight. He has a wife and two daughters but nobody hires ex-cons. Nick cooperates with the assistant D.A. Louie DeAngelo to save his family. DeAngelo wants Nick to squeal on up-and-coming hood Tommy Udo, but that could be very unhealthy -- for Nick and his two young daughters. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5343
Knock on any door. 1949, 1 videodisc (ca. 99 min.). A crusading lawyer fights to save a juvenile delinquent charged with murder. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6561
Lady from Shanghai, The. 1948. (87 min.). A seaman becomes involved in the murderous intrigue of a crippled lawyer and his homicidal, frustrated wife. Culminates in a shoot-up in a hall of mirrors. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1713
Lady in the lake. 1947. (103 min.). Experiment by director/actor Robert Montgomery (Philip Marlow) who uses a "subjective camera" in which the eye of the camera substitutes for Marlow's first person narrative - thereby allowing the viewer to experience the action directly. Philip Marlow is hired to search for a publisher's missing wife. When a different woman's corpse turns up in a mountain lake, the waters get deeper with plots and cross plots, troublesome cops and L.A. lowlifes. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2410
Laura. 1944. (85 min.). The detective assigned to the murder case of a beautiful young woman named Laura is stirred by her portrait and adoring descriptions by her admirers, and finds he, too, is strangely under her spell. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1239
Leave her to heaven. 1945. (ca. 110 min.). An extremely possessive woman will do whatever it takes to keep her husband all to herself, even murder. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2399
Letter, The. 1940. (ca. 95 min.). A rubber plantation owner's wife kills a man in what seems to have been self-defense but a letter from her proves it to have been a crime of passion, and becomes an instrument of blackmail. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1820
Loan shark / Arson, Inc. 1952 / 1949. 1 videodisc (140 minutes, 2 seconds). Loan shark (80 minutes): A tough ex-con is hired by a factory owner and a union leader to help smash a loan-sharking mob preying on their employees. Arson, Inc. (61 minutes): A Bureau of Fire Investigation agent goes undercover to confront a ruthless arson ring that has left a trail of bodies, burned out buildings with various and sundry carnage! HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5215
Long night, The. 1947. (97 min.). Joe Adams, a factory worker pinned inside his third-floor apartment after gunning down a mysterious gentleman, reconstructs the events leading up to the shooting through an intricate series of flashbacks. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 108
Lost weekend, The. 1945, 1 videodisc (101 min.). A would-be writer's dissatisfaction with his life leads him on a three-day binge. This film gives an uncompromising look at the devastating effects of alcoholism. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9007
Lured. 1947. 1 videodisc (102 min.). A serial killer terrorizes London by luring women into meeting with him through the personal ads in the newspaper and taunting the police with gruesome poems. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3708 and Streaming video.
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Maltese falcon, The. 1941. (100 min.). After the death of his partner, private eye Sam Spade is dragged into a quest for a priceless statuette. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 130
Man who cheated himself, The. 1950. 1 videodisc (98 min.). When San Francisco police detective Ed Cullen's lover Lois Frazer accidentally shoots her husband, the rookie detective assigned to the case is none other than Ed's kid brother, Andy Cullen. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6566
Mask of Dimitrios, The. 1944, 1 videodisc (95 min). When the body of Dimitrios Makropoulos (Zachary Scott) washes ashore in Istanbul, there is cause for celebration all across Europe. The devious sociopath has left as his legacy an array of crimes including blackmail, thievery, murder and high treason. Interested in chronicling the dead man's unscrupulous exploits, mystery writer Cornelius Leyden (Lorre) takes up his trail, aided by a mysterious man named Peters (Greenstreet). But as Leyden zeroes in on the truth about Dimitrios, he finds that his new associate has an ulterior motive in helping him-- with Leyden as the unwitting accomplice! HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 11376
Mildred Pierce. 1945. (ca. 111 min.). Mildred Pierce is a woman who will do anything to satisfy the demands of her spoiled daughter Veda, including divorce, opening her own business, and possibly murder. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2187
Ministry of fear. 1944, 1 videodisc (87 min.). En route to London after being released from a mental institution, Stephen Neale stops at a seemingly innocent village fair, after which he finds himself caught in the web of a sinister underworld with possible Nazi connections. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10702
Moontide. 1942. 1 videodisc (95 min.). Bobo is a free-spirited wanderer who docks in a Pacific seaside town with his buddy Tiny, a sponge who wants to leave. After a night of drunken debauchery, Bobo awakens on a strange barge wearing the cap of a dead man. Afraid he has committed the crime, Bobo prepares to skip town with Tiny but is delayed when he meets Anna, who he rescues from drowning herself in the surf. They fall in love and open a business together selling bait. Jealous and desperate to leave, Tiny attempts to ruin the relationship, and when Anna learns that Tiny has been keeping a dark secret, it's clear only one of them will survive. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 8660
Mr. Arkadin a.k.a confidential report. 1955, 3 videodiscs (ca. 302 min.). American smuggler Guy van Strattan decides to investigate the mysterious Mr. Arkadin after hearing about the wealthy man from a prison cellmate, but Arkadin claims amnesia about his own life, sending van Strattan off to investigate Arkadin's past. Three different versions are presented in this collection since Orson Welles never completed a final cut of Mr. Arkadin, several edits of the film exist, in different languages, with different sequences, actors, narrative structures, and even titles. The Corinth version was unearthed by filmaker Peter Bogdanovich in the early 1960s, based on statements made by Welles and editor Renzo Lucidi, the Corinth version is thought to be the latest version to have been under Welles's control. The Confidential report version is believed to be the cut finished by producer Louis Dolivet after he barred Welles from the editing room. The Confidential version is a new version of the film representing a "best guess" approach following Welles's later statements, style, and continuity clues and includes as much existing footage as possible. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 11361
Murder, my sweet. 1944, 1 videodisc (95 min.). The story of a private detective who gets drawn into a complex web of murder, blackmail, and double-dealing while searching for a missing jade necklace. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5352
Naked city, The. 1948. (96 min.). A squad of homicide detectives roam through the seamier parts of New York City as they solve a murder case. The movie gives viewers an unvarnished look at life in the city using the technique neorealism. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5285
Naked kiss, The. 1944. 1 videodisc (90 min.). An ex-prostitute moves to a small town to start her life over, but her past soon follows. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5352
Naked spur, The. 1953, 1 videodisc (91 min.). Smooth-talking outlaw Ben Vandergroat reasons to his captors, three bounty hunters thrown together by chance. They're taking him to justice in Abilene, but Ben has other ideas. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7570
Narrow margin, The. 1952. 1 videodisc (71 min.). A cop has been put in charge of protecting a gangster's girlfriend as she is being transported from Chicago to L.A. by train to testify before a grand jury. He has his work cut out, though, as there are hitmen on the train that are after her. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7305
New York confidential. 1955. 1 videodisc (87 min.). "Broderick Crawford is the NYC mob boss dealing out death as the answer to every crisis--from a minor member of his own syndicate, to a Washington lobbyist, to his own hired killers!"--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7577
Niagara. 1953. (88 min.). Although the quaint motel overlooking the famed falls seems like the perfect honeymoon retreat, in fact, it's where the young and beautiful Rose Loomis plans to kill her husband George. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2400
Night and the city. 1950. (96 min.). Two-bit hustler Harry Fabian aches for a life of ease and plenty. Trailed by an inglorious history of go-nowhere schemes, he stumbles upon a chance of a lifetime in the form of legendary wrestler Gregorius the Great. But there is no easy money in this underworld of shifting alliances, bottomless graft, and pummeled flesh, and soon Fabian learns the horrible price of his ambition. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1222
Night editor / One girl's confession. 1946 / 1953. 1 videodisc (150 min.). Night Editor: Jill Merrill may just be the coldest gal in town. Her extramarital affair with a cop forces him to forsake his duty when they witness a murder. Even when an innocent man's life may be at stake, Jill's biggest concern are no different than any other ice-blooded society gal in Noirdom. One girl's confesstion: People think Mary is a bad girl because she's just too sexy to be good. So she decides to even the score, even if it means jail time. After stealing $10,000 and serving her time, Mary's determined to go straight, but she needs someone to help get the buried cash, and a good investment strategy. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7313
Night of the hunter, The. 1955. 2 videodiscs (93 min.). A self-styled preacher marries and murders the widow of an executed convict with whom he once shared a cell. He then terrorizes her two young children to force them to tell him the whereabouts of the $10,000 he knows their father hid before his imprisonment. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1235
Nightmare alley. 1947. (111 min.). Stanton Carlisle is an ambitious carnie who plays scams alongside phony mentalist Zeena and her alcoholic husband Pete, working the crowd as Zeena pretends to read their minds. But Stan has no intention of staying with the carnival; he has his heart set on an upscale night club act. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3128
Nobody lives forever. 1946. 1 videodisc (100 min.). "Jean Negulesco continues his classic run of forties film noirs with this tale of a con artist who falls for the mark he is trying to fleece. The great John Garfield commands the screen as grifter Nick Blake, who returns to New York after the war, only to find heartache and betrayal. Heading west, Nick hooks up with fellow con men Pop (Walter Brennan) and Doc (George Coulouris), who need a Romeo to sweep recently widowed Gladys Halvorsen (Geraldine Fitzgerald) off her feet and out of her sizable inheritance. But it's Nick who starts falling, and now that he wants out of the scam, will that fall turn into a dive? Or will Gladys pay the price for Nick's change of heart? Garfield is his usual astonishing self, but it's Fitzgerald who proves a revelation, as she stabs at the heart of noir's darkness by perfectly impersonating pure innocence. Faye Emerson plays the fatale, as Nick's sultry ex."--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9128
Nocturne. 1946. 1 videodisc (87 min.). Mystery surrounds the death of a womanizing composer named Vincent. Tough homicide detective Joe Warne believes Vincent's death was no suicide -- he believes he was murdered, and has 10 beautiful suspects in the crime! Warne finds himself in deep trouble investigating the strangest, most dangerous case he's ever worked on! If he's not careful, he's going to end up like Vincent! HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 11392
Notorious. 1946. (101 min.). Tale of espionage and romance set in Brazil during World War II. The daughter of a convicted Nazi traitor becomes an American undercover agent in Rio de Janeiro. The woman marries a Nazi renegade to help the U.S. government, but finds herself falling in love with her contact. DVD 338
On dangerous ground. 1952. (82 min.). City cop goes to the countryside to help solve a brutal murder and falls in love with a blind woman whose brother is a suspect. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2411
Out of the past. 1949. (97 min.). Suspenseful tale of double-crosses, deceit and murder. Jeff, a former private detective, is hired by a gangster to find his former girlfriend, whom he still loves despite the fact that she took $40,000.00 from him and disappeared. Jeff not only finds the girl but falls in love with her as well. This makes the gangster very jealous and annoyed. During the investigation and the unexpected love affair, several murders occur that ultimately lead to the death of Jeff and the girl. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2403
Ox-bow incident, The. 1943. (75 min.). An angry mob kills a man after a popular rancher is murdered. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5194
Panic in the streets. 1950. (96 min.). One night in the New Orleans slums, vicious hoodlum Blackie and his friends kill an illegal immigrant who won too much in a card game. When Dr. Reed confirms the dead man had pneumonic plague he must find and inoculate the killers. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5075
Phantom lady. 1944, 1 videodisc (87 min.). An unhappily married man spends the evening on a no-names basis with a woman he picks up at a bar. He later returns home, only to find the police in possession and his wife strangled. Every effort to establish his alibi fails; oddly, no one seems to remember seeing the phantom lady. In prison, the man gives up hope, but his secretary (secretly in love with him) doggedly follows evanescent clues through shadowy nocturnal streets. Will she be able to clear her employer in time? HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7615
Phenix City story, The / Dial 1119. 1955 / 1950. 1 videodisc (175 min.). The Phenix City story: Corruption, brutality and vice plagued Phenix City, Alabama for 100 years. This is Phil Karlson's semidocumentary telling the jolting tale of those who risked their lives to bring the burg's syndicate of thugs and murderers to justice. Dial 1119: "An asylum inmate escapes to the city where he takes hostages at a local dive, guns down a bar employee, and warns authorities his captives will be next if the doctor whose testimony first put him away doesn't arrive within the hour"--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7322
Pickup on South Street. 1953. (87 min.). Espionage thriller that captures the reality of life on Skid Row and combines suspense with a story of love and loyalty. A pickpocket steals the wallet of a street-smart woman who is carrying secret microfilm for a group of Communist spies. When he is identified by a police informer as the thief, he becomes the target of the Communists and the girl as well as the police. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5355
Pitfall. 1948. 1 videodisc (88 min.). A film noir about an insurance salesman whose brief affair with a convict's girlfriend leads to blackmail and murder. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5481
Portland exposé / They were so young. 1957 / 1954. 1 videodisc (149 minutes, 45 seconds). Portland exposé (72 min.): " ... the story concentrates on an honest tavern owner named George Madison (Edward Binns) who is involuntarily sucked into the city's rotten-to-the-core political machine. When Madison refuses to allow his establishment to serve as the gathering place for hoods and delinquents, the powers-that-be threaten to harm his family. Only after his daughter is attacked by a syndicate flunkey does Madison decide to fight back. At great personal risk, he manages to tape-record damning evidence against Portland's 'untouchable' criminal kingpin (Russ Conway)"--ClassicFlix website. They were so young (78 min.): "Innocent young Johanna Metz is hired for a modelling job in South America. Upon her arrival, she finds herself broke, stranded and at the beck and call of a criminal gang. Escaping from the crooks, Johanna is rescued by Scott Brady, an engineer in the employ of tycoon Raymond Burr. Unfortunately, Burr turns out to be the leader of the gang from whom Johanna has escaped"--ClassicFlix website. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5214
Possessed. 1947, 1 videodisc (108 min.). She loves him when he goes away for months. She loves him when he refuses to marry her. But when callow David Sutton chooses to marry someone else, Louise Howell's love for him takes a darker turn. Give her a gun and she'll love him to death.--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 8539
Postman always rings twice, The. 1946. (113 min.). 1946. Steamy tale of a drifter offered a job at a roadside diner by the owner, an easy-going older man. When the drifter and the owner's voluptuous wife fall in love, they plot to kill her husband and run away together. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5388
Postmark for danger. 1955. (77 min.). When a journalist and his girlfriend get into a suspicious car accident, he is killed, but she returns to get the killers. VHS 6583
Private hell 36. 1954. 1 videodisc (81 min.). Two police detectives and a nightclub singer plot to keep a box of stolen money with tragic results. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6414
Prowler, The. 1951. 1 videodisc (92 min.). A nefarious cop stalks a lonely, repressed Los Angeles housewife and decides to win her by killing her husband. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 8454
Pursued. 1947. (105 min.). A complex tale of family feuds, murder and vengeance in the Old West. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1373
Pushover. 1954. 1 videodisc (88 min.). A cop, staking out the apartment of a bank robber's girlfriend, makes a move on her to get information. But she ups the stakes, turning the case deadly. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7297
Racket, The. 1951. (89 min.). A straight-arrow cop and an old-school gangster find a common foe: big shots who run crime like a corporation. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2412
Railroaded! 1947. 1 videodisc (72 min.). A beautician and her crooked boyfriend, a mob collector, attempt to rob the bookie operation located in her back room, but when the plan goes array [sic], they frame an innocent man. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 8536
Rancho Notorious. 1952. 1 videodisc (89 min.). A western, set in the 1870s, which dramatizes the ballad The legend of Chuck-A-Luck. The search of a Wyoming cowboy for his fiancée's murderer leads him to a ranch-hideaway for bandits which is operated by an ex-saloon entertainer. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7481
Raw deal. 1948. (79 min.). Trapped within the walls of a state penitentiary, Joe Sullivan lives for the chance to avenge himself upon the man who helped put him there: Rick Coyle, a pyromaniac mob boss with a taste for party-girl flambé. Rick helps spring Joe from prison in hopes that the police will gun him down during the escape, but he grossly underestimates Joe's resourcefulness. With the assistance of a world-weary moll and an innocent girl, Joe dodges roadblocks, hitmen and dragnets and carves a bloody path back to his betrayer. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 80
Rebecca. 1940. (130 min.). A young bride is brought by her new husband to his manor house in England. There she finds that the memory of her husband's first wife haunts her, and she tries to discover the secret of that mysterious woman's death. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 345
Reckless moment, The. 1949. 1 videodisc (78 min.). With her husband out of town, Lucia Harper has her hands full keeping her household in order. Her headstrong daughter, Bea, has taken up with a louse named Ted Darby and persists in meeting him despite her mother's warnings. During one tryst, Bea and Darby quarrel violently. Bea accidentally kills Darby and runs away. To protect her family, Lucia disposes of the body. Because of this rash act, she faces not only a murder investigation, but two ruthless blackmailers, Donnelly and Nagel. Fortunately for the Harper family, Donnelly has a change of heart and becomes their savior. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 11189
Red house, The. 1947. (ca. 100 min.). A farmer tries to keep the curious away and protect the secret of the sinister decaying old house deep in the woods. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2405
Ride the pink horse. 1947. 1 videodisc (101 min.). A striking crime drama based on a novel by Dorothy B. Hughes. A tough-talking former GI who comes to a small New Mexico town to shake down a gangster who killed his best friend; things quickly turn nasty. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 11996
Riot in cell block 11. 1954. 1 videodisc (80 min.). A sensational and high-octane but economically constructed drama set in a maximum-security penitentiary. Shot on location at Folsom State Prison, with real inmates and guards as extras. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 78
Road house. 1948. 1 videodisc (95 min.). Roadhouse owner Jefty Morgan hires a singer from Chicago to sing in his club. He falls for her but she has eyes for Pete, who works for Morgan. Morgan frames Pete for stealing money from him and must face his murderous jealousy. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 8537
Roaring twenties, The. 1939. 1 videodisc (106 min.). A World War I veteran becomes involved in bootlegging. Set in New York City during the 1920s. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 11945
Scarlet Street. 1945. (103 min.). "Homely, henpecked Chris Cross leads an honorable, if tedious, middle-class life until he falls madly in love with beautiful Kitty. Blind to the woman's selfishness and deceit, he steals money to finance her lazy lifestyle-- and soon begins plotting his hateful wife's demise." --from container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 933
Second woman, The. 1950. 1 videodisc (91 min.). Ellen (Betsy Drake) meets a stranger on a train (Robert Young) and is immediately taken by his charm. She soon discovers that his wife was mysteriously killed on their honeymoon and he is haunted by dark visions of her death. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4011
Secret beyond the door. 1947. 1 videodisc (99 min.). Seemingly trapped within the spare yet surreal and terrifying confines of her husband's mansion, she begins to fear for her life when his sublimated hatred for women starts to bubble over and his strange obsession for violent deaths leads her to believe that she may be next. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 11039 and Streaming video.
Set-up, The. 1949. (72 min.). An over-the-hill boxer thinks he can still win a bout, despite doubts from his wife and his manager. He goes into his next fight determined to beat his opponent, not realizing his manager has taken money for a 'dive' from a tough gambler. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2406
Shadow of a doubt. 1942. (108 min.). Understated thriller about Uncle Charlie a beguiling murderer who travels from Philadelphia to California just one step ahead of the law. Once there he charms his unsuspecting family until Charlie (his niece and namesake) begins to suspect her uncle is hiding some terrible secret. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1783
Shanghai gesture, The. 1941, 1 videodisc (99 min.). "In Shanghai's slimy underworld, English financier Sir Guy Charteris tries to close a gambling den, owned by the devious Mother Gin Sling. However, Gin Sling learns that Charteris's daughter Poppy is a regular at her establishment and with the help of the coldly seductive Dr. Omar, she lures Poppy into gambling and drug addictions. Gin Sling blackmails Charteris and reveals a shocking secret, plunging them to another level of hell."--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 926 and Streaming video.
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Shock. 1946. 1 videodisc (ca. 70 min.) . A young woman goes into a coma after witnessing her neighbor being killed. When she finally comes to, she realizes that the psychiatrist treating her is actually the killer. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6411
Slightly scarlet. 1955. 1 videodisc (99 min.). Two sisters--one radiant and respectable, the other a kleptomaniac--both love the same man, an irresistible charmer with questionable scruples. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2794
Snake pit, The. 1948, 1 videodisc (108 min.). Following an emotional collapse a woman is placed in a mental institution by her husband. The severity of her depression causes her sympathetic doctor to try electric shock, hydrotherapy, and drugs, along with psychoanalysis. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 8513
Sniper, The. 1952. 1 videodisc (88 min.). San Francisco delivery van driver Edward Miller is unable to control his hatred of the women who reject him and the intense jealousy he feels whenever he sees lovers together. When he goes on a killing spree, the police must try and discover who he is. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7291
Somewhere in the night. 1946. 1 videodisc (108 min.). A man awakens in a Honolulu hospital with no memory of his identity. He has three personal items : a wallet, a letter from an angry ex-lover, and a note from one Larry Cravat, an apparent business associate. Searching for Cravat, the amnesiac heads to Los Angeles, enlisting the help of a saloon singer, her boss and a police lieutenant. When he starts asking questions, he's blindsided by goons and chased by cops, but ultimately makes a shocking discovery.--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4554
Sorry, wrong number. 1948. 1 videodisc (88 min.). Young, rich, bedridden Barbara Stanwyck dials a telephone number one night and overhears two men plotting the murder of an unidentified woman. She becomes frantic. Her terror is intensified by mysterious calls from an old college rival and a friend of her father. With time running out, Stanwyck pieces evidence together that leads her to suspect that it is her husband who wants her murdered. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 11388
Steel helmet, The. 1951. (84 min.). Despite its relatively low budget, this portrait of Korean War soldiers grappling with moral and racial issues while trying to stay alive remains one of the director's most gripping, realistic, reflections of Fuller's social conscience. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3457
Strange affair of Uncle Harry, The. 1945. (ca. 80 min.). Suspense film about Harry Quincey, a young man who lives with his two sisters, Lettie and Hester. When Lettie interferes with his romance with a co-worker, he tries to poison Lettie but kills Hester by mistake. Lettie is blamed for Hester's death and Harry decides he has committed the perfect crime. HOME USE COLLECTION VHS 4878
Strange illusion. 1945. (ca. 80 min.). B-movie update of Hamlet. A son is haunted by dreams of the mysterious death of his father and his widowed mother being wooed by a fast-talking schemer - dreams which he fears foreshadow future events. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5411
Strange impersonation. 1946. (68 min.). Nora Goodrich is a scientist working on an anesthesiology project. Her lab partner sabotages an experiment leaving Nora's face badly scarred. After her face is surgically altered, she plots revenge on her enemies. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 107
Strange love of Martha Ivers, The. 1946, 1 videodisc. A tale of intrigue involving childhood friends and a mysterious death that happened years before. Martha Ivers (Barbara Stanwyck) is the power behind things in the town of Iverston and is married to Walter O'Neill (Kirk Douglas), the district attorney. When their childhood friend Sam Masterson (Van Heflin) returns to town, it brings up powerful memories about their connection to the death of Martha's rich aunt years before and threatens to expose the truth. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 11357
Stranger on the third floor. 1940. 1 videodisc (63 min.). A reporter provides eyewitness testimony that helps sentence a small-time loser to the electric chair for murder. When the reporter himself is fingered in a second murder, he realizes both crimes are the work of a furtive stranger - but will anyone believe him? HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6404
Stranger, The. 1946. (94 min.). "Directing his first noir, the brilliant Orson Welles creates a tense, highly atmospheric thriller about a monstrous Nazi official hiding out as an American professor at a New England college. A mysterious war crimes detective comes to town determined to expose him-- even if it means sacrificing the life of the Nazi's innocent wife." --from container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 932
Strangers on a train. 1951. (204 min.). Contains the Hollywood version (101 min.) on side A and the British version (103 min.) on side B. A tennis star, Guy Haines, who hates his wife is approached on a train by a stranger, Bruno Anthony, who hates his father. Anthony offers a plan: each could kill the other's victim. No motive, no clue would link the two murders save the casual meeting of strangers on a train. Haines doesn't take the plan seriously, however, until his wife is suddenly murdered, and Anthony appears to demand that Haines keep his part of the bargain. The British version amplifies Bruno's flamboyance, his homoerotic attraction to Guy, and his psychotic personality. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 339
Street with no name, The. 1948. 1 videodisc (91 min.). Determined to unravel a crime, FBI Inspector Briggs sends his best agent undercover to penetrate the inner circle of the notorious Stiles gang. Everything goes according to plan, until an informant inside the police department tips off Stiles. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2842
Sudden fear. 1952. (110 min.). A wealthy lady playwright marries a worthless actor who plans to kill her. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2404
Suspicion. 1941. (99 min.). Alfred Hitchcock weaves a terrifying web of suspicion around a fragile young English bride and captures a classic suspense thriller. Joan Fontaine is the bride, a gently-reared heiress who fears she has married a murderer. Cary Grant is the husband, a dashing ne'er-do-well with a penchant for the high life--and a bank account that's strictly low-life. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3524
They drive by night. 1940, 1 videodisc (95 min.). Paul Fabrini and his brother Joe are wildcat drivers--men who buy their trucks on installment plans and then worry that loan sharks will repossess their trucks. As they drive their truck over rough California roads, night after night, their rough life gets even tougher when they get involved with murder and the mob. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3621
They live by night. 1948. (95 min.). In the 1930s Bowie, a young fugitive from the law, sinks deeper into a life of crime thanks to his association with two hardened criminals. He and two companions have fled a Mississippi prison. He marries a farm girl and tries to change his lifestyle but his former partners draw him back in and toward a tragic ending. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5381
Thief, The. 1952. 1 videodisc (86 min.). An atomic scientist and communist agent is caught by an FBI man while stealing vital documents, and is forced to kill him. While on the run from government agents he kills another man when cornered by the FBI, is overcome with remorse and turns himself in. The whole film is without dialogue, with only the musical score and magnified sound effects to create the feeling of tension and danger. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 11368
Thieves' highway. 1949. (94 min.). Ex-G.I. Nick Garcos is a tyro trucker bent on satisfaction from the man responsible for crippling his father, a ruthless market operator by the name of Mike Figlia. Along the way, he is seduced by the siren Rica and drawn into the San Francisco produce racket, landing him in a web of treachery and heartbreak. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1110
Third man, The. 1949. (104 min.). Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, black-market opportunist Harry Lime-- and thus begins this legendary tale of love, deception, and murder. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 48
This gun for hire. 1942. (ca. 80 min.). The hard-edged story of love, power, and betrayal set in the seamy underworld of the 1940's. Ladd portrays a cold-blooded professional killer who's been double-crossed by his client. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5344
Tight spot. 1955. (97 min.). Wise-cracking Sherry Conley is moved by U.S. Attorney Hallet and Detective Lieutenant Striker from prison to a swanky hotel suite. They try to persuade her to testify against mobster Benny Costain. Sherry first refuses to testify but changes her mind when a bullet intended for her kills a prison matron. Striker is shot when the mobster makes his last desperate effort to silence the girl. HOME USE COLLECTION VHS 5407
T-men. 1947. (92 min.). Two treasury agents infiltrate the ranks of a notorious counterfeiting ring known as the Vantucci Gang. Delving into a labyrinth of betrayal, sacrifice and the occasional pummeling, the agents watch as their civilian happiness ebbs away and they fall victim to the elaborate disguises they have constructed for their own protection. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 80
To have and have not. 1945. (100 min.). An American charter boat captain in Martinique gets involved with a young female drifter and some French freedom fighters who are trying to elude local Nazi collaborators. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1440
Try and get me! 1951. (91 min.). Based on a true event, the 1933 lynching of two accused kidnappers in San Diego, California. Two men kidnap the son of wealthy parents in hopes of a huge ransom but are arrested after they kill him. A local journalist stirs up the town with his stories - and then watches in horror as the citizens take the law into their own hands. HOME USE COLLECTION VHS 5063
Union Station. 1950. 1 videodisc (81 min.). "Returning to the city from her wealthy employer's residence, Joyce Willecombe (Nancy Olson), spots two armed men on the train. She reports them to the conductor who radios the Station's police. Once at Union Station she points out the men to Lt. William Calhoun (William Holden), head of the station's police squad and they find out that the gunmen are members of a gang who have kidnapped her employer's blind daughter and are seeking a $100,000 ransom. The Chicago police headed by inspector Donnelly (Barry Fitzgerald), and the FBI are both called in"--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6420
Vicki. 1953. 1 videodisc (85 min.). When cover girl Vicki Lynn is murdered, driven detective Ed Cornell investigates as flashbacks chronicle her rise to the top. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7633
Where danger lives / Tension. 1950 / 1949. 1 videodisc (171 min.). Where danger lives: Jeff Cameron, a young intern at the beginning of his career, who links his destiny to that of a patient who is brought to the hospital after a suicide attempt. Jeff dumps the secure, rather plain nurse Julie, for the passionate but perplexing Margo. Confused and caught up in Margo's deceptions, Jeff loses his sense of reality and finds himself fleeing with her for the Mexican border. Tension: A drugstore manager turns attempted killer after his conniving wife leaves him for another man. He devises a complex plan, which involves assuming a new identity, to make it look like someone else murdered her new boyfriend. Things take an unexpected turn when someone else commits the murder first and he becomes the prime suspect. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7310
Where the sidewalk ends. 1950. (ca. 94 min.). Cop Mark Dixon is in hot water with his bosses because of his rough style and tactics. He accidentally kills a murder suspect and tries to frame a known racketeer that he despises for the crime. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2396
Whirlpool. 1950. (97 min.). "A young wife is caught in a spiral of deceit, blackmail and murder. Terrified that her psychiatrist husband will learn of her frailty, Ann Sutton attempts to cure herself with the help of hypnotist David Korvo. However, Ann finds herself plunging deeper and deeper into a psychological abyss as Korvo, with a diabolical plan of his own, manipulates her subconscious mind."--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2395
White heat. 1949. (115 min.). Cody Jarrett is a psychopathic gangster and a ruthless killer who is anything but rational with his fierce headaches and strong mother-fixation. A train robber, he is jailed on a lesser charge. An undercover treasury agent is put in his cell to gain his confidence. A daring escape is planned and the world of Cody Jarrett begins to explode. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5340
Window, The. 1949, 1 videodisc (74 min.). Tommy habitually tells tall tales and nobody believes him when he witnesses a murder through a tenement window. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 11212
Woman in the window, The. 1944. (ca. 99 min.). Edward G. Robinson is the pawn in a shocking crime thriller with a surprising twist in the tale. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 535
Woman on pier 13, The. 1949. 1 videodisc (73 min.). Brad Collins, former stevedore, is rising fast in a shipping company when local communist agitators use his former Party affiliation to extort his help in stirring up trouble. When Brad resists, communist femme fatale Christine works through his brother-in-law Don. But Brad's new wife Nan sees that her husband and brother are under pressure; when she investigates on her own, party boss Vanning takes ruthless action. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7614
Woman on the beach, The. 1947. 1 videodisc (71 min.). Peggy feels trapped, lacking the will to break free of her husband Tod, a famed painter whose career and eyesight she destroyed during a violent quarrel. A war-traumatized sailor, eager to claim Peggy for himself, is convinced Tod feigns blindness to control her. To prove it, he'll take Tod for a stroll along the seaside cliffs and watch as the artist nears the edge. Filled with primal lust, bold imagery and murderous hearts, 'The Woman on the Beach' is Jean Renoir's fever dream of a film noir. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9138
Woman on the run. 1950. 1 videodisc (77 min.). Convincing story of a wife trying to find her husband, who is a witness to a gangland murder, before the underworld does. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 11441
Women's prison / Over-exposed. 1955 / 1956. 1 videodisc (150 min.). Women's prison: An adjoining men's and women's big houses, where a female inmate married is married to a male inmate. A warden in the women's side of the prison goes overboard in her discipline policies, to the point that the prisoners try to take her hostage. Over-exposed: An inexperienced, ambitious girl who, after being caught in a raid at a clip joint, has the chance to learn a trade as a photographer. Her new profession brings her closer to respectability and the opportunity to use her talent to extract blackmail. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7314
You and me. 1938. (94 min.). A romantic crime story, laced with comedy and social commentary, that projects the message that "crime doesn't pay." A group of ex-cons are working in a department store whose owner believes in rehabilitation. Two of them, Helen and Joe fall in love and marry. However, Helen's failure to tell Joe she too has served time causes him to leave her when he finds out. He rejoins the mob and pressures a group of the store's parolees to rob it. Helen must set him straight. HOME USE COLLECTION VHS 5494
You only live once. 1937. (86 min.). An ill-fated young couple are separated when he is put in prison for a crime he didn't commit. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 746