Peter Strempel’s film noir reviews, some of which are lengthy essays on the genre itself.
This Gun for Hire (1942)
Not the noir some claim, but an outstanding hybrid with a powerful performance from Ladd and impressive mises en scène.
Film Noir
Dark Passage (1947) as locus of film noir
Dark Passage is an extended metaphor for the anti-communist witch-hunting in the USA during the 1940s and ’50s.
The Key Largo hypothesis: Brooks and Huston set the noir context
My hypothesis that Huston’s Key Largo defined and limited the territory of film noir as exclusively American and subtly ‘New Deal’ political.
The Killers (1946)
Less Hemingway than Huston, the film is a landmark for Hellinger and Siodmak.
Murder, My Sweet (1945)
A worthy Chandler adaptation, and transition for Dick Powell from pretty boy to film tough guy.
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
The film in which Humphrey Bogart made the hard-boiled detective persona his own.