Polanski has a go at the film noir detective thriller, very bleak, very twisted and very menacing it is to. Nicholson plays a private-eye in pre-war LA who is hired to pursue an adultery case, but finds himself embroiled in a complicated murder investigation. find out more...

Years of police work have taught Detective Finlay that where there's crime there's motive. However he finds no usual motive when investigating a man beaten to death, this man was killed because he was a Jew. "Hate", Finlay says, "is like a gun." A landmark film noir nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Edward Dmytryk directs a taught stylish tale that, certainly for its time, dared to explore a topic rarely covered in Hollywood; anti-Semitism in the US. find out more...

Skint black ex-GI Easy Rawlins is asked to track down a mysterious missing woman with an illicit taste for black men. But two murders later he realises he's way out of his depth and, even worse, he himself has become the hunted. Sultry, smokey thriller set in an authentically recreated 1940's LA. Everything - the performances, Tak Fujimoto's elegant camerawork, the jazz and blues soundtrack, the snappy script - slots neatly into Franklin's overall design. A superbly stylish movie. find out more...

After the subsequent murder of a scared running girl he picked up on the highway Mickey Spillane's anti-hero, dodgy private eye Mike Hammer, smells money and follows the threads on a seedy trip through the LA underworld. find out more...

A dark, intriguing thriller. The enigmatic Laura becomes an object of obsession to a hard-bitten journalist and is found dead shortly before her wedding. As the mystery deepens with every twist and turn, the detective on the case also falls under the spell of the tragic beauty. Classic film noir. find out more...

The film that catapulted Mitchum to stardom; after Kathie shoots her admirer and runs off with his 40 grand he, naturally, hires a private dick to find her. Although the dick finds Katie in Mexico, they decide to tell Sterling that he couldn't find her. find out more...

Police Sgt Bannion is taken off investigating the apparent suicide of a corrupt cop, is he likely to uncover too much filth? Driven to further unravel the mystery Bannion continues probing until an explosion meant for him kills his wife. He resigns from the force and soon learns that behind it all is a powerful underworld syndicate led by Mike Lagana and the cold-blooded Vince Stone. The Big Heat is a classic slice of noir; a brooding, dark narrative. find out more...

The original and best version of the detective thriller classic. Philip Marlowe is hired to investigate the gambling debts of a rich man's daughter, but is plunged into a twilight world of intrigue, blackmail and violence. Stylish and gripping. find out more...

Tense mystery thriller with Gene Hackman as an ace surveillance expert who begins to question the morality of his own work. Listening in on a young couple during an apparently routine job, he realises he's involved in something far more sinister than he thought. Gripping and thought provoking. find out more...

Burt Lancaster makes his debut, in this adaptation of a short story by Ernest Hemingway, as Swede, a washed-up boxer who finds himself manipulated and double crossed thanks to the charms of femme fatale Ava Gardner. A definitively noir gangster film about an unusual contract killing that stands out thanks to Lancaster's performance as the lovesick palooka taken for a ride.

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