Columbia Noir
15 Episodes
Featuring an introduction by Imogen Sara Smith and Farran Smith Nehme
In celebration of both Noirvember and the 100th anniversary of Columbia Pictures, we’re revisiting one of our most popular collections with a refreshed slate of seductively shadowy, cynical gems. While rival studios like MGM and Paramount lavished money and top-tier production values on splashy musicals and prestige literary adaptations, the notoriously budget-conscious Columbia was right at home in the seedy world of film noir. The Columbia lot was where directors like Fritz Lang, Charles Vidor, and Samuel Fuller realized pulp-poetry perfection in classics like THE BIG HEAT, GILDA, and THE CRIMSON KIMONO. It was also where resourceful genre specialists could overcome financial constraints through sinister, stylized atmosphere and directorial vision in killer Bs like the expressionist nightmare THE FACE BEHIND THE MASK and the minimalist-cool hitman thriller MURDER BY CONTRACT. Starring genre icons like Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, and Peter Lorre, these gritty journeys into the dark side of human nature epitomize the hard-boiled essence of noir.
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01:59Episode 1
Columbia Noir Teaser
Episode 1
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16:12Episode 2
Introducing Columbia Noir
Episode 2
Critics Imogen Sara Smith and Farran Smith Nehme explore the style and sensibility that Columbia Pictures brought to film noir.
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Gilda
Episode 3
Directed by Charles Vidor • 1946 • United States
Starring Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready“Gilda, are you decent?” Rita Hayworth tosses her hair back and slyly responds, “Me?” in one of the great star entrances in movie history. GILDA, directed by Charles Vidor, features a sultry Hayw...
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2:03:24Episode 4
Experiment in Terror
Episode 4
Directed by Blake Edwards • 1962 • United States
Starring Lee Remick, Glenn FordFollowing the success of BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S, producer-director Blake Edwards took a detour into noir territory with this ultra-stylish, mood-drenched thriller. Lee Remick plays a San Francisco bank clerk who is ...
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1:29:37Episode 5
The Big Heat
Episode 5
Directed by Fritz Lang • 1953 • United States
Starring Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Lee MarvinFritz Lang’s hard-boiled cop vs. criminals yarn stars Glenn Ford as Dave Bannion, a police detective and family man driven by grief to conduct a relentless vendetta against a mobster (Alexander Scourby)...
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1:30:55Episode 6
Human Desire
Episode 6
Directed by Fritz Lang • 1954 • United States
Starring Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Broderick CrawfordIn this adaptation of Emile Zola’s “La bête humaine,” veteran Jeff Warren (Glenn Ford) returns from Korea to his job as a railroad engineer and quickly succumbs to the advances of his boss's wif...
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1:31:28Episode 7
Pickup Alley
Episode 7
Directed by John Gilling • 1957 • United Kingdom, United States
Starring Victor Mature, Anita Ekberg, Trevor HowardInternational location shooting in handsome black-and-white CinemaScope sets this globe-trotting noir thriller, alternately titled INTERPOL, apart from the pack. Following the deat...
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1:32:24Episode 8
Ladies in Retirement
Episode 8
Directed by Charles Vidor • 1941 • United States
Starring Ida Lupino, Louis Hayward, Evelyn KeyesIda Lupino is at her hard-edged best in this mood-drenched tale of murder and madness in a remote mansion on the English moors. She plays Ellen Creed, the full-time housekeeper and companion to Leon...
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1:20:29Episode 9
Murder by Contract
Episode 9
Directed by Irving Lerner • 1958 • United States
Starring Vince Edwards, Phillip Pine, Herschel BernardiVince Edwards stars as a hired assassin whose latest “assignment” (Caprice Toriel) is about to testify against the mob. But this particular target is not so easy to get at. So he waits . . . ...
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Nightfall
Episode 10
Directed by Jacques Tourneur • 1956 • United States
Starring Brian Keith, Aldo Ray, Anne Bancroft
Directed by Jacques Tourneur from one of the masterful, despairing novels of David Goodis, NIGHTFALL is the tale of an innocent man trapped in a senseless and lethal web of seduction and crime. The... -
1:21:23Episode 11
Strange Fascination
Episode 11
Directed by Hugo Haas • 1952 • United States
Starring Hugo Haas, Cleo Moore, Mona BarrieOne of a string of intriguing low-budget noirs directed in Hollywood by Czech actor turned gutter auteur Hugo Haas, STRANGE FASCINATION stars the filmmaker himself as a renowned concert pianist whose relatio...
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1:21:31Episode 12
The Crimson Kimono
Episode 12
Directed by Samuel Fuller • 1959 • United States
Starring Victoria Shaw, Glenn Corbett, James ShigetaPulp maestro Samuel Fuller lends his slam-bang stylistic punch to this complex, fascinating noir that doubles as a trenchant social document of 1950s America. When a stripper is murdered in LA’s...
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1:08:13Episode 13
The Face Behind the Mask
Episode 13
Directed by Robert Florey • 1941 • United States
Starring Peter Lorre, Evelyn Keyes, Don BeddoeDirected with striking expressionist flair by French émigré filmmaker Robert Florey, this poisonous tale of the American dream turned sour stars Peter Lorre as Janos, a Hungarian immigrant who arrives...
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1:15:54Episode 14
The Killer That Stalked New York
Episode 14
Directed by Earl McEvoy • 1950 • United States
Starring Evelyn Keyes, Charles Korvin, Dorothy MaloneBased on a true story, this race-against-the-clock thriller follows the frantic efforts to stop a potentially deadly epidemic before it turns catastrophic. Jewel smuggler Sheila Bennet (Evelyn Ke...
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1:28:05Episode 15
The Sniper
Episode 15
Directed by Edward Dmytryk • 1952 • United States
Starring Adolphe Menjou, Arthur Franz, Gerald MohrBlacklisted director Edward Dmytryk—one of the original Hollywood Ten—made his return to filmmaking with this disturbingly prescient psychological thriller. Shot with gritty, documentary-style re...