Columbia Noir

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.

Columbia Noir
  • Columbia Noir Teaser

    Episode 1

  • 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.

  • 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...

  • Experiment in Terror

    Episode 4

    Directed by Blake Edwards • 1962 • United States
    Starring Lee Remick, Glenn Ford

    Following 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 ...

  • The Big Heat

    Episode 5

    Directed by Fritz Lang • 1953 • United States
    Starring Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Lee Marvin

    Fritz 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)...

  • Human Desire

    Episode 6

    Directed by Fritz Lang • 1954 • United States
    Starring Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Broderick Crawford

    In 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...

  • Pickup Alley

    Episode 7

    Directed by John Gilling • 1957 • United Kingdom, United States
    Starring Victor Mature, Anita Ekberg, Trevor Howard

    International location shooting in handsome black-and-white CinemaScope sets this globe-trotting noir thriller, alternately titled INTERPOL, apart from the pack. Following the deat...

  • Ladies in Retirement

    Episode 8

    Directed by Charles Vidor • 1941 • United States
    Starring Ida Lupino, Louis Hayward, Evelyn Keyes

    Ida 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...

  • Murder by Contract

    Episode 9

    Directed by Irving Lerner • 1958 • United States
    Starring Vince Edwards, Phillip Pine, Herschel Bernardi

    Vince 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 . . . ...

  • 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...

  • Strange Fascination

    Episode 11

    Directed by Hugo Haas • 1952 • United States
    Starring Hugo Haas, Cleo Moore, Mona Barrie

    One 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...

  • The Crimson Kimono

    Episode 12

    Directed by Samuel Fuller • 1959 • United States
    Starring Victoria Shaw, Glenn Corbett, James Shigeta

    Pulp 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...

  • The Face Behind the Mask

    Episode 13

    Directed by Robert Florey • 1941 • United States
    Starring Peter Lorre, Evelyn Keyes, Don Beddoe

    Directed 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...

  • The Killer That Stalked New York

    Episode 14

    Directed by Earl McEvoy • 1950 • United States
    Starring Evelyn Keyes, Charles Korvin, Dorothy Malone

    Based 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...

  • The Sniper

    Episode 15

    Directed by Edward Dmytryk • 1952 • United States
    Starring Adolphe Menjou, Arthur Franz, Gerald Mohr

    Blacklisted 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...