Directed by Raoul Walsh • 1941 • United States
Starring Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart, Alan Curtis
Marking the moment when the gritty gangster sagas of the 1930s began giving way to the romantic fatalism of ’40s film noir, HIGH SIERRA also contains the star-making performance of Humphrey Bogart, who, alongside top-billed Ida Lupino, proved his leading-man mettle with his tough yet tender turn as Roy Earle. A career criminal plagued by his checkered past, Roy longs for a simpler life, but after getting sprung on parole, he falls in with a band of thieves for one last heist in the Sierra Nevada. Directed with characteristic punch by Raoul Walsh—who makes the most of the vertiginous mountain location—this gripping thriller sends Roy and Lupino’s Marie, a fellow outcast also desperate to escape her past, hurtling inexorably toward an unforgettable cliffside climax and a rendezvous with destiny.
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The Face Behind the Mask
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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Double Indemnity
Directed by Billy Wilder • 1944 • United States
Starring Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. RobinsonHas dialogue ever been more perfectly hard-boiled? Has a femme fatale ever been as deliciously wicked as Barbara Stanwyck? And has 1940s Los Angeles ever looked so seductively sordid? Wo...
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Laura
Directed by Otto Preminger • 1944 • United States
Starring Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton WebbOne of the most sophisticated noirs of the 1940s, Otto Preminger’s classic mystery stars Gene Tierney as Laura Hunt, a Manhattan advertising executive who is murdered just before she is set to mar...
