Directed by John Huston • 1941 • United States
Starring Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, Mary Astor
A cinematic landmark for a number of reasons—it was the first film directed by John Huston, the film that launched Humphrey Bogart to stardom, and one of the first true noirs—this breathlessly entertaining, intricately plotted adaptation of the novel by Dashiell Hammett casts Bogart as the tough San Francisco detective Sam Spade, who, when he takes on the case of a woman (Mary Astor) who claims to be searching for her missing sister, finds himself involved with a deadly band of international thieves who will lie, double-cross, and murder to obtain a small, jewel-encrusted statue known as the Maltese Falcon.
Up Next in Noirvember
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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...
