Directed by Lewis Allen • 1947 • United States
Starring John Hodiak, Lizabeth Scott, Burt Lancaster
Lurid Technicolor, deep-dish melodrama, and gay subtext abound in this pulpy noir firecracker. In the desert town of Chuckawalla, Nevada, tempers flare, passions spark, and violence erupts when Paula (Lizabeth Scott), the defiant daughter of a hard-boiled casino owner (Mary Astor) falls for no-good gangster Eddie Bendix (John Hodiak)—igniting the jealousy of Bendix’s possessive partner (Wendell Corey, in his film debut). In one of his earliest film roles, Burt Lancaster costars as the local cop who finds himself embroiled in the deadly tangle.
Up Next in Vacation Noir
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Brighton Rock
Directed by John Boulting • 1948 • United Kingdom
Starring Richard Attenborough, Hermione Baddeley, William HartnellOne of darkest and most sordid of all British noirs, this startlingly bleak, violent adaptation of the novel by Graham Greene delves into the seedy underbelly of the seaside reso...
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The Lady From Shanghai
Directed by Orson Welles • 1947 • United States
Starring Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Everett SloaneOrson Welles’s puzzle-box noir scrambles the conventions of the genre to create a triumph of Hollywood surrealism. The director stars as an unwitting Irish sailor who finds himself drawn into a w...
