Film Noirs of 1944
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- DirectorEdward DmytrykStarsDick PowellClaire TrevorAnne ShirleyAfter being hired to find an ex-con's former girlfriend, Philip Marlowe is drawn into a deeply complex web of mystery and deceit.
- DirectorRoy William NeillStarsBasil RathboneNigel BruceDennis HoeyWhen a valuable pearl with a sinister reputation is stolen, Sherlock Holmes must investigate its link to a series of brutal murders.
- DirectorRobert SiodmakStarsFranchot ToneElla RainesAlan CurtisA devoted secretary risks her life to try to find the elusive woman who may prove her boss didn't murder his selfish wife.
- DirectorFred ZinnemannStarsSpencer TracySigne HassoHume CronynIn 1936, seven prisoners escape from a concentration camp. The Nazis put up seven crosses for demonstrative executions. This story about one of the fugitives, who relies on own courage and compassion of people to avoid the seventh cross.
- DirectorEugene FordeStarsWarner BaxterNina FochGeorge ZuccoA young woman wants The Crime Doctor to help her decipher her strange nightmares.
- DirectorAnthony MannStarsWilliam TerryVirginia GreyHelene ThimigA lonely, mentally-unbalanced woman invents a fictitious daughter and has the "daughter" write to a Marine stationed in the South Pacific. When the soldier returns to the States, he goes to look up his pen pal and is told by the "mother" that the daughter has moved away. An acquaintance of the women tells the soldier the truth, and in a rage the "mother" kills her. To cover up that crime, she realizes that she must kill the soldier, too.
- DirectorHoward HawksStarsHumphrey BogartLauren BacallWalter BrennanDuring World War II, American expatriate Harry Morgan helps transport a French Resistance leader and his beautiful wife to Martinique while romancing a sensuous lounge singer.
- DirectorLewis AllenStarsRay MillandRuth HusseyDonald CrispA composer and his sister discover that the reason they are able to purchase a beautiful gothic seacoast mansion very cheaply is the house's unsavory past.
- DirectorHerman RotstenStarsAnn SavageTom NealRoland VarnoWhen an Allied prisoner of war ship transporting a cargo of German prisoners is torpedoed by a German submarine in the North Atlantic, three survivors cling for their lives to a raft. The three are German prisoners of war Corporal Karl Richter, Private Heinrich Krause and British interpreter Roland Cheever. Cheever, who was wounded in the explosion, is vulnerable and defenseless, and so the predatory Richter decides to assume his identity. After stripping the helpless Cheever of his uniform and identity papers, Richter dumps his body into the sea. Some time later, Richter and Krause are rescued by a passing ship, and Richter awakens in a hospital near the Midland Prisoner of War Camp. The papers found on his body identify Richter as Cheever, and so the hospital staff assumes that he is a British soldier and ally. Richter recuperates from his injuries, but because he still suffers from an injured right arm, his nurse, Mary Lee Norris, invites him to convalesce at her family's farm, Shady Acres. When Mary Lee's fiance, Terry Hunter, a sergeant at the internment camp, learns of the Norris' new boarder, he becomes jealous. One day, Mary Lee's younger brother Willie and his friend, Dutchy Schultz, are playing with a BB gun. Richter takes an interest in the boys' activities upon discovering that Dutchy's father owns a store that sells guns. After demonstrating his marksmanship by shooting a bird from a tree, Richter goes to the garage to ask Mary Lee for a ride to town. There, he embraces her against her will, and she has to struggle to free herself. While the two drive to town, Richter asks to stop at the internment camp, and although he is forbidden to speak to the prisoners, he spots Krause among them. In town, Richter visits Schultz's store, and after observing the inventory of guns, he buys a map of the area. When Richter returns home, Mary Lee presents him with a telegram ordering him to report to the British Consul so that arrangements can be made for his return to England. While Richter studies his message, Willie calls Terry aside and tells him about Richter's two-armed attack on Mary Lee, causing Terry to become suspicious because Richter's right arm was supposed to be injured. Soon after, a call comes notifying Terry of the escape of one of the prisoners of war. Richter retires to his room, and as he studies the map, he hears a tapping at the window and sees Krause outside. Informing Krause of his plan to free the German prisoners and arm them, Richter orders him to hide in the barn and await further instructions. That night, Richter accompanies Terry and the Norrises to a benefit concert for the Red Cross, in which Mary Lee is to play the piano. After the adults leave, Willie recruits Dutchy to help search Richter's room. When they reach the concert hall, Richter decides to wait outside, and Terry, his suspicions aroused, places a call to the British Consul. After the performance begins, Richter drives back to the barn, picks up Krause and proceeds to Schultz's store. The Germans steal all of Schultz's rifles, and hide them in the barn. The boys are still searching Richter's room when they hear his footsteps and hide under the bed. After retrieving a pistol from his suitcase, Richter drives off, and the boys emerge from his room and see Krause hiding in the barn. When they discover the German's discarded prisoner of war uniform, Willie sends Dutchy to town for help. Richter is waiting outside the concert hall when Dutchy comes running in, yelling about a nest of Nazis. Richter immediately drives away and is soon followed by Terry and the other members of the town. Arriving at the barn first, Richter finds Willie, knocks him unconscious and then shoots Krause. After the others appear, Richter claims he shot the Nazi to save Willie. When Dutchy tells of Richter's earlier return to the house, the German asserts that he came back to retrieve Mary Lee's sheet music. Excusing himself to go to his room, Richter sneaks out the back, loads the guns in the car and drives toward the internment camp. Terry and the military police are waiting for him in the woods, however, and deflect his progress with a hail of gunfire. Pulling Richter from the car, Terry exposes him as a Nazi and informs him that the British Consul sent a picture of the real Cheever. With the Nazi menace eradicated, the townsfolk return to their idyllic life.
- DirectorArthur RipleyStarsFrancis LedererSigrid GurieJ. Edward BrombergA concert pianist has lost his memory, the result of his being arrested and tortured by the Germans during the war for playing a banned song. He journeys to the island of Guadelupe to try to regain his memory and his health.
- DirectorSteve SekelyStarsJohn CarradineJ. Carrol NaishMaris WrixonA Nazi spy passes himself off as an optometrist in San Francisco's waterfront district. Someone robs him of his codebook, and he must get it back.
- DirectorReginald Le BorgStarsLon Chaney Jr.Anne GwynneEvelyn AnkersWhile on a South Seas trip, a professor falls in love and marries an exotic native woman. What he doesn't know is that she was raised by superstitious natives who believe her to be some kind of supernatural being.
- DirectorWilliam CastleStarsRobert MitchumKim HunterDean JaggerA naive small-town girl comes to New York City to meet her husband, and discovers that he may be a murderer.
- DirectorWilliam CastleStarsRichard DixGloria StuartJ. Carrol NaishA depressed man hires an assassin to kill him when he least expects it, but when his life takes an upward turn, he finds he now wishes to live.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsEdward G. RobinsonJoan BennettRaymond MasseyWhen a conservative middle aged professor engages in a relationship with a femme fatale, he's plunged into a nightmarish world of blackmail and murder.
- DirectorJohn EnglishStarsStephanie BachelorTom KeeneLynne RobertsMuriel is the scheming widow of the fabulously-wealthy Hartford Chaney III. Muriel's husband has disappeared under mysterious circumstances, freeing her to marry her playboy paramour Frederick St. Clair. However, Chaney's daughter from a previous marriage suspects that her father has been murdered.
- DirectorRobert SiodmakStarsCharles LaughtonElla RainesDean HarensAn unhappily married man begins a flirtation with a younger woman. When his wife threatens to ruin her, he decides to take action.
- DirectorWilliam Cameron MenziesStarsPaul LukasMady ChristiansMorris CarnovskyUS art dealer returns to his native Germany for a visit and is attracted by Nazi propaganda.
- DirectorIrving PichelStarsAlan LaddLoretta YoungSusan HaywardA wealthy woman who lost her hearing to meningitis meets a doctor who is concocting a serum that will cure deafness.
- DirectorBodil IpsenStarsJohannes MeyerBerthe QvistgaardAage FønssThe middle-aged manufacturer Jens Steen is on his way to his summer house by the sea to rest for a few days. All alone. At the same time, the 20-year-old Else Petersen is out on the road hitchhiking - in search of a free holiday. Jens gives Else a lift. She accompanies him to the summer house. It will be crucial moments in his life; he is immediately obsessed with Else's beauty and youth.
- DirectorEdgar G. UlmerStarsJohn CarradineJean ParkerNils AstherIn Paris, an artist hires portrait models, and after he finishes their portraits, he strangles them.
- DirectorMaurice TourneurStarsAlbert PréjeanSanta RelliGermaine KerjeanA woman keeps coming to Quai Des Orfevres to see Inspector Maigret about disturbing events in her household.Maigret and his colleagues are annoyed, until this woman is found dead and they realize she was on to something.
- DirectorRobert SiodmakStarsDeanna DurbinGene KellyRichard WhorfA young femme fatale-type woman realizes that the man she married is an incorrigible wastrel.
- DirectorWilliam ClemensStarsJane WymanJerome CowanFaye EmersonDetective Sam Campbell and his perky sidekick Robby Vance are called in on a routine child support dispute. Things take an unexpected turn when the client's ex-father-in-law, head of a chemical plant, is the victim of an axe murder.
- DirectorGunther von FritschRobert WiseStarsSimone SimonKent SmithJane RandolphThe young, friendless daughter of Oliver and Alice Reed befriends her father's dead first wife and an aging, reclusive actress.
- DirectorWilliam BerkeStarsRobert LoweryPhyllis BrooksCharles ArntJoe Beck leaves Central America so that he can return to Texas and collect a large inheritance, but he picks a dangerous ship on which to travel.
- DirectorWilliam BerkeStarsRobert LoweryEllen DrewRegis ToomeyA woman doesn't realize that the man she has just married is a gangster. When she is implicated in a murder he committed, she turns to an ex-boyfriend, who is now a park ranger, for help.
- DirectorAndré De TothStarsMerle OberonFranchot ToneThomas MitchellA woman returns to the USA after a German U-boat sank her ship, and finds out that someone wants to kill her for her inheritance.
- DirectorReginald Le BorgStarsLon Chaney Jr.Jean ParkerPaul KellyWhen an artist is blinded, his fiancée's father offers an operation to restore his sight. When the benefactor suddenly dies, the artist becomes a suspect.
- DirectorReginald Le BorgJulien DuvivierStarsGloria JeanAlan CurtisFrank CravenBank robbers Cliff Banks and Sam Baker go their separate ways while being chased by the law. Now fleeing alone, Cliff begins to reflect, via flashback, on the various events and unsavory people in his life that lead to his life of crime. Cliff ends up in the idyllic rural town of Paradise Valley. He discovers the local people are very trusting and decides the town would be the perfect place to pull a scam. He meets a farmer named Clem Broderick and his strange blind daughter Jane, who seems to have supernatural powers; she can use a dowsing rod to find water, has ESP, and can control the forces of nature. Despite all her powers, she is unable to read Cliff's mind and discover his plan to steal the Broderick farm out from under them. However, after Jane discovers what the stranger is up to, she invokes a vision in which Cliff is terrorized by the forces of nature and drowns in the river. Cliff, now shaken, vows to reform, and in the process save Clem's life when he is attacked by a bear.
- DirectorEdith CarlmarStarsClaus WieseBjørg Riiser-LarsenEva BerghThe story of a working man who has a gorgeous fiancee but she falls for a rich older woman - who turns out to be a femme fatale.
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsFred MacMurrayBarbara StanwyckEdward G. RobinsonA Los Angeles insurance representative lets an alluring housewife seduce him into a scheme of insurance fraud and murder that arouses the suspicion of his colleague, an insurance investigator.
- DirectorGeorge BlairStarsEdward NorrisJohn AbbottJune StoreyA crime writer believes that a man imprisoned for committing the notorious "Flower Shop Murder" is innocent of the crime. He believes he knows who the actual culprit is, and sets out to befriend the man and get enough evidence to prove that he is the real killer.
- DirectorJacques TourneurStarsHedy LamarrGeorge BrentPaul LukasIn 1903, a doctor suspects murder in the gothic Bederaux family.
- DirectorGeorge CukorStarsCharles BoyerIngrid BergmanJoseph CottenTen years after her aunt was murdered in their London home, a woman returns from Italy in the 1880s to resume residence with her new husband. His obsessive interest in the home rises from a secret that may require driving his wife insane.
- DirectorJohn BrahmJohn CromwellAndré De TothStarsAnne BaxterRalph BellamyAline MacMahonA young manipulative woman moves in with her fiancé's family and turns a happy household against itself.
- DirectorAlf SjöbergStarsStig JärrelAlf KjellinMai ZetterlingAn idealistic adolescent suffering under the thumb of a sadistic schoolmaster falls in love with a loose girl who is bullied and tormented by another lover.
- DirectorRichard WhorfStarsEdward ArnoldFrances RaffertyRay CollinsBlind detective Duncan Maclain relies on his working senses to piece together an assortment of clues to solve a case of murder.
- DirectorLance ComfortMutz GreenbaumVictor HanburyStarsJames MasonLucie MannheimRaymond LovellA hunt for a spy, in an hotel in the South of France just before World War Two.
- DirectorBrian Desmond HurstStarsAnne CrawfordDavid FarrarFrederick LeisterAn accountant is forced by circumstances to take a job at the racetrack. He is working at the betting window when he is drawn into a gang of criminals and their illegal schemes.
- DirectorSam NewfieldStarsMary Beth HughesRobert LowellJohn MiljanJames "Jimmy" Wilson, a young man neglected by his parents, goes to work for a bunch of gangsters to impress his nightclub-singer girlfriend.
- DirectorJulien DuvivierStarsJean GabinRichard WhorfAllyn JoslynIn World War 2 an escaped murderer who takes the identity of a dead soldier becomes a hero fighting in Africa, but his past catches up with him.
- DirectorOtto PremingerRouben MamoulianStarsGene TierneyDana AndrewsClifton WebbA police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he is investigating.
- DirectorJohn BrahmStarsLaird CregarMerle OberonGeorge SandersA landlady suspects that her new lodger is Jack the Ripper.
- DirectorWilliam CastleStarsRichard DixJanis CarterPorter HallA drifter claims the money in an old bank account by impersonating someone else with the same name. Soon he finds himself the target of a man who turns out to be the son of the old partner of the impersonated man's father, who caused his partner to do time in prison.
- DirectorLew LandersStarsErich von StroheimJeanne BatesWilliam WrightA stage illusionist's comeback attempt results in his humiliation. He plots to revenge himself by hypnotizing people into committing murders for him.
- DirectorJean NegulescoStarsPeter LorreSydney GreenstreetZachary ScottMystery writer Cornelius Leyden becomes intrigued after the murdered body of a vicious career criminal washes up in the Bosphorus.
- DirectorBudd BoetticherStarsJim BannonJanis CarterGeorge MacreadyIn a major murder case, jurors are threatened and attacked. One of them disappears, and the detective Joe Keats looking for the guilty.
- DirectorBodil IpsenStarsGull-Maj NorinPoul ReichhardtAngelo BruunA woman is found strangled in her shop. Shortly after, another murder is committed. Perhaps the most terrifying is that the both girls' name is Sonja. The police is convinced it's the same killer and at each scene is heard a woman singing the same song. A song which is soon dubbed the 'murder melody'.
- DirectorAnthony AsquithStarsPhyllis CalvertJames MasonWilfrid LawsonReturning to 1870's London after finishing at boarding school, Fanny witnesses the death of her father in a fight with Lord Manderstoke. She then finds that her family has for many years been running a bordello next door to their home. When her mother dies shortly after, she next discovers that her real father is in fact a well-respected politician. Meeting him and then falling in love with his young advisor Harry Somerford leads to a life of ups and downs and conflict between the classes. Periodically the scoundrel of a Lord crosses her path, always to tragic effect.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsRay MillandMarjorie ReynoldsCarl EsmondStephen Neale has just been released from an asylum during World War II in England when he accidentally stumbles onto a deadly Nazi spy plot and tries to stop it.