FILM-NOIR Watchlist: 1941
Films I have yet to and want to watch.
List activity
16 views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
40 titles
- DirectorBernard B. RayStarsJune StoreyNeil HamiltonDouglas FowleyOut to prove that Hester is not a murderer, detectives Phyllis and Duke Maratindel try to stay one step ahead of the police as they track down the real killer.
- DirectorEdward KayeStarsBetty CompsonMargaret MarquisRobert KellardA pair of nightclub owners run a string of escort bureaus where men pay for the "companionship" of young women. The district attorney sends an undercover agent to infiltrate the bureaus.
- DirectorLawrence HuntingtonStarsWilfrid LawsonMovitaMichael RennieA British secret agent in Germany takes a job as the assistant to an elderly lighthouse keeper, planning to make his escape with some valuable documents when a British boat arrives to pick them up.
- DirectorMervyn LeRoyStarsEdward G. RobinsonLaraine DayEdward ArnoldA tough, ambitious newspaperman starts a new tabloid in 1919 New York, with a crooked big-time gambler as a partner.
- DirectorLewis D. CollinsStarsAlan BaxterFlorence RiceConstance WorthRoger Andrews, an assistant district attorney, is the accidental hero of a police capture that results in his appointment by crooked civic leaders as a special prosecutor assigned to smash a crime ring. The crooked politicians, in an effort to cover their own tracks, work to turn public sympathy against him but, aided by newspaper-reporter Ann Thompson and informant Carol Turner, he adopts gangland's own methods in getting a confession for the ring's hired killer.
- DirectorWilliam K. HowardStarsJoan PerryRoger PryorAnthony QuinnA detective (Roger Pryor) courts a gangster's (Anthony Quinn) ex-wife (Joan Perry) to lure him into a trap.
- DirectorEugene FordeStarsLloyd NolanConstance MooreAlbert DekkerWith the gang business washed up, Rickey Deane, suave first lieutenant to racketeer Chink Moran, and Louie Lanzer, a has-been fighter with itchy fingers, decide to take a peaceful vacation in the country. They are followed by three hard-boiled characters, Fingers, Ziggy and Crusher. Ricky, thinking they are to be rubbed out for deserting Chink, who has been drafted into the Army, stops his car and confronts them. But they merely want to ask Ricky to be their new boss. He declines but promises to call them sometime if the need arises. They are speeding through a Connecticut village and are stopped by yokel Constable Sam Smedley. Judge Paradise, with his daughter Virginia as court clerk, fines them $5.00 each, plus $37 costs - or 30 days in jail. They, while waiting to hear from Jimmy's lawyer, are taken to the cells and are amazed to find the tumbledown jail wide open, with prisoners walking in and out. The door won't lock. The judge explains to Jimmy that Middle Village is unincorporated and broke, its sole income being traffic fines. The town's bonds, for everything from the houses to the village pump, are owned in New York. He also adds that anyone in jail in an unincorporated village is safe from the outside law - Federal,State and City. Ricky, fine paid, hustles back to New York and buys the town bonds for $40,000. Back in Middle Village, Ricky starts the ball rolling; he retains Judge Paradise, sends for Fingers, Ziggy and Crusher, and renovates the jail into a luxurious club. His lawyer then starts a stream of "customers on the lam" who pay $1000 a week for the comfort and protection of the Middle Village Jail. New fire chief Crusher, police chief Ziggy and the others board with Henrietta, a maiden lady with aspirations of becoming a gun moll. She also startles them with her collection of wanted posters, their pictures among them. Louie and Henrietta fall for each other. Virginia, in love with Ricky, tries to talk him into doing big things for the town, such as reopening its one-and-only factory. Ricky agrees when the Army offers a defense contract for shell casings. Meanwhile, Chink has gotten out of the Army and buys Louie's half interest in Middle Village. He tells the "boys" they are suckers for letting Ricky spend the jail "take" on civic improvements and he plans to wreck the factory deal.
- DirectorRobert FloreyStarsJohn GarfieldNancy ColemanRaymond MasseyAfter a traffic accident involving a taxi in New York City, the Jane Doe passenger is brought into the hospital She is physically all right but is suffering from retrograde amnesia from the accident. She is assigned under the care of Dr. Michael Lewis, an intern at the hospital, as he is doing research on such amnesia cases. It isn't until a Mr. Goodwin comes to the hospital, claiming that she is his daughter Jane, that she remembers who she is and the situation: Jane Greystone working for British Intelligence. She was in the process of being kidnapped by the taxi driver as she has information on the location of British war ships that the Nazis are trying to obtain. She figures the taxi driver and Mr. Goodwin are working for the Nazis. She has to try and convince Mike of who she is and that both their lives are in danger, especially as she requires his help in getting out of this predicament. Mike is torn in believing her and thinking she has an overactive imagination due to the trauma, which is only complicated when Goodwin brings in his own medical specialist, Dr. Ingersoll, who just happens to be Mike's former mentor, but who is working for the Nazis. Mike's primary concern is Jane's well-being, especially as he starts to fall for her, as they get into greater danger at the hands of, among others, Dr. Ingersoll.
- DirectorAlbert H. KelleyStarsKane RichmondPauline MooreWynne GibsonWhen a cop is shot dead during a raid, and another is mistakenly shot for killing him, his fellow officer friend goes undercover on his own to bust up the criminal's operation.
- DirectorHarold HuthStarsJudy CampbellSebastian ShawNiall MacGinnisThe homicidal maniac,who is strangling young women in London's West Side, is being sought by both Scotland Yard and a young reporter/writer, Penny Sutton. She had found one of the murder victims and had set out to get the story for both her newspaper, and for the thriller yarns she writes. The trail leads to an eccentric millionaire living under an assumed name. Penny uncovers enough evidence to convict the man, but a new clue turns up in time to save him and unmask the real killer.
- DirectorWilliam BeaudineStarsNeil HamiltonDoris DayVictor VarconiSpotting a man in Washington D.C. that he thinks looks like Otto Lieberman, a fugitive that caused a plane crash that killed eight people, government-agent James Madison manages to identify him by his fingerprints on a water-glass without Lieberman's knowledge, and learns his address after having his regular cab-driver, Chuck, follow him. Lieberman is now calling himself Dr. Frederic Haskell and working with Bruce Lane on a scheme to gain control of Henry Gregory's aircraft plant. Gregory has invented a casting-process that uses plastic for some of the parts in an airplane. Gregory was not building "all-plastic" airplanes. Learning the Lieberman and Lane have met with Gregory, Madison also meets him and asks that he be introduced to them as Robert Edmunds, Gregory's partner in Los Angeles. Lane is a shady-lobbyist who employs Rita Bennett, who is not an operative for a spy ring, on a part-time basis to flatter and distract politicians and businessmen. Rita is a good girl at heart moonlighting between singing gigs. Madison has digestion problems and pops sodium-meth pills like they were candy and Lieberman, once he learns that Madison is a government agent, slips a poison one in his pill bottle that will cure his digestive-problems forever. Rita is on her way to warn him when she jaywalks across the street and gets hit by a car, and is taken to a hospital, while Madison is wandering around Baltimore, playing Russian-roulette with his pills, while looking for the German-agent and his Russian and Portugese pals.
- DirectorVincent ShermanStarsGeraldine FitzgeraldThomas MitchellJeffrey LynnAn elderly professor suffering from an aortic aneurysm confronts the problem of what to do knowing that he only has a few months to live.
- DirectorEdward BuzzellRichard RossonStarsRobert SterlingCharles WinningerDonna ReedA G-man is sent to prison to befriend a suspected robbery ringleader and then helps him break out to gain his confidence.
- DirectorElmer CliftonStarsJack La RueMary HealyKane RichmondVic is a night club owner/racketeer whose club is run primarily for the purpose of the club girls marrying the rich blue bloods among the customers, leading to annulments leading to cash settlements and/or blackmail.
- DirectorWilliam C. McGannStarsBrenda MarshallArthur KennedyWilliam LundiganClaire Foster (Brenda Marshall) discovers that her respectable-businessman husband George Foster (Arthur Kennedy) isn't respectable and isn't a businessman, but a gunman in this remake-version of "Heat Lightning".
- DirectorBernard VorhausStarsRay MiddletonJane WyattHarry DavenportRodeo rider Hurricane Smith is wrongly convicted of murder and robbery, but escapes and creates a new and happy life for himself. But one of the real criminals shows up to claim the loot which he believes Smith has.
- DirectorElmer CliftonStarsRose HobartMichael WhalenStanley FieldsAs Freddie and Lugger, employees of Bovhini, are waiting in the parking lot of the Club Sirocco for Ruth Parmelee, they see a woman accost Ruth and then shoot her and speed away in a car. Bochini, who has loved Ruth, vows revenge. Mordecai Breen is devoting his life to welfare work among the city's needy, and publishes a small newspaper called "The Friend in Need," assisted by his former prize fighter friend, Happy Hogan. An advertisement headed "I'll Buy Your Life" appears in the paper and Breen decides to investigate. At the address given, the swanky Alhambra Arms apartments, Breen learns that the advertiser is Alfred Darnell, an orchestra leader and writer of detective stories. A number of girls answer the ad, but Dale Leyden, after being interviewed by Darnell and Velencia Duncan, is the successful applicant. As she leaves, Breen tells her that if she should find herself in the need of any assistance, to let him know. Dale tells her blind musician brother Philip that an uncle who formerly lived in South America has left them twenty thousand dollars. Meanwhile, back to the original story, Breen calls on his friend, Police Lieutenant Hammer, who shows Breen the evidence from the Parmelee murder: a pearl pendant from a bracelet, a piece of sequin from a woman's gown and part of a heel from an evening slipper. Dale calls on Breen, tells him her name is Mary Jones and gives him an envelope. When he is notified that Mary Jones is dead, he is to open the envelope that contains two letters. If he receives the sum of $18,000, he is to open the first letter and deliver the money to the name and address given, and destroy the second letter without opening it. If he doesn't get the money, he is to open the second letter and see that justice is done. Is Mary giving her life to take a fall for the killer of Ruth Permelee in exchange for money to provide an operation for her blind brother? Highly probable. Is the plot plausible? Highly improbable. Did Elmer Clifton direct worse films. Quite often.
- DirectorRobert B. SinclairStarsRobert SterlingMarsha HuntVirginia WeidlerA gangster (Robert Sterling) hides out on a farm and falls for the farmer's daughter (Marsha Hunt).
- DirectorLew LandersStarsRichard ArlenAndy DevineDorothy LovettA triad of rival news journalist go to great lengths in sabotaging each other, but come together as heroes when they're unwittingly embroiled in a sinister foreign intelligence plot to blow up a dam.
- DirectorBernard VorhausStarsJames EllisonVirginia GilmoreFranklin PangbornAssistant District Attorney P. Cadwallader Jones (James Ellison) and his sweetheart Terry Parker (Virginia Gilmore), a newspaper reporter, are about to be married when news comes that newspaper publisher Elliott Carter (Bradley Page) has been murdered. The marriage is postponed, and Jones is assigned to the case by his superior, District Attorney Winton (Paul Harvey) and obtains a conviction in court against Andrew Belmont (John Eldredge). Terry, however, discovers further evidence and Jones agrees to re-open the case.
- DirectorSam WhiteStarsRochelle HudsonBruce BennettRoger PryorHelen Regan (Rochelle Hudson) is the daughter of a crippled ex-police officer whose disability makes her hesitant about getting romantically involved with policeman Bob Condon (Bruce Bennett). But her doubts are shelved after Bob rescues her and her father, Dan Regan (Oscar O'Shea) from Blake Standish (Sidney Blackmier), an escaped convict seeking revenge.
- DirectorRalph MurphyStarsRobert PrestonMartha O'DriscollPhilip MerivaleWhile bombers roar overhead during a practice blackout in a large American West coast city, Robert Draper, is among the prisoners in a police van. The inventor of a new range finder for anti-aircraft guns, he has been sentenced to death for the murder of his co-worker, Tom Manton, on the perjured testimony of night club singer Marie Duval, despite character evidence given in his favor by John Ronnel. Draper escapes when the van is in an accident and seeks refuge in a park, where he runs into telephone operator Mary Jones who decides to help him. They go to a garage where they cut the chain holding Draper's wrists together, and then to a hotel where they register as brother and sister. Draper telephones Ronnel, sure he is the only man who can establish his innocence. Ronnel, however, anonymously, telephones the police and Draper and Mary barely escape. Draper, knowing that Marie has information that can clear him, goes to the club where she works and finds her murdered.
- DirectorHarold S. BucquetStarsEdward ArnoldLionel BarrymoreMarsha HuntThe son of a murderer is entangled in his father's crimes and is sentenced to a rehabilitive farm, where he learns a new way of life.
- DirectorPhil RosenStarsJean ParkerWallace FordJed ProutyWhile on their honeymoon, a reporter and his new bride stumble upon a ring of fifth columnists.
- DirectorNorman FosterStarsNancy KellyEdmund GwennJohn LoderInspector Cork pursues a bank robber who serves in the army and receives facial injuries. After plastic surgery he shows up as a bank president planning an enormous robbery.
- DirectorS. Sylvan SimonStarsRed SkeltonConrad VeidtAnn RutherfordRadio crime show host 'The Fox' along with his fiancée and ex-girlfriend are kidnapped by a larcenous cult who demand that he help them plan a perfect murder.
- DirectorLawrence HuntingtonStarsJames MasonMary ClareMargaret VynerJames Mason as a private detective, whose father is a Scotland Yard man, takes a case involving extortion and kidnapping. A young girl is kidnapped from a nursing home and he advises the girl's father not to pay the ransom. After several near-misses on his life, he learns that the doctor in charge of the nursing home has been taken prisoner by the kidnappers. And then the wicket gets stiff or stuffy, or whatever wickets do.
- DirectorFrank McDonaldStarsChester MorrisJean ParkerRose HobartThe first of three Pine-Thomas productions for Chester Morris finds him as wise-cracking private detective Humphrey Campbell who impresses his boss, Oscar Flack, no end by not only finding a missing girl but also marrying her in the process. So Flack sends him to celebrate his honeymoon in the Divorce Capital of the world, Reno, Nevada, to find a missing man. Along the way, in a mixture of big city crime and old-west settings, Humphrey encounters a large assortment of suspicious characters, all of whom are also suspicious of the others. A comedy that also includes some killings along the way.
- DirectorHoward BrethertonStarsFrankie DarroKay SuttonMantan MorelandAn elevator operator and a janitor team up to solve two murders that may be connected to an illegal gambling operation.
- DirectorWilliam NighStarsMarjorie ReynoldsCharles QuigleyMalcolm 'Bud' McTaggartPRC - Marjorie Reynolds, Charles Quigley, Ward McTaggart, Kenneth Harlan, Donald Curtis. When Reynolds becomes engaged to the local DA, played by Quigley, her former boyfriend gangster shows up. The gangster later ends up shot! However, whos to blame? The finger would seem to point at Marjorie. Nifty PRC crime. 16mm
- DirectorJohn RawlinsStarsLloyd NolanIrene HerveyJ. Carrol NaishA ball player takes his girlfriend to a carnival, only to discover a ring of saboteurs.
- DirectorEugene FordeStarsLloyd NolanLynn BariMary Beth HughesMike Shayne tries to distinguish criminals from red herrings as he escorts a surprise witness via rail to a high profile trial in San Francisco.
- DirectorJean YarbroughStarsFrankie DarroMarcia Mae JonesJackie MoranTwo friends take jobs as truck drivers, unaware that the trucking company is being targeted by a gang of saboteurs who will stop at nothing, including murder, to stop them.
- DirectorMax NosseckStarsCecilia ParkerRoger PryorRobert BaldwinA couple of rich girls at a private boarding school find themselves mixed up in gambling and blackmail, and must steal from their parents to pay their gambling debts.
- DirectorJoseph H. LewisStarsEric LindenAnn DoranConstance WorthA scientist is murdered by foreign agents after having developed a powerful new explosive. The scientist's brother, an army corporal, goes AWOL to discover the identities of the killers. Army intelligence officers are looking for him, as they believe he has a list of scientists who helped his brother develop the new weapon, putting them in danger. The spy ring is also after him, but they want the list for a different reason.
- DirectorFrank WoodruffStarsDennis O'KeefeJudith AndersonFrances E. NealLieutenant Bill Mason (Dennis O'Keefe) pursues a Chicago gang to New York City, unaware that its scar-cheeked leader, Slade (Dame Judith Anderson), is a woman.
- DirectorAnthony AsquithStarsLeslie BanksAlastair SimJeanne De CasalisAllied spies and Nazi Agents insinuate themselves at a Scottish cottage (converted to a wartime hospital) with interests on an inventor's nearly perfected bomb sight.
- DirectorTim WhelanStarsGeorge BrentIlona MasseyBasil RathboneThe film opens with a German air raid over the skies of London, and moves to the attempts of the F.B.I. and Scotland Yard investigators trying to circumvent the attempts of a sabotage ring dedicated to impeding the flow of American airplanes and flying fortresses to Britain (on FDR's Lend-Lease program since the United States was not yet at war with Germany and Italy.) Tim Hanley is an American agent, posing as a lawyer connected with the United States Embassy in London, and Reggie Oliver, a Scotland Yard detective, posing as a music critic, who has a hard time understanding American slang, are keeping their eye on Carla Nillson, a famous singer, whom they suspect of espionage. They all meet in London, then in Lisbon, and eventually in New York City, where Carla sings on the radio under the auspices and sponsorship of Sidney Grenner, a wealthy candy manufacturer, who is in reality the head of the sabotage gang. Miss Nillson may or may not know that some of the songs she sings over the radio are in code, and give instructions to the enemy operatives about airplane shipments to England. And even if she doesn't know, will she still be implicated and subject to being arrested by Tim, with whom she has fallen in love? And if she is arrested, will Tim be waiting for her after the Allies defeat the Nazis?
- DirectorJames P. HoganStarsRalph BellamyMargaret LindsayCharley GrapewinThe benefactor of the Stack Memorial Hospital dies after an operation. Ellery Queen investigates when it is revealed the cause of death was murder by strangulation.
- DirectorElmer CliftonStarsAnn CorioJack La RueMary HullInto the vast swamplands hurry three people; honky tonk dancer Annabelle Tollington (Ann Corio), cheap promoter "Flash" Bland (Jay Novello) trying to catch Annabelle, and escaping convict Jeff Carter (Richard Deane), only a few steps ahead of the bloodhounds of Police Lieutenant Rance (Ian MacDonald). Jeff reaches the cabin of Lizbet Tollington (Mary Hull), Annabelle's niece, and fiancée of trapper Pete Oliver (Jack La Rue), Annabelle's ex-sweetheart. Lizbet, seeing Jeff in the mirror as she tries on her wedding gown, believes him to be the man she will eventually marry, as stipulated in an old proverb of the swamps. She hides Jeff from the law. Annabelle, determined to break Lizbet's engagement to Pete, tells him that Lizbet is hiding a man in her cabin. The enraged Pete cools off when he realizes that Lizbet loves Jeff and determines to help him. Rance arrives and recognizes Annabelle as "The Swamp Woman" of the honky tonk, whose testimony saved "Flash" from a prison sentence on the murder charge that sent the innocent Jeff to the chain gang. Rance locates Lizbet's cabin and arrests Jeff. "Flash" comes out of hiding to talk to Annabelle. Having experienced a gradual regeneration through the efforts of Pete, Annabelle makes "Flash" admit to her that he was the actual killer. Jeff is cleared of the crime and remains to marry Lizbet, while Pete and Annabelle resume their old romance. Corio keeps all of her clothes on most of the time, and most of her clothes on all the time. Sorry.