Film Classics

Leslie Brooks plays Claire Cummings, a society columnist who marries rich and keeps moving up, leaving a trail of dead husbands and a psychologist, played by Robert Paige, who realizes too late what she is. A cold-blooded B noir from poverty-row distributor Film Classics, the film runs its femme fatale premise harder than most A-pictures dared: Claire kills without remorse and without a mitigating backstory. Brooks, usually a musical-comedy blonde, is the whole show here, and director Jack Bernhard keeps the melodrama lean and mean. Neglected for decades, it has since been reclaimed as a minor noir classic. It entered the public domain after its copyright was never renewed.

Noir · Crime · Drama

When his best friend is murdered while pursuing jewel smugglers, U.S. customs agent Cliff Holden (Dean Jagger) takes over the case, flying to Europe to board the same return flight as the chief suspect and following the trail back to a New York gang. John Carradine co-stars as the suave Doc Spencer. Shot almost entirely on New York City locations, C-Man has the gritty, documentary-style look of the independent noirs director Joseph Lerner made with his wife and producing partner Geraldine. The film was produced by Laurel Films and distributed by Film Classics, and is in the public domain.

Noir · Crime · Drama

On a dark train platform, a stranger tells a waiting woman the story of Harold Dunlap — a man who accidentally kills his jilting lover on that very platform and flees to a small town, only to find that a young boy named Mike saw the whole thing. Trapped by flooded roads, Dunlap has to decide what to do about his witness. Directed by prolific B-movie hand Lew Landers and tying into the Inner Sanctum radio and pulp-mystery brand, this hour-long M.R.S. Pictures cheapie stars Charles Russell and Mary Beth Hughes. It is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Crime · Mystery · Noir

Bank robber Steve Clark stashes nearly $200,000 in a safety deposit box and lays low in a small town driving a cab, where he woos and marries Julie Saunders — niece of a wealthy invalid — to give himself the perfect cover. When Julie discovers who her husband really is, she is pulled into a tightening web of greed, blackmail, and murder as the law closes in. Hugh Beaumont, later famous as Ward Cleaver on Leave It to Beaver, plays against type as the cold-blooded killer, with Frances Rafferty as Julie. Directed by B-movie workhorse Sam Newfield. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Crime · Noir · Thriller

In the final days of the Second World War, six women — one from each of the Allied nations — are held captive in a Shanghai hotel by Axis officers developing a "cosmic ray" superweapon they claim could outmatch the atomic bomb. As the Allies close in, the prisoners plot to steal the weapon's plans and turn the tables on their captors. Tala Birell, William Henry, and Richard Loo star in this wartime thriller directed by William Rowland. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

War · Drama · Thriller