Lloyd Bridges

Linda Darnell plays a young woman who gets herself sent to a women's prison to be near her husband, a Coast Guard officer convicted of a crime he didn't commit. Inside she finds a population of wives and mothers serving time alongside — and sometimes instead of — the men who dragged them into trouble. Edgar Buchanan and Glenda Farrell lead the ensemble. Sidney Salkow directed this Columbia prison-reform drama at the height of the wartime cycle of women's-prison pictures. The film is in the public domain.

Drama · Crime

A 1953 British film noir directed by Cy Endfield — one of several crime pictures he made in Britain before Zulu (1964). American veteran Frank Prior (Lloyd Bridges) returns to London to rekindle a wartime romance with actress Pauline French (Moira Lister), only to watch the man standing beside him get shot dead by a sniper on the airport tarmac. Drawn into the investigation, Frank discovers his old flame is entangled in blackmail and murder, and the killer — a marksman who walks with a limp — is still out there. The film ends with one of the most infamous rug-pull endings in B-movie history. It is in the public domain.

Crime · Mystery · Thriller

An ex-con noir shot on location in postwar Italy. Frank Keeler (Lloyd Bridges) did four years in a military prison for a payroll robbery and never revealed where he hid the money. Now out, he returns to the small Italian town to recover his loot — but the cash has been moved, his old flame Elena (Lea Padovani) has questions, and the gang he double-crossed is waiting. Directed by W. Lee Wilder (Billy's brother), the film pairs Italian neorealist locations with hard-boiled American crime conventions. Released through United Artists, its copyright was not renewed; it is in the public domain in the United States.

Crime · Drama · Noir

A batch of freshly printed counterfeit bills traced to imprisoned counterfeiter Tris Stewart sends the U.S. Treasury Department scrambling, so agents engineer his escape and turn him loose — betting he will lead them to the engraving plates. Stewart plays both sides, rekindling things with his girlfriend Meg while undercover agent John Downey closes in. Lloyd Bridges is the slippery counterfeiter, with Barbara Payton as Meg and John Hoyt as the agent on his tail. Richard Fleischer directs this lean semi-documentary noir in the style of T-Men, shot on location around Los Angeles. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Crime · Noir · Drama