Too Late for Tears (1949)

 

Through a fluke circumstance, a ruthless woman stumbles across a suitcase filled with $60,000, and is determined to hold onto it even if it means murder. 

Above-average low-budget Noir thriller gives Lizabeth Scott all the room to present her greedy, ruthless femme fatale character, and it helps that all the guys, especially Dan Duryea's smalltime crook, are weaklings and no match to her ambitions.

Halliwell (no star): "Silly melodrama, poorly cast." 

Maltin**1/2: "Atmospheric but muddled drama...Duryea is at his best as a heavy."

The Twilight Zone: Mr. Denton on Doomsday (1959)

The town drunk in the old-west faces his past when Fate lends a hand.

Nicely staged Western story would have worked just as well without supernatural interference.

Winchester '73 (1950)

The journey of a prized rifle from one ill-fated owner to another parallels a cowboy's search for a murderous fugitive.

Despite an episodic structure this expertly staged and cast Western tells a quite coherent tale that always holds your attention; Stewart is excellent as ever, and so is the cinematography.

Halliwell**: "Entertaining,popular, hard-riding, hard-shooting Western of the school."

Maltin***1/2: "Exceptional Western story...First-rate in every way, this landmark film was largely responsible for renewed popularity of Westerns in the 1950s."

Criss Cross (1949)

An armored truck driver and his lovely ex-wife conspire with a gang to have his own truck robbed on the route.

Dan Duryea

The Woman in the Window (1944)

When a conservative middle-aged professor engages in a minor dalliance with a femme fatale, he is plunged into a nightmarish quicksand of blackmail and murder.

Black Angel (1946)

When a man is convicted of a singer's murder, his wife tries to prove him innocent...aided by the victim's ex-husband.

Exemplary Film Noir gem, and an excellent Cornell Woolrich adaptation, complete with a 'happy ending' that isn't happy at all. 

On second view: Good little Noir thriller, a bit pedestrian, but reaches Woolrich dimensions of dark dread in the finale.

Halliwell*: "Stylish but empty version of a tired theme, interesting for performance and atmosphere."

Ministry of Fear (1944)

A man is released into WWII England after two years in an asylum, but it doesn't seem so sane outside either.

Competent Hitchcock-like espionage thriller with great Noir photography and some surrealist moments.

On a new view: still enjoy this Noir thriller with a sinister, but quite unlikely conspiracy.

Halliwell**: "Little to do with the novel, but a watchable, well-detailed little thriller on Hitchcock lines, once you forgive the usual phoney Hollywood England."

Maltin***: "Atmospheric thriller...; good cast, fines touches by director Lang."