The Movies of 1944: WHEN STRANGERS MARRY

The final installment in my series on the landmark noirs of 1944 looks at William Castle's WHEN STRANGERS MARRY. You can read that now over at Criminal Element. 

The Movies Of 1944: THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW

Check out my new piece on Fritz Lang's THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW over at Criminal Element, the latest addition to my series on the key noir films of 1944. 

The Movies Of 1944: PHANTOM LADY

PHANTOM LADY is probably the least well-known of the landmark noirs released in 1944, but in some ways it's the most important because it initiated the full-on noir phase of director Robert Siodmak's career. You can read about this great film in my new essay over at Criminal Element.  

The Movies of 1944: MURDER, MY SWEET

Check out my new piece on MURDER, MY SWEET over at Criminal Element, the latest addition to my series on the key noir films of 1944. 

The Movies of 1944: LAURA

Check out my new piece on LAURA over at Criminal Element, the latest in my series on the key film noirs of 1944.

The Movies Of 1944: DOUBLE INDEMNITY

This year film noir turns 70. While there had been some intermittent films leading up to the birth of the classic noir, in 1944 the dahlia bloomed with six key films: DOUBLE INDEMINTY, LAURA, MURDER MY SWEET, PHANTOM LADY, WHEN STRANGERS MARRY, and THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW. In these films you have many of the key figures in noir making some of their first forays into the genre (directors Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger, Fritz Lang, and Robert Siodmak; writers Raymond Chandler, Cornell Woolrich, Vera Caspary, Phillip Yordan; actors Robert Mitchum, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Bennett, Dana Andrews—just to name a few). This onslaught of darkness came in the wake of the bleakest days (from the American perspective, anyway) of WWII. The basis of many of these films were older properties but it is the way these films came out—physically darker, psychologically denser, and ultimately more pessimistic—that marks the real birth of film noir. Over at Criminal Element I'm kicking off a new series which will explore these six landmark films.

First up DOUBLE INDEMNITY.