Born to Kill (1947)

Born to Kill (1947)

starring Lawrence Tierney, Claire Trevor, Walter Slezak

directed by Robert Wise

screenplay based on the novel Deadlier than the Male by James Gunn

Helen Brent (Claire Trevor) is getting ready to leave Reno, after getting divorced, when an acquaintance gets murdered. She finds the body but decides against notifying the police and heads to the train station where she crosses paths with Sam (Lawrence Tierney), the killer, for the second time. She met him earlier that night in a casino. He was throwing dice. She first bet on him and then she bet against him.

Helen and Sam are both headed to San Francisco. They spend the train trip together. Sam is interested in staying in touch but Helen doesn't seem to feel the same. Helen returns to the home where she lives with Georgia, her foster sister. It isn't long before Sam shows up. He takes an interest in Georgia when he finds out that Helen is engaged and that her sister is single and rich.

Too Late for Tears (1949)

starring Lizabeth Scott, Dan Duryea, Don DeFore

directed by Byron Haskin

Jane (Lizabeth Scott) and Alan (Arthur Kennedy), her husband, are driving home late one night when someone throws a bag containing $60,000 into their car. They argue about what to do with the money. He wants to turn it over to the police. She wants to keep it. He takes it to the train station where he puts it in storage in a piece of luggage.

Danny Fuller (Dan Duryea), the man who the money belongs to comes after Jane. He insists that she return the money to him. She tries to play stupid but he sees through her scam. She doesn't want to give up the money to Danny or the police.

The story takes a turn for the melodramatic when Jane and Alan go on a date the next night. She has his gun. Alan finds out she has his gun. They fight over it, the gun fires, killing Alan. Jane gets Danny to help her dispose of the body.

Jane's situation is complicated by a number of factors. Kathy (Kristine Miller), Alan's sister, lives across the hall from them and becomes suspicious when Jane starts acting like Alan ran off and left her. Jane has trouble finding the claim ticket for the bag that is in storage. Don Blake (Don DeFore), an old friend of Alan's, shows up and starts asking questions about his missing friend. Things quickly spiral out of control.

Pitfall (1948)

starring Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Jane Wyman, Raymond Burr

directed by Andre de Toth

John Forbes (Dick Powell) works for the Olympic Mutual Insurance Company. He meets Mona Stevens (Lizabeth Scott) while he is working a case. She received gifts that were bought with stolen money. Forbes is there to take back the gifts. He winds up spending the rest of the day with her. She takes him out on a motor boat that Smiley bought her. They go for drinks and dinner after a spin on the boat.

Detour (1945)

Starring Tom Neal, Ann Savage
Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer

Al Roberts girlfriend leaves him to move from New York City to Los Angeles. They were about to get married. She felt that she had to do it for the sake of her career as a singer. He's heartsick without her and eventually decides to hitchhike his way across the country with the hopes of reigniting their relationship.

He makes it as far as Arizona before things turn sour. He gets a ride from a guy who identifies himself as Charles Haskell. Roberts impression of Haskell is that he's a rough character. Haskell tells him some stories that help to bolster that impression. The two men get along well enough as they continue to head for Los Angeles. Haskell has offered to take him the rest of the way there.

The Big Combo (1955)

Starring Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte
Directed by Joseph Lewis

Police Lieutenant Leonard Diamond (Wilde) seeks to take down Mr. Brown (Conte), the head of the local mob. Susan Lowell (Jean Wallace), Brown's girlfriend is caught in the middle. She doesn't like the way Brown treats her but she is unwilling to testify against him. Diamond doesn't have anything on Brown until Lowell attempts to commit suicide. While she is in the hospital she mumbles a name, Alicia, which Diamond overhears. The name leads him on a hunt to discover who Alicia is and what happened to her.

I Wake Up Screaming (1941)

Starring Betty Grable, Victor Mature, Carol Landis
Directed by Bruce Humberstone

Frankie Christopher (Mature) is accused of murdering Vicky Lynn (Landis). He was found standing over the body by Jill Lynn (Grable) her sister. NYPD Detective Ed Cornell (Laird Cregar) ignores evidence that indicates someone else murdered Vicky. He continues to investigate the case as if Frankie is the lead suspect.

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)

Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott, and Kirk Douglas
Directed by Lewis Milestone

Sam (Van Heflin) accidentally stops in the town where he grew up, a town that he hasn't seen since he left 18 years before. He meets Toni (Lizabeth Scott), a woman fresh out of prison, and looks up an old acquaintance Walter O'Neil (Kirk Douglas) who is now the district attorney. He soon discovers that his old friends, including Martha Ivers (Barbara Stanwyck), the woman with whom he had planned to run away when they were teens, aren't too happy to see him.

Martha and Walter are now married. She doesn't seem terribly happy or in love with Walter. She seems more interested in Sam and is concerned (as is Walter) that he has returned to town to blackmail them. Toni is caught of the middle of all this just as Sam is caught in the middle of the unhappily married couple.

Dead Reckoning (1947)

Starring Humphrey Bogart, Lizabeth Scott
Directed by John Cromwell

Rip Murdock (Bogart) heads to Gulf City in search of a friend who went AWOL after they returned from WWII. The friend turns up dead but Murdock still wants to know why he disappeared and what his connection is to Dusty Chandler (Scott), an old flame of his friend. Rip finds out that his friend was wanted for murder, for killing Chandler's husband, before he enlisted. Before you know it Rip is trying to clean up the mess by taking on the owner of a nightclub and falling hard for Dusty.

Is this movie great? No. It feels kind of slapped together. the elements are all there but it just doesn't do it for me the way I want it to. The only people I would recommend it to are completists of one sort or another who want to see every noir film or every Humphrey Bogart movie or something else along those lines.