Pearls of British film noir (Perlas del cine negro británico)
by colagold | created - 29 Sep 2020 | updated - 12 Mar 2021 | PublicRevista "Dirigido por"
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1. They Drive by Night (1938)
84 min | Crime, Thriller
A convict, just out of prison, is implicated in a murder and goes on the run, hitching a ride with a truck driver.
Director: Arthur B. Woods | Stars: Emlyn Williams, Anna Konstam, Allan Jeayes, Ernest Thesiger
Votes: 365
2. Appointment with Crime (1946)
Unrated | 90 min | Crime, Drama
An ex-con, released after imprisonment for a jewel theft, swears vengeance on his former accomplices and devises an intricate plan to steal their fortune.
Director: John Harlow | Stars: William Hartnell, Robert Beatty, Joyce Howard, Raymond Lovell
Votes: 344
3. Wanted for Murder (1946)
Approved | 103 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A woman becomes the target of a man who is gradually becoming insane, unable to resist his urge to strangle women to death, but who appears to be purposely leaving pieces of evidence behind.
Director: Lawrence Huntington | Stars: Eric Portman, Dulcie Gray, Derek Farr, Roland Culver
Votes: 805
4. Dancing with Crime (1947)
Not Rated | 83 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A London cab driver gets mixed up with a criminal gang and sets out to expose the group and its leader for what they are.
Director: John Paddy Carstairs | Stars: Richard Attenborough, Barry K. Barnes, Sheila Sim, Garry Marsh
Votes: 485
5. Take My Life (1947)
79 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Philippa Shelley races against time to clear her husband Nicholas Talbot of a murder he did not commit. While she works on getting proof, the prosecution is doing all it can to force a conviction.
Director: Ronald Neame | Stars: Hugh Williams, Greta Gynt, Leo Bieber, Marjorie Mars
Votes: 429
6. No Orchids for Miss Blandish (1948)
Approved | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
John Blandish is worth $100 million. His heiress daughter is soon to be wed to Foster Harvey, who believes she's a cold, unfeeling woman, despite loving her. Her cold emotional state is in ... See full summary »
Director: St. John Legh Clowes | Stars: Jack La Rue, Hugh McDermott, Linden Travers, Walter Crisham
Votes: 761
7. Man on the Run (1949)
82 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
In post-war Britain, an army deserter unwittingly gets involved in murder and armed robbery and enlists the aid of a war widow to help clear his name.
Director: Lawrence Huntington | Stars: Derek Farr, Joan Hopkins, Edward Chapman, Laurence Harvey
Votes: 448
8. Silent Dust (1949)
82 min | Drama
A wealthy blind man is determined to build a cricket pavilion as a memorial to his dead son, who was killed in battle in World War II. Not long before the dedication ceremony is to be held,... See full summary »
Director: Lance Comfort | Stars: Sally Gray, Stephen Murray, Derek Farr, Nigel Patrick
Votes: 265
9. Double Confession (1950)
80 min | Crime, Drama
After his wife is murdered, the husband tries to divert suspicion from himself to someone else. Unfortunately, his scheme winds up getting him mixed up with some real murderers.
Director: Ken Annakin | Stars: Derek Farr, Joan Hopkins, Peter Lorre, William Hartnell
Votes: 424
10. The Clouded Yellow (1950)
Approved | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A former British agent is employed at the Fenton country estate where he aids Fenton's niece in eluding the police after she's unjustly accused of murdering a local gamekeeper.
Director: Ralph Thomas | Stars: Jean Simmons, Trevor Howard, Sonia Dresdel, Barry Jones
Votes: 985
11. High Treason (1951)
90 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A wave of sabotage has been sweeping England, taking lives and creating instability. Cmdr. Robert Brennan and Supt. Folland of the Special Branch and Major Elliott of MI5 are charged with putting an end to this internal terrorism.
Director: Roy Boulting | Stars: Liam Redmond, André Morell, Kenneth Griffith, Anthony Bushell
Votes: 409
12. Desperate Moment (1953)
88 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Simon Van Halder (Sir Dirk Bogarde) is accused of murdering a British soldier during post-World War II mayhem. His girlfriend works on his behalf to expose the true villain.
Director: Compton Bennett | Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Mai Zetterling, Philip Friend, Albert Lieven
Votes: 214
13. The Limping Man (1953)
Approved | 76 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An American WWII veteran goes back to England after the war only to discover that his wartime sweetheart has got mixed up with a dangerous spy ring.
Director: Cy Endfield | Stars: Lloyd Bridges, Moira Lister, Alan Wheatley, Leslie Phillips
Votes: 719
14. The Long Memory (1953)
Approved | 96 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Released from prison after twelve years, a wrongfully convicted British man seeks revenge on the witnesses who lied at his trial.
Director: Robert Hamer | Stars: John Mills, John McCallum, Elizabeth Sellars, Eva Bergh
Votes: 1,286
15. Cast a Dark Shadow (1955)
Approved | 82 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller
Edward "Teddy" Bare is a delusional psychotic with a lust for wealth, older women and murder. Having committed what he thinks is the perfect murder of his elderly wife; Teddy sets his sights on new targets when her fortune goes elsewhere.
Director: Lewis Gilbert | Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Margaret Lockwood, Kay Walsh, Kathleen Harrison
Votes: 3,124
16. The Brain Machine (1955)
Approved | 84 min | Crime, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A doctor is taken hostage by a drug smuggler whom she has diagnosed as psychotic. Her estranged husband has to find her before the smuggling gang find him and kill them both.
Director: Ken Hughes | Stars: Patrick Barr, Elizabeth Allan, Maxwell Reed, Vanda Godsell
Votes: 165
17. The Glass Tomb (1955)
Not Rated | 59 min | Mystery
Crowds flock to a carnival sideshow to see "The Starving Man", a heavyset man who claims he can go 70 days without eating. However, a couple of murders occur at the carnival, resulting in the police becoming involved.
Director: Montgomery Tully | Stars: John Ireland, Honor Blackman, Geoffrey Keen, Eric Pohlmann
Votes: 334
18. Eyewitness (1956)
82 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Lucy Church, the sole witness to a fatal robbery, is struck by a passing bus and her life lies in the balance as the thieves wait for a chance to finish her off.
Director: Muriel Box | Stars: Donald Sinden, Muriel Pavlow, Belinda Lee, Michael Craig
Votes: 339
19. Yield to the Night (1956)
Not Rated | 99 min | Crime, Drama
Woman abused by men meets a man she thinks loves her. He cheats, she kills his mistress. Based on Ruth Ellis, last woman executed in Britain. Less than
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: Diana Dors, Yvonne Mitchell, Michael Craig, Marie Ney
Votes: 1,482
20. The Third Key (1956)
Not Rated | 96 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The sleuths of Scotland Yard try to solve a series of burglaries.
Director: Charles Frend | Stars: Jack Hawkins, John Stratton, Dorothy Alison, Michael Brooke
Votes: 1,376
21. The Circle (1957)
84 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
When Dr. Howard Latimer finds the German actress that he had just met at London Airport murdered in his flat. It leads him into the world of murder, blackmail, and a fake passport scam.
Director: Gerald Thomas | Stars: John Mills, Derek Farr, Noelle Middleton, Wilfrid Hyde-White
Votes: 767
22. Witness in the Dark (1959)
62 min | Thriller
An elderly woman is murdered by a thief, with the only witness a blind girl whom the killer returns to silence permanently.
Director: Wolf Rilla | Stars: Patricia Dainton, Conrad Phillips, Madge Ryan, Nigel Green
Votes: 289
23. I Promised to Pay (1961)
94 min | Crime, Drama
A gang plans to steal a factory's wages, but an armored van foils them. They rob anyway, killing the driver. His vengeful wife and encroaching police make the gang betray each other.
Director: Sidney Hayers | Stars: Michael Craig, Françoise Prévost, Billie Whitelaw, William Lucas
Votes: 894
24. Dead on Course (1952)
Not Rated | 73 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
When his girlfriend's brother's cargo plane is lost at sea, nagging questions arise, and pilot Richard Van Ness gets caught in a web of blackmail and smuggling.
Director: Terence Fisher | Stars: Zachary Scott, Robert Beatty, Naomi Chance, Arthur Lane
Votes: 328
25. Man in Hiding (1953)
Approved | 73 min | Crime, Mystery
A wrongly convicted murderer escapes prison to find the real killer.
Director: Terence Fisher | Stars: Paul Henreid, Lois Maxwell, Kieron Moore, Hugh Sinclair
Votes: 229
26. Three Stops to Murder (1953)
76 min | Crime, Drama
Discharged by his employer, a private eye stays on a jewel theft case after a model with information for him is murdered.
Director: Terence Fisher | Stars: Tom Conway, Mila Parély, Naomi Chance, Eric Pohlmann
Votes: 188
27. The Unholy Four (1954)
Approved | 80 min | Drama, Mystery
A man on a fishing trip with three of his friends receives a blow to the head that makes him lose his memory. Three years later it all comes back to him, but on the day it does one of the men who was on the trip with him turns up dead.
Director: Terence Fisher | Stars: Paulette Goddard, William Sylvester, Patrick Holt, Paul Carpenter
Votes: 475
28. The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)
Approved | 78 min | Comedy, Crime
A meek bank clerk who oversees the shipment of bullion joins with an eccentric neighbor to steal gold bars and smuggle them out of the country as miniature Eiffel Towers.
Director: Charles Crichton | Stars: Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway, Sidney James, Alfie Bass
Votes: 15,564
29. The Girl in the News (1940)
Not Rated | 78 min | Crime, Thriller
Nurse Anne is acquitted of murder after her patient has died under suspicious circumstances. Changing her name, she gets a position nursing Edward Bentley who soon dies of what appears to be a copycat murder. Again Anne is arrested.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Margaret Lockwood, Barry K. Barnes, Emlyn Williams, Roger Livesey
Votes: 351
30. Green for Danger (1946)
Not Rated | 91 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
After the nurse who declares that a recent surgical death was a murder also dies, an enigmatic Scotland Yard inspector arrives to investigate.
Director: Sidney Gilliat | Stars: Alastair Sim, Sally Gray, Trevor Howard, Leo Genn
Votes: 5,619
31. Dear Murderer (1947)
Not Rated | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A businessman plans to kill his cheating wife's lover and make it look like suicide.
Director: Arthur Crabtree | Stars: Eric Portman, Greta Gynt, Dennis Price, Maxwell Reed
Votes: 1,114
32. It Always Rains on Sunday (1947)
92 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
An escaped convict tries to hide out at his former lover's house, but she has since married and is reluctant to help him.
Director: Robert Hamer | Stars: Googie Withers, Jack Warner, John McCallum, Edward Chapman
Votes: 2,380 | Gross: $0.01M
33. Odd Man Out (1947)
Approved | 116 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A wounded Irish nationalist leader attempts to evade police following a failed robbery in Belfast.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: James Mason, Robert Newton, Cyril Cusack, F.J. McCormick
Votes: 11,423
34. Brighton Rock (1948)
Not Rated | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
In Brighton in 1935, small-time gang leader Pinkie Brown murders a journalist and later desperately tries to cover his tracks but runs into trouble with the police, a few witnesses, and a rival gang.
Director: John Boulting | Stars: Richard Attenborough, Hermione Baddeley, William Hartnell, Harcourt Williams
Votes: 6,825 | Gross: $0.22M
35. The Spider and the Fly (1949)
Not Rated | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A clever and dedicated French police official, a cleverer master-thief whom he secretly admires, the woman loved by the official who is in love with the thief, at the outbreak of World War I.
Director: Robert Hamer | Stars: Eric Portman, Guy Rolfe, Nadia Gray, Edward Chapman
Votes: 407
36. Five Angles on Murder (1950)
Approved | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A woman is murdered, but she is seen in different ways by different people.
Director: Anthony Asquith | Stars: Jean Kent, Dirk Bogarde, John McCallum, Susan Shaw
Votes: 1,078
37. Man Bait (1952)
Not Rated | 78 min | Crime, Drama
The married owner of a bookstore is attracted to his sexy blonde clerk. He finally gives in to temptation and makes a pass at her, but that only results in him getting enmeshed in blackmail and murder.
Director: Terence Fisher | Stars: George Brent, Marguerite Chapman, Raymond Huntley, Peter Reynolds
Votes: 876
38. Both Sides of the Law (1953)
94 min | Crime, Drama
A pseudo-documentary in style with an emphasis on the daily work and routine of women police built around three different story lines. The first involves eighteen-year-old Bridget Foster (... See full summary »
Director: Muriel Box | Stars: Anne Crawford, Peggy Cummins, Rosamund John, Terence Morgan
Votes: 248
39. The Sleeping Tiger (1954)
Approved | 89 min | Drama, Thriller
After a convict breaks in a psychotherapist's home, he agrees to rehabilitation rather than arrest but the therapist's wife becomes infatuated with him.
Director: Joseph Losey | Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Alexis Smith, Alexander Knox, Hugh Griffith
Votes: 1,213
40. Tiger in the Smoke (1956)
94 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
In wartime France, a young officer is killed during a raid to kill a German general at the house that used to belong to his grandmother. Before he dies, he talks about a treasure that was ... See full summary »
Director: Roy Ward Baker | Stars: Donald Sinden, Muriel Pavlow, Tony Wright, Bernard Miles
Votes: 288
41. Hell Is a City (1960)
93 min | Crime, Thriller
In Britain, a Manchester police inspector becomes obsessed with capturing a criminal who escapes from prison.
Director: Val Guest | Stars: Stanley Baker, John Crawford, Donald Pleasence, Maxine Audley
Votes: 1,385
42. The Concrete Jungle (1960)
TV-14 | 86 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
In the UK, after pulling a racetrack robbery, repeat offender Johnny Bannion hides the loot in a farmer's field but the police and the local mob come looking for Johnny and the money.
Director: Joseph Losey | Stars: Stanley Baker, Sam Wanamaker, Grégoire Aslan, Margit Saad
Votes: 1,764
43. The Day They Robbed the Bank of England (1960)
Approved | 85 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
In 1901, a group of IRA members decides to rob the Bank of England in order to finance their movement and to embarrass the British government.
Director: John Guillermin | Stars: Aldo Ray, Elizabeth Sellars, Peter O'Toole, Kieron Moore
Votes: 950
44. Never Let Go (1960)
Not Rated | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A cosmetic salesman sets out to prove to himself and his wife that he is not a failure.
Director: John Guillermin | Stars: Richard Todd, Peter Sellers, Elizabeth Sellars, Adam Faith
Votes: 1,693
45. Cash on Demand (1961)
Not Rated | 89 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A charming but ruthless criminal holds the family of a bank manager hostage as part of a cold-blooded plan to steal 97,000 pounds.
Director: Quentin Lawrence | Stars: Peter Cushing, André Morell, Richard Vernon, Norman Bird
Votes: 2,885
46. Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)
115 min | Crime, Drama
A medium and her husband stage a kidnapping in order for her to pretend to solve the crime and achieve fame.
Director: Bryan Forbes | Stars: Kim Stanley, Richard Attenborough, Margaret Lacey, Marie Burke
Votes: 7,463
47. The Blue Lamp (1950)
Approved | 84 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
The daily routine of two London Policemen is interrupted by a killer.
Director: Basil Dearden | Stars: Jack Warner, Dirk Bogarde, Jimmy Hanley, Robert Flemyng
Votes: 2,537
48. Sapphire (1959)
Not Rated | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The murder of a young woman in London exposes deep racial tensions and prejudices inherent in the area.
Director: Basil Dearden | Stars: Nigel Patrick, Yvonne Mitchell, Michael Craig, Paul Massie
Votes: 2,308
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