Respectability and deception often exist side by side in noir. Successful businessmen become embezzlers, devoted spouses lead secret affairs, police officers betray their badges, and seemingly ordinary citizens conceal extraordinary pasts. The tension between public appearance and private reality gives many noir films their distinctive unease. These essays examine stories in which hidden identities and carefully guarded secrets inevitably collide with the truth.
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Somewhere in the Night (1946)
Kansas City Confidential (1952)
51 films about swapping, losing and faking identities:
Across the Bridge (1957) • The Big Steal (1949) • The Bigamist (1953) • The Case of Charles Peace (1949) • The Chase (1946) • Chase a Crooked Shadow (1958) • Crossroads (1942) • The Dark Mirror (1946) • Dark Passage (1947) • Dead Reckoning (1946) • Dead Ringer (1964) • Detour (1945) • Dishonored Lady (1947) • Foreign Correspondent (1940) • High Wall (1947) • His Kind of Woman (1951) • Hollow Triumph (1948) • House of Bamboo (1955) • The House on Telegraph Hill (1951) • I Walk Alone (1947) • Jail Bait (1954) • Kansas City Confidential (1952) • Lady in the Lake (1946) • Macao (1952) The Maltese Falcon (1941) • The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950) • Ministry of Fear (1944) • The Narrow Margin (1952) • Nightfall (1956) • No Man of Her Own (1950) • North by Northwest (1959) • Out of the Past (1947) • Seconds (1966) • Shadow of a Doubt (1943) • Somewhere in the Night (1946) • Spellbound (1945) • Stolen Face (1952) • Stolen Identity (1953) • Strange Impersonation (1946) • The Strange Mrs. Crane (1948) • The Stranger (1946) • Tension (1949) • They Won’t Believe Me (1947) • The Third Man (1949) • The 39 Steps (1935) • This Side of the Law (1950) • The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947) • Vertigo (1958) • Walk Softly, Stranger (1950) • The Woman on Pier 13 (1949) • The Wrong Man (1956).
Amnesia Noir: 30 Films Worth Remembering:
Beware, My Lovely (1952) • Black Angel (1946) • Blackout (1954) • The Blue Dahlia (1946) • The Blue Gardenia (1953) • Brott i sol (1947) • Chain of Evidence (1957) • The Chase (1946) • The Clay Pigeon (1949) • Crack-Up (1946) • Crime Doctor (1943) • The Crooked Way (1949) • Crossroads (1942) • Deadline at Dawn (1946) • Derailed (1942) • Fall Guy (1947) • Fear in the Night (1947) • Female Fiends (1958) • Hangover Square (1945) • High Wall (1947) • Key Witness (1947) • The Long Wait (1954) • Man in the Dark (1953) • Murder on Monday (1952) • Night Without Sleep (1952) • Nightmare (1956) • Somewhere in the Night (1946) • Street of Chance (1942) • Violence (1947) • Voice in the Wind (1944)
The Red Menace (1949)
The Narrow Margin (1952)
Cat People (1942)