Pre-Noir (...-1939)

Hypnotist Dr. Caligari uses a somnambulist, Cesare, to commit murders.

Boisterous gangster kingpin Bull Weed rehabilitates his former lawyer from his alcoholic haze, but complications arise when he falls for Weed's girlfriend.

An honest police captain vows to bring down a powerful bootlegger who is protected by corrupt politicians and judges.

A criminal known as Thunderbolt is imprisoned and facing execution. Into the next cell is placed Bob Moran, an innocent man who has been framed and who is in love with Thunderbolt's girl. Thunderbolt hopes to stave off the execution long enough to kill young Moran for romancing his girl.

Unable to repay a substantial gambling debt to mob boss North, Alan Beckwith concocts a last-ditch scheme. Allowing North to take out a $100,000 insurance policy on his life, Alan agrees to commit suicide after the mandantory one-year moratorium has elapsed. To make things legal, North forces Alan to marry Beverly (Whose brother is also indebted to North) as the beneficiary-of-record. He also assigns "hitman wannabe" Squint to both keep an eye on Alan and "do the deed" when the time comes. But as the year progresses, Alan falls in love with Beverly, befriends Squint and decides he doesn't want to die. But how can he convince North to allow a 100 grand to slip through his fingers?

Man joins a gang to free his girlfriend from prison.

A lovely dame with dangerous lies employs the services of a private detective, who is quickly caught up in the mystery and intrigue of a statuette known as the Maltese Falcon.

After rising bootlegger Slaughterhouse Scorpio eliminates his gangland competition, two reporters and a cabal of six businessmen work to expose him.

Police Chief Jim Fitzpatrick ruthlessly goes after organized crime and is prepared to use brutal and violent methods to fight it.

A World War I veteran and aspiring engineer tries to re-enter civilian life. After being unwillingly caught up in a robbery, he suffers the intolerable conditions of a Southern chain gang, struggling to clear his name and prove his worth.

A man poisons his nephew out of desperation for money.

A condemned murderer, in the process of being executed, relives the events that led to his being sentenced to die in the electric chair.

Los Angeles newspaper reporter Toby Prentiss is continually in trouble with his editor. He is demoted to running the paper's "Miss Lonelyhearts" advice column because he missed the scoop on a major earthquake whilst out on the town. Determined to be fired from the column he starts to give crazy advice to the readers, but this only makes him even more popular.

Bill Bailey (George Bancroft) is a Los Angeles, California bail bondsman who lives in a world of complete, casual corruption, where all he has to do is pick up the phone to get the charges against a client dismissed. He falls in love with a slumming socialite who bluntly and startlingly declares her sexual preferences with this immortal line: "If I could find a man who would be my master and give me a good thrashing, I'd follow him around like a dog on a leash."

Prominent lawyer shoots unfaithful girlfriend during quarrel, has to establish alibi.

The foreman of a jury asks questions that send a woman to the electric chair for a murder committed in the heat of passion. On the night of the execution, his actions come back to haunt him.

In Mexico, a former lawyer becomes the invaluable second-in-command to a casino owner, whose wife begins to fall for him.

Ed Beaumont, a close friend and bodyguard to political boss Paul Madvig, faces a murder case, risking his life and reputation to uncover the killer.

A ruthless, cynical, hated publisher is killed in a plane crash, doomed to be a restless spirit for being unloved. A heavenly power gives him a month on Earth to find one person to shed a tear for him before his fate is sealed.

When a crusader against rackets is murdered, a grand jury battles the rackets by promoting McLaren to be in charge of the cleanup. He fires NYPD Detective Blake, who punches him and joins the racket.

When a wrongly-accused prisoner barely survives a lynch-mob attack and is presumed dead, he vindictively decides to fake his death and frame the mob for his supposed murder.

A waitress, a hobo and a bank robber get mixed up at a lonely diner in the desert.

The public defender's secretary and an ex-convict get married and try to make a life together, but a series of disasters sends their lives spiraling out of control.

An altruistic department-store owner hires ex-convicts in order to give them a second chance at life. Unfortunately, one of the convicts he hires recruits two of his fellow ex-convicts in a plan to rob the store.

Gangster Hal Wilson takes psychiatrist Dr. Shelby hostage. While captive, the doctor analyzes Wilson as though he were a patient.