Public domain film noir: The Scar (1948)

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This film is also known as "Hollow Thriumph"

Director: Steve Sekely
Writer: Murray Forbes (novel), Daniel Fuchs
Cinematographer: John Alton

Plot: A former criminal working as a car mechanic decides to impersonate a psychiatrist he looks like. This bad idea has a number of unexpected consequences.

Public domain film noir: He Walked by Night (1948)

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Director: Alfred L. Werker, Anthony Mann (uncredited)
Writer: Crane Wilbur (story), Crane Wilbur and John C. Higgins (screenplay)
Cinematographer: John Alton

Plot: This is simply the story of how the LAPD track down and kill Roy Morgan. He is an electronic expert, who once worked for the police as a civilian radio engineer. Morgan lives with his dog in a Hollywood bungalow, keeping a very low profile. At night he walks the city of Los Angeles, often traveling in the storm drains under the city streets, to rob and kill. LAPD forensics specialist Lee uses crime evidence to link various crimes to the same man. LAPD Captain Breen gathers all of the witnesses to the robberies to create a composite sketch. A hunch on the part of LAPD Sergeant Marty Brennan leads him to travel to all the local police departments, asking if they recognize the person in the sketch. Finally, one remembers him as a radio engineer who worked there years ago. Further interviews with post office mail carriers lead to Morgan's location. During a carefully planned raid, Morgan's dog alerts him in the nick of time, and Morgan escapes into the LAPD sewer system. The LAPD traps him in the sewer system and Morgan dies after a gun fight with police.

Trivia:

• 
  The story was loosely based on newspaper accounts of the real-life actions of Erwin Walker.
  
• 
  This was Richard Basehart's third film. He of course went on to become a household name in the 1960s TV series "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea".
  
• 
  This was also Jack Webb's third film. He went on to star in the long-running TV series "Dragnet", which started in the 1950s. (In fact, Webb's experience making this movie inspired his idea to create the series Dragnet.)
  

Public domain film noir: The Big Combo (1955)

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Director: Joseph H. Lewis

Writer: Philip Yordan

Cinematographer: John Alton

Plot: Police Lt. Leonard Diamond is on a personal crusade to bring down sadistic gangster Mr. Brown. He's also dangerously obsessed with Brown's girlfriend, his captive lover. His main objective as a detective is to uncover who "Alicia" is but cannot immediately find out from Brown or his girl. Once Diamond tracks down Alicia, she helps Diamond figure out where Brown was likely to take Susan to, the airport where Brown hopes to make a getaway plane. However, the plane doesn't show up and the film climaxes in a foggy airplane hangar shootout.

Trivia:

• The actress Jean Wallace was married to Cornel Wilde at the time of the film. Both give outstanding performances.
• Helen Walker was a very successful and promising actress before her 1947 car wreck (a possible DUI). In this incident, she allegedly took on three hitch-hikers, all WWII vets, and crashed in a drive from L.A. to Palm Springs. Sadly, one person died. Her career never recovered.
• Lee Van Cleef went on to a great career, especially in westerns.
• Earl Holliman was born to extreme poverty in Louisiana. He lied about his age and enlisted in the US Navy during WWII. While stationed in L.A., in his free time, he hung out in Hollywood theaters. When he left the Navy, he eventually graduated from UCLA and started his award-winning work in films and TV.
• The screenwriter is officially credited to Academy award-winning writer Philip Yordan, but the actual credit is disputed. Please see the recent article "The Philip Yordan Story" (filmnoirfoundation.org/PhilipYordan.pdf), if you are interested in details of the mystery.

Public domain film noir: The Amazing Mr X (1948)

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Director: Bernard Vorhaus

Writers: Crane Wilbur (original story), Muriel Roy Bolton and Ian McLellan Hunter (screenplay)

Cinematographer: John Alton

Plot: Two years after her husband's death, Christine Faber thinks she hears her late husband calling out of the surf on the beach one night. She meets a tall dark man named Alexis who seems to know all about her. Christine and her younger sister become enmeshed in the strange life of Alexis; but he in turn finds himself manipulated into deeper cruelness than he had in mind.