Bogart is reborn as the epitome of the noir gumshoe in an adaptation of D. Hammett's 1930 novel costarring Mary Astor. Maybe not the beginning of celluloid noir, but one of its first & greatest hours.

- but dynamite already in their 1st appearance, based on Hemingway's self-declared "worst novel" (also co-scripted by Faulkner). And the chemistry didn't only work on screen ...

while in movie #4 ever-worldweary & cynical Bogart goes up against Edward G. Robinson's mob boss in a Florida hurricane night, propelled to action by Bacall at her sassiest.

Bogey sans Bacall, as a down and out writer with a violence problem in need to defend himself against a murder charge. Classic noir material, incomparably delivered by the genre's quintessential star.

But insiders long knew about Tarrantino; not least because of this graphic and brutal tale of a heist gone wrong, with the director's trademark sharp editing & superb interaction of the all-male cast.

The great manipulator in post-WWII Vienna, in this Graham Greene-scripted thriller dealing in double play, deception, racketeering & murder w. standardsetting cinematography. Ferris wheel ride anyone?

"Are you talkin' to ME??" Sociopathic loneliness & violence at its most intense in Robert De Niro's Travis Bickle; an antihero who'd scare even his hardest-boiled noir brethren-in-spirit witless.

The neonoir take on sin and serial killers; a somber, graphic tale awash in gore and blood where noone comes out a winner ... and with the right trigger, EVERYbody can be manipulated into evilness.

"And like that ... he's gone." Breathtaking plot twists and ending, snappy dialogue, supreme editing and an outstanding cast. One of Hollywood's finest recent hours.

"Alright, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." A poignant parable on the transitoriness of fame & fortune in Hollywood & elsewhere. Another supreme example of Billy Wilder's wit & sense of style.

Among the earliest examples of the genre; the series that propelled William Powell and Myrna Loy to stardom as Dashiell Hammett's Martini-guzzling sleuths Nick and Nora Charles. Hilarious.

A retronoir set in mid-1940s' L.A., thoroughly demythologizing the genre with an intensely personal take on corruption and moral responsibility, and starring Robert De Niro and Robert Duvall.