Strangers in the Night (1944), directed by Anthony Mann. This is an early Mann picture, his fifth I think, and made for the quickie studio, Republic. It does have elements of noir – lighting, and camera work, a somewhat sappish hero, entrapment – but it is more of a gothic thriller in the Rebecca vein. It is short, under 60 minutes, and driven by the performance of Helen Thimig as Hilda Blake, an elderly woman who walks with a crutch that signals her origin in folk tales that feature a chthonic character, a character with sinister overtones. She is deranged. She is devious. She is manipulative. She is waiting for her daughter to return, a daughter that never came in the first place. She lives in a huge house set upon a huge cliff. She makes the lives of a local female doctor and a veteran recently returned from the war because of injury ah, difficult. The solider (actually a marine) has come to this small seaside village in California to meet Hilda’s daughter, Rosemary. As I say, the film is short and snappy. It oozes atmosphere. Some of the performances are just okay, but Helen Thimig delivers the goods. You can also see her in Val Lewton’s Isle of the Dead (1945).

Strange Impersonation (1946), directed by Anthony Mann. Another noir. Here Mann moves closer to the noir conventions with this story of a female chemist whose experiment, with the help of her female assistant, goes horribly wrong. And then there is the tipsy female who appears to be nudged by the female chemist's car. This is a noir that puts women front and centre. It delivers plot twists and more plot twists. Spoiler: it's narrative reminds me of a slightly later and better noir, Woman in the Window. The story also has something of A Woman's Face in it. Here we have a web of deceit and betrayal entangling a young woman who just wishes to carry out her scientific research without impediment. The film has a narrative shape reminiscent of noir, and it has some of the canted angles we associate with expressionist cinema. Despite lots of plot - I haven't mentioned the unpleasant lawyer or the sympathetic fiancé/husband or the murder mystery or the play with identity - this is a snappy 68 minute film.

Desperate (1947), directed by Anthony Mann. A young couple on the run, these newlyweds are desperate to get away from the hulking villain played by Raymond Burr. This is the film that gives us a basement beating under a swinging lightbulb. We also have a vortex of a stairwell. Perhaps there are some implausible touches to the plot, but all in all this is an effective noir. Steve Brodie takes a turn as a noir hero, a well-meaning young man with a truck who finds himself in a predicament and running for his life from thugs who mean to rub him out. Then there is the wry and cynical policeman who serves as something of a deus ex machina. We have both gritty city locales and brighter country places. Everything moves along briskly, until the ending with the clock ticking and time slowed to an agonizing crawl. I especially appreciated the getaway among large creepy masks.

Side Street (1949), directed by Anthony Mann. Just after their pairing in They Live By Night, Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell appear in this film by Anthony Mann. Mann is best known as the director of a series of westerns, mostly with James Stewart, in the 1950s, but in the previous decade he made a series of procedural noirs. His eye for detail gives these films an edge. Here he uses the canyon-like streets of New York as location for the cat and mouse chase between his luckless hero, the villains, and the police. Late in the film, we have perhaps the first of the modern car chases on film. This one looks both tense and unusual, unusual because the streets are mostly empty unlike more recent car chases in which streets are crowded with people and vehicles. The photography has both a documentary look and a compositional look of planned cinema. The opening aerial shot of the Empire State Building and the streets of New York looking like a maze is impressive, going one step farther than Ray's opening helicopter shot in They Live By Night. The film, partly through the opening voice over, makes it clear that the city contains a stark contrast between the wealthy and the down and out. For the sake of $200, young Joe Norsom (Farley Granger) sets off a series of events that take him deeper and deeper into the ugly labyrinth of the big city, endangering himself and others.