Noir Nook: 75th Anniversary Noir – 2022 Edition

Noir Nook: 75th Anniversary Noir – 2022 Edition

It’s now a new year, and you know what that means: a whole new crop of film noir features are celebrating their 75-year anniversary!

Seventy-five years ago was 1947, which is frequently noted as one of the best – if not THE best – years for film noir. And I can’t argue with that – after all, 1947 gave us what many consider to be the quintessential noir: Out of the Past. But in this month’s Noir Nook, I’m paying tribute not to those better-known noirs that were released 75 years ago, but to five underrated features from 1947 that I simply adore.

Desperate (1947)

This Anthony Mann-directed feature stars Steve Brodie and Audrey Long as Steve and Anne Randall, newlyweds with a baby on the way. To earn extra cash for his growing family, Steve, a truck driver, takes a job hauling goods for boyhood pal Walt Radak (Raymond Burr). But when he learns that the load consists of stolen goods and tries to notify the police, he finds himself in a world of trouble. A gun battle breaks out, a cop is killed, Walt’s younger brother is sentenced to death for murder, and Steve and Anne go on the lam, with both the authorities and Walt hot on their heels.

Trivia tidbit: This was the only film in which Steve Brodie had top billing.

They Won’t Believe Me (1947)

Robert Young (in a role that’s light years away from his kindly Dr. Marcus Welby) plays a weak-willed married businessman who can’t stop his eyes or hands from straying away from his wife (Rita Johnson) – first with Jane Greer and then with Susan Hayward. Unfortunately, once he finally makes up his mind to leave his wife to marry Hayward, a fiery car accident leads to his arrest for the murder of his wife. The story starts with Young on the witness stand at his trial, unfolds in a series of flashbacks, and ends with an absolutely perfect noirish twist.

Trivia tidbit: Jane Greer was pictured modeling a WAC uniform in Life magazine on June 8, 1942. The photo caught the attention of studio head of Howard Hughes, which led to the start of her career in Hollywood.

The Devil Thumbs a Ride (1947)

The devil in this film is Steve Morgan (Lawrence Tierney) who, in the first scene, robs and kills the night manager of a bank. Hitchhiking his way out of town, he’s picked up by Jimmy Ferguson (Ted North), a tipsy traveling salesman on his way home from a convention. On the road, Steve convinces Jimmy to pick two more passengers – Carol (Nan Leslie) and Agnes (Betty Lawford), and the quartet winds up at a beach house that belongs to a friend of Jimmy’s, where Steve flattens the car tires and disables the phone – and then he really turns up the mayhem.

Trivia tidbit: The interior of the beach house was also used as Susan Hayward’s apartment in They Won’t Believe Me.

Born to Kill (1947)

It’s Lawrence Tierney once again playing a psychopathic killer, this time the aptly named Sam Wild. Here, after finding his girlfriend (Isabel Jewell) out with another man, he kills them both, then flees to San Francisco. Along with way, he meets Helen Trent (Claire Trevor), who’s also Frisco-bound, and who just happened to have found the two bodies left behind by Sam. Despite Helen’s increasing awareness of Sam’s homicidal tendencies, she can’t deny her perverse attraction to him – even after he marries Helen’s own sister.

Trivia tidbit: The film was directed by Robert Wise, who also helmed such noirs as The Set-Up (1949) and Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), and won Oscars for directing West Side Story (1961) and The Sound of Music (1965).

Nora Prentiss (1947)

One of my all-time favorite noirs, this feature stars Ann Sheridan in the title role of a nightclub singer who becomes involved with family man Dr. Richard Talbot (Kent Smith). When Nora gets fed up with being Talbot’s chick on the side and threatens to end their affair, he fakes his own death so he can be with Nora. Three guesses as to whether this relationship ends happily – and the first two don’t count.

Trivia tidbit: Nora Prentiss received widely varying reviews upon its release; the notoriously acerbic Bosley Crowther dismissed the movie in the New York Times as “major picture-making at its worst,” while William Weaver praised it in Motion Picture Herald, calling it a “feat of melodramatic story-telling which achieves also the result of maintaining suspense of unique intensity down to the final sequence.” Makes you wonder what movie one of these fellas was looking at!

What are some of your favorite films noirs from 75 years ago? Leave a comment and let me know!

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– Karen Burroughs Hannsberry for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Karen’s Noir Nook articles here.

Karen Burroughs Hannsberry is the author of the Shadows and Satin blog, which focuses on movies and performers from the film noir and pre-Code eras, and the editor-in-chief of The Dark Pages, a bimonthly newsletter devoted to all things film noir. Karen is also the author of two books on film noir – Femme Noir: The Bad Girls of Film and Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir. You can follow Karen on Twitter at @TheDarkPages.
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