Welcome to The Penny-Pinching Cinephile, a weekly spotlight of the best free flicks on the web. ‘Cuz sometimes you gotta eat.
On tonight’s special Noirvember-themed Penny-Pinching Cinephile, we’ll be highlighting the best films noir you can watch online for free. Get your gats and fedoras ready, gumshoes and femme fatales…
1.) M
Arguably Fritz Lang’s greatest film, there’s little doubt 1931’s M is the quintessential proto-noir, paving the way both for Lang’s later American noir films (see Scarlet Street below) as well as numerous police procedural noir films that mimic the criminal manhunt in M. The letter “M” stands for many things throughout the course of the film: mother, manhunt, mob, and of course, murder. The great Peter Lorre (in his first screen role) stars as Hans Beckert, a rolly-polly young man driven by some haunted compulsion to abduct and murder young girls. When the police are unable to capture him, they desperately resort to frequent raids on the criminal underworld. However, the leaders of the criminal underworld are repulsed by the child murderer as much as the police. None too pleased they’re being unfairly targeted, the criminal bosses band together to scour the city for Beckert, eventually trapping and capturing him. There, these con men, extortionists, thieves and yes, murderers, judge Beckert and sentence him to die, despite Lorre’s intense pleas to spare him due to his clearly disturbed psyche. M is a masterpiece of a thriller, one that clearly established many of the genre tropes we still associate with the serial killer/detective film. Lorre’s performance made him a star, even though he was to be typecast as villains and perverts throughout most of his American career.
2.) ‘Strange Impersonation‘
The first of two “strange” films on the docket today, Strange Impersonation is also the first of two unusual Anthony Mann film noirs available to stream for free. When strong-willed lady scientist Nora Goodrich (Brenda Marshall) is disfigured during an experiment, she has no idea it was her best friend and lab assistant Arline who sabotaged the chemicals to blow up. Arline has been plotting to steal Nora’s fiance, fellow scientist Dr. Lindstrom. If that weren’t enough drama for Nora, she’s being blackmailed by a woman who claims she was injured when Nora hit her with her car (she wasn’t). When the blackmailing woman accidentally falls to her death off of Nora’s balcony, the police misidentify the dead woman as Nora. Sensing an opportunity to reinvent herself, Nora undergoes plastic surgery to repair her face and make her look like the dead blackmailer. She then sets out to seek her revenge on Arline and her ex-fiance. Mann’s soapy melodrama is a great little flick, full of twists and turns, some of which border on camp, they’re so extreme. But that doesn’t diminish the fun, and at a mere 68 minutes, it’s hard not to enjoy this slice of melodramatic noir from a director who later went on to much acclaim.
3.) ‘Black Book aka Reign of Terror‘
Our second selection in the strange and unusual Anthony Mann noir double feature, 1949’s Reign of Terror is perhaps one of the most unique film noirs ever made: it’s a French Revolution noir! Really! Shot by legendary film noir cinematographer John Alton, the chiaroscuro photography and canted angles in this film wouldn’t be misplaced in a ’40s detective story or melodrama. Instead, Mann and Alton bring the noir visual aesthetic to 18th century France. Richard Basehart plays Robespierre, one of the greatest of history’s villains, as a totally sadistic, power-hungry dictator (pretty accurate, really), who’s desperately trying to recover his “black book,” the list of political dissidents and enemies he plans to guillotine. Robert Cummings plays a French spy who cozies up to Basehart but hopes to recover the book in order to foil him and end the titular terror. Reign of Terror is a truly unique film in Hollywood history, a solid “B” movie that seamlessly blends genres and visual styles to create an exciting hybrid film that will satisfy both noir aficionados and fans of historical fiction.
4.) ‘Scarlet Street‘
Forty-four years after M, Fritz Lang’s Scarlet Street is one of a cycle of film noirs that Lang made in the ’40s and ’50s (including The Women in the Window and The Big Heat). Although less well-known than his German masterpieces Metropolis and M, Scarlet Street is one of Lang’s very best American films. The film stars Edward G. Robinson as cashier/wannabe painter Chris Cross (very aptly named for a film noir!), the henpecked husband of his former landlady. When he meets the opportunistic Kitty (Joan Bennett), he falls head-over-heels in love with her. Kitty, believing Cross is a famous artist who gets $50K per painting, conspires with her abusive boyfriend Johnny (the lanky, skeevy Dan Duryea) to blackmail Cross for the dough, lest his wife find about his affair with Kitty. Through an intricate series of double-crosses, Robinson falls deeper and deeper into trouble. Embezzlement, forgery and murder are just a few of the disastrous results of Cross’ increasingly poor decisions and Kitty and Johnny’s insatiable greed. A deeply moralistic film, everyone gets punished in the end, and all in the bleakest, most noirish way possible.
Watch on Archive.org
5.) ‘The Strange Love of Martha Ivers‘
It seems like any ’40s melodrama with noir elements must have strange in the title, so here’s another “strange” case of murder, blackmail and twisted psychotic neurosis for you! The cast is stacked full of noir greats: Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott, Kurt Douglas (in his very first role!) and Judith Anderson (of Rebecca fame). Anderson plays Mrs. Ivers, small-town matriarch and sadistic aunt to Martha (played by Stanwyck as an adult). When Mrs. Ivers kills Martha’s cat, Martha pushes the old lady down the stairs, accidentally killing her. The goody-two-shoes son of her tutor witnesses this and now has fodder for blackmail. Fast forward several years, everyone’s grown up and Martha (Stanwyck) is married to her tutor’s son Walter O’Neill (Douglas, who’s now district attorney). It’s a marriage built upon dark secrets. When Martha’s childhood friend Sam (Heflin) returns to town, things get even more complicated because both Martha and Walter believe Sam witnessed Mrs. Ivers’ death too; but did he? Lizabeth Scott plays Sam’s love interest, a former criminal who’s booked for violating her parole and sent before DA Douglas for sentencing. It’s a twisted, convoluted plot with many turns, but it’s all handled deftly by veteran director Lewis Milestone and the more than capable all-star cast. Stanwyck is the stand-out as a woman whose crippling guilt has transformed her into the kind of cruel, sadistic and controlling woman he aunt once was.
Watch on Archive.org
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