Mystery, moral conflict and skewed camera angles - name what you like about noir, A STREET WITH NO NAME has it. Like its prequel, A HOUSE ON 92nd STREET (1945), it's about undercover FBI agents and based on a real case, and both co-star noir fave, Lloyd Nolan as George Briggs. FBI operative Gene Cordell (Mark Stevens) is assigned by boss Briggs to infiltrate a criminal gang. Quickly ingratiating himself with the gang's sadistic leader Alec Stiles (Richard Widmark), Cordell, alias George Manly, helps plan a robbery that will deliver the criminals into the hands of the authorities. But a crooked cop tells Stiles that Manly/Cordell is a planted G-Man, and what happens next you'll have to see for yourself. This is a suspenseful, well acted film with lots of nice noir touches, plus some interesting, if slightly intrusive, documentary-style touches. (Trivia note: Lloyd Nolan's career was a long one. His first movie in 1936 was G-MAN; his last was in 1986, HANNAH AND HER SISTERS.)
HE STREET WITH NO NAME (1948)
Mystery, moral conflict and skewed camera angles - name what you like about noir, A STREET WITH NO NAME has it. Like its prequel, A HOUSE ON 92nd STREET (1945), it's about undercover FBI agents and based on a real case, and both co-star noir fave, Lloyd Nolan as George Briggs. FBI operative Gene Cordell (Mark Stevens) is assigned by boss Briggs to infiltrate a criminal gang. Quickly ingratiating himself with the gang's sadistic leader Alec Stiles (Richard Widmark), Cordell, alias George Manly, helps plan a robbery that will deliver the criminals into the hands of the authorities. But a crooked cop tells Stiles that Manly/Cordell is a planted G-Man, and what happens next you'll have to see for yourself. This is a suspenseful, well acted film with lots of nice noir touches, plus some interesting, if slightly intrusive, documentary-style touches. (Trivia note: Lloyd Nolan's career was a long one. His first movie in 1936 was G-MAN; his last was in 1986, HANNAH AND HER SISTERS.)
