Page "Film noir" Paragraph 28

Several directors associated with noir built now well-respected oeuvres largely at the B-movie / intermediate level.

Samuel Fuller's brutal, visually energetic films such as Pickup on South Street ( 1953 ) and Underworld U. S. A. ( 1961 ) earned him a unique reputation ; his advocates praise him as " primitive " and " barbarous ".

Joseph H. Lewis directed noirs as diverse as Gun Crazy ( 1950 ) and The Big Combo ( 1955 ).

The former — whose screenplay was written by the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo, disguised by a front — features a bank holdup sequence shown in an unbroken take over three minutes long that proved widely influential.

The latter, shot by John Alton, takes the shadow-rich noir style to its outer limits.

The most distinctive films of Phil Karlson ( The Phenix City Story, The Brothers Rico ) tell stories of vice organized on a monstrous scale.

The work of other directors who worked largely at this tier of the industry, such as Felix E. Feist ( The Devil Thumbs a Ride, Tomorrow Is Another Day ), is now relatively obscure.

Edgar G. Ulmer spent almost his entire Hollywood career working at B studios — once in a while on projects that achieved intermediate status ; for the most part, on unmistakable Bs.

In 1945, while at PRC, he directed one of the all-time noir cult classics, Detour.

Ulmer's other noirs include Strange Illusion ( 1945 ), also for PRC ; Ruthless ( 1948 ), for Eagle-Lion, which had acquired PRC the previous year ; and Murder Is My Beat ( 1955 ), for Allied Artists.