MUBI THE DEFINITIVE PROTO-NOIR LIST OR NOIR PRIOR TO 1940
List activity
310 views
• 3 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
315 titles
- DirectorArthur MarvinStarsAnonymousSherlock Holmes enters his drawing room to find it being burgled, but on confronting the villain is surprised when the latter disappears. Holmes initially attempts to ignore the event by lighting a cigar, but upon the thief's reappearance, Holmes tries to reclaim the sack of stolen goods, drawing a pistol from his dressing gown pocket and firing it at the intruder, who disappears. After Holmes recovers his property, the bag vanishes from his hand into that of the thief, who promptly disappears through a window. At this point the movie ends abruptly with Holmes looking "baffled".
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsJehanne d'AlcyBleuette BernonA young woman becomes the eighth wife of the wealthy Bluebeard, whose first seven wives have died under mysterious circumstances.
- DirectorFerdinand ZeccaStarsJean LiézerBretteauFerdinand ZeccaA burglar is arrested for a murder. He is condemned to death. Before his execution the murderer dreams of his past, of how he was a bank clerk, then turned to crime. The criminal is then taken out of his cell, and a moment later is executed.
- DirectorLewin FitzhamonCecil M. HepworthStarsBlairMay ClarkBarbara HepworthA dog leads its master to his kidnapped baby.
- DirectorEdwin S. PorterStarsAline BoydPhineas NairsJane StewartA well-dressed woman steals several items from a department store. Meanwhile, a poor woman with two small children steals a loaf of bread out of desperation, and she is quickly caught and arrested. In court, what penalty will each face?
- DirectorWallace McCutcheonStarsAnthony O'SullivanRobert G. VignolaTwo members of a gang write a threatening letter to a butcher, demanding that he give them money, or else they will harm his family and his shop. The butcher is afraid and upset, but he is unable to meet their demands. The gang then kidnaps his daughter, leading to a series of tense and dangerous confrontations.
- DirectorUrban GadStarsAsta NielsenRobert DinesenPoul ReumertAt a tramcar in Copenhagen the piano teacher Magda Vang meets the young man Knud Svane, who falls in love with her. She is invited to spend the summer with him and his parents at the vicarage in Gjerslev. Outside the vicarage a circus troupe passes by, and Magda is saluted by the performer Rudolph Stern. In the night Rudolph climbs a ladder to Magda's bedroom. She tries to flee his advances, but after a hot kiss she surrenders, and runs away with him. Magda is hired as a dancer with Rudolph at the Empire Varieté. When Rudolph fondles a ballet dancer Magda gets furious, and starts a fight in front of the audience. Magda and Rudolph are fired. To earn some money Rudolph forces Magda to play the piano in a band at a garden restaurant. Knud turns up and recognizes her. Incognito he asks her for a private meeting. Magda thinks she is asked to sell her body and refuses, but Rudolph forces her to go. When Rudloph after a while interrupts and finds Magda with Knud, he gets furious and starts to beat her. During the turmoil she grabs a knife and stabs Rudolph in his chest. In her despair she clings to his dead body, and has to be taken away by force.
- DirectorLucius HendersonStarsJames CruzeFlorence La BadieMarie ElineDr. Henry Jekyll experiments with scientific means of revealing the hidden, dark side of man and releases a murderer from within himself.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsElmer BoothLillian GishClara T. BracyA tender young woman and her musician husband attempt to eke out a living in the slums of New York City, but find themselves caught in the crossfires of gang violence.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsBlanche SweetHenry B. WalthallWalter MillerTwo business partners pursue the same woman. She accepts the marriage proposal of the irresponsible partner, much to her later regret. He squanders money on gambling, as his interest in her gradually wanes. One day after losing the company money in a card game, he decides to commit suicide. He telephones his wife from the office, as he puts a revolver near his head. The wife tries to keep him talking while the reliable business partner races to the office in an attempt to save his old friend. Will he make it in time?
- DirectorLouis FeuilladeStarsRené NavarreEdmund BreonGeorges MelchiorInspector Juve is tasked to investigate and capture an infamous criminal Fantomas.
- DirectorPhillips SmalleyLois WeberStarsLois WeberVal PaulDouglas GerrardAbandoned by her maidservant in an isolated country house, a mother must protect herself and her baby from an invading tramp while her husband races home in a stolen car to save them.
- DirectorHanns Heinz EwersStellan RyeStarsPaul WegenerGrete BergerLyda SalmonovaBalduin, a student of Prague, leaves his roystering companions in the beer garden, when he finds he has reached the end of his resources. He is scarcely seated in a quiet corner when a hideous, shriveled-up old man taps him upon the shoulder and whispers vaguely of a big inheritance for Prague's finest swordsman and wildest student if he will enter into a certain agreement. Balduin rebuffs him, satirically asking his weird companion to procure him "the luckiest ticket in a lottery or a doweried wife." The old man goes off chuckling and thence onward persistently shadows Balduin, exerting a sinister influence over him, while Balduin is still disconsolate under the frowns of fortune. The Countess Margit Schwarzenberg, hunting with her cousin, to whom her father has betrothed her, meets with an accident. She is thrown over her horse's head into a river, but Balduin, who has been directed to the spot by his evil genius, plunges in and rescues her. Subsequently Balduin calls to inquire as to her condition at the castle of her father, the count, but be makes a hurried departure when Baron Waldis arrives, the contrast in their appearance discrediting him. His desire to win the countess and to humiliate the baron becomes so pronounced that he readily accedes to the compact suggested by Scapinelli, the old man, who has so pertinaciously dogged his footsteps, particularly when he learns that untold wealth and power will be his when he assigns to the other the right to take from his room whatever he chooses for his own use as he desires. The agreement is signed. Balduin receives a shower of gold and notes as his portion; Scapinelli takes Balduin's soul exposed in concrete form by his shadow. Balduin prosecutes his love affair assiduously and with apparent success, till the baron is informed of it by a jealous gypsy girl. He challenges Balduin to a duel, and the latter, assured of his superiority as a fencer, readily agrees. Count Schwarzenberg learns of the impending duel and appeals to Balduin not to kill "my sister's child, my daughter's future husband, and my heir." Balduin gives his promise, but when he goes to the venue of the duel he meets, his own counterpart stalking away derisively wiping his gory sword on his cloak. Balduin turns and in the far distance sees the dying victim of the deed he swore he would not do. He rushes from the spot horror-stricken. When he regains sufficient composure he makes his way to the castle of the count, but is refused admission. Determined to explain that he had no complicity in the death of the baron, Balduin climbs into a room in which the countess is seated. She receives him coldly, but soon succumbs to his ardent wooing. Just as he seeks to leave her she notices he has no shadow and that the mirror gives no reflection of him; and she drops back affrighted, the ghastly apparition of himself which takes shape in the corner of the room sends Balduin scuttling away from the castle in a paroxysm of terror. He makes a frenzied flight through a woodland estate and the streets of Prague, but wherever he stops to recover his breath he is haunted by the counterpart of himself. He reaches his rooms and draws a murderous looking fire-arm from its case. As the phantasmagorical figure strides towards him with a sinister grin, he fires, and in a few minutes the blood gushes from his own side from a fatal wound.
- DirectorGeorge Loane TuckerStarsJane GailEthel GrandinWilliam H. TurnerWith aid from her police-officer sweetheart, a woman endeavors to uncover the prostitution ring that has kidnapped her sister and the philanthropist who secretly runs it.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsHenry B. WalthallSpottiswoode AitkenBlanche SweetPrevented from dating his sweetheart by his uncle, a young man turns his thoughts to murder.
- DirectorFrank PowellStarsTheda BaraEdward JoséMabel FrenyearA married diplomat falls hopelessly under the spell of a predatory woman.
- DirectorMaurice TourneurStarsRobert WarwickRobert CummingsAlec B. FrancisAfter robbing a bank, a criminal is wrongfully pardoned from prison.
- DirectorFrancesca BertiniGustavo SerenaStarsFrancesca BertiniGustavo SerenaCarlo BenettiAssunta Spina is a tragedy set in Naples at the beginning of the twentieth century. Assunta and Michele are in love but others come between them and there is much jealousy. They fight and Michele is sent to prison for two years for assault. Nevertheless, because Assunta still loves Michele she is vulnerable when Federigo offers to help Michele but only if Assunta becomes his mistress. Michele is released early from prison, finds Assunta and Federigo together and kills Federigo. When the police arrive, Assunta takes the blame for Michele's crime.
- DirectorLouis FeuilladeStarsMusidoraÉdouard MathéMarcel LévesqueAn intrepid reporter and his loyal friend battle a bizarre secret society of criminals known as The Vampires.
- DirectorRaoul WalshStarsRockliffe FellowesAnna Q. NilssonWilliam SheerA boy surrounded by violence grows up to become an infamous gangster.
- DirectorNino OxiliaStarsLyda BorelliAndrea HabayUgo BazziniA Faustian tale about an old woman who makes a pact with Mephisto to regain her youth, in return she must stay away from love. After the deal she meets two brothers who fall in love with her.
- DirectorCecil B. DeMilleStarsFannie WardSessue HayakawaJack DeanA venal, spoiled stockbroker's wife impulsively embezzles $10,000 from the charity she chairs and desperately turns to a Burmese ivory trader to replace the stolen money.
- DirectorReginald BarkerStarsGeorge BebanClara WilliamsJ. Frank BurkeAn Italian immigrant and his sweetheart search for a better life in America, but the harsh realities of life in the slums of New York City lay waste to their hopes and dreams.
- DirectorChester M. FranklinSidney FranklinStarsNorma TalmadgeRalph LewisNinon FovieriA man and his wife both have criminal pasts, but have quit crime and are now respectable citizens. One day a member of their old gang shows up and threatens to expose them if they don't help him pull a heist.
- DirectorCharles SwickardWilliam S. HartClifford SmithStarsWilliam S. HartClara WilliamsJack StandingIn the wayward western town known as Hell's Hinges, a local tough guy is reformed by the faith of a good woman.