Uses over 30 film clips and interviews about the tough guys and the femme fatales to illustrate the aspects of the film noir genre. Jeffrey Wells discusses Big Sleep, The (1946), Ο άρχων του τρόμου (1958), Kiss Me Deadly (1955), D.O.A. (1950), Out of the Past (1947), Against All Odds, Laura (1944), and Kiss of Death (1947). Film noir is Hollywood's truly original vision of the shadowy, smoky underworld populated by beautiful dames and the regular Joes who fell for them. In films from the early 1940s to the present day, they entertain us with intrigue, conflict, and lust.