WORLD PREMIERE RESTORATION

Often hailed as one of the definitive film noirs of the 1940s, this tale of murder and betrayal benefited from the direction of French-born Jacques Tourneur and Italian-born cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca. They created a world of shadows, the perfect home for screenwriter Daniel Mainwaring’s duplicitous characters. Chief among them is one of the genre’s greatest femme fatales, Kathie Moffat. As played by Jane Greer, she has the face of an angel and the heart of a demon. Robert Mitchum is the private eye hired to track her down after she shoots and robs mobster Kirk Douglas. But she plays the innocent, a mask she keeps donning as she and just about everyone else in the film double- and triple-cross Mitchum’s character. He and Douglas both got career boosts from their work here, and Greer should have, too, but studio head Howard Hughes put her career on hold after she refused to leave her husband for him.

New 4K restoration by Warner Bros. Discovery.