Leaning heavily into some outrageous sight gags best described as over the top slapstick, co-writer and director Blake Edwards reunited with star Peter Sellers for this, the fifth feature of their illustrious comedy franchise, titled Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978). As always, Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Sellers – Being There) continues to be a thorn in the side of the criminal underworld – despite his klutzy ways. Infuriating Philippe Douvier (Robert Webber – 12 Angry Men), a French businessman as well as the secret head of the largest drug conglomerate in the country, as the New York Mafia feels like their Parisian counterparts aren’t pulling their weight, he decides to okay the assassination of Clouseau.

There are so many things that go into making us who we are as individuals – from our parents and our past experiences, to our job and where we live, with even something as simple as our name becoming a big part of forming our identity as a human being... but, if those things are taken away from us, how might someone prove who they are when there is no evidence of what is being claimed. Infusing post-war themes within a kidnapping/murder mystery melodrama with film noir motifs, My Name is Julia Ross (1945), directed by Joseph H. Lewis (Gun Crazy) and based upon the novel “The Woman in Red” by Anthony Gilbert (the pen name of Lucy Beatrice), entraps us in the strange predicament of the titular character... though no one is calling her by that name. Following Julia Ross (Nina Foch) in post World War II London, England, she is in a rather difficult predicament – as she falls behind on her rent, she can find no work no matter how hard she looks.

Taking place over a most pressing twenty-four hour time period, director Arnold Laven’s film noir crime thriller Vice Squad (1953) – sometimes known as The Girl in Room 17 and based on Leslie T. White’s 1937 novel “Harness Bull”, places the viewer inside the police captain’s office as he tries to solve numerous complex problems occurring in Los Angeles. After a cop gets fatally shot in the back while a car is being stolen in the middle of the night, Capt. ‘Barnie ‘ Barnaby (Edward G. Robinson – Double Indemnity; Illegal) starts the day off with even further complications when he gets a tip from a desperate rat with a long rap sheet, Frankie Pierce (Jay Adler – The Killing; Illegal), suggesting a bank robbery could be happening any time...

What at first would seem to be your prototypical poliziotteschi (an Italian sub-genre infusing action and crime), Cry of a Prostitute (1974) – its more subtle titles: Love Kills and Guns of the Big Shots), directed by gritty film maker Andrea Bianchi (Strip Nude for Your Killer; Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror), actually holds more in common with the classic spaghetti western. Taking inspiration from Shakespeare’s Capulets and Montagues, the real life Hatfields and McCoys, and perhaps most importantly, films like Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars (1964), you’ll probably note that each reference relates to two feuding families... which is the main element of the story here.

Sometimes, even the best laid plans for your future, discussed and organized for years, Backfire (1950). A post World War II, Los Angeles set film noir directed by Vincent Sherman proves that in life, nothing is a guarantee. Set over Christmas and New Years 1948, even though we are three years on from the conclusion of the War, soldier Bob Corey (Gordon McRae) is still convalescing at an army hospital after undergoing numerous back surgeries. Relying on fellow military tank buddy Steve Connelly (Edmond O’Brien – D.O.A.; The Hitch-Hiker) to do all the legwork (and military paperwork) to fulfil their long talked about plan... that is, to find a ranch property that they can go oil hunting on, they finally think “we’re out of the jungle now”... alas, they’re far from it.

Some people just have a natural aura... a mesmeric vibe that draws people to them. Whether it’s looks, personality, a combination of both, or perhaps something else that’s completely inexplicable, other human beings are just instinctively attracted to them. Of course, that happened in the comedy There’s Something About Mary (1998), but long before that, a similar scenario involving the titular character in the legendary film noir Laura (1944) occurred, all orchestrated by producer and eventual director Otto Preminger – River of No Return)... but more on that complicated tale later. Opening with the news that Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney – The Ghost and Mrs. Muir; Night and the City) is dead by way of murder, it is all told by way of our voice-over narrator (and famed writer/radio voice) Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb) – there is no denying that he is one of the gents truly infatuated with the lady.