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Some of the darkest stories in classic Hollywood came straight from shocking real-life crimes. Join us as we explore the film noirs inspired by murder, wrongful conviction, mob violence and sensational headlines, from desperate insurance scams to chilling manhunts and murder cases that gripped America. Which true-crime noir is the most unforgettable? Let us know in the comments below!
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00:00Am I being accused of something? Who says I'm a hold-up man or look-like one, and what hold
00:03-up
00:03are you talking about? Don't I have a right to know? Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting
00:08down our picks for the classic film noirs whose plots were inspired by shocking real-life crimes.
00:14Since we'll be discussing how these stories unfold, a spoiler alert is in effect.
00:19Suppose we sit down and you tell me about the insurance. My husband never tells me anything.
00:24The Enforcer.
00:25How's our witness?
00:30He's falling apart.
00:37Well, I hope he holds together till morning. I'll put him on the stand the first thing. Send him in.
00:44Humphrey Bogart spent much of his career battling gangsters, but not many were as chillingly
00:49organized as the killers in The Enforcer. Bogart plays assistant district attorney Martin Ferguson,
00:54whose case against a mysterious crime boss begins falling apart after a crucial witness dies.
01:00I'm going to testify. You've got to get yourself a new boy.
01:03Sit down.
01:04Stop telling me to sit down. Take it easy, Rico. Relax, Rico. Well, it's my neck. He tried once in
01:11the farm, once in the jail, and once in the hotel. He's going to get me.
01:15Nobody's going to get you. That's why we brought you here.
01:18The investigation uncovers a network of hired killers who take on murder contracts,
01:23eliminating strangers and leaving investigators with no apparent motive. The story fictionalized
01:27Murder, Inc., the Brooklyn-based enforcement arm of organized crime figures such as Louis Lepke
01:32Bucalte. Bogart's character was modeled partly on prosecutor Burton Turkis, who helped dismantle
01:37the syndicate and advise the production.
01:39With the international gangsters still to be brought to justice, a process that will cost
01:45the lives of countless thousands of innocent persons, the passing of Lepke is of comparatively
01:52little significance.
01:54Boomerang.
01:55Well, don't look so happy, Robbie. Anything break yet?
02:02You too? That's a bad case.
02:05Well, it's not going to get any better with everybody yapping at me.
02:09Look, Robbie.
02:10No, nothing's broken. No leads, no clues, no nothing.
02:14Ilya Kazan's Boomerang begins with the murder of a respected priest and the public demand for
02:19an immediate arrest. Police eventually sees drifter John Waldron, played by Arthur Kennedy,
02:24whose identification by witnesses seemingly creates an airtight case. But prosecutor Henry
02:29Harvey, played by Dana Andrews, gradually realizes that the evidence doesn't hold up under serious
02:33scrutiny.
02:34My name's Harvey Waldron. I'm a state's attorney, a man who'll prosecute you.
02:39What do you want?
02:40I thought I'd like to hear your side of it. I'd help clear things up.
02:43My side of it? You kidding? My side of it is that I didn't do it.
02:47The story was drawn from the 1924 murder of Father Hubert Dahm in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
02:53Harold Israel was arrested, but prosecutor Homer Cummings concluded that the case against him
02:57was deeply flawed, helping to clear him rather than pursuing an easy conviction.
03:01Dahm's murder was never solved.
03:03I must apologize, Your Honor, for the use of theatrics in this presentation.
03:07But there's a defect in the firing pin of this gun. It's loose and faulty,
03:11making it impossible for the gun to be fired in this position.
03:16We tried it 16 times.
03:20That was the 17th.
03:25While the city sleeps.
03:27I'm going to get myself a gimmick.
03:29Something that will set the three of them scrambling for the new job.
03:34What do you think of that?
03:39I'd rather not say.
03:40After a murderer leaves a message written in lipstick, the executives of a media empire compete to identify him,
03:46hoping the scoop will earn them a promotion.
03:48While the city sleeps was adapted from Charles Einstein's book, The Bloody Spur.
03:51Einstein's novel drew upon the notorious lipstick killer case associated with William Merrin's.
03:56Once you come to prison, you don't have many friends, especially outside friends.
04:01They kind of fall away.
04:09But you have inside friends, prisoners that are your friends, but they can't do much for you.
04:16At 17, Ahrens pleaded guilty to three murders.
04:19He later insisted that his confession had been coerced, and the case remains controversial.
04:24Director Fritz Lang borrows the label, the lipstick message, and the atmosphere of panic,
04:28but shifts tension toward the people packaging violence as entertainment.
04:32The reporters are hunting the killer, but they are also feeding the spectacle around him.
04:36When I have them dangling on the string.
04:39When they realize that I hold their entire lives in my hands.
04:44Call Northside 777.
04:46You run this ad?
04:53Yes, that's for me.
04:55You know something?
04:57No, no.
04:58No, I'm a reporter from the Chicago Times.
05:02We'd like to know why you're so interested in finding the killers of this cop.
05:05Here, Jimmy Stewart plays initially skeptical reporter PJ McNeil, who investigates a mother's
05:11claim that her imprisoned son was wrongfully convicted of killing a police officer.
05:14The case echoes that of Joseph Maicek and Theodore Marcinkiewicz, apprehended following
05:19the 1932 murder of Chicago officer William Lundy inside a speakeasy.
05:23Maicek's mother, Tilly, spent years working as a scrub woman and saving money for a reward.
05:28I work, I scrub floors, 11 years, I never miss a day's work.
05:35I earned it, every penny.
05:38Eleven years?
05:40That's a long time.
05:43Yes.
05:44You just say it.
05:46My boy, he lived it.
05:48In 1994, she placed a classified advertisement offering $5,000 for information and directing
05:54callers to Northside 777.
05:56Chicago Times reporter James McGuire investigated, uncovered serious problems with the conviction,
06:01and helped secure Maicek's pardon in 1945.
06:04Marcinkiewicz remained in prison until 1950.
06:07I've assembled what I feel is a very solid case.
06:10And what does this case consist?
06:12Well, it consists of such debatable items as a lie detector test.
06:16Now, I realize that you're unable to accept that.
06:20You want evidence.
06:22But sometimes the weight of evidence, just because it's in the record, is heavy enough
06:26to crush the truth.
06:28The Sound of Fury
06:29Oh, please, Mr. Stanton.
06:32You can help him if you want to.
06:34I'd like very much to help you, Mrs. Tyler.
06:37But believe me, there's nothing I can do for your husband.
06:40Oh, you don't know, Howard.
06:43He's not a monster like you called him in the paper.
06:46Later reissued as Try and Get Me, this blistering noir follows unemployed family man Howard Tyler
06:51as desperation pulls him into crime alongside the reckless Jerry Slockam.
06:55Their robberies snub all into kidnapping and murder, while sensational newspaper coverage
06:59pushes an already furious community toward mob violence.
07:02Why did he have to kill him?
07:05All he said was he was going to haul him until he got the money.
07:07He never said he was going to kill him.
07:09Why did he have to kill him?
07:11Joe Pagano based his novel The Condemned and later his screenplay for this film on the
07:151933 kidnapping and murder of Brooke Hart, the 22-year-old heir to a prominent San Jose
07:20department store.
07:21Suspects Thomas Thurmond and John Holmes confessed, but they never reached trial.
07:25After Hart's body was recovered, a mob stormed the Santa Clara County Jail, dragged both
07:29men to St. James Park, and hanged them.
07:31Look, I don't know how to say this, I'm sorry.
07:39It's all right, what you said about me was the truth.
07:42Please, Mr. Stanton, do what you can for my wife and kid, please.
07:45Yeah, yeah, I'll do everything I can.
07:48He walked by night.
07:50Hello, Roy.
07:53Yes, yes, I've sold it.
07:56Your money is waiting here for you.
07:59Yes, I'll be working late tonight.
08:02What time will you be by?
08:03First thing in the morning.
08:06Well, maybe you better come in tonight, Roy.
08:08A couple of things I want cleared up.
08:10Like what?
08:11Richard Basehart is terrifyingly controlled as Roy Morgan, an electronics expert, burglar,
08:16and killer who knows enough about police methods to stay ahead of them.
08:20The character was inspired by Erwin Walker, a former Glendale Police Department employee
08:24and Second World War veteran whose crimes culminated in the killing of a California highway patrolman.
08:29It isn't too late.
08:30Give yourself up.
08:31Come to your senses before you kill someone else.
08:40What do you mean, someone else?
08:43What do you mean?
08:44Nothing.
08:45The two officers, they said one of them might die.
08:49He's still alive, isn't he?
08:51Working with Los Angeles police files and technical advisors,
08:54the filmmakers gave the picture an unusually convincing procedural feel.
08:57Morgan monitors police radios, changes his methods, and even removes a bullet from his own body.
09:02Anything to avoid the risk of visiting a doctor.
09:05The real walker was captured, spent time under a death sentence,
09:08and was later institutionalized before eventually regaining his freedom.
09:11I had a little accident.
09:13Got a mop, I'll clean it up.
09:16Leave it be, I'll clean it up myself.
09:19Okay, mister.
09:20The Wrong Man.
09:21You ever borrow any money?
09:24Yes, I have.
09:25When was the last time?
09:28Last summer, I barred $50 from the Homewood Finance Company when we were going out of vacation.
09:34Did you pay it back?
09:36Yes.
09:37Was it difficult to pay back?
09:40I guess so, it's always hard to pay back.
09:43For Alfred Hitchcock, the frightening part of Christopher Manny Balestrero's story was just how little imagination it required.
09:49Henry Fonda plays the mild-mannered store club musician who visits an insurance office seeking money for his wife's dental
09:55treatment and is mistaken for a robber.
09:57The real Balestrero was arrested outside his queen's home on January 14th, 1953, after several witnesses identified him.
10:04Later that year, Life magazine published a seven-page feature on my experience, and recently Alfred Hitchcock made a movie
10:10called The Wrong Man, in which I am portrayed by Henry Fonda.
10:14I swear that the above statement is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
10:21Signed, Manny Balestrero.
10:23He was charged with two armed robberies and brought to trial, only for a juror's outburst to produce a mistrial.
10:28Before a second trial could begin, another man, Charles James Daniel, was caught and confessed to dozens of robberies, including
10:35those blamed on Balestrero.
10:36The charges were dismissed, but the ordeal had already devastated the family and contributed to his wife, Rose's, hospitalization.
10:43Read exactly what's on the paper here.
10:46The second copy you made.
10:48This your printing?
10:49Yes, sir.
10:50Read it.
10:52This is a gun I have pointing at you.
10:54Be quiet and you will not be hurt.
10:57The Phoenix City Story.
10:58This is Cleet Roberts, reporting from Phoenix City, Alabama.
11:03I'm here to learn the truth about Phoenix City.
11:06Like many other Americans and people throughout the world, I had heard the story of the criminal syndicate, which allegedly
11:13controlled the city for many years.
11:15The Phoenix City Story opens with a documentary sequence featuring people connected to the actual events.
11:20That's before dramatizing a city dominated by gambling, trafficking, political corruption, and organized crime.
11:26Its central figure is Albert Pat Patterson, an Alabama attorney who ran for state attorney general on a promise to
11:31clean up Phoenix City.
11:32Now, I chose this place because I wanted you to face the cesspool that has given your city the name
11:42of Sintown, USA.
11:43I wanted you to smell the stench of it.
11:47On more than one election day, you could have cleaned it up by voting against the candidates that were sponsored
11:55by the mob.
11:56Shortly after winning the Democratic nomination, Patterson was shot outside his law office on June 18th, 1954.
12:03His murder finally forced the state government to confront the criminal operations that had controlled the area for decades.
12:08Martial law followed, hundreds of indictments were issued, and institutionalized vice was largely dismantled within months.
12:14And when does this happen, in some dictatorship across the sea?
12:20No!
12:22It's right here in your town.
12:24In all Alabama.
12:26All America.
12:27The Hitchhiker.
12:28Face front.
12:31And keep driving.
12:36Sure, I'm Emmett Myers.
12:39Do what I tell you.
12:40And don't make no fast moves, or a lot of dead heroes back there get nervous.
12:43A fishing trip becomes a waking nightmare when two friends pick up stranded motorist Emmett Myers,
12:48only to discover that their passenger is a wanted killer.
12:51Director Ida Lupino, the first woman to helm a film noir,
12:54traps the characters in a scorched border landscape where every mile brings them farther from help.
13:00Where are the chocolate mountains?
13:03In Arizona, near home.
13:05Not in Mexico?
13:06No.
13:10Well, what do you know?
13:13That's where you told your wives you were going, huh?
13:17Then you came to Mexico.
13:19Myers was modeled after Billy Cook, who murdered six people during a multi-state crime spree in late 1950 and
13:25early 1951.
13:26His victims included Carl and Thelma Mosser, their three children, and traveling salesman Robert Dewey.
13:32Cook later abducted hunters James Burke and Forrest Dameron, forcing them to drive him into Mexico before he was captured.
13:38You better go fishing when you got a chance.
13:41That's what you came down here for, wasn't it?
13:45You guys are really fools.
13:49If you weren't, one of you would have got away.
13:52But you kept thinking about each other, so you missed some chances.
13:57Double Indemnity
13:58I was thinking about my husband.
14:00I worry a lot about him down in those oil fields.
14:03It's very dangerous.
14:04Well, not for an executive, is it?
14:05Oh, he doesn't just sit behind a desk.
14:07He's right down there with those drilling crews.
14:09It's got me worried sick.
14:11You mean some dark night, a crown block might fall on him?
14:13Please don't talk like that.
14:14But that's the idea.
14:15Insurance salesman Walter Neff thinks he understands every possible scam until Phyllis Dietrichsen persuades him to help murder her husband
14:22and collect on a policy containing a double indemnity clause.
14:26James M. Cain's story, upon which the film is based, is widely traced to the 1927 murder of Albert Snyder
14:31by his wife, Ruth Snyder, and her lover, corset salesman Judd Gray.
14:36Ruth had secretly arranged a $100,000 insurance policy on her husband and attempted to kill him several times before
14:42recruiting Gray.
14:42After finally murdering Albert, the pair staged the scene to resemble a burglary, but their plot quickly unraveled.
14:48Both were convicted and executed at the notorious Sing Sing Correctional Facility in 1928.
14:54Why didn't you shoot again, baby?
15:02Don't tell me it's because you've been in love with me all this time.
15:06No, I never loved you, Walter, not you or anybody else.
15:10I'm rotten to the heart. I used you just as you said.
15:12Which classic film noir had the most fascinating real-life backstory?
15:16Name your pick and the crime that inspired it in the comments below.
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