Back Door to Heaven (1939)

The cover art on the new DVD release doesn't do it justice- it makes it look like a B-Prison flick, when really it is closer to the Warner Bros. "social problem" pictures of the early 30's. It’s a combination of I am a Fugative from a Chain Gang and Three on a Match, with a dash of both The Crowd and It's a Wonderful Life thrown in for good measure. When the movie opens, five friends are graduating from Miss Williams' (perennial favorite Aline MacMahon) junior high school class. The students are poor, but academically gifted, and Miss Williams is confident that they'll go on to achieve great things. The film follows their disappointments and failures of trying to make good during the Depression, focusing on Frankie (Wallace Ford) who has turned to a life of petty crime. They individually prepare to return home for a class reunion, just as Frankie is arrested on murder charges. His old friends rally around him, including John (a really young Van Heflin) who has become a lawyer and takes his case to try and save him from the electric chair.

Black Angel (1946)

I can only think of two movies that are worth watching for the opening sequence alone: Touch of Evil is one, and this is the other. Dan Duryea smokes a cigarette on the sidewalk outside a high rise building, flicks away the ash, as the camera pans up the side of the building and through the venetian blinds where is estranged wife is having an affair. The wife turns up murdered (of course), and her lover is implicated. In short order Duryea (also a suspect) and the wife of the accused (June Vincent) team up to do some sleuthing on there own- they suspect creepy nightclub owner Peter Lorre (who wouldn't?) and go so far as to get hired as dancers (!) in his club in order to spy on him.

Phantom Lady (1944)

Another cheating wife turns up dead at the beginning of this one- this time the secretary of the accused (Ella Raines) sets out to prove her boss's innocence by tracking down the titular character, who can provide him with an alibi. She tarts herself up and starts hanging out in nightclubs, "undercover", and at one point picks up speed junkie and jazz musician Elisha Cook, Jr who takes her to an all-night jam session. This sequence, (with the drum solo dubbed by Buddy Rich) has been variously described as "masturbatory" and "orgiastic"; neither adjective does it justice. The supporting cast includes Franchot Tone, Thomas Gomez and Carmen Miranda's sister, Aurora.