Out of the Past (1947)

Kathie Moffett

Jeff Markham's (Robert Mitchum) first sight of Whit Sterling's (Kirk Douglas) girlfriend/mistress Kathie Moffett (Jane Greer) confirmed Whit's earlier observation:

When you see her, you'll understand better.

He memorably described how he first met the seductive femme fatale (when she first appeared in the film and walked into his life) dressed in white - but casting a sultry silhouette as she entered from the bright white, hazy outdoors into the dark Mexican cantina:

And then I saw her, coming out of the sun, and I knew why Whit didn't care about that forty grand.

Immediately, Jeff was mesmerized and infatuated by the dark-haired beauty (seemingly so innocent) with a broad-brimmed, white hat - unaware of her lethal charms at the beginning of their ill-fated affair.

Key Largo (1948)

Johnny Rocco

In his last major appearance as a gangster, Edward G. Robinson starred in this John Huston crime-drama as Prohibition-era mobster Johnny Rocco (known mysteriously at first as "Mr. Brown") -- modeled on real-life gangster Lucky Luciano.

Rocco had just been deported to Cuba, but awaited a counterfeit deal with a Miami mobster while establishing temporary headquarters at a small Florida hotel in the Keys during the off-season where he had taken everyone hostage.

The snarling racketeer's dramatic entrance, purposely delayed, found him partially obscured as he reclined in a bathtub, while smoking a cigar, drinking, and being air-conditioned by the revolving blades of an electric fan nearby.

The Red Shoes (1948, UK)

Boris Lermontov

Ballet impresario Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook) was introduced with a mysterious entrance scene.

He was seated in the darkness behind the curtain of his opera box, with only his hand showing -- typical of the kind of entrances reserved for horror film characters.

Gun Crazy (1949)

Annie Laurie Starr

The entertaining star trick markswoman [a typical femme fatale seductress in film noir], filmed from below to make her appear more imposing, appeared on stage dressed as a Western cowgirl (with cowboy hat and shirt, gun holster, and hip-hugging black pants) and fired into the air.

A broad-smiling Bart (John Dall) in the front row leaned forward intently for a closer look at his dream-girl/soul-mate come true, captivated and fixated on her domineering, gun-toting abilities that made her as good as any man.

She lowered one of her guns and fired directly at her admiring, glaze-eyed customer. He reacted by flinching slightly - bewitchingly, she flashed a radiant, smiling grin back at him, revealing to everyone that she was using blanks in the potentially-potent gun.

The audience applauded wildly for her attention-getting poses and presence.

The Third Man (1949)

Harry Lime

A scene dissolved to the street outside Anna's (Alida Valli) apartment, where Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) walked away. He became aware of a figure in a doorway on the opposite side of the street when he heard Anna's cat meow loudly at the feet of the silent, motionless figure.

The figure's big shoes were illuminated - was it one of Calloway's men, Popescu, Kurtz, another thug or Intelligence agent?

Holly abusively, drunkenly, and defiantly shouted out to the figure. A light from an irritated neighbor's upstairs window briefly illuminated the figure's face - shining straight across the street.

Holly momentarily and suddenly saw Harry Lime (Orson Welles) - the 'third man' himself, an amoral blackmarketer. Amazed to see Harry still alive, Holly was startled by the flirtatious, mocking sight of the smiling, smug face of his friend staring back at him, with a raised eyebrow.

The light was quickly extinguished, and before Holly could reach his friend, a car approached and blocked his path by coming between them. The figure made off and vanished to the sound of retreating footsteps in the dark.

D.O.A. (1950)

Frank Bigelow

In the striking opening sequence during the credits, one of the greatest of all time, an individual was followed by the camera - face unseen - as he determinedly proceeded down the long hallway into the homicide division office of a police station. He was there to seek the "man in charge" and to report a murder ("I want to report a murder") to the homicide chief.

He was asked the location of the murder and when asked: "Who was murdered?" the camera finally revealed the protagonist: small-town accountant Frank Bigelow (Edmond O'Brien), his face sweaty, his tie loosened and collar disheveled, and his suit caked with dirt.

Frank paused for a long minute, and answered shakily: "I was."

He then related, in flashback, how he had awakened and discovered that he'd been poisoned by a "luminous toxin" called iridium and had a week to live due to the radiation poisoning - only a short time to try to untangle the events behind his imminent demise.

Rashomon (1950, Jp.)

The 'Raped' Wife

In Akira Kurosawa's landmark film in cinematic history, set in 12th century feudal Japan, a 'raped' wife (Machiko Kyō) was one of the four main characters who all told incompatible, contradictory tales of the same 'rape' and murder.

She was first (chronologically) seen concealed under a large hat and veil. The rapist/bandit Tajōmaru (Toshirō Mifune) watched from the dense forest as she was being led on a horse by her samurai husband (Masayuki Mori).

When the bandit glimpsed her bare feet and the camera panned up to partially reveal her face through the open veil, he was awestruck by the sight. He recalled:

I caught a glimpse and then she was gone. Maybe that's why I thought I saw a goddess. At that moment, I decided to capture her, even if I had to kill her man, but if I could have her without killing, all the better.

The bandit began to chase after them to confront them. He lied to the husband and led him into the woods where he attacked him (and tied him to a pine tree).

He returned to the wife where he watched as she fully opened her veil to him, and then told her that her husband had taken sick.

When she looked at him with "frozen eyes," he changed his feelings about her husband: "I envied the man and I suddenly hated him."

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Joe Gillis

Norma Desmond

The film opened with a voice-over narration read cynically and crisply in a film-noirish style, by a dead man - hack screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden).

Motorcycle officers, followed by police cars with sirens blaring, rushed to a mansion in Beverly Hills where they found a dead body floating face down in a swimming pool.

...You see, the body of a young man was found floating in the pool of her mansion - with two shots in his back and one in his stomach. Nobody important, really. Just a movie writer with a couple of 'B' pictures to his credit. The poor dope! He always wanted a pool. Well, in the end, he got himself a pool - only the price turned out to be a little high.

Shortly afterwards, in a flashbacked scene set six months earlier, Joe had met has-been, reclusive silent film idol Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) in her decaying mansion. She was wearing black house pajamas with a leopard-patterned scarf wrapped like a turban around her head.

He mocked her: "You used to be big." She replied: "I am big. It's the pictures that got small."

The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)

Gort

After a huge flying saucer landed on the mall in Washington, DC in 1951, a humanoid alien visitor Klaatu (Michael Rennie) emerged down a ramp.

The strange visitor was followed to everyone's amazement by his 10 foot tall menacing robot protector named Gort - who had the ability to zap (melt) weapons or tanks with the disintegration laser beam-ray behind his visor.

[The film was remade in 2008 by director Scott Derrickson, starring Keanu Reeves as Klaatu.]

Strangers on a Train (1951)

Bruno Anthony
Guy Haines

The opening sequence introduced the duality of the two 'strangers on a train' and a plan to "swap murders" - the two characters were:

• the villainous psychotic playboy character Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker)
• professional tennis ace Guy Haines (Farley Granger)

They had a 'chance' meeting on a train enroute from Washington DC - it was a cleverly-choreographed sequence in which the two sets of the strangers' shoes were highlighted before they met.

Singin' in the Rain (1952)

Dancer

In an extraordinary scene, while Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) was singing and dancing to a fantasy number - a 'show within a show' titled "Broadway Rhythm," a woman's long shapely leg abruptly appeared on the screen. It was dangling and balancing the straw hat from his head on an upturned foot.

His eyes and the camera followed the leg up to the figure of a seductive Dancer (Cyd Charisse), a gangster's moll with a Cleopatra haircut. Wisps of cigarette smoke emanated from her mouth - while her striking leg raised almost 90 degrees, tantalizingly.

He had met the girl of his dreams, a beautiful, bewitching exotic nightclub performer and city vamp, looking like vixenous silent star Louise Brooks. She was wearing a short, gloriously sexy green dress with matching green high-heels, and had a long cigarette holder in her hand. She left the table where her silver dollar-flipping, scar-faced gangster boyfriend (resembling actor George Raft in Scarface: The Shame of the Nation (1932)) sat with two mugs.

She danced provocatively around him, shaking her hips and blowing cigarette smoke in his face. She removed his glasses and hat, steamed up the glasses with her breath and wiped them on her thigh, and then kicked away both his hat and glasses. She placed her long cigarette holder in his mouth.

They continued dancing sensuously close together, and she began to kiss him. But she was lured away by the sight of a thick, sparkling diamond bracelet, held out by her gangster boyfriend's hand.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

Lorelei Lee
Dorothy Shaw

Marilyn Monroe (as Lorelei Lee) and Jane Russell (as Dorothy Shaw) burst onto the screen in sparkly red and white costumes (against a blue backdrop).

There were singing the opening number: (We're Just) Two Little Girls From Little Rock.

Rear Window (1954)

Lisa Carol Fremont

Photographer L. B. "Jeff" Jefferies (James Stewart) was dozing off in his apartment, immobilized with a cast on his broken leg.

Earlier in the film, he had talked to his sharp-tongued, visiting nurse-therapist Stella (Thelma Ritter) about his girlfriend/fashion model-designer Lisa Carol Fremont (Grace Kelly). He was complaining about how she was too much of a "Park Avenue" woman - too rich, "too perfect," spoiled, sophisticated and incompatible for his lifestyle as a globe-trotting, high-risk, ultra-masculine photographer.

In her famed film entrance, Lisa's shadow was first visible as it slowly rose up on Jeff's face as she approached (seen in close-up from his POV), bent over, and then lovingly kissed him.

She roused and awakened him from his sleep - very stylish, elegant (with bright red lipstick and pearls), lovely, and blonde.