Is there any kind of girl other than “bad” in film noir? Maybe, but the goody-two-shoes was relegated to the sidelines while the saucy miss took center stage, sweet talking her way into the hearts (and wallets) of all the poor saps unlucky enough to find themselves in her orbit. As the Sony PR machine says, “In the ’40s and ’50s, the juiciest roles for actresses in Hollywood were often in B-pictures that explored the dark side of life and offered them starring roles as cool, calculating gals who could stick a knife in a man’s back and make him like it.”

Restored and remastered, these DVDs (sold separately)  showcase some of the best femme fatales of the era — Gloria Grahame, Evelyn Keyes, Lizabeth Scott, Ida Lupino, Jan Sterling, Audrey Totter, Janis Carter, and B-movie Bombshell Cleo Moore in a triple-bill on Vol 2.

Bonus materials include an all-new interview with Two of a Kind co-star Terry Moore, vintage television episodes of The Payoff with Janet Blair and Howard Duff, and Remember to Live with Cleo Moore and Dane Clark, plus original theatrical trailers.

Here’s a basic rundown of the movies, then in-depth reviews of Over-Exposed (Cleo Moore, Richard Creena) and The Glass Wall (Gloria Grahame, Vittorio Gassman) follow.

• Bad for Each Other (1953)
• Night Editor (1946)
• One Girl’s Confession (1953)
• Over-Exposed (1956)
• The Glass Wall (1953)
• The Killer That Stalked New York (1950)
• Two of A Kind (1951)
• Women’s Prison (1956)

OVER-EXPOSED

Who knew a “flash-girl” was a photographer? You’ll learn antiquated double-entendres such as that and much more by watching blonde, bold and baaaaad Cleo Moore as Lila, a small-town beauty with big-city dreams. Unlike most girls, however, she doesn’t think of modeling as a career — she’s a step ahead, selling herself as a photojournalist instead. After learning the tricks of the trade from a soused, has-been shutterbug (Raymond Greenleaf), Lila leaves small-town USA and shoots for the stars in New York City.

She gets a break from smitten newspaper reporter Russell (Richard Crenna) but finds an honest day’s pay just isn’t enough. She goes for the glamour and glitz of a flash-girl gig in a jazzy nightclub, taking pictures of the patrons and selling them the prints. When she snaps the right photo of the wrong man, her blackmail gene clicks on and the doors magically open. Before long, she is the toast of the town, taking pics at the poshest watering-hole in town, Club Coco. Coco is owned by some crooked characters, which doesn’t sit right with Lila’s straight-arrow beau.

Half mobster-crime story and half friction-fraught romance, Over-Exposed never quite finds the right balance, but it’s entertaining, nonetheless. The dialogue is absolutely priceless, especially when men are decrying Lila’s money-loving ways (”You’d use your grandmother’s bones to pry open a cash register”; “You can’t see anything that’s not gold-plated!”) — and the attention to detail is remarkable (both by the actors and the filmmakers). Best of all is the casting of Moore as Lila. Her brassy mane and buxom bod is compelling, even if she’s not really that “bad” (a bit ambitious, sure, but she’s just a clever, independent woman).

THE GLASS WALL

The Glass Wall is also dated but less amusingly so than Over-Exposed. Vittorio Glassman, one of Italy’s most lauded actors, made his English-language film debut here as Peter Kaban, an immigrant stowaway seeking — and not finding — asylum in the Naked City. Escaping from the authorities before they can send him home, Peter takes to the mean streets searching for the former G.I. he met during the war. He hopes this soldier, whose life he saved, will remember him and put in a good word.

Meanwhile, Peter’s escape is plastered all over the front pages (must’ve been a slow news day) and he’s forced to seek the kindness of strangers. Of course, the only kind of strangers willing to take in fugitives are of the shady sort…and luckily for Peter, the sexy sort. Gorgeous Gloria Grahame plays a petty thief who winds up (you guessed it) stealing Peter’s heart.

I found the acting to be overwrought to the point of histrionic at times, and the story just didn’t work for me as a noir (in fact, most of the titles in these DVD sets do stretch the term to its limits). However, The Glass Wall is interesting from a historical standpoint. To see the early work of Glassman, the impressive ‘newsreel’ style cinematography (inter-cut with stock footage), and unvarnished shots of New York City as it was (Times Square, The United Nations, around Manhattan) makes it worth the time.

Overall, the Bad Girls of Film Noir offers up some great choices for fans of classic American B-grade cinema. While it’s not as darkly noir-ish as one might hope, most the films are lesser-known and not likely to be airing on broadcast television very often, so the set is definitely recommended.