The first – but not last – film noir included in this collection of 100 essential films is one of the earliest and greatest examples of the genre popularized in the wake of the death and destruction of World War II. In the realm of film noir, the heroes are cynical and always looking out for number one. The women are duplicitous and deadly, earning the moniker femme fatale. Life is cheap, and death is ever present, usually coming at the business end of a gun. The moral code is simple and brutal: get yours while the gettin’s good, because everyone else around you is trying to do the same.
Enter Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon.