MONEY AND THE WOMAN (1940)

Noir-flecked eyes may see 'Money and the Woman' as too flat and de-natured an example of the cycle - all the more so as it's based a James M. Cain story 'The Embezzler' which tells a much more lurid version of workaday folly and desperation.

Well, yes, the movie is guilty of some stodgy dramatics and the romantic fancifulness typical of many post-code/ pre-noir crime films of the mid and later ‘30’s.  However 'Money and the Woman' does zip along at a rate and as programmers go, is really not all that bad.  

Plus if you look hard enough you'll see that the essential schematics of film noir are there. So if nothing else you can re-imagine the movie as made at a later time when more of the right shots could have been called.

Your move, your movie...