Phantom Lady

After quarrelling with his wife, a man goes to a bar and spends the evening with a woman he does not know. He comes home to find his wife dead, and his only alibi is that woman, except the barman and the taxi driver both deny having seen her. With the man headed for execution, his secretary Carol starts looking for the truth on her own. Robert Siodmak adapted Cornell Woolrich's novel and put the woman at the centre, a rare choice for the forties. Its most famous passage is the jazz sequence where Carol follows a drummer, with the tension built out of music and sweat. The photography is a textbook of noir: wet streets, empty subway platforms, shadow. Who it is for: viewers who like classic noir and thrillers that work through atmosphere. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a plausible mystery, since the solution is forced.