James Cagney and Pat O’Brien are slum kids whose lives take different paths; one becomes a hood, the other a priest. Inevitably their paths clash in this nostalgic morality tale in New York.

B is for Blood Simple (1983)

The Coens’ first film and the best Jim Thompson-inspired film not actually adapted from one his novels. Dark, bleak and sardonic tale of everyday folk tearing each other apart.

C is for Raymond Chandler

Philip Marlowe has been played by countless actors, including Robert Montgomery, Dick Powell, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum, Elliott Gould, Powers Boothe, James Caan and James Garner, but none has truly captured his sense of decency and cynicism.

D is for Detour (1945)

One of the all-time classics of existential noir. Man meets the wrong woman in the wrong place at the wrong time. Despairing and gripping tale of a man metaphorically drowning in the waters of fate and the sinking American dream.

E is for Escape from Alcatraz (1979)

Don Siegel’s treatment, with a customarily terse Clint Eastwood, grips like a vice and puts Eastwood’s capers as Dirty Harry in the shade.

F is for France

Many of the best American hard-boiled crime authors initially found an audience on Gallic shores, hence the number of first-class adaptations of pulp classics by the likes of Godard, Truffaut, Tavernier and Alain Corneau.

G is for Gun Crazy (1949)

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