Dead End After Dark – 12 Classic Film Noir Thrillers DVD Collection | Detour, D.O.A., Scarlet Street & More

DEAD END AFTER DARK

12 Classic Film Noir Thrillers

Murder. Betrayal. Dangerous women. Desperate men. And one wrong turn that changes everything.

Step into the shadows with Dead End After Dark, a 12-film collection drawn from the dark heart of classic film noir. These are stories where ordinary people make dangerous choices, strangers carry deadly secrets, fortunes appear at exactly the wrong moment, and the road home can suddenly become a dead end.

From rain-slicked streets and lonely highways to cheap hotel rooms, smoky nightclubs and shadow-filled apartments, these films capture the unmistakable atmosphere that made noir one of Hollywood's most compelling genres.

This collection brings together major stars, legendary directors and some of the most memorable thrillers of the 1940s and 1950s. You'll find Edward G. Robinson, Barbara Stanwyck, Orson Welles, Peter Lorre, Lizabeth Scott, Dan Duryea, Kirk Douglas, Ann Sheridan, Edmond O'Brien, Ida Lupino and more.

Whether you're already a devoted noir collector or just discovering the genre, Dead End After Dark is a journey into a world where nothing is quite what it seems—and almost everyone has something to hide.

THE 12 FILMS

1. DETOUR (1945)

Starring Tom Neal & Ann Savage | Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer

A broke piano player hitchhiking across the country makes one terrible mistake after another after fate places him on a collision course with the unforgettable Vera. Bleak, strange and relentlessly fatalistic, Detour became one of the defining films of low-budget noir.

2. SCARLET STREET (1945)

Starring Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett & Dan Duryea | Directed by Fritz Lang

A mild-mannered amateur painter becomes obsessed with a beautiful woman who, along with her manipulative lover, sees him only as an opportunity. Desire turns to humiliation, betrayal and murder in Fritz Lang's dark masterpiece.

3. THE STRANGER (1946)

Starring Orson Welles, Edward G. Robinson & Loretta Young | Directed by Orson Welles

A government investigator tracks a fugitive war criminal who has created a respectable new identity in a quiet American town. Beneath the peaceful surface lies a secret that cannot remain buried forever.

4. THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS (1946)

Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott & Kirk Douglas

A man returns to his hometown and becomes entangled with a powerful woman whose wealth and marriage were built around a terrible secret from their childhood. Old passions and old crimes begin closing in.

5. THE CHASE (1946)

Starring Robert Cummings, Michèle Morgan, Steve Cochran & Peter Lorre

A down-on-his-luck veteran finds himself working for a dangerous gangster and falling for the man's trapped wife. What begins as a desperate escape soon slips into a strange, dreamlike nightmare.

6. HE WALKED BY NIGHT (1948)

Starring Richard Basehart & Scott Brady

Los Angeles police hunt a calculating and elusive criminal who seems able to disappear into the city itself. Stark nighttime photography and tense police work make this one of the great procedural noirs of the era.

7. TOO LATE FOR TEARS (1949)

Starring Lizabeth Scott & Dan Duryea

When a suitcase filled with money lands in the wrong car, an ordinary woman's life changes instantly. Her husband wants to turn it over to the police. She has other ideas. Greed quickly gives way to deception, violence and murder.

8. IMPACT (1949)

Starring Brian Donlevy, Ella Raines, Charles Coburn & Helen Walker

A wealthy businessman survives an attempt on his life only to discover that the people responsible believe he is dead. Given the chance to disappear, he begins building another life—until the past catches up with him.

9. D.O.A. (1950)

Starring Edmond O'Brien

A man walks into a police station and announces that he has been murdered. Poisoned and with only a short time left to live, he races through the city trying to discover who killed him—and why. One of noir's greatest premises and most relentless thrillers.

10. QUICKSAND (1950)

Starring Mickey Rooney & Peter Lorre

A young mechanic takes a little money that doesn't belong to him, intending to put it back before anyone notices. One small theft leads to another crime, then another, as he sinks deeper into a situation from which there seems to be no escape.

11. WOMAN ON THE RUN (1950)

Starring Ann Sheridan & Dennis O'Keefe

After witnessing a murder, a man disappears before he can testify. His estranged wife searches the streets of San Francisco for him while a reporter offers to help—but in film noir, help rarely comes without a price.

12. THE HITCH-HIKER (1953)

Starring Edmond O'Brien, Frank Lovejoy & William Talman | Directed by Ida Lupino

Two friends on a fishing trip make the mistake of picking up a hitchhiker. Their passenger is a ruthless killer, and their quiet journey becomes a terrifying fight for survival across an isolated landscape.

A JOURNEY THROUGH CLASSIC FILM NOIR

Dead End After Dark brings together several sides of noir in one collection.

There are doomed wanderers and desperate fugitives. Femme fatales and manipulative lovers. Murderers hiding behind respectable faces. Ordinary people seduced by money. Men discovering that one seemingly harmless decision can destroy everything they had.

And running through all twelve films is that unmistakable noir feeling that fate is already waiting somewhere around the next corner.

PREMIUM COLLECTOR DVD EDITION

This collection is prepared for classic-film fans who still appreciate physical media and enjoy having these films together in one organized collection.

Your edition includes:

• 12 Classic Film Noir Thrillers

• Custom-designed collector packaging

• Printed DVD artwork

• Printed disc labeling

• Collector-style presentation

• Carefully assembled classic-film collection

• SilverScreen Shop Media Co. presentation

Film sources vary due to the age and survival history of these vintage motion pictures. Some films may show occasional scratches, grain, contrast changes, film wear or other characteristics associated with surviving archival and public-domain prints. These qualities are part of the history of films that have survived for more than seventy years.

DVD SPECIFICATIONS

Format: DVD
Genre: Film Noir / Crime / Mystery / Thriller
Era: 1940s–1950s
Films: 12
Language: English
Presentation: Black & White
Physical Media: Collector DVD Edition

PUBLIC DOMAIN COLLECTION

The motion pictures included in this collection are offered from public-domain source material. This edition does not claim ownership of the original motion pictures.

The custom compilation, organization, packaging, artwork and presentation created for this collection are part of the SilverScreen Shop Media Co. collector edition.

WHY BUY THIS COLLECTION?

There are plenty of inexpensive collections filled with forgettable crime pictures. Dead End After Dark was designed differently.

These twelve films were selected because they represent some of the most entertaining and distinctive public-domain examples of classic film noir—from celebrated essentials such as Detour, Scarlet Street and D.O.A. to atmospheric favorites including Too Late for Tears, Woman on the Run, The Chase and The Hitch-Hiker.

You'll see major stars before and during some of the most fascinating periods of their careers, along with filmmakers including Fritz Lang, Orson Welles, Edgar G. Ulmer and Ida Lupino.

Most importantly, this is a collection you can actually sit down and enjoy from beginning to end.

Twelve films.

Twelve journeys into the shadows.

And in every one of them, somebody is about to discover that the road ahead has become a...

DEAD END AFTER DARK.

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