For those of you who have no idea what film noir is, the movie, Out Of The Past is one of the best examples. Think guns, dames, and hats. Noir’s visual style had its roots in German expressionism with dark, rich blacks and vibrant whites. For my money, the best writers were Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon) and James M. Cain (The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity). Cain did uncredited rewrites on Out Of The Past and came up with lines of dialogue like: “She can’t be all bad — no one is,” to which another character responds: “She comes the closest.”