Mean, moody and magnificent: film noir studio portraits in pictures | Film

Posted by Larita Shotwell on Saturday, August 17, 2024

Mean, moody and magnificent: film noir studio portraits – in pictures

Ava Gardner, Humphrey Bogart and Rita Hayworth were never more glamorous than in the photographs taken by studio photographers to publicise black and white thrillers in the 1940s and 50s. Here is a selection of the most memorable

Tony Nourmand

Main image: Ella Raines in Phantom Lady, 1946. Photograph: MPTVimages

Thu 10 Nov 2022 11.11 GMT Last modified on Thu 10 Nov 2022 11.38 GMT

  • The Killers (1946)

    Burt Lancaster with Ava Gardner in a moody publicity shot for the film, based on a short story by Ernest Hemingway. This was Lancaster’s first starring role at the age of 33 with Gardner, one of the most memorable femme fatales of the film noir genre

  • The Maltese Falcon (1941)

    Perfect use of light and shadow in this studio portrait of Humphrey Bogart as San Francisco private detective Sam Spade and the elusive priceless statuette of the Maltese Falcon. It was taken by Scotty Welbourne (1907-1979) at Warner Bros Studios

  • The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

    Released in 1947, starring Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth, this classic noir was based on the book If I Die Before I Wake by Sherwood King, and the film version was written and directed by Welles. The photo, taken by Robert Coburn (1900-1990) during the film’s funhouse mirror segment is one of the most imitated movie sequences of all time, most notably in the Bruce Lee film Enter the Dragon

  • Mildred Pierce (1945)

    Glamorous studio portrait of Joan Crawford in her Oscar-winning performance as Mildred Pierce. It was used in advertising campaigns with the tag line: ‘The kind of Woman that most men want – BUT SHOULDN’T HAVE!’

  • The Killing (1956)

    Sterling Hayden and Marie Windsor in a studio publicity photograph for Stanley Kubrick’s film noir caper

  • Panic in the Streets (1950)

    The portrait of Jack Palance in his first film role as the ruthless hoodlum Blackie was taken by the studio’s on-set photographer during the filming of Elia Kazan’s classic noir. It was used as one of the press stills to promote the movie and most notably used as the basis of the artwork on the exceptional Spanish poster by illustrator Josep Soligo

  • The Big Sleep (1946)

    Bogart and Bacall met two years earlier on the set of To Have and Have Not and married in 1945. Director Howard Hawks paired the couple up again for The Big Sleep to make full use of the chemistry between them and this studio portrait captures just that

  • The Devil Thumbs a Ride (1947)

    Lawrence Tierney (1919-2002), was a legendary Hollywood tough guy, on and off the screen, and was notorious for his frequent, well-publicised barroom brawls, including being stabbed in 1973. He was best known as the title character in Dillinger (1945) and Born to Kill (1947). Tierney is pictured here as Steve Morgan, the brutal killer, in a studio portrait for The Devil Thumbs a Ride. His career was rejuvenated in 1992 when Quentin Tarantino cast him as Joe Cabot in Reservoir Dogs

  • Gilda (1946)

    One of the quintessential film noir portraits, this image of Rita Hayworth was used for the original US movie poster. It has also become one of the most recognised images of Hollywood glamour of the 1940s

  • Out of the Past (1947)

    This atmospheric photograph of Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer for director Jacques Tourneur’s stone-cold classic Out of the Past was taken by RKO’s in-house photographer Ernest A Bachrach (1899-1973)

  • Notorious (1946)

    Exceptional portrait of Ingrid Bergman’s silhouette against a background of shady villains played by Friedrich von Ledebur, Peter von Zerneck and EA Krumschmidt. The setting was entirely created by photographer Gaston Longet (1900-1981) as part of the publicity for Alfred Hitchcock’s noir thriller

  • Sunset Boulevard (1950)

    This studio portrait of Erich von Stroheim and William Holden uses chiaroscuro to emphasise the tension of Gloria Swanson’s past and present lovers … and victims

  • Follow Me Quietly (1949)

    The faceless man in this composed studio portrait represents an elusive serial killer and the cop, played by William Lundigan, obsessed with tracking him down. This was a B noir, directed by Richard Fleischer (who went on to direct movies such as Fantastic Voyage, Soylent Green and Conan the Destroyer)

  • Phantom Lady (1944)

    This seldom-seen studio portrait of Ella Raines is a quintessential example of a femme fatale portrait of the period
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