Night Has A Thousand Eyes (1948)
Alamy
SICKBED NOIR
LAST OCTOBER, AFTER three years of dodging the viral bullet, I finally got Covid (a fairly mild case) and was forced to spend a couple of weeks self-isolating. This gave me a chance to work out what my personal version of comfort-viewing is. It turns out the answer is film noir. I spent over a fortnight in a slightly dissociative state watching non-stop black-and-white movies with tough guys in fedoras and slinky dames up to no good. Often, the titles alone are enough to conjure up a mood —Night Has A Thousand Eyes, Between Midnight And Dawn, The Dark Past, Escape In The Fog, Drive A Crooked Road, I Wake Up Screaming, The Devil Thumbs A Ride, Phantom Lady.