In film noir, blackmail reveals the hidden sins people would kill to keep secret. Characters are often trapped between public disgrace and criminal complicity, their desperate attempts to conceal past crimes leading to even greater ruin. Noir’s bleak morality ensures that the more they try to buy their freedom, the tighter the noose grows.

10 Blackmail Noir Films:

Scarlet Street (1945, Universal Pictures)

A mild-mannered man is manipulated and blackmailed by a predatory couple after committing a crime of passion.

The Big Clock (1948, Paramount Pictures)

A corporate executive blackmails his own editor into covering up a murder.

The Woman in the Window (1944, International Pictures)

A man falls into a web of blackmail after accidentally killing a man who threatens his life.

Pitfall (1948, United Artists)

An extramarital affair leads to blackmail and violence for an insurance man.

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946, Paramount Pictures)

A woman’s childhood crime is buried under layers of blackmail and betrayal as she builds her fortune.

Please Murder Me (1956, United Artists)

A lawyer defends a woman in court, only to be blackmailed into setting her up for murder.

Born to Kill (1947, RKO Radio Pictures)

A woman covers up a murder and becomes enmeshed in blackmail and jealousy.

Road House (1948, Twentieth Century-Fox)

A love triangle turns deadly when jealousy leads to blackmail, violence, and murder in a seedy roadhouse.

Out of the Past (1947, RKO Radio Pictures)

Past betrayals and blackmail threaten to destroy a former detective’s new life.

The Crooked Way (1949, Film Classics)

An amnesiac war veteran finds himself blackmailed by criminals from his unknown past.