The document provides information on several influential neo-noir films from 1941 to 1958. It summarizes key plot details and directors for The Maltese Falcon (1941), Murder My Sweet (1944), Double Indemnity (1944), Detour (1945), Spellbound (1945), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), The Killers (1946), The Big Sleep (1946), Out of the Past (1947), In a Lonely Place (1950), The Big Heat (1953), Kiss Me Deadly (1955), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), and Touch of Evil (1958). The films established storytelling conventions for the neo-noir genre such as the use of flawed protagonists and