James M. Cain

An insurance representative is seduced by a dissatisfied housewife into a scheme of insurance fraud and murder that arouses the suspicion of his colleague, a claims investigator.

The peaceful life of a gas station owner is disrupted when a man from his past arrives in town and forces him to return to the dark world he had tried to escape.

Gino, a drifter, begins an affair with inn-owner Giovanna as they plan to get rid of her older husband.

The sensuous wife of a lunch wagon proprietor and a rootless drifter begin a sordidly steamy affair and conspire to murder her Greek husband.

A hard-working mother inches towards disaster as she divorces her husband and starts a successful restaurant business to support her spoiled daughter.

A gambling queen uses blackmail to stop a British financier from closing her Chinese clip joint.

A married woman and a drifter fall in love, then plot to murder her husband.

A wealthy woman discovers a vineyard worker with a beautiful operatic singing voice. She helps make him a star but then breaks his heart. He flees in misery to Mexico where he meets a sweet farm girl.

Jess Tyler lives a quiet life next to an abandoned mining factory by himself in the desert. His life is turned upside down when a sexually provocative young woman comes to visit him and tells him she's his daughter. Jess finds it hard to adapt to his newfound parenting role, as a mutual attraction grows between them.

Kleptomaniac Dorothy Lyons is paroled from prison into the custody of her sister June, secretary to "reform" politician Frank Jansen. Ben Grace, associate of crime boss Sol "Solly" Caspar, sees this as a way to smear Jansen's campaign. Seductive Dorothy will do anything to get what she wants, which includes having a good time with Ben-- whom June is now in love with.

A scheming wife lures an insurance investigator into helping murder her husband and then declare it an accident. The investigator's boss, not knowing his man is involved in it, suspects murder and sets out to prove it.

A southern aristocrat clashes with a driver transporting stolen slaves to freedom.

Woman hopes to be a great singer and is encouraged by her scheming teacher. After she flops her husband, encouraged by an amorous professional singer tries opera and also flops.

A young woman touring Germany is caught between a married symphony conductor and a doctor from back home.

Pepe Le Moko is a notorious thief, who escaped from France. Since his escape, Moko has become a resident and leader of the immense Casbah of Algiers. French officials arrive insisting on Pepe's capture are met with unfazed local detectives, led by Inspector Slimane, who are biding their time. Meanwhile, Pepe meets the beautiful Gaby, which arouses the jealousy of Ines.

Gino is a drifter, down-at-heel and magnetically handsome. At a road side restaurant he encounters husband and wife, Joseph and Hanna. Irresistibly attracted to each other, Gino and Hanna begin a fiery affair and plot to murder her husband. But, in this chilling tale of passion and destruction, the crime only serves to tear them apart.

A runaway teenage girl and a drifter rob a bank, hit the road to elude the Texas Rangers and find love on the run.

A waitress destined for a better life falls in love with a handsome stranger, only to find that he is already married.

Godard blends elements of literature, cinema and other artistic medias from different historical periods in order to make a stance on how words can be subverted and manipulated to many different contexts, sometimes bearing a similar significance to the original material or even creating an alternate context.

"Duke" Gordon (Robert Armstrong), a circus lion-tamer, tries to tames his wife, Laura (Sally Eilers), just as he does his lions. But she is a one-man woman, married to the wrong man, and refuses to cheat on her cheating husband even though her happiness depends on doing so.

An embezzler's wife begs his boss for forgiveness, only to fall in love with him.

A woman and her lover plot to kill her older husband.

Leonard Borland loves his monied wife, but with his wrecking business looking shaky he treasures her all the more. So when she decides to try again to become an opera singer he indulges her. While organising a concert for her he meets glamorous Cecil Carver. She in turn discovers Leonard has a splendid voice, and encourages him to use it for reasons very much her own.

A simple peasant is forced to take up arms to defend his farm during the Spanish Civil War. Along the way he falls in love with a Russian girl whose father is involved in espionage.

Mildred Pierce depicts an overprotective, self-sacrificing mother during the Great Depression who finds herself separated from her husband, opening a restaurant of her own and falling in love with a man, all the while trying to earn her spoiled, narcissistic daughter's love and respect.