Your New Year's Resolution: A Movie A Week (Part 3 of 7)

To read Part 1, click here. Read Part 2 here.

Have you ever noticed how much romantic comedy and film noir have in common? They're basically light and dark sides of the same coin — beautiful people doing stupid things for reasons they can't quite comprehend. If at the end they get married, it's romantic comedy. They die? Film noir.

I mean, look at The Philadelphia Story and Out of the Past. One is a classic rom-com, the other is the quintessential noir. But if you look at their plots from outer space, they're the same story — a jilted lover falls back into the orbit of the woman who ruined his life. One ends in marriage, the other in rivers of blood.

Seriously. Check them out.

The Grapes of Wrath (1940). Social Drama. Okies from Muskogee head to California in search of the American Dream. Dir. John Ford. Starring Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine. More Ford: Stagecoach, They Were Expendable, My Darling Clementine, Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Quiet Man, The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence.

The Philadelphia Story (1940). Romantic Comedy. A snooty blueblood juggles three men on the eve of her wedding. Dir. George Cukor. Starring Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, Cary Grant, Ruth Hussey, Virginia Weidler. More Cukor: Dinner at Eight, Holiday (1938), The Women, Gaslight, Adam's Rib, A Star Is Born (1954), My Fair Lady.

Citizen Kane (1941). Drama. A wealthy publishing magnate gets — and loses — everything he ever wanted. Dir. Orson Welles. Starring Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Everett Sloane. More Welles: The Magnificent Ambersons, The Stranger, The Lady From Shanghai, The Third Man (actor), Touch of Evil, Chimes at Midnight, A Man for All Seasons (actor).

The Maltese Falcon (1941). Crime Mystery. A private detective pries a priceless black bird loose from a swell lot of thieves while searching for his partner's killer. Dir. John Huston. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Elish Cook, Jr. More Huston: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Key Largo, The Asphalt Jungle, The African Queen, Heaven Knows Mr. Allison, The Night of the Iguana, Chinatown (actor), The Man Who Would Be King.

Sullivan's Travels (1941). Screwball Comedy. A Hollywood director, longing to make a "serious" picture, hits the road in search of the real America. Dir. Preston Sturges. Starring Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, William Demarest. More Sturges: Easy Living (writer), The Great McGinty, The Lady Eve, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, Hail the Conquering Hero.

Casablanca (1942). War Romance. A cynical saloon keeper bumps into Nazis and his ex-girlfriend in war-torn Morocco. Dir. Michael Curtiz. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Dooley Wilson, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, S.Z. Sakall. More Curtiz: Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Angels with Dirty Faces, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Mildred Pierce, White Christmas.

Now, Voyager (1942). Romance. A dowdy spinster wriggles out from under her mother's thumb and finds love and a decent wardrobe. Dir. Irving Rapper. Starring Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Gladys Cooper. More Davis: The Petrified Forest, Jezebel, Dark Victory, The Little Foxes, The Man Who Came to Dinner, All About Eve, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte.

Double Indemnity (1944). Film Noir. An insurance salesman commits murder mostly just to see if he can get away with it. Dir. Billy Wilder. Starring Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson. More Wilder: Ninotchka (writer), Ball of Fire (writer), Five Graves to Cairo, The Lost Weekend, Sunset Boulevard, Ace in the Hole, Stalag 17, Sabrina, Witness for the Prosecution, Some Like It Hot, The Apartment.

Out of the Past (1947). Film Noir. A private eye falls in love with a woman fleeing her gangster boyfriend. Dir. Jacques Tourneur. Starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas. More Film Noir: The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, Laura, Murder My Sweet, Detour, Scarlet Street, The Killers, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Crossfire, Kiss of Death, The Lady from Shanghai, The Big Clock, Champion, They Live By Night, The Set-Up, White Heat, Sunset Boulevard, Gun Crazy, In a Lonely Place, His Kind of Woman, The Narrow Margin, The Big Heat, Pickup on South Street, Kiss Me Deadly, The Night of the Hunter, Sweet Smell of Success.

The Third Man (1949). British Noir. A bumptious American writer searches for his pal's killer in post-war Vienna. Dir. Carol Reed. Starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, Trevor Howard. More British Movies: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Henry V, Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes, Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Lavender Hill Mob.

Tomorrow: Part 4.