(Robert Aldrich, US 1955, 106 min., 35mm)

A “dame,” a mysterious briefcase, and a murder—Aldrich uses all the elements of the classic film noir and twists them into a glorious, perverted caricature. Private dick Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) unwittingly happens upon a naked woman (Cloris Leachman) running down the middle of the road, and is soon tangled in a world of international espionage and A-bombs.