Noir Classic Films - Film noir was the French label for the "black film" genre from 1944-to 1955. Its origins are the detective novels of Dashiell Hammett 1929-34 (Sam Spade played by Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon in 1941) and Raymond Chandler 1933-43 (Philip Marlowe played by Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep in 1946) and the femme fatale novels of James Cain 1934-42 (Phyllis Dietrichson played by Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity in 1944).