Howard Hawks directed To Have and Have Not (1944), adapted from Ernest Hemingways novel by amongst others, William Faulkner. Famous for the on- and off-screen chemistry between well-established star Humphrey Bogart and newcomer Lauren Bacall, the movie relocates Hemingways setting in Cuba to Martinique, and the plot takes on a Casablanca-like feel, although missing the perfect pitch of the earlier movie by being a tad desultory. Nothing can detract though from the electricity that sparks between the leads, and Bacalls slinky seductive screen presence and saucy double entendres are the stuff that dreams are made of.
From the Moment they met, it was Murder! Billy Wilders 1944 classic film noir Double Indemnity stars the diabolical Barbara Stanwyck as the femme fatale Phyllis Dietrichson, who lures insurance salesman Walter Neff (the under-rated Fred MacMurray) into an insurance scam to benefit from her husbands death. Raymond Chandler had a hand in the screenplay, and the result is a fascinatingly intriguing script that subtly charts the erotic undercurrents of the pair as they try to avoid the persistent attentions of insurance investigator Barton Keyes (exquisitely played by Edward G Robinson). Quintessential noir with one of the most fatales of les femmes.