James M Cain

"Mildred Pierce had gorgeous legs, a way with a skillet, and a bone-deep core of toughness. She used those attributes to survive a divorce and poverty and to claw her way out of the lower middle class. But Mildred also had two weaknesses: a yen for shiftless men, and an unreasoning devotion to a monstrous daughter. Out of these elements, Cain creates a novel of acute social observation and devastating emotional violence, with a heroine whose ambitions...

An amoral young tramp. A beautiful, sullen woman with an inconvenient husband. A problem that has only one, grisly solution -- a solution that only creates other problems that no one can ever solve. First published in 1934 and banned in Boston for its explosive mixture of violence and eroticism, The Postman Always Rings Twice is a classic of the roman noir. It established James M. Cain as a major novelist with an unsparing vision of America's bleak...

Frank Chambers (Jack Nicholson) is a drifter who lands at a roadside gas station owned by jolly old Nick Papadakis (John Colicos) and his young, blonde wife Cora (Jessica Lange). Frank and Cora quickly fall in love, and plot Nick's murder. Waiting for wedding bells to ring, the body count rises, the gavel slams-of course, nothing ever goes as planned-and their plans are derailed one by one

Disc 1: The Maltese falcon: Some high-living lowlifes want to get their hands on a bejeweled falcon. Detective Sam Spade wants to find out why and find out who will take the fall for his partner's murder. The big sleep: L.A. private eye Philip Marlowe takes on a blackmail case and ends up wearing out his gumshoes trailing murderers, nightclub rogues, the spoiled rich and more Disc 2: Ex-tennis pro Tony Wendice decides to murder his wife for her money...