DVD: Railroaded! (PG)

“Don't give me that love stuff,” hoodlum Duke (John Ireland) barks at his dame Clara (Jane Randolph) in Anthony Mann's suitably brutal film noir from 1947.

Duke and Clara try to engineer a robbery at her beautician's parlour, but it goes awry and a cop dies. So she frames a good kid (Ed Kelly) – and everything turns unpleasant. Mann, director of El Cid and The Naked Spur, supplies some deft visual flourishes for this uncompromising drama. Sheila Ryan (below) stars.