A hard-boiled private eye, a glamorous blond, and a hapless drifter all sit at a bar on the seamy side of town. It's night, the streets are wet, the shadows are long. They each nurse a drink to the notes of a mournful saxophone and a lonely piano.  Smoke from the cigarettes swirls in the darkness. 

We all know classic noir when we see it and hear it and read it; yet, we don't really know how to define the dark plots that expose humanity in all its moral ambiguity and loneliness. 

Noir arrived in America with German emigre's escaping the Nazis and fit well with the bleakness of Americans reeling from a depression, two world wars and later, the threat of nuclear annihilation. It continues to resonate and has transposed its style across genres. ​

Today, a deeper look at noir - then and now.