A psychotic loner uses his genius for electronics to commit robberies while evading the police. When he kills a cop, Los Angeles’s finest police specialists employ new crime-fighting techniques to trap their clever adversary. The manhunt leads through—and beneath—Los Angeles’ darkest cityscapes.

The terms “B film” and “noir” get tossed around too much these days. It takes a fleet-footed film of no-budget ingenuity like this dark-dark post-war thriller. co-directed by an uncredited Anthony Mann (Winchester ’73) at the peak of his youthful style, to remind us of their true evocative power.