The File on Thelma Jordon

The File on Thelma Jordon (1949) is a film noir you can watch online on iFILM — directed by Robert Siodmak and anchored by Barbara Stanwyck in one of her cooler, less celebrated performances. Wendell Corey is Cleve Marshall, an assistant DA in a listless marriage who lets Thelma walk into his life on the same evening she walks into his office.

When Thelma's wealthy aunt turns up dead, Cleve finds himself on the wrong side of the case he should be prosecuting. He bends the law. She lets him.

Siodmak was deep in his noir run at this point — The Killers, Criss Cross — and Thelma Jordon fits that sequence. The film's real tension is uncertainty: even at the end, it is not entirely clear what Thelma wanted. Stream The File on Thelma Jordon online on iFILM.