As the '50s came to a close, so too did the classic period of noir. The indefinable genre that was born out of hardboiled detective stories and the arch visuals of German expressionism provided dozens of classic crime thrillers that are considered masterpieces of Hollywood's Golden Age. While that era of ultimate studio power had the infrastructure to support a steady stream of these films, its sunsetting didn't leave the genre high and dry either. That's where the new breed of neo-noir came in.