Set in a shadowy postwar Los Angeles, The Prowler opens on Susan Gilvray (Evelyn Keyes), a wealthy but neglected housewife who spends her evenings alone, with only her husband’s voice on the radio for company. When she’s spooked by a peeping Tom, a calculating cop answers the call. Officer Webb Garwood (Van Heflin) resents his own blue-collar status and covets the richer man’s house and its glamorous occupant. Soon Garwood weaves a complex web of deceit, drawing Susan into an illicit affair with devastating consequences. The Prowler was the third of five films Joseph Losey made in Hollywood, and his most critically and commercially successful. It was written by blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, who also plays the voice of Susan’s DJ husband. By the time Hollywood’s red-baiters turned their sights on Losey the year after The Prowler’s release, the director had already left for Europe, where he eventually earned a reputation as a major international auteur.

—Mimi Brody

• Written by Hugo Butler, Dalton Trumbo, from a story by Robert Thoeren, Hans Wilhelm. Photographed by Arthur Miller. With Van Heflin, Evelyn Keyes, John Maxwell, Katharine Warren. (92 mins, B&W, 35mm. Preservation funded by the Film Noir Foundation and The Stanford Theatre Foundation.)