Through first-rate art direction (Jorge Fernandez) and photography (Gabriel Figueroa), the pioneering Mexican urban film Distinto amanecer (Another Dawn) (1943) creates a completely convincing and utterly noir world. Director Julio Bracho had seen some French city dramas for sure.

I wasn’t so taken with the story, though. The MacGuffin of the plot is a sheaf of documents, but if these are as incredibly important as made out, then their handling by all the characters in the movie is mind-bogglingly stupid. So I got a little impatient with that.