Road House (Jean Negulesco, 1948)

Many films noirs (well, it's French) of the '40s and '50s not only provide a moral and social counter-tradition to Hollywood cinema, they also provide a production model that paralleled Italian Neorealism--with gritty stories came some gritty production conditions. Film noir to some extent elevated the B picture to a new status (especially as it was discovered by critics of the '60s as a serious American popular art form). It also paved the way for some TV shooting techniques. (Virtually everyone associated with this film ended up doing more TV than film.)