The noir-like episodes of the first two seasons resemble theatrical action-adventure serials and crime melodramas of the 1940s.

In Hollywood, McCoy wrote westerns, crime melodramas, and other films for various studios.

This movie has generated much notice because it functions as reverse noir: a crime melodrama that is finally about compassion instead of passion.

The Victim is a 1916 silent film crime melodrama produced and distributed by the Fox Film Corporation.

"But in a crime melodrama, it comes with the territory."

The third film is "Traffic in Souls," George Loane Tucker's "true crime" melodrama about the white slave trade.

TV Guide calls it an "overblown crime melodrama" and adds, "the material stretches believability at every plot turn."

Variety said: "On one level, Odds against Tomorrow is a taut crime melodrama.

After a time, it was nicknamed the Boulevard du Crime after the crime melodramas that were so popular in its many theatres.