[epbrown]

Find some old Bogart films. "The Big Sleep" and "To Have and Have Not" are favorites of mine, but really you'll find a lot of pre-and post-WWII noir is great. This is an era before special effects and, to be honest, much real acting, so the films are carried by the writing. There was a time when a lot of America's top writers wrote for Hollywood, and some fantastic dialogue was the result.