“The pearl will make us free.” Even though it’s a collaboration between two legends of Latin American film noir, director Emilio Fernández and cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa, La perla (US: The Pearl) has never been widely perceived as belonging in the cycle, most likely because its clear moral lesson (money corrupts!) lends it a parable-like quality — and removes the moral ambiguity so common in noir — just like the John Steinbeck novella on which it’s based. The film’s focus on one man’s road to perdition and the corrupting impact of sudden money (“You’re a rich man now; you have to act like a rich man”), however, lends it a compelling noir sensitivity which flourishes in the visual extravagance created by the filmmakers, including a brilliant underwater sequence. Mexican star Pedro Armendáriz stars as Quino, the impoverished diver who finds an enormous pearl, and María Elena Marqués plays his wife Juana, whose happiness quickly turns to concern as Quino becomes overly possessive of his newfound wealth. The pearl has brought attention not only from their penniless neighbors along the beach but from shady criminals who seek to get their hands on it by any means necessary, including deceit, corruption, and murder. The final confrontation on the rock formation results in a savage act of rage in front of a stunning Mexican sunset.