Every Classic Movie Reference in Apple TV’s Sugar

In the Apple TV+ series Sugar, Colin Farrell stars as a Los Angeles detective named John Sugar. Sugar is a big fan of classic movies and is working on a case about the missing granddaughter of a legendary movie producer, played by James Cromwell.

The character often references movies he loves, like “The Big Heat.” His handler, Ruby (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), even gets him the gun Glenn Ford used in the 1950 noir film. Sugar also mentions several Humphrey Bogart movies.

All the movies are referenced in the order they appear in each episode.

Episode 1: “Olivia”

1. “Kiss Me Deadly” (1955) is a film noir directed by Robert Aldrich. It stars Ralph Meeker as Detective Mike Hammer.
2. “The Big Heat” (1953) is a film noir directed by Fritz Lang, starring Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame.
3. “Johnny Guitar” (1954) is a western film directed by Nicholas Ray starring Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden.
4. “The Strange Love of Martha Ivers” (1946) is a film noir directed by Lewis Milestone starring Barbara Stanwyck and Kirk Douglas.

Episode 2: “These People, These Places”

1. “Dead Reckoning” (1947) is a noir starring Humphrey Bogart and Lizabeth Scott, directed by John Cromwell.
2. “Knock on Any Door” (1949) is a film noir starring Humphrey Bogart and John Derek, and Nicholas Ray directs it.
3. “Sunset Blvd.” (1950) is a film noir starring Gloria Swanson and William Holden, directed by Billy Wilder.
4. “In a Lonely Place” (1950) is a film noir starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame, directed by Nicholas Ray.
5. “Minnie and Moskowitz” (1971) is a comedy/drama starring Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel, directed by John Cassavetes.

Episode 3: “Shibuya Crossing”

1. “The Killers” (1946) is noir classic based on a story by Ernest Hemingway starring Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O’Brien and directed by Robert Siodmak
2. “Double Indemnity” (1944) is a 1944 American crime thriller film starring Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson and directed by Billy Wilder.

Episode 4: “Starry-Eyed”

1. “The Thing” (1982) is an American science fiction horror film dased on the 1938 John W. Campbell Jr. novella “Who Goes There?” starring Kurt Russell, Keith David, Wilford Brimley, Richard Dysart, Charles Hallahan and directed by John Carpenter.
2. “The Third Man” (1949) is a film noir directed by Carol Reed, written by Graham Greene, and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles and Trevor Howard, set in post-war Vienna.
3. “TNT Jackson” (1974) released in the Philippines as Dynamite Wong and T.N.T. Jackson, is a 1974 American blaxploitation film starring Jeannie Bell, Stan Shaw, Pat Anderson and produced and directed by Cirio H. Santiago.

Episode 5 : “Boy in the Corner”

1. “The Night of the Hunter” (1955) is a 1955 American film noir thriller starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters and Lillian Gish and directed by Charles Laughton. The screenplay by James Agee was based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Davis Grubb.
2. “Touch of Evil”(1958) is a American film noir starring Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Joseph Calleia, Akim Tamiroff and Marlene Dietrich and written and directed by Orson Welles, who also stars in the film. The screenplay was loosely based on the contemporary Whit Masterson novel Badge of Evil (1956).

About Sugar

Sugar is an 8-part American drama television series created by Mark Protosevich, directed by Fernando Meirelles, and starring Colin Farrell who also serves as executive producer. It premiered on Apple TV+ on April 5, 2024.

It is described as “a genre-bending contemporary take on the private detective story set in Los Angeles”.