wouldn't you call this the King film noir ?

I'm not sure I understand your metaphors, but it was, indeed, a good example of what we now call film noir style. Said style or mood was so popular, though unnamed, in the late forties, you find it even in modest Westerns (see my review of Stampede (1949). Robert Mitchum in a late-life interview claimed that all the dark cinematography was just to save money on lighting. He alleged that they saved all the expensive electricity for the A movies, whereas cheap movies such as he starred in were "lighted by cigarettes."

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He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good... St. Matthew 5:45