Classic Film Noir
Here be those darkly vexing offerings one should include in their diet periodically. Film Noir (literally 'black film or cinema') was coined by French film critics (first by Frank Nino in 1946) who noticed the trend of how 'dark' and black the looks and themes were of many American crime and detective films released in France following the war. It was a style of black and white American films that first evolved in the 1940s, became prominent in the post-war era, and lasted in a classic "Golden Age" period until about 1965.
With the list below Alice has included many "Contempory Noirs", making browsing that much more "coloured".....
Right: Orson Wells stars and directs "A Touch Of Evil".
Rear Window ( Blu-ray ) (1954)
8.5/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Grace Kelly, James Stewart, Raymond Burr, Thelma Ritter, Wendell Corey
An injured magazine photographer, confined to his apartment because of a broken leg, suspects a murder has been committed in a neighbouring flat. Conf... Read more
Rebecca (1940)
8.1/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders
Hitchcock's first American film, based on a Du Maurier gothic romance. With Laurence Olivier and a fine performance by Joan Fontaine as a shy young wo... Read more
Rope (1948)
8/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger
One of Hitchcock's most daring experiments in suspense and long takes. Farley Granger and John Dall are the two friends who strangle a classmate for i... Read more
Sabotage (1936)
7.1/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Sylvia Sidney, Oscar Homolka, John Loder
Based on Joseph Conrad's 'Secret Agent' in which Sylvia Sidney suspects her husband, a theatre manager, is keeping something from her - he is a sabote... Read more
Sabotage (Blu-ray) (1936)
7.1/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Sylvia Sidney, Oscar Homolka, John Loder
Based on Joseph Conrad's 'Secret Agent' in which Sylvia Sidney suspects her husband, a theatre manager, is keeping something from her - he is a sabote... Read more
Scarface (1932)
7.8/10
Director: Howard Hawks
Starring: Paul Muni, George Raft, Ann Dvorak, Boris Karloff
One of the earliest and most powerful gangster films ever made, courtesy of producer Howard Hughes, director Howard Hawks and co-writer Ben Hecht. Pau... Read more
Scarlet Street (1945)
7.9/10
Director: Fritz Lang
Starring: Dan Duryea, Edward G Robinson, Joan Bennett, Margaret Lindsay
A box-office hit in its day (despite being banned in three states), 'Scarlet Street' is perhaps legendary director Fritz Lang's ('M', 'Metropolis') fi... Read more
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
7.9/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Joseph Cotten, Teresa Wright
A young girl, overjoyed when her favourite uncle comes to visit the family, slowly begins to suspect that he is in fact the "Merry Widow" killer sough... Read more
Sherlock Holmes Collection: The Secret Weapon / Dressed to Kill / Pursuit to Algiers / The Woman in Green / Terror By Night (1942)
Director: Roy William Neill
Starring: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Lionel Atwill, Patricia Morison
Based on the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories and packed with mystery and suspense, this 5 disc collection stars Basil Rathbone as the legendar... Read more
Sherlock Holmes in Washington / Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1942)
Director: Roy William Neill
Starring: Basil Rathbone, Hillary Brooke, Milburn Stone, Nigel Bruce, Halliwell Hobbes, Ma...
'Sherlock Holmes in Washington' (1942) - When a British secret agent carrying vital documents is kidnapped on his way to Washington, the ministry call... Read more