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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".

Sherlock Holmes: The Spider Woman / The Pearl of Death (1943)

7.6/10
Director: Roy William Neill
Starring: Basil Rathbone, Gale Sondergaard, Nigel Bruce, Rondo Hatton

'The Spider Woman' (1943) - Adrea Spedding (Gale Sondergaard) makes her social calls accompanied by an unnervingly unsmiling mute child. She is secret... Read more

Shock (1946)

6.3/10
Director: Alfred L Werker
Starring: Vincent Price, Lynn Bari, Frank Latimore, Anabel Shaw

In this thriller, psychiatrist Dr. Cross (Vincent Price) kills his wife and expects to get away with murder, until he discovers that the slaying was o... Read more

Shock Corridor (1963)

7.5/10
Director: Samuel Fuller
Starring: Peter Breck, Constance Towers, Gene Evans

Journalist Peter Breck gets admitted to a mental institution to unmask a murderer and we watch as he goes crazy himself. This complex masterpiece was... Read more

Somewhere in the Night (1946)

7.2/10
Director: Joseph L Mankiewicz
Starring: John Hodiak, Nancy Guild, Richard Conte, Lloyd Nolan

Stricken with amnesia during action in the South Pacific, WWII Marine John Hodiak returns home with only a letter from a now-dead ex-girlfriend as a c... Read more

Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)

7.5/10
Director: Anatole Litvak
Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Burt Lancaster, Ann Richards, Wendell Corey

Based on the acclaimed radio program this stylized thriller features Barbara Stanwyck in her Oscar nominated performance as the young, rich, bedridden... Read more

Sorry, Wrong Number (Blu-ray) (1948)

7.6/10
Director: Anatole Litvak
Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Burt Lancaster, Wendell Corey, Ann Richards

Based on the acclaimed radio program this stylized thriller features Barbara Stanwyck in her Oscar nominated performance as the young, rich, bedridden... Read more

Spellbound (1945)

7.6/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Gregory Peck, Ingrid Bergman, Leo G Carroll

Gregory Peck stars as the new director of a mental institution, Ingrid Bergman his love interest, who soon discovers that her lover is actually a ment... Read more

Stage Fright (1950)

7.1/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich, Michael Wilding, Richard Todd, Alastair Sim, Sybil...

In Alfred Hitchcock's world, theatres are where danger stalks the wings, characters are not what they seem and that "final curtain" can drop any secon... Read more

Strangers on a Train (1951)

8/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Farley Granger, Robert Walker, Ruth Roman

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Sudden Fear (1952)

7.5/10
Director: David Miller
Starring: Joan Crawford, Jack Palance, Gloria Grahame

Joan Crawford and Jack Palance star in this tightly-wound thriller, oozing with noir style and a jazzy Elmer Bernstein score. As the actor fired by hi... Read more