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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".

The Glass Key (1942)

7.1/10
Director: Stuart Heisler
Starring: Brian Donlevy, Veronica Lake, Alan Ladd, Bonita Granville, Richard Denning, Jose...

Paul Madvig (Brian Donlevy), a once-corrupt politician, has given up his past and is backing a respectable candidate in the next election. However wh... Read more

The Green Glove (1952)

6.4/10
Director: Rudolph Mate
Starring: Cedric Hardwicke, George Macready, Geraldine Brooks, Glenn Ford

This top-notch thriller is set after World War II and features Glenn Ford as an ex-paratrooper hired by a church to find a bejeweled glove lifted by e... Read more

The House on 92nd Street (1945)

6.8/10
Director: Henry Hathaway
Starring: Gene Lockhart, Leo G Carroll, Lloyd Nolan, Signe Hasso, William Eythe

A German-American student is contacted by Nazi spies working in New York City and looking for information on the atomic bomb program. With the help of... Read more

The Humphrey Bogart Collection of Films: Across the Pacific / All Through the Night / Bullets or Ballots / Dark Passage (1936)

Director: Delmer Daves, John Huston, Vincent Sherman, William Keighley
Starring: Conrad Veidt, Edward G Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, Joan Blondell, Lauren Bacall,...

Humphrey Bogart Box Set. 'Across the Pacific' (1942) - When disgraced American military officer Rick Leland (Bogart) boards a Japanese ship, he is app... Read more

The Invisible Man (1933)

7.7/10
Director: James Whale
Starring: Claude Rains, Gloria Stuart, Una O'Connor

A super version of HG Wells' fantasy, with Claude Rains playing the scientist who experiments with a drug which, while it makes him invisible, also tu... Read more

The Killers (1946/1964 Versions) (1946)

7.8/10
Director: Don Siegel, Robert Siodmak
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, Albert Dekker, Sam Levene, Lee Marv...

Ernest Hemingway's gripping short story "The Killers" has fascinated readers and filmmakers for generations. It's first screen incarnation came in 194... Read more

The Killers (Blu-Ray) (1964)

7.1/10
Director: Don Siegel
Starring: Angie Dickinson, Claude Akins, Clu Gulager, John Cassavetes, Lee Marvin, Norman...

Two hitmen kill an ex-getaway driver, then hunt for the money he purportedly stole in a previous robbery. They probe their victim's past, seeking clue... Read more

The Killing (1956)

8/10
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Starring: Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards

An early Stanley Kubrick classic about an elaborate race track robbery filmed with total artistic freedom using a multilayered simultaneous storyline.... Read more

The Killing/Killer's Kiss (Blu-ray) (1956)

8.2/10
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Starring: Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards

An early Stanley Kubrick classic about an elaborate race track robbery filmed with total artistic freedom using a multilayered simultaneous storyline.... Read more

The Lady from Shanghai / Miss Sadie Thompson (1948)

Director: Curtis Bernhardt, Orson Welles
Starring: Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Everett Sloane, Jose Ferrer, Aldo Ray

"The Lady from Shanghai" (1948) - Orson Welles, and wife Rita Hayworth, combine for a classic 'Film Noir' tale of a roguish sailor who signs on for a... Read more