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 Public Enemy ( Blu-ray ) (1931)
7.7/10
Director: William A Wellman
Starring: Edward Woods, James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Joan Blondell
The charismatic James Cagney in the role that rightly made him a star! He plays a small-time hood who claws his way to the top, only to find it's furt... Read more
The Reckless Moment (1949)
7.2/10
Director: Max Ophuls
Starring: James Mason, Joan Bennett, Geraldine Brooks, Henry O'Neill, Shepperd Strudwick
A noir-soaked drama based on a story, 'The Blank Wall', by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding. Joan Bennett stars as a mother who finds the body of her daughte... Read more
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
7.9/10
Director: Raoul Walsh
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Priscilla Lane
James Cagney stars as a good man turned crook in this recreation of the world of bootleggers, speakeasies and violence; Humphrey Bogart is the gangste... Read more
The Set-Up (1948)
7.8/10
Director: Robert Wise
Starring: Robert Ryan, Audrey Totter, George Tobias
One of the best film noirs of the '40s, this atmospheric tale centres around an ageing prize-fighter who refuses to be corrupted by the mob. A great p... Read more
The Silent Films of Alfred Hitchcock: The Manxman / The Ring (1927)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Anny Ondra, Lillian Hall-Davis, Carl Brisson, Malcolm Keen
"The Ring" (1927) One of Hitchcock's best silent films, about boxer "Round One" Stander, a circus attraction who fights all comers. When he marries th... Read more
The Skin Game (1931)
5.8/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Helen Haye, C V France, Edmund Gwenn, John Longden
Early Hitchcock drama, based on John Galsworthy's popular stage play, that was decidedly atypical of the Master's subsequent suspensers. The aristocra... Read more
The Skin Game / Rich and Strange / Number Seventeen (1931)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Betty Amann, Edmund Gwenn, Frank Lawton, Henry Kendall, Jill Esmond, Joan Barry,...
'The Skin Game' (1931), based on John Galsworthy's popular stage play, was decidedly atypical of the Master's subsequent suspensers. The aristocratic... Read more
The Spiral Staircase (1945)
7.5/10
Director: Robert Siodmak
Starring: Dorothy McGuire, Elsa Lanchester, Ethel Barrymore, George Brent, Kent Smith, Rho...
This compelling suspenser stars Dorothy McGuire as a servant, left mute by a childhood trauma, caring for invalid Ethel Barrymore in a Victorian New E... Read more
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)
7.5/10
Director: Lewis Milestone
Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Judith Anderson, Kirk Douglas, Lizabeth Scott, Van Heflin
Young Martha (Barbara Stanwyck) inadvertently causes the death of her cruel, authoritarian aunt. Martha lies to the cops, and Walter (Kirk Douglas), w... Read more
The Stranger (1946)
7.4/10
Director: Orson Welles
Starring: Orson Welles, Loretta Young, Edward G Robinson
Orson Welles followed his productions of 'Citizen Kane' and 'The Magnificent Ambersons" with this thriller, in which he stars as an escaped Nazi war c... Read more