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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 Street With No Name (1948)

7.1/10
Director: William Keighley
Starring: Ed Begley, Barbara Lawrence, Lloyd Nolan, Mark Stevens, Richard Widmark, John Mc...

Two baffling murders send top FBI man Gene Cordell (Mark Stevens) undercover in a notorious gang headed by up and coming crime boss, Alec Stiles (Rich... Read more

The Third Man (1949)

8.2/10
Director: Carol Reed
Starring: Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, Trevor Howard

Joseph Cotten is pulp fiction writer Holly Matins, who arrives in Vienna to work for his friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles), only to be told that Lime h... Read more

The Third Man ( Blu-ray ) (1949)

8.2/10
Director: Carol Reed
Starring: Alida Valli, Joseph Cotten, Orson Welles, Trevor Howard

Joseph Cotten is pulp fiction writer Holly Matins, who arrives in Vienna to work for his friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles), only to be told that Lime h... Read more

The Unguarded Moment (1956)

6.3/10
Director: Harry Keller
Starring: Esther Williams, George Nader, John Saxon, Edward Andrews, Les Tremayne, Jack Al...

A beautiful teacher is protective of a high school boy who sexually harassed her, and later he becomes a murder suspect. A woman has recently been... Read more

The Woman in the Window (1944)

7.8/10
Director: Fritz Lang
Starring: Dan Duryea, Edward G Robinson, Joan Bennett, Raymond Massey

Fritz Lang directs this dazzling film noir showing Edward G. Robinson as an amiable professor invited to join beautiful model Joan Bennett in her apar... Read more

The Wrong Man (1956)

7.5/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Anthony Quayle

Unlike any other Alfred Hitchcock movie. The story packs tension, the images are spellbinding and the dilemma genuinely frightening. But this time the... Read more

They Drive By Night (1940)

7.3/10
Director: Raoul Walsh
Starring: George Raft, Ann Sheridan, Humphrey Bogart

This gritty and compelling road drama stars George Raft and Humphrey Bogart as truck-driving brothers who take on corrupt businessmen when they try to... Read more

They Live By Night / Side Street (1949)

Director: Anthony Mann, Nicholas Ray
Starring: Cathy O'Donnell, Farley Granger

This double feature includes Nicholas Ray's lyrical story of romantic fatalism, 'They Live by Night' (1948), about a young outlaw couple on the run fo... Read more

Thieves' Highway (1949)

7.7/10
Director: Jules Dassin
Starring: Richard Conte, Valentina Cortese, Lee J Cobb, Barbara Lawrence, Jack Oakie, Mill...

Richard Conte is a G.I. returning from WWII with plans to marry his sweetheart; instead he finds his trucker father has been crippled by a rival compa... Read more

This Gun For Hire (1942)

7.5/10
Director: Frank Tuttle
Starring: Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Laird Cregar, Robert Preston

The movie that made Alan Ladd a star. He's a cold-blooded killer with a soft spot for kids and cats, and he's out to get back at a double-crossing nig... Read more