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".
Detective Story (1951)
7.6/10
Director: William Wyler
Starring: Eleanor Parker, Kirk Douglas, William Bendix
Set amidst the hectic activity of a New York City police station, Kirk Douglas stars as the principled, rigid detective whose personal code has become... Read more
He Ran All the Way (1951)
7.1/10
Director: John Berry
Starring: John Garfield, Shelley Winters, Wallace Ford, Selena Royle
John Garfield plays Nick, a down-on-his-luck small-timer, desperate for a fresh start. A botched robbery forces Nick into hiding, where he meets the c... Read more
Portrait in Black (1960)
6.7/10
Director: Michael Gordon
Starring: Anna May Wong, Anthony Quinn, John Saxon, Lana Turner, Lloyd Nolan, Ray Walston,...
Lana Turner and Anthony Quinn star as an adulterous couple who conspire to kill her tyrannical husband. Soon after the murder, the lovers in crime rec... Read more
23 Paces To Baker Street (1956)
7/10
Director: Henry Hathaway
Starring: Cecil Parker, Van Johnson, Vera Miles
A blind American writer (Van Johnson) who is living in London, overhears a kidnapping plot, but neither his friends nor the authorities believe him, c... Read more
Sherlock Holmes: The Scarlet Claw / The House of Fear (1944)
7.6/10
Director: Roy William Neill
Starring: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Gertrude Astor
'The Scarlet Claw' (1944) - The village of La Morte Rouge in Canada has an old legend about a marsh monster. Many residents are afraid that the monste... Read more
Impact (1949)
7/10
Director: Arthur Lubin
Starring: Charles Coburn, Brian Donlevy, Ella Raines, Tony Barrett
A classic noir plot sees a wealthy industrialist the target of a murder plot hatched by his two-timing wife and her lover. When the plan goes wrong th... Read more
Violent Saturday (1955)
6.9/10
Director: Richard Fleischer
Starring: Ernest Borgnine, Lee Marvin, Victor Mature
A number of otherwise insignificant small-town stories erupt into drama when a gang of hoodlums decides to rob the local bank. A father looking for pr... Read more
The Chase (1946)
6.7/10
Director: Arthur Ripley
Starring: Jack Holt, Peter Lorre, Robert Cummings, Steve Cochran, Michele Morgan
Tormented ex-GI Chuck Scott (Robert Cummings) takes a job with gangster Eddie Roman (Steve Cochran) as an innocent chauffeur but soon becomes embroile... Read more
Call It Murder (1934)
5.5/10
Director: Chester Erskine
Starring: Henry Hull, Humphrey Bogart, Margaret Wycherley, Sidney Fox
Aka 'Midnight'. One of Humphrey Bogart's first featured roles was as a gangster in 'Call It Murder', the story of a man who must help his daughter whe... Read more
The Big Night (1951)
6.5/10
Director: Joseph Losey
Starring: John Drew Barrymore, Philip Bourneuf, Joan Lorring, Howard St John
John Drew Barrymore takes the lead in this coming-of-age noir drama in which a teenager comes of age while seeking revenge on the man who beat up his... Read more