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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 Conformist (1970)

8.1/10
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Starring: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Dominique Sanda, Pierre Clementi

Derived from the novel by Alberto Moravia, acclaimed director Bernardo Bertolucci's visually electrifying masterpiece about sex, politics, repression... Read more

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

8/10
Director: Charles Laughton
Starring: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish

Robert Mitchum gives one of his best performances as Harry Powell, a psychotic self-styled preacher who is after the stolen money of a hanged man. Set... Read more

Dial M for Murder (1954)

8.2/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Grace Kelly, Ray Milland, Robert Cummings, John Williams

Alfred Hitchcock's screen version of Frederick Knott's stage hit 'Dial M for Murder' is a tasty blend of elegance and suspense casting Grace Kelly, Ra... Read more

Laura (1944)

8.1/10
Director: Otto Preminger
Starring: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price

One of the greatest Hollywood whodunits ever made, Otto Preminger's noir-flavored thriller stars Dana Andrews as a detective investigating the murder... Read more

The Lady Vanishes (1938)

7.9/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Cecil Parker

One of Hitchcock's best British films; Dame May Whitty stars as the kindly old woman who befriends a young English girl on a European train, and then... 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

Anatomy Of A Murder (1959)

8.1/10
Director: Otto Preminger
Starring: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Eve Arden

A riveting courtroom drama pitting small town lawyer James Stewart against big city prosecutor George C Scott, in a trial of Ben Gazzara, accused of m... Read more

Key Largo (1948)

7.9/10
Director: John Huston
Starring: Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart, Edward G Robinson, Jay Silverheels, Lionel Barry...

Gangster Edward G. Robinson takes the inhabitants of a Florida coast hotel hostage as a storm sweeps in, and engages in a battle of wills with world-w... Read more

The 39 Steps (1935)

7.8/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucie Mannheim

A Canadian leaves London and goes to Scotland in order to find the spy ring that has stabbed a woman to death at his flat. What follows is Hitchcock's... Read more

Citizen Kane ( Blu-ray ) (1941)

8.4/10
Director: Orson Welles
Starring: Agnes Moorehead, Everett Sloane, Joseph Cotten, Orson Welles, Paul Stewart, Ruth...

Even people who have never seen Citizen Kane know it's the greatest film of all time. Orson Welles' debut has become an undisputed cultural benchmark... Read more