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 Petrified Forest (1936)
7.6/10
Director: Archie Mayo
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, Leslie Howard
Adapted from Robert E Sherwood's Broadway hit, Humphrey Bogart and Leslie Howard reprise their respective stage roles as gangster, Duke and writer, Al... Read more
Psycho Collection I-IV (1960)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock, Mick Garris, Richard Franklin, Anthony Perkins
Starring: Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Janet Leigh, Martin Balsam, Meg Tilly,...
"Psycho" (1960) - Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece of the macabre stars Anthony Perkins as the troubled Norman Bates, whose "old dark house" and adjoin... Read more
Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)
7.4/10
Director: Robert Wise
Starring: Ed Begley, Gloria Grahame, Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Shelley Winters
Tense and gritty, this heist thriller from master Robert Wise sees racism and crime boiling over! Ed Begley is putting together a crew for one big tak... Read more
Rope (1948)
8/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger
One of Hitchcock's most daring experiments in suspense and long takes. Farley Granger and John Dall are the two friends who strangle a classmate for i... Read more
Illegal / The Big Steal (1955)
Director: Don Siegel, Lewis Allen
Starring: Edward G Robinson, Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer
This film noir double feature from the Warner Bros. stable includes Lewis Allen's 'Illegal' (1955, 88 mins.), a remake of 'The Mouthpiece' starring Ed... Read more
Peeping Tom (1960)
7.7/10
Director: Michael Powell
Starring: Carl Boehm, Moira Shearer, Anna Massey, Brenda Bruce
Director Michael Powell's disturbing and fascinating cinema experiment in fear was denounced when first released but has gone on to become a cult clas... Read more
D.O.A. (1949)
7.4/10
Director: Rudolph Mate
Starring: Edmond O'Brien, Pamela Britton, Luther Adler, Neville Brand
Well made thriller concerns Edmond O'Brien's attempts to find out who has given him a slow acting poison and why. Read more
The Big Clock (1948)
7.7/10
Director: John Farrow
Starring: Ray Milland, Charles Laughton, Rita Johnson, George Macready, Elsa Lanchester
This striking film noir classic stars Ray Milland as a crime magazine editor who has a liaison with a beautiful woman who turns out to be the mistress... Read more
Fallen Angel (1945)
7.2/10
Director: Otto Preminger
Starring: Alice Faye, Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell, Charles Bickford, Bruce Cabot, John Car...
Otto Preminger and Dana Andrews followed their successful partnership in the making of 'Laura' with this lesser-known noir. Andrews plays a down-on-hi... Read more
Dillinger (1945)
6.6/10
Director: Max Nosseck
Starring: Anne Jeffreys, Lawrence Tierney, Edmund Lowe
One of the first Hollywood crime dramas based on an actual figure (although the script strays somewhat from the true story), this bullet-riddled saga... Read more