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".
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
Hangmen Also Die (1944)
7.5/10
Director: Fritz Lang
Starring: Brian Donlevy, Walter Brennan, Dennis O'Keefe
The 1942 assassination of Nazi collaborator Reinhard Heydrich in Prague inspired director/co-writer Fritz Lang to create this fictional account. Brian... Read more
Film Noir Vol. 2: Detour / Scarlet Street (1945)
Director: Edgar G Ulmer, Fritz Lang
Starring: Tom Neal, Edmund MacDonald, Ann Savage, Edward G Robinson, Joan Bennett
Detour (1945) - This noir masterwork follows a New York pianist who thumbs his way cross-country, joined by a femme fatale intent on blackmailing him.... Read more
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 Narrow Margin (1952)
7.7/10
Director: Richard Fleischer
Starring: Marie Windsor, Jacqueline White, Charles McCraw
This crackerjack thriller was the basis for the 1990 Gene Hackman suspenser. Charles McGraw plays a tough detective trying to outsmart three vicious h... 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
Criss Cross (1949)
7.6/10
Director: Robert Siodmak
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Dan Duryea, Tony Curtis, Yvonne De Carlo, Stephen McNally
Perennial drifter Steve returns home and quickly gets involved with his old flame Anna - even though she is shacked up with seedy gangster Slim Dundee... Read more
Stage Fright (1950)
7.1/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich, Michael Wilding, Richard Todd, Alastair Sim, Sybil...
In Alfred Hitchcock's world, theatres are where danger stalks the wings, characters are not what they seem and that "final curtain" can drop any secon... Read more
House Of Bamboo (1955)
6.9/10
Director: Samuel Fuller
Starring: Robert Ryan, Robert Stack, Cameron Mitchell
Samuel Fuller directs this noir classic set in post-World War II Tokyo. After organising a robbery that results in the murder of an American GI, gang... Read more
Angel Face (1952)
7.3/10
Director: Otto Preminger
Starring: Barbara O'Neil, Herbert Marshall, Jean Simmons, Leon Ames, Robert Mitchum
This noir gem stars Robert Mitchum as an ambulance driver who catches the eye of a wealthy femme fatale (Jean Simmons). Hired as a chauffeur for Simmo... Read more