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".
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
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
The Reckless Moment (1949)
7.2/10
Director: Max Ophuls
Starring: James Mason, Joan Bennett, Geraldine Brooks, Henry O'Neill, Shepperd Strudwick
A noir-soaked drama based on a story, 'The Blank Wall', by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding. Joan Bennett stars as a mother who finds the body of her daughte... Read more
Whirlpool (1949)
6.9/10
Director: Otto Preminger
Starring: Gene Tierney, Richard Conte, Jose Ferrer
Director Otto Preminger's mix of psychological suspense and film noir atmosphere stars Gene Tierney as a compulsive kleptomaniac married to noted psyc... 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
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
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
White Heat (1949)
8.2/10
Director: Raoul Walsh
Starring: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien
This quintessential gangster film contains James Cagney's most frightening role, that of a psychopathic mother-obsessed gunman. This riveting crime dr... Read more
Call Northside 777 (1948)
7.4/10
Director: Henry Hathaway
Starring: James Stewart, Lee J Cobb, Richard Conte, Helen Walker
When a classified ad grabs the attention of Chicago Times editor Brian Kelly (Lee J. Cobb), he sends ace reporter P.J. McNeal (James Stewart) to dig u... Read more
He Walked by Night (1948)
7.2/10
Director: Alfred L Werker
Starring: Jack Webb, Richard Basehart, Roy Roberts, Scott Brady, Whit Bissell
Based on a true case, this fine film noir details the Los Angeles Police Department's search for a technically adept but mentally unbalanced thief who... Read more