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 Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
7.5/10
Director: Tay Garnett
Starring: Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway
Lana Turner and John Garfield are the illicit lovers in this James M Cain thriller, who plot to murder the husband who is standing in the way of a rea... Read more
The Stranger (1946)
7.4/10
Director: Orson Welles
Starring: Orson Welles, Loretta Young, Edward G Robinson
Orson Welles followed his productions of 'Citizen Kane' and 'The Magnificent Ambersons" with this thriller, in which he stars as an escaped Nazi war c... 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
Sherlock Holmes: Pursuit to Algiers / The Woman in Green (1945)
7.6/10
Director: Roy William Neill
Starring: Basil Rathbone, Henry Daniell, Hillary Brooke, Nigel Bruce, Leslie Vincent
Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce are widely celebrated as cinema's perfect Homes and Watson, filming more than a dozen adaptations of Sir Arthur Conan D... Read more
The Spiral Staircase (1945)
7.5/10
Director: Robert Siodmak
Starring: Dorothy McGuire, Elsa Lanchester, Ethel Barrymore, George Brent, Kent Smith, Rho...
This compelling suspenser stars Dorothy McGuire as a servant, left mute by a childhood trauma, caring for invalid Ethel Barrymore in a Victorian New E... Read more
The House on 92nd Street (1945)
6.8/10
Director: Henry Hathaway
Starring: Gene Lockhart, Leo G Carroll, Lloyd Nolan, Signe Hasso, William Eythe
A German-American student is contacted by Nazi spies working in New York City and looking for information on the atomic bomb program. With the help of... 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
Scarlet Street (1945)
7.9/10
Director: Fritz Lang
Starring: Dan Duryea, Edward G Robinson, Joan Bennett, Margaret Lindsay
A box-office hit in its day (despite being banned in three states), 'Scarlet Street' is perhaps legendary director Fritz Lang's ('M', 'Metropolis') fi... 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
The Legendary Sherlock Holmes (1945)
Director: Roy William Neill
Starring: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce
Three great Sherlock Holmes movies collected together on one dvd! Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce star in all three as the famous sleuth and his assist... Read more