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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".

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

Peeping Tom (Blu-ray) (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

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

The Crimson Kimono (Blu-ray) (1959)

6.9/10
Director: Samuel Fuller
Starring: Victoria Shaw, James Shigeta, Glenn Corbett, Anna Lee

Classic, hard-to-find Sam Fuller pic is intriguing noir about two detective partners, one caucasian and one Japanese, who try to solve a complicated m... 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

North by Northwest ( Blu-ray ) (1959)

8.3/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis, Leo G Carroll, Ma...

One of Hitchcock's greatest films. Cary Grant plays Roger Thornhill, the suave ad man mistaken for a Federal Agent, trapped in a web of intrigue that... 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

The 39 Steps (1959)

6.6/10
Director: Ralph Thomas
Starring: Kenneth More, Taina Elg, Brenda De Banzie

Kenneth More stars in this faithful (some might say, to a fault) remake of Hitchcock's 1935 classic, as a man accidentally involved in murder and espi... Read more

North by Northwest (1959)

8.3/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Cary Grant, James Mason, Eva Marie Saint, Leo G Carroll, Jessie Royce Landis, Ma...

One of Hitchcock's greatest films. Cary Grant plays Roger Thornhill, the suave ad man mistaken for a Federal Agent, trapped in a web of intrigue that... Read more

Vertigo ( Blu-ray ) (1958)

8.3/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Barbara Bel Geddes, Henry Jones, James Stewart, Kim Novak, Tom Helmore

Critics have hailed 'Vertigo' as Alfred Hitchcock's ultimate masterpiece. This haunting tale of obsession, fear and murder stars Hitchcock's favourite... Read more