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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".

Pickup on South Street (Blu-ray) (1953)

7.7/10
Director: Samuel Fuller
Starring: Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, Thelma Ritter

A tough, brutal and well-made film, starring Richard Widmark as a petty thief who inadvertently acquires a top secret microfilm and becomes a target f... Read more

5 Fingers (1952)

7.8/10
Director: Joseph L Mankiewicz
Starring: James Mason, Michael Rennie, Danielle Darrieux

During World War II, the valet for the British ambassador in Turkey tires of his job and plans to photograph secret documents belonging to his employe... 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

The Green Glove (1952)

6.4/10
Director: Rudolph Mate
Starring: Cedric Hardwicke, George Macready, Geraldine Brooks, Glenn Ford

This top-notch thriller is set after World War II and features Glenn Ford as an ex-paratrooper hired by a church to find a bejeweled glove lifted by e... Read more

Sudden Fear (1952)

7.5/10
Director: David Miller
Starring: Joan Crawford, Jack Palance, Gloria Grahame

Joan Crawford and Jack Palance star in this tightly-wound thriller, oozing with noir style and a jazzy Elmer Bernstein score. As the actor fired by hi... 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

Clash By Night (1952)

7.2/10
Director: Fritz Lang
Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas, Marilyn Monroe, Robert Ryan

Barbara Stanwyck gives a dynamic performance in this steamy psychodrama as the penned-up wife of a boring fishing boat captain whose yearning for exci... Read more

Rancho Notorious (1952)

7/10
Director: Fritz Lang
Starring: Marlene Dietrich, Arthur Kennedy, Mel Ferrer

Fritz Lang's final film noir infused western - a highly moral and distinctly feminist tale that innovatively reworked his themes of love, betrayal and... Read more

Detective Story (1951)

7.6/10
Director: William Wyler
Starring: Eleanor Parker, Kirk Douglas, William Bendix

Set amidst the hectic activity of a New York City police station, Kirk Douglas stars as the principled, rigid detective whose personal code has become... Read more

The Big Night (1951)

6.5/10
Director: Joseph Losey
Starring: John Drew Barrymore, Philip Bourneuf, Joan Lorring, Howard St John

John Drew Barrymore takes the lead in this coming-of-age noir drama in which a teenager comes of age while seeking revenge on the man who beat up his... Read more