Dark nights, wet streets, shadows cast by Venetian blinds: the landscape of film noir. Relive the suspense in these 35 noir films.
Film Noir means black film and it refers primarily to dark-themed and darkly-photographed American films from the 1940’s and 1950’s.
1931
M
Prototypical noir directed by Fritz Lang and starring Peter Lorre. In German with English subtitles. This is a German Expressionist film about a child murderer and is essential in helping viewers see the influence of German Expressionism film upon subsequent noir films in America.
1934
They Made Me a Criminal
Interesting early noirish film directly by Busby Berkeley starring John Garfield as boxer on the lam and Claude Rains as his pursuer. The film begins in the corrupt city but soon makes the leap to the undefiled country where Garfield gets involved with the Dead End Kids who are working on a farm. Sunny noir.
1936
The Wrong Road
Young lovers noir directed by James Cruze (The Great Gabbo, I Cover the Waterfront). Lionel Atwill wants the stolen $100,000 back but wants to help the misguided thieves even more. I’ve always believed in you kids from the very start.” See also You Only Live Once, Gun Crazy, They Live by Night, Side Street, etc.
1939
Convict’s Code
Lambert Hillyer’s parolee noir. Falsely-accused ex-football star “Whiz” Tyler (Robert Kent) gets out of prison and wants to clear his name. Cinematographer Arthur Martinelli’s uses Expressionistic shadows to advantage. See Fritz Lang’s American noirs You and Me and You Only Live Once.
1944
Bluebeard
Edgar G. Ulmer’s tale of horror. Perhaps thematically a noir but, though atmospheric, not a noir visually. John Carradine is the murderer who strangles the women he “paints.”
Lady in the Death House
Steve Sekeley directed this film, most notable for its use of flashbacks. Its title (and thus basic situation) is its most noirish aspect. Stars Jean Parker who was also featured in Ulmer’s Bluebeard.
1945
Detour
Ulmer’s noir masterpiece. Exemplary noir both in look and in theme. With Tom Neal as the hapless sap Al Roberts and Ann Savage as Vera, the femme fatale. Nasty noir.
Scarlet Street
Fritz Lang’s remake of Jean Renoir’s La Chienne (The Bitch) from 1931. Scarlet Street is a wonderful noir starring Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, and Dan Duryea. Though sanitized in the Hollywood way, this is true gutter noir. Even the ending irony is dark.
Strange Illusion
Not to be confused with Anthony Mann’s noir Strange Impersonation of 1946. This is Edgar G. Ulmer’s Hamlet noir. A dream warns the young protagonist that his mom shouldn’t remarry, particularly the man who murdered his father. “Mother, no! This man isn’t Father!”
1946
Shock
Evil doctor noir starring Vincent Price and Lynn Bari. Directed by Alfred L. Werker (He Walked by Night).
The Stranger
Orson Welles directs and stars along with Loretta Young and Edward G. Robinson in this New England, disguised-Nazi noir. Compare to Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt (1943), the prototypical sunny noir compromised by the shadow of foreign menace.
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
Outstanding cast (Barbara Stanwyck, Kirk Douglas, Lizabeth Scott, and Van Heflin—all to have significant careers in noir films) in Lewis Milestone’s psychologically complex noir.
1947
My Favorite Brunette
Parody noir with Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, and Peter Lorre. Directed by Elliott Nugent.
The Red House
Absolutely fascinating though unconventional psychological noir starring Edward G. Robinson (Scarlet Street, The Stranger) and Judith Anderson and directed by Delmer Daves. Creates a noir atmosphere out of country sunlight.
Fear in the Night
Hypnotism noir directed by Maxwell Shane and starring DeForest Kelley (aka Dr. “Bones” McCoy of Star Trek) and Paul Kelly (Crossfire, The File on Thelma Jordan, Side Street). Voiceover. Mirrors. Visually stylish. “All the evidence points to me!” theme. Plausible villain. From a Cornell Woolrich story. See Black Angel, The Blue Dahlia, The Blue Gardenia, etc.
1948
He Walked by Night
Police (Jack Webb) pursue cop-killer (Richard Basehart) noir. Directed by Alfred L. Werker. Compare the ending of He Walked by Night with the ending of Carol Reed’s The Third Man out the following year. Its documentary nature also bears comparison with Jules Dassin’s The Naked City (also 1948).
The Amazing Mr. X
Con-man noir with Turhan Bey, Lynn Bari (Shock), and Cathy O’Donnell (They Live by Night). Outstanding cinematography by John (“It's not what you light - it's what you DON'T light”) Alton. Directed by Bernard Vorhaus.
Inner Sanctum
Twilight Zone noir—turns on a mystical prediction. Gritty sizzle noir directed by Lew Landers. With Charles Russell and Mary Beth Hughes (The Great Flamarion).
The Scar or Hollow Triumph
Deeply ironic noir with Paul Henreid and Joan Bennett (Scarlet Street). Well directed by Steve Sekeley (Lady in the Death House).
1949
Jigsaw
Fletcher Markle’s socially-conscious film about a conspiracy of extremists. Considered noir by some but lacks characteristic noir plot, characters, look, and tone. Stars Franchot Tone (The Man on the Eiffel Tower). Notable for multiple cameos by famous Hollywood actors and actresses (John Garfield, Henry Fonda, Marlene Dietrich, Burgess Meredith...) who supported the film’s moral and political viewpoint.
Port of New York
Drug smuggling New York noir with Yul Brynner with hair. Directed by László Benedek. See Borderline.
Impact
Impressive noir from Arthur Lubin starring Brian Donleavy, but it’s the women who dominate this film: Ella Raines as Marsha Peters, Anna May Wong as Su Lin, and Helen Walker, despicably delicious as Irene Williams. The film is Shakespearean in its ABA structure, the “green world” being Larkspur, Idaho, and San Francisco as the frame city.
D.O.A.
Edmund O’Brien (The Killers, White Heat , The Hitch-Hiker) poisoned and dying in San Francisco as the film opens, the action of the movie is the search for the identity and the motive of his killer. Classic noir from Rudolph Maté.
Too Late for Tears
Bryon Haskin directed this femme fatale noir that has Arthur Kennedy and Dan Duryea (Scarlet Street, Black Angel, The Great Flamarion) up against the deadly avarice of Lizabeth Scott (The Strange Love of Martha Ivers).
1950
The Second Woman
Underrated noir with Robert Young and Betsy Drake. Atmospheric and psychological like The Red House. Chandleresque twists. Directed by James V. Kern.
The File on Thelma Jordan
Barbara Stanwyck (The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, Double Indemnity, Clash by Night) as a femme fatale who grows a soul. With Wendell Corey as another of the helpless noir males who succumb to females whose hearts are in the wrong place. Directed by Robert Siodmak.
Borderline
William A. Seiter noir about drug trafficking stars Claire Trevor (Murder, My Sweet; Born to Kill; Raw Deal,) working for the police. She gets involved with two criminals: Raymond Burr (Raw Deal, Pitfall, The Blue Gardenia) and then Fred MacMurray (Double Indemnity). Begins as noir, transforms to comedy. “It Happened One Noir.” See The 39 Steps.
Quicksand
Irving Pichel’s unrelenting noir starring Mickey Rooney whose lust for Jeanne Cagney leads him to theft to feed her greed. Also with Peter Lorre (M, Quicksand, My Favorite Brunette, Beat the Devil). Downward-spiral noir. See also Detour, Pitfall, The File on Thelma Jordan, etc.
Panic in the Streets
Chase noir with Richard Widmark (Kiss of Death, Road House, Night and the City, No Way Out, Don’t Bother to Knock, Pickup on South Street) as the chaser and plague-ridden Jack Palance (Sudden Fear) as the chased. With Barbara Bel Geddes, Paul Douglas and Zero Mostel. Directed by Elia Kazan.
The Man on the Eiffel Tower
Paris chase noir directed and starring Burgess Meredith. With Charles Laughton as Georges Simenon’s Inspector Maigret and Franchot Tone as the Nietzschean villain Johann Radek. Compare Radek with Harry Lime in Carol Reed’s Viennese noir The Third Man, also 1949.
1951
Cause for Alarm!
Brilliant Loretta Young film, noir because of its nightmarish, noose-tightening plot. Directed by Tay Garnett (The Postman Always Rings Twice¬). A subset of sunny noir; one might call it suburban noir.
1952
Kansas City Confidential
John Payne taking revenge against the men who framed him: Jack Elam, Lee Van Cleef, and Neville Brand under the leadership of Preston Foster. The gang doesn’t know each other. They’ve always worn masks! Coleen Gray as the love interest. Outstanding noir. Iconic images abound.
1953
Beat the Devil
Parody noir scripted by Truman Capote. Only slightly more serious than My Favorite Brunette. Top notch cast (Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Robert Morley, Peter Lorre), top notch director (John Huston).
The Hitch-Hiker
Wonderful noir directed by Ida Lupino, star herself of many classic noir films (High Sierra; They Drive by Night; On Dangerous Ground; Road House; The Man I Love; Beware, My Lovely; and her own directorial effort The Bigamist). The small cast all brilliant: Edmond O’Brien (The Killers, White Heat, D.O.A.), Frank Lovejoy, and William Talman as Emmett Myers, the psychopath kidnapper who sleeps literally with one eye open.
1954
Suddenly
Psychotic-killer noir starring Frank Sinatra as John Baron, would-be presidential assassin. With Sterling Hayden (The Asphalt Jungle, The Killing) as the good guy. Small town noir. The infiltration of big city evil. Anticipates The Rifleman.
