"Best Film Noir?" Topic

The film noir genre generally refers to mystery and crime dramas produced from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Movies of this genre were characteristically shot in black and white, and featured stories involving femmes fatales, doomed heroes or anti-heroes, and tough, cynical detectives.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_noir

Which are your favorites?

Oddly, not in black and white at all.
Body Heat
Chinatown
Roger Rabbit

Maltese Falcon
The Big Sleep
The Big Heat
Little Caesar

Not quite noir (because they're comedies):
The Thin Man
Brother Orchid
A Slight Case of Murder
All Through the Night

On the Waterfront.

Favorite Original Noirs:
Out of the Past
Kiss Me Deadly
Murder, My Sweet

Favorite Modern Noirs:
LA Confidential
The Limey
Chinatown

Comedic Honorable Mentions:
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
The Big Lebowski

Dark Passage (or most anything with Bogey and/or Bacall).

Ron

P.S. I haven't seen Key Largo -- yet!

On my to-watch list: Double Indemnity.

Ron

The Third Man

Sunset Blvd.

Nice Guys.
YouTube link

Blue Velvet. There was also a French film – can't think of the name of it now.

Maltese Falcon

Suddenly!

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

Casablanca

DOA – The original version with Edmond O'Brien

LA Confidential

Double Indemnity – Fred McMurray version

Maltese Falcon

Another vote for Double Indemnity.

Not only a great film, but Barbara Stanwyck had the best gams in Hollywood.

Naturally The Big Sleep and Maltese Falcon are also on the list.

Maltese Falcon

Casablanca

The Third Man

Probably The Third Man followed by the Maltese Falcon then Casablanca.

LA Confidential is very good (spoiled a lottle by Cromwell's accent and – as always – his poor acting). Other than that, as 'modern comedy noir' goes, Get Shorty.*

John T

* the original, of course, not the 'franchise' murdering follow up…

Maltese Falcon
Act of Violence
Out of the Past
Night and the City

Some of these are not usually considered film noir--Casablanca,for one (hey,my first ever disagreement with John T!)

An important ingredient in noir is the protaginist's feeling of being trapped,or of being pursued my a malign force,sometimes his own past (Out of the Past),sometimes random chance (Detour),sometimes unknown or unidentified forces (The Dark Corner). And often,his own weaknesses (hence the many femmes fatales in noir.

youtu.be/_HZS1dEhrx0

youtu.be/R60EDJnENT8

The Third Man
Sin City
The Existential Cowboy

Casablanca
Double Indemnity
Killer's Kiss – late noir, early Kubrick

Hafen is correct :)

Another classic is This Gun for Hire.

An interesting list here based on popularity:
imdb.com/genre/film_noir

If "Miller's Crossing" were in black and white…

Doesn't have to be B&W--Body Heat is noir,through and through. There was a short-lived noir TV show in the 90's, "EZ Streets",that achieved the noir "look" by draining most of the color out of the film.

Couple of clips:

youtu.be/967o8qdQ3H4

youtu.be/gylWR--cBuk

Casablanca is definitely not a Noir, it is a good, romantic drama. Films don't have to be Black and White, but there are specific things that make a Film a Noir.

Casablanca does use the Romantic Triangle trope in its plot,but I'd argue that the theme is human redemption--the protagonist emerges from the story a better man,something infrequent in noir,whose "hero",if he survives,is often embittered,or at best,a little wiser to the "way of the world". I guess Maltese Falcon could be cited as an example,though even here, there's debate about its status as noir!

Some discussion from a few months ago:

TMP link

Say,where is The Shadow,anyway?

The Lady From Shanghai.

Comedic honourable mention with the Maltese Falcon plot:
Satan Met A Lady

Hafen: good point(s) am I'm always one to take on board good points/advice.

I'll stick with just Third Man and Maltese Falcon!

John T

Far too many choices, but I'll go for

The Killers
Maltese Falcon
Out of the Past
Lady in the Lake
Murder My Sweet

I assume when people say Maltese falcon they are referring to the Humphrey Bogart version. There was an earlier pre-code version that was quite good as well, but nothing beats Bogie, and what a cast, and first time director Houston!

Blade runner

Some good ones listed, but I also really like some of the minor ones, Gun Crazy, Pickup on 51st Street, a few others I'll need to Google to get the names correct.

I'll add -

Detour
In a Lonely Place
Criss Cross

The Classics:
Double Indemnity (the original)
Sorry, Wrong Number (Stanwyck again!)
Dial M for Murder (Hitchcock)

Best modern remake:
Body Heat (see Double Indemnity)

Best modern twist, sci-fi noir:
Dark City (director's cut)

Spoofs:
Murder By Death
Fatal Instinct

The Maltese Falcon (1931) with Ricardo Cortez and The Big Sleep (1946) with Humphrey Bogart.

Oooh yes: the Killers is good, particularly for beating Tarantino fans with who seem to assume that – with the (I wpuld agree excellent* Pulp Fiction) – Quentin invented non-linear story telling…

John T

* probably his best work, IMHO

Ok, had time to look up the names of some of the other smaller film noir I like a lot – The Setup, Narrow Margin, Dial 1119 (really had to search to remember that one!), and Panic In the Streets, with a super-menacing Jack Palance.

Edit – and in my first post, I meant Pickup on SOUTH Street! Not sure where 51st came from.

"The House on 92nd Street"

"Casablanca" and "The Maltese Falcon" IMHO are not Film Noir. Can't be a well known and their for mainstream film.

Defiantly not Casablanca. To me it is a it is a romantic drama not film noir. Well many do consider the "Maltese Falcon" as the best film Noir movie.

Wikipedia

''The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 film noir directed by John Huston in his directorial debut. Huston's screenplay was based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett.[2][3] The film stars Humphrey Bogart as private investigator Sam Spade and Mary Astor as his femme fatale client. Gladys George, Peter Lorre, and Sydney Greenstreet co-star, with Greenstreet appearing in his film debut. The story follows a San Francisco private detective and his dealings with three unscrupulous adventurers, all of whom are competing to obtain a jewel-encrusted falcon statuette."

Internet movie database
Maltese falcon
Genres: Film-Noir | Mystery

Film Noir (literally 'black film or cinema') was coined by French film critics (first by Nino Frank in 1946) who noticed the trend of how 'dark', downbeat and black the looks and themes were of many American crime and detective films released in France to theatres following the war, such as The Maltese Falcon (1941), Murder, My Sweet (1944), Double Indemnity (1944), The Woman in the Window (1944), and Laura Film Noir (literally 'black film or cinema') was coined by French film critics (first by Nino Frank in 1946) who noticed the trend of how 'dark', downbeat and black the looks and themes were of many American crime and detective films released in France to theatres following the war, such as The Maltese Falcon (1941), Murder, My Sweet (1944), Double Indemnity (1944), The Woman in the Window (1944), and Laura

I admit "The Maltese Falcon" is considered by many to be the best of the genre. But I still don't consider "Casablanca" as film noir. As stated by someone else earlier, It is very controversial.

"Film Noir. Named by the French to indicate an American genre of good people who get involved in bad situations. Usually because of their own weakness."

-Roger Ebert

A lot of movies can fit into that definition. Some consider "The Godfather" as film noir.

I didn't see Devil In A Blue Dress listed. I would also add to the list the less well know 1945 version of The Big Sleep. Howard Hawks shot two versions of this movie with Bogart and Bacall. The one that is best known is the 1946 version which focuses more on the relationship of Bogart and Bacall, and the 1945 version which is more linear in presentation and fills in some gaps in the story telling. I actually like the 1945 version better.

1. The Third Man

Then in no particular order-

The Sweet Smell of Success
Gun Crazy
Detour
Kiss Me Deadly
Out of the Past
Criss Cross

The Glass Key 1942
Out of the Past 1947
Kiss of Death 1947

Reviewer Roger Ebert said of "Out of the Past" -

…"Out of the Past'' (1947), the greatest cigarette-smoking movie of all time. The trick, as demonstrated by Jacques Tourneur and his cameraman, Nicholas Musuraca, is to throw a lot of light into the empty space where the characters are going to exhale. When they do, they produce great white clouds of smoke, which express their moods, their personalities and their energy levels. There were guns in "Out of the Past,'' but the real hostility came when Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas smoked at each other."