Film Noir recommendations?

[BladeRunner2007]

I think we can also add Angel Heart to the list (to a certain degree at least).

[KubrickKurasawa]

The Naked Street - 1955

Free on Amazon Prime if you have that streaming service, or want to rent it a few bucks. NOT on Blu-Ray, that I know of...Youtube has a lot of these old movies. They might be public domain by now.

[KOQ24]

The third man
The Big Combo
Kiss me deadly
Rififi
Detour
Scarlet street
The Big Heat

[LynxFX]

Payback with Mel Gibson

Be sure it is the non-director's cut. One of the few times where the Studio stepping in got it right.
(not available on Blu-ray )

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by LynxFX

Payback with Mel Gibson

Be sure it is the non-director's cut. One of the few times where the Studio stepping in got it right.
(not available on Blu-ray )

That reminds me: Point Blank with Lee Marvin is a pretty solid film too, based on the same material. And that one is on Blu-Ray now.

Never really thought of either as film noir specifically - I'd call them crime thrillers - but wikipedia apparently lists them as noir.

[DragonOfTheBlackPool]

[JimDiGriz]

Originally Posted by srinivas1015

Looking into film noir this month. Other than Double Indemnity, any other suggestions?

Sunset Boulevard is an obvious one. I did it the other way round but they are both brilliant.

[theprestige85]

This is a thread for The Great Owl.

[growsinwater]

The Lookout is great as well.

[The Great Owl]

Film noir is my favorite movie genre, and you cannot go wrong with most of the classic-era film noirs that were made during the 1940s and 1950s.

I'll repost my Top 10 Film Noir titles from another thread...

1. Out of the Past
Between Jacques Tourneur's beautiful visuals, the story's many picturesque settings, and some of the snappiest dialogue in cinema, this is not only my favorite film noir, but it's also my favorite movie of all time. Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, and Kirk Douglas knock it out of the park.

2. The Maltese Falcon
This is a close second, and I mean a close second, behind Out of the Past. The movie's firecracker wit resonates even more today, and Humphrey Bogart is at his most iconic.

3. Double Indemnity
This Billy Wilder film is "Film Noir 101." As Eddie Muller states in one of the supplements, the entire essence of film noir can be summarized by one line. "I killed him for money - and a woman - and I didn't get the money and I didn't get the woman."

4. In a Lonely Place
This Humphrey Bogart film noir takes the genre down into its deepest and darkest depths of bleakness, but the effect is so perfectly crystalline that the movie never seems overbearing.

5. The Third Man
The Third Man is one of the most visually striking works of cinema that you'll ever see, and Carol Reed seemed incapable of making a boring shot. Orson Welles is a force of nature in this one.

6. Detour
This 1945 film noir is, as the title implies, the ultimate make-a-wrong-choice-and-you're-doomed-forever flick. Ann Savage is so brilliantly incendiary as the dame that you never want to meet. Sadly, this public domain movie may never see a proper high definition treatment, but you won't be nitpicking about picture quality if you sit down to watch the Image Entertainment DVD edition.

7. Criss Cross
Burt Lancaster starred in a great many film noir masterpieces, and this 1949 Robert Siodmak film showcases him in a beautiful this-will-not-end-well story.

8. Sweet Smell of Success
This is another film noir home run for Burt Lancaster, and I still believe that it may be Criterion's best high definition transfer of a black-and-white film.

9. The Big Heat
I cannot let this go without putting a Fritz Lang film on the list. The Big Heat is brutal and explosive, with perfect roles by Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame.

10. Private Hell 36
This scrappy Don Siegel film is a wild card on this personal top 10 noir list of mine, but I love how it delves deeply into the psyches of two characters whose lives are wrecked in different ways by temptation and guilt.

Honorable mention: The Night of the Hunter
I did not include The Night of the Hunter in the top 10, because it stretches the parameters of the genre definition a little too much for my taste, but I will fully concur with anyone who does wish to place it on the top of a film noir countdown. Just think of this one as a great film that defies genre classification.

[editor*by*night88]

the set up
the narrow margin
the asphalt jungle
the lineup
cry of the city
night editor
fallen angel
where the sidewalk ends
the threat
99 river street
woman on the run
kiss of death
Kansas city confidential
panic in the street

[Saccharin]

And in colour. Nobody mentioned it why come people:
CHINATOWN
by Roman Polanski

[Roonan]

Following.

[Bonzi]

Murder by Contract (1958)
Cry Danger (1951)

[Yojimbo68]

Originally Posted by Saccharin

And in colour. Nobody mentioned it why come people:
CHINATOWN
by Roman Polanski

Great film with a terrific script by Robert Towne that actually improves on repeat viewings. But I would consider the movie Neo-Noir.

[Yojimbo68]

Originally Posted by Yojimbo68

I'm waiting for The Great Owl to chime in. I'm sure he'll have great picks!

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Film noir is my favorite movie genre, and you cannot go wrong with most of the classic-era film noirs that were made during the 1940s and 1950s.

I'll repost my Top 10 Film Noir titles from another thread...

1. Out of the Past
Between Jacques Tourneur's beautiful visuals, the story's many picturesque settings, and some of the snappiest dialogue in cinema, this is not only my favorite film noir, but it's also my favorite movie of all time. Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, and Kirk Douglas knock it out of the park.

2. The Maltese Falcon
This is a close second, and I mean a close second, behind Out of the Past. The movie's firecracker wit resonates even more today, and Humphrey Bogart is at his most iconic.

3. Double Indemnity
This Billy Wilder film is "Film Noir 101." As Eddie Muller states in one of the supplements, the entire essence of film noir can be summarized by one line. "I killed him for money - and a woman - and I didn't get the money and I didn't get the woman."

4. In a Lonely Place
This Humphrey Bogart film noir takes the genre down into its deepest and darkest depths of bleakness, but the effect is so perfectly crystalline that the movie never seems overbearing.

5. The Third Man
The Third Man is one of the most visually striking works of cinema that you'll ever see, and Carol Reed seemed incapable of making a boring shot. Orson Welles is a force of nature in this one.

6. Detour
This 1945 film noir is, as the title implies, the ultimate make-a-wrong-choice-and-you're-doomed-forever flick. Ann Savage is so brilliantly incendiary as the dame that you never want to meet. Sadly, this public domain movie may never see a proper high definition treatment, but you won't be nitpicking about picture quality if you sit down to watch the Image Entertainment DVD edition.

7. Criss Cross
Burt Lancaster starred in a great many film noir masterpieces, and this 1949 Robert Siodmak film showcases him in a beautiful this-will-not-end-well story.

8. Sweet Smell of Success
This is another film noir home run for Burt Lancaster, and I still believe that it may be Criterion's best high definition transfer of a black-and-white film.

9. The Big Heat
I cannot let this go without putting a Fritz Lang film on the list. The Big Heat is brutal and explosive, with perfect roles by Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame.

10. Private Hell 36
This scrappy Don Siegel film is a wild card on this personal top 10 noir list of mine, but I love how it delves deeply into the psyches of two characters whose lives are wrecked in different ways by temptation and guilt.

Honorable mention: The Night of the Hunter
I did not include The Night of the Hunter in the top 10, because it stretches the parameters of the genre definition a little too much for my taste, but I will fully concur with anyone who does wish to place it on the top of a film noir countdown. Just think of this one as a great film that defies genre classification.

Didn't I say he would have great picks?!

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by AnamorphicWidescreen

Dark City (1998): Sci-fi, but definitely has elements of noir.

Dark City (1950) is a great little film noir starring Charlton Heston and the beautiful Lizabeth Scott. You can find it on the Film Noir Collection: Volume 1 Blu-ray set from Olive Films.

Charlton Heston plays a small-time crook who cheats a man out of all of his money in a poker game. After the man subsequently commits suicide, his psychotic brother goes on the hunt for Heston.

[The Great Owl]

My best advice for those who are looking for good film noir is not to be afraid of the DVD format.

Many of the greatest film noir titles have still not made their way to the Blu-ray format, but you can find a lot of them for cheap on DVD if you explore the different website deals or your local used movie stores.

The Warner Bros. Film Noir Classic Collection, Volumes 1 through 5 are the best starting point, because those old RKO titles are hard to beat. Out of the Past, from the first volume box set, was just released in a beautiful Blu-ray transfer, but the other films in these sets have yet to surface in the format.

The four volumes of the Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics collection have some killer titles as well, only one of which (The Big Heat) has seen the light of day on Blu-ray. A fair warning, though, that the third volume of this Columbia series went out of print pretty quickly. Being the dork that I am, I just shelled out $99 for a "Used - Like New" set from Amazon, because that's the cheapest price that I've seen for it by far, but some of you may have better luck. The first two Columbia box sets, which are easily available, are particularly quintessential.

I spent less than $10 apiece for the two Bad Girls of Film Noir DVD collections. Those are great if you want to see...well, bad girls of film noir.

The DVDs in the Fox Film Noir series are outstanding, especially Where the Sidewalk Ends and Nightmare Alley. A handful of these have found their way to Blu-ray (Panic in the Streets, Boomerang, Laura), but the rest are still hanging.

The two Dark Crimes: Film Noir Thrillers DVD sets from Turner Classic Movies are great, especially for those of you who are fans of Veronica Lake (and I know that most of you are.).

Film Noir: The Dark Side of Hollywood, from Kino DVD, is a solid set, but one of the films, Hangmen Also Die, will be released on Blu-ray from Cohen Media this month.

The Hammer Film Noir Double Feature Collector's Sets Volumes 1 and 2 can both be found for low prices, if you want to delve farther down the noir rabbithole into relatively obscure material.

Image Entertainment has two awesome public domain film noirs, Detour and D.O.A., in the best transfers that we may ever see.

Universal is still holding onto several DVD titles, namely the amazing Criss Cross and This Gun for Fire, without any word of a Blu-ray release.

Last, but not least, Warner Archive has some great noir titles still on DVD, namely The Window and Stranger on the Third Floor. I've only started to scratch the surface with the Warner Archive DVDs, because there are quite a few out there.

[theprestige85]

The Great Owl could Shadow Of Doubt be considered a noir?? I feel like it has enough noir ish elements.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by theprestige85

The Great Owl could Shadow Of Doubt be considered a noir?? I feel like it has enough noir ish elements.

I consider Shadow of a Doubt to be a film noir, though and through. It's such a great movie.

I also consider Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train and Vertigo to be film noir titles.