Film Noir recommendations?

[Yojimbo68]

Originally Posted by Foggy

How have we gone to 13 posts an not mentioned The Third Man, some of the finest film noir cinematography going, heck one of the greatest shot films full stop.

Other than that I second:

Double Indemnity
The Maltese Falcon
The Big Sleep
Touch of Evil
Brick
The Big Lebowski
Se7en
Fight Club

And add:

Blade Runner
Barton Fink
L.A. Confidential
Sunset Boulevard
Zodiac
The Naked City
The Killers (1946)
The Double (2014)

Oh yes The Third Man. Shame on me for not mentioning that one! And Sunset Boulevard as well...

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

[AnamorphicWidescreen]

Blast of Silence (1962). Not only my favorite noir, but one of my all-time favorite films, period.

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

The Thirteenth Floor (199?): Also sci-fi, with noir elements...

[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.

[noirjunkie]

If you're new to the genre, then start with the classics. I've listed, in chronological order, 25 films that are generally regarded by critics as the top noirs (of course, the debate is always ongoing, but this list should give you a good starting point):

The Maltese Falcon
Double Indemnity
Laura
Murder, My Sweet
Detour
Mildred Pierce
Scarlet Street
The Big Sleep
The Postman Always Rings Twice
The Killers
Nightmare Alley
Out of the Past
The Lady from Shanghai
The Third Man
Gun Crazy
In a Lonely Place
Sunset Blvd.
The Narrow Margin
The Big Heat
The Big Combo
Kiss Me Deadly
The Killing
Sweet Smell of Success
Touch of Evil
Vertigo

Also, it should be noted that many people are listing neo-noirs, not noirs. Anything including and after 1967's Point Blank should be categorized as such.

[theprestige85]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

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.

Yeah, I love that film to death. It might be my favourite Hitchcock, and, based on what you said, my favourite classic film noir from that period.

[ArmyOfDarknessAW]

I don't think i saw anyone mention this.



What a damn good movie that must be seen.

[Saucerful]

I've been slowly amassing my noir collection, and I've been lucky enough over the past year or so to find decent copies of the WB Film Noir Classic Collection Vol. 1 through 5 and the first two volumes of the Columbia Film Noir Classics for $20 to $50 Canadian each. I'm currently working my way through Vol. 4 of the WB sets, with the Columbia Vol. 1 set on deck (anxious to see The Big Heat).

Of the big pictures that are not featured in sets, Gilda and Double Indemnity were clear standouts for me.

I've loved all the Fox Film Noir films I've seen so far (Laura, Nightmare Alley, Where The Sidewalk Ends). I'm likely going to rent Kiss of Death this weekend.

Life Magazine picked a great time to release their Film Noir edition as it's coincided perfectly with my most recent noir kick. I'm also going to hit up the local public library and check out Eddie Muller's "Dark City" book.

A lot of these films I would never have discovered if not for taking a chance on these sets, and for the advice found in various posts here (particularly from The Great Owl). So, thanks for that!

[Saucerful]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

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 was wondering how these Warner sets rank among each other, and also how they rank compared to the Columbia sets. I realize this is purely subjective, but I'm trying to get a sense of what to get next. I currently own the Warner volumes 1-3 and I'm wondering if it makes sense to track down volumes 4 and 5 of the Warner sets or if it makes more sense to get the first couple of Columbia ones.

[kaseaver]

I'm wondering if it makes sense to track down volumes 4 and 5 of the Warner sets or if it makes more sense to get the first couple of Columbia ones.


Here are films from the sets you mentioned that I liked:

Warner box #4 - Crime Wave (excellent), Act of Violence, Illegal, They Live by Night
Warner box #5 - The Phenix City Story, Cornered

As Owl mentioned, there are some good films in the Columbia box sets. My favorites:

Columbia box #1 - The Lineup, Murder by Contract, The Sniper
Columbia box #2 - Human Desire (excellent Fritz Lang film), Nightfall, Pushover
Columbia box #3 - My Name is Julia Ross, The Mob

[Miholina]

Rififi is briliant noir.