Noir To Die For
by ChaCra7 | created - 10 May 2014 | updated - 14 Nov 2017 | PublicWelcome to a black and white world (with a little color mixed in for good measure). It's a world of hard-boiled heroes, dangerous dames, and twisted games. It's a place where you always have to watch your back. Noir. It's one of cinema's finest genres.
This is just a small list of noirs that I have personally enjoyed, but there's plenty more out there that I have yet to see! So keep checking, this list might get bigger!
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1. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Passed | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir
A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson
Votes: 236,199
Billy Wilder strikes a memorable blow against Hollywood that rings truer and truer as time goes by. One of the most quotable movies of the genre.
2. Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Not Rated | 106 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
A doomed female hitchhiker pulls Mike Hammer into a deadly whirlpool of intrigue, revolving around a mysterious "great whatsit".
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart, Juano Hernandez
Votes: 22,062
I wish I could have bottled up my initial reaction to the grand finale and kept it safe. It was truly one of those great movie moments. Still is!
3. Double Indemnity (1944)
Passed | 107 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A Los Angeles insurance representative lets an alluring housewife seduce him into a scheme of insurance fraud and murder that arouses the suspicion of his colleague, an insurance investigator.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Byron Barr
Votes: 167,306 | Gross: $5.72M
Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck crackle onscreen with a sharp script penned by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler. This IS the epitome of film noir.
4. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Passed | 100 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
San Francisco private detective Sam Spade takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar and their quest for a priceless statuette, with the stakes rising after his partner is murdered.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George, Peter Lorre
Votes: 166,485 | Gross: $2.11M
Veiled in a haze of smoke, The Maltese Falcon is what dreams are made of.
5. Out of the Past (1947)
Approved | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A private eye escapes his past to run a gas station in a small town, but his past catches up with him. Now he must return to the big city world of danger, corruption, double crosses, and duplicitous dames.
Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming
Votes: 40,870
Jane Greer plays as, perhaps, the deadliest femme fatale of them all. She's gorgeous... she's dangerous... she changes sides so smoothly. Director Jacques Tourneur really delivers us one of the darkest, twistiest noirs available.
6. Ride the Pink Horse (1947)
Passed | 101 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
WW2 veteran Lucky Gagin arrives in a New Mexico border-town intent on revenging against mobster Frank Hugo but FBI agent Bill Retz, who also wants Hugo, tries to keep Gagin out of trouble.
Director: Robert Montgomery | Stars: Robert Montgomery, Thomas Gomez, Wanda Hendrix, Andrea King
Votes: 3,425
This seriously underrated film noir is thick in atmosphere, rich with character and surprisingly brutal.
7. The Big Sleep (1946)
Passed | 114 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a wealthy family. Before the complex case is over, he's seen murder, blackmail and what might be love.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely, Martha Vickers
Votes: 90,457 | Gross: $6.54M
I still really don't know who did it, but that's not what The Big Sleep is about. It's about the process, and boy... what a process it is!
8. The Big Heat (1953)
Passed | 89 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller
Tough cop Dave Bannion takes on a politically powerful crime syndicate.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Jocelyn Brando, Alexander Scourby
Votes: 29,133
Glenn Ford is brutal (for good reasons), Gloria Grahame is gorgeous (until she gets a taste of coffee), and Lee Marvin is sadistic (just 'cause). Mix well with Fritz Lang, and you've got yourself some serious steam.
9. Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
Passed | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
A writer falls in love with a young socialite and they're soon married, but her obsessive love for him threatens to be the undoing of them both as well as everyone around them.
Director: John M. Stahl | Stars: Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain, Vincent Price
Votes: 14,752
Gene Tierney blazes her shocking, obsessive sins across the screen in brilliant Technicolor. Truly beautiful and diabolical cinema.
10. The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
Passed | 113 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A married woman and a drifter fall in love and then plot to murder her husband.
Director: Tay Garnett | Stars: Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway, Hume Cronyn
Votes: 22,847 | Gross: $8.33M
LUST... sometimes it can be the deadliest sin. Here, Lana Turner makes it the sexiest sin!
11. Touch of Evil (1958)
PG-13 | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping and police corruption in a Mexican border town.
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, Janet Leigh, Joseph Calleia
Votes: 109,723 | Gross: $2.24M
Originally butchered and bastardized by studio execs to the point of Orson Welles' vision being unrecognizable, time has thankfully smoothed out the knots and allowed Welles' genius to finally shine.
12. Possessed (1947)
Approved | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
After being found wandering the streets of Los Angeles, a severely catatonic woman tells a doctor the complex story of how she wound up there.
Director: Curtis Bernhardt | Stars: Joan Crawford, Van Heflin, Raymond Massey, Geraldine Brooks
Votes: 5,910 | Gross: $1.99M
Joan Crawford was many things and a dedicated actress was one of them. Her research in psychiatric wards paid off and brought a realistic portrayal of borderline personality disorder to the screen.
13. Mildred Pierce (1945)
Approved | 111 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A hard-working mother inches towards disaster as she divorces her husband and starts a successful restaurant business to support her spoiled daughter.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden
Votes: 28,619
Joan never really needed a film to prove her worth (in my opinion), but she did anyways as a hard-working mother just trying to support her" loving" daughter. Illness or no illness, she had her Oscar in the bag.
14. Niagara (1953)
Not Rated | 92 min | Film-Noir, Thriller
As two couples are visiting Niagara Falls, tensions between one wife and her husband reach the level of murder.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: Marilyn Monroe, Joseph Cotten, Jean Peters, Max Showalter
Votes: 19,720
The natural force of Niagara Falls isn't enough to tame Marilyn Monroe's constant desire for something - anything - better. If you need proof that she can play anything other than just a dumb, blonde bimbo... then this is it.
15. Dark Passage (1947)
Passed | 106 min | Film-Noir, Thriller
A man convicted of murdering his wife escapes from prison and works with a woman to try to prove his innocence.
Director: Delmer Daves | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Bruce Bennett, Agnes Moorehead
Votes: 21,947
Out of all the Bogart/Bacall outings, this is perhaps my favorite. Why? Well, the first half of the film is set entirely through Bogie's POV until his face is constructed to look like Bogie. Trippy, right? Also, Bacall's Art Deco apartment is pretty memorable. However, if there was really one thing I had to choose, it's Agnes Moorehead. She is pure dynamo as the "If I can't have you, then no one can!" woman.
16. In a Lonely Place (1950)
Not Rated | 94 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
A potentially violent screenwriter is a murder suspect until his lovely neighbor clears him. However, she soon starts to have her doubts.
Director: Nicholas Ray | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy, Carl Benton Reid
Votes: 35,190
I just about cut myself on this one, it's so sharp! Bogart is pure dynamite - ready to blow. Grahame can work an eyebrow and so much more. Fantastic!
17. Gun Crazy (1950)
Passed | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Two disturbed young people release their fascination with guns through a crime spree.
Director: Joseph H. Lewis | Stars: John Dall, Peggy Cummins, Berry Kroeger, Morris Carnovsky
Votes: 14,802
Peggy Cummins plays a devious pistol-packin' mama and makes this film well worth a watch. It's just like Bonnie Parker dominating Clyde Barrow.
18. The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
Not Rated | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Fascinated by gorgeous Mrs. Bannister, seaman Michael O'Hara joins a bizarre yachting cruise, and ends up mired in a complex murder plot.
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Everett Sloane, Glenn Anders
Votes: 33,277 | Gross: $0.01M
It took me awhile to get past Orson Welles' fake Irish accent, but the lure of a blonde Rita Hayworth kept me glued to the screen. It's another controversial, captivating Welles masterpiece.
19. The Killing (1956)
Approved | 84 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Crook Johnny Clay assembles a five-man team to plan and execute a daring racetrack robbery.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards, Jay C. Flippen
Votes: 97,383
Stanley Kubrick makes one of his earliest attempts at serious filmmaking, and what he gives you is one of the twistiest, tautest film noir heists in film history.
20. The Third Man (1949)
Approved | 93 min | Film-Noir, Mystery, Thriller
Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard
Votes: 181,702 | Gross: $0.45M
The gorgeous Vienna set pieces and Carol Reed's Dutch angles are enough to set this noir apart from the rest, but Anton Karas' zither score sends it to legendary status. And how about that ending?
21. Key Largo (1948)
Approved | 100 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A man visits his war buddy's family hotel and finds a gangster running things. As a hurricane approaches, the two end up confronting each other.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore
Votes: 43,940
It's the last outing Bogart/Bacall had together, but that's merely an afterthought compared to wheelchair-bound Lionel Barrymore literally taking a stand against Edward G. Robinson and booze-hound Claire Trevor nervously singing her way to the bottom of a glass (and to an Oscar win).
22. White Heat (1949)
Not Rated | 114 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien, Margaret Wycherly
Votes: 35,688
James Cagney loves his Ma like he likes his crazy. A lot... I was on the edge of my seat during the explosive finale.
23. L.A. Confidential (1997)
R | 138 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
As corruption grows in 1950s Los Angeles, three policemen - one strait-laced, one brutal, and one sleazy - investigate a series of murders with their own brand of justice.
Director: Curtis Hanson | Stars: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger
Votes: 617,186 | Gross: $64.62M
It may be confidential, but L.A.'s sleazy secrets sure are juicy. Kim Basinger adds plenty of appeal as well.
24. Vertigo (1958)
PG | 128 min | Mystery, Romance, Thriller
A former San Francisco police detective juggles wrestling with his personal demons and becoming obsessed with the hauntingly beautiful woman he has been hired to trail, who may be deeply disturbed.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore
Votes: 426,448 | Gross: $3.20M
This is the strangest film noir entry on the list, and perhaps that's why it has taken some time for it to be hailed as Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece. Bernard Herrman's score, Kim Novak... everything is just so hypnotic.
25. Chinatown (1974)
R | 130 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A private detective hired to expose an adulterer in 1930s Los Angeles finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Perry Lopez
Votes: 349,484
Chinatown is often hailed as having a "perfect screenplay", and who am I to argue with that? Faye Dunaway really gives us her all and then some, but she really shines the second time around once you know what's going on.
26. Panic in the Streets (1950)
Approved | 96 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A doctor and a policeman in New Orleans have only 48 hours to locate a killer infected with pneumonic plague.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Richard Widmark, Paul Douglas, Barbara Bel Geddes, Jack Palance
Votes: 8,825
The clock is ticking in New Orleans, and a deadly disease is spreading. This isn't on most radars, especially compared to all the other titles on this list, but I think it's one of the best. The interplay between reluctant partners, Richard Widmark and Paul Douglas, is remarkable.
27. Ministry of Fear (1944)
Passed | 86 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Stephen Neale has just been released from an asylum during World War II in England when he accidentally stumbles onto a deadly Nazi spy plot and tries to stop it.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds, Carl Esmond, Hillary Brooke
Votes: 8,912
Fritz Lang delivers an enjoyable, yet overall light mystery, that's reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock. The séance is a must-see.
28. Klute (1971)
R | 114 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
A small-town detective searching for a missing man has only one lead: a connection with a New York prostitute.
Director: Alan J. Pakula | Stars: Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi, Roy Scheider
Votes: 29,573 | Gross: $17.44M
Klute is filled with tight dark spaces, creeping paranoia and an unsettling film score. It's '70s noir infused with classic horror. A perfect combination. Add Jane Fonda into the mix, and what do you get? A well-deserved Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
29. The Long Goodbye (1973)
R | 112 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Private investigator Philip Marlowe helps a friend out of a jam, but in doing so gets implicated in his wife's murder.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Elliott Gould, Nina van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden, Mark Rydell
Votes: 37,130 | Gross: $0.96M
Robert Altman's Philip Marlowe shuffles around in the 1970's, loses a cat, shrugs off his nudist neighbors, encounters a psychotic gangster with a silent Arnold Schwarzenegger henchman, and packs a controversial ending wallop. It's Marlowe at his seediest.
30. Gilda (1946)
Approved | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
A small-time gambler hired to work in a Buenos Aires casino discovers his employer's new wife is his former lover.
Director: Charles Vidor | Stars: Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready, Joseph Calleia
Votes: 35,228
No one is really a do-gooder in Gilda, which left me a little uneasy about the comeuppance at the end. Who is truly bad here?
31. Laura (1944)
Passed | 88 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he is investigating.
Directors: Otto Preminger, Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price
Votes: 51,361 | Gross: $4.36M
Laura is an oddity... an off-beat noir. A man falls in love with a dead woman... or so he thinks. My favorite part is Clifton Webb chewing up the scenery with his snarky remarks.
32. Detour (1945)
Passed | 66 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
The life of Al Roberts, a pianist in a New York nightclub, turns into a nightmare when he decides to hitchhike to Los Angeles to visit his girlfriend.
Director: Edgar G. Ulmer | Stars: Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake, Edmund MacDonald
Votes: 19,685 | Gross: $0.02M
Detour is the seediest (and cheapest) of the lot, but it has its own appeal. Ann Savage is pure dynamo. The most interesting part, though, is that lead actor, Tom Neal, was later tried for murder.
33. Night and the City (1950)
Not Rated | 96 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
A small-time grifter and nightclub tout takes advantage of some fortuitous circumstances and tries to become a big-time player as a wrestling promoter.
Director: Jules Dassin | Stars: Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney, Googie Withers, Hugh Marlowe
Votes: 15,251 | Gross: $3.60M
Morals are washed away in the gutter as slimeball Harry Fabian (played perfectly by Richard Widmark) attempts his last big-money scheme.
34. The Stranger (1946)
Passed | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An investigator from the War Crimes Commission travels to Connecticut to find an infamous Nazi.
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Orson Welles, Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young, Philip Merivale
Votes: 28,692
The Stranger is stuck between Citizen Kane and The Lady From Shanghai in terms of Orson Welles' directorial filmography, so it's an easily forgotten work, but that doesn't make it any less of an exceptional film.
35. Phantom Lady (1944)
Passed | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A devoted secretary risks her life to try to find the elusive woman who may prove her boss didn't murder his selfish wife.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Franchot Tone, Ella Raines, Alan Curtis, Aurora Miranda
Votes: 5,743
Phantom Lady isn't really all that twisty, and the killer's identity is let out of the bag about halfway into the film, but it is among one of the best film noirs I have ever seen in terms of cinematography.
36. He Walked by Night (1948)
Approved | 79 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller
This film-noir piece, told in semi-documentary style, follows police on the hunt for a resourceful criminal who shoots and kills a cop.
Directors: Alfred L. Werker, Anthony Mann | Stars: Richard Basehart, Scott Brady, Roy Roberts, Whit Bissell
Votes: 6,692
Told in a semi-documentary style, He Walked by Night operates as an early police procedural and thoroughly entertains.
37. The Breaking Point (1950)
Approved | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An otherwise moral captain of a charter boat becomes financially strapped and is drawn into illegal activities in order to keep up payments on his boat.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: John Garfield, Patricia Neal, Phyllis Thaxter, Juano Hernandez
Votes: 4,353
With all due respect to Bogie & Bacall, I dare say that this film blows them and Howard Hawks' 'adaptation' of To Have and Have Not completely out of the water.
38. Kansas City Confidential (1952)
Not Rated | 99 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An ex-con trying to go straight is framed for a million dollar armored car robbery and must go to Mexico in order to unmask the real culprits.
Director: Phil Karlson | Stars: John Payne, Coleen Gray, Preston Foster, Neville Brand
Votes: 8,128
Kansas City Confidential really is brutal for its time, and research shows that this was the inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, so that helps put the vintage violence into perspective.
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