This one took a lot of work to put together.
Posted on 01/15/2023 4:27:11 AM PST by Rummyfan
There's a temptation once you've started sorting anything into a genre to start making lists, of the most typical, the most essential, or simply the best. Film noir, a genre whose tangled roots begin somewhere in the early '40s and ends – by general critical acclaim, though your mileage may vary – with Orson Welles' A Touch of Evil in 1958, begs for these kinds of rankings, if only because its hardboiled subject matter tends to attract a male fandom, and everybody knows how much men love lists.
If you were making a list of most typical noir films, you'd have to include Out of the Past or The Asphalt Jungle; for most essential noirs, The Maltese Falcon and Double Indemnity would make most lists. As for the best film noir, the competition would be more heated, not to mention subjective, but you'd probably find Detour or The Killers on a lot of those lists. From where I'm sitting, though, you could grit your teeth and put The Big Combo on any three, perhaps all of them. And then sit back and wait for the shouting to start.
Released in 1955, The Big Combo was directed by b-picture stalwart Joseph H. Lewis, whose Gun Crazy (1950) would probably be an essential noir, but hardly a typical one. It was made for half a million dollars in twenty-six days and includes countless iconic shots that end up in nearly every documentary about noir ever made. It was the first picture made by a production company started by Cornel Wilde and his wife Jean Wallace, and released by Allied Artists, which had recently changed its name from Monogram Pictures, a fixture on Hollywood's Poverty Row.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
Bookmarked
That is a great flick too.
We got a color tv when my grandmother came to visit and couldn’t stand watching our B&W (they called them portable) TV sitting on top of our old Console TV. I had a TV in my bedroom but never had a color tv. I guess that’s why B&W Film Noir doesn’t bother me.
Gaslight
Key Largo
Night of the Hunter
Three Strangers
Some of my favorites.
Since Double Indemnity has already been mentioned I’ll say The Postman Always Rings Twice.
The Big Sleep - Philip Marlowe - Raymond Chandler Full Length Audiobook.
It's condensed (1 hr 26 min) but gets the most important parts, including the end, with Marlowe's ruminations over a stiff drink.
I will have to track this film down and watch it.
Lot’s of good films mentioned here - I like them all...
I’m a fan of Edith Head’s last accredited film (costumes by Edith Head):
Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid
This one took a lot of work to put together.
GMTA!
The Big Clock
That is a great movie. Perfect cast and ambiance.....it all works perfectly.
If you know or want to delve into filn noir, try the Facebook CLASSIC FILM NOIR (1940 -1958) group. You will need to apply to comment.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/177700052390992
I have a hard time saying anything Raymond Chandler wasn’t involved in is the greatest film noir ever, cause, well, Raymond Chandler. But The Big Combo is pretty freaking amazing.
She's HOT!
There was a movie out of the cinema noir era that my late father told me of, but I don’t know the title. It was entirely filmed as if the camera was looking through the eyes of the main character. Probably a whodunit.
Anyone have the title for me?
People tend to call any film with a dark overtone "Noir" but that's a far simpler (and over-broad) definition from what the Frogs (who coined the term) meant it. I even frequently hear movie reviewers call films "Noir" when they clearly don't know the term's origins.
But Steyn clearly knows his Noir.
The Lady in the Lake (1946)
Robert Montgomery, Audrey Totter, Lloyd Nolan
The lady editor of a crime magazine hires Phillip Marlowe to find the wife of her boss. The private detective soon finds himself involved in murder.
For me, a true noir has to feature an attractive, treacherous woman who’s aking advantage of the male protagonist, usually something of a hapless, trusting sort.
Film noirs of the 40s and 50s is one of my favorite genres, and this is one of my favorite films in the genre. I do think Gun Crazy is better.
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