There are many I could mention, I’ll just say my favorite scene is in Double Indemnity, “There is a speed limit in this town, Mr.Neff…”
BTW, the pronunciation of “noir”. I just saw Ed Norton’s Motherless Brooklyn and an interview with him about it. He is saying new-are. I think it should be nwar. One syllable not two.
Nwar.
And Double Indemnity is the best noir film. It’s chock full o’ goodness. It’s got more cracking dialog than The Big Sleep.
And they almost didn’t get Edward G Robinson. Maybe Cagney could have played Keyes, but not many others.
“Yes, I killed him. I killed him for money - and a woman - and I didn’t get the money and I didn’t get the woman. Pretty, isn’t it?”
In ***T-Men ***(1947), a tough Fed is reporting to his superior officer after finally tracking down a suspect known to frequent health spas:
“Have you ever spent ten nights in a Turkish bath looking for a man?”* :dubious:
*No, I am not making this up!
Let’s just start with one of the best. Harry Lime showing up in the middle of The Third Man.
What I really enjoy is Gloria Grahame bringing a dark and dangerous noir dame into every non-noir movie she made. Watch closely the way she flirts with James Stewart in* It’s a Wonderful Life* and you’ll wonder why they limited old man Potter’s suspicions to a single line of dialog. Want to throw some lust and jealousy into a circus movie? All you need is about5 seconds of Gloria Grahame!
I know it’s a bit of a stretch to call it Film Noir, but you can squeeze Arsenic and Old Lace into that category, damn near the entire movie is one big ‘favorite scene’.
Every minute of Out of the Past.
Every line out of Tommy Udo’s mouth in Kiss of Death (1947).
Richard Widmark’s first movie role, and one of the creepiest little sadists in all of noir.
“She tried to sit in my lap. I was standing up at the time.”
Double Indemnity was the first film that sprang to my mind too, one of my all-time favorites.
For me, the two best scenes both involve Edward G. Robinson. The first is the monologue he delivers about actuarial statistics to his boss. Who knew a speech on that subject could be compelling? I especially enjoy his exasperation as he makes his final point:
“And do you know how fast that train was going at the point where the body was found? 15 miles an hour. Now, how can anybody jump off a slow-moving train like that with any kind of expectation that he would kill himself?!
Shortly thereafter is the scene with Fred MacMurray where Robinson has developed doubts. He actually hits upon what really happened: “Maybe he just didn’t know that he was insured…” He stares at MacMurray for a very tense moment, then dismisses the idea.
Stops my heart every time.
Almost every minute of True Confessions (1981, with Robert Duvall playing a worldweary detective and and Robert De Niro playing his brother, an ambitious catholic priest). But if I have to nominate one scene then I’ll nominate the closing scene, a reconciliation of sorts, many years after the main action of the film, where De Niro’s character (now terminally ill) takes his brother (who destroyed his career) to view his waiting grave plot, in a tiny church on the edge of the desert outside of LA.
jI love the line in Touch of Evil: “A policeman’s job is only easy in a police state.”
But for something more noirish, there’s this exchange"
Quinlan: Come on, read my future for me.
Tanya: You haven’t got any.
Quinlan: Hmm? What do you mean?
Tanya: Your future’s all used up.
Detour (1945)
“So when this drunk handed me a ten spot after a request, I couldn’t get very excited. What was it I asked myself? A piece of paper crawling with germs. Couldn’t buy anything I wanted.”
“What’d you do, kiss him with a wrench?”
“I’d hate to see a fellow as young as you wind up sniffin’ that perfume Arizona hands out free to murderers.”
Out of the Past (1947)
Ann: “She can’t be all bad. No one is.”
Jeff: “Well, she comes the closest.”
“You’re gonna take the rap and play along. You’re gonna make every exact move I tell you. If you don’t, I’ll kill you. And I’ll promise you one thing: it won’t be quick. I’ll break you first. You won’t be able to answer a telephone or open a door without thinking, ‘This is it.’ And it when it comes, it still won’t be quick. And it won’t be pretty. You can take your choice.”
Yet another Double Indemnity fan here. Some great scenes already mentioned but I like the ending too:
The Maltese Falcon: pretty much any scene with Bogie and Greenstreet. Like this one.
Chinatown. The whole scene where Gittes meets Noah Cross and they chat about Gittes’s case, Evelyn and “the girl”. The best part is the expression on Cross’s face when Gittes says that he has photos of Cross and Mulwray arguing the day that Mulwray died. He’s facing away from Gittes, and his faces changes from smiling and confident to aghast. You can see the wheels spinning as he tries to figure out where Gittes is going with this.
Best line:
'Course I’m respectable. I’m old. Politicians, ugly buildings and whores all get respectable if they last long enough.
Are you counting just what’s usually considered the period of film noir (1941-1959) or are you including neo-noir (which is anything after those years which is similar to classic film noir)?
Just watched Chinatown again last night for at least the 20th time. Love that scene. That is some acting
neo-noir counts, in fact would love to hear of some that I can watch. My favorite in that category is Body Heat, which is partially derived from Double Indemnity
The exchange between the examining doctor and Frank Bigelow, whom he’s just diagnosed with “luminous poisoning,” in DOA (1949).
Doctor: “…of course, I’ll have to notify the police. This is a case of homicide.”
Bigelow: “Homicide?”
Doctor: “I don’t think you fully understand, Mr. Bigelow. You’ve been murdered.”
The Rollo Tamasi scene from LA Confidential (neo-noir). Completely flips everything we think is going on in the movie.