I admit it - I own lots and lots of movies (two terabytes worth). I tend to categorize them by year with a few exceptions; musicals, submarine movies, documentaries, noir…
Looking at my Noir listing, I realize I have more in that category than any others - more than 150 flicks. I never get tired of watching them, even the bad ones. Sometimes the B-rated ones are more fun to watch.
My favorites? Almost anything with Claire Trevor and Barbara Stanwyck for starters. Detour and D.O.A. are ones I can watch over and over. I love Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid. These movies helped my lifelong love affair with Burt Lancaster.
I am lucky to live in “the foggy city” where we actually have a Noir festival, but what are your favorites?
Indeed–I go every year, though it’s always tough choosing which day to go (I attend enough other fests throughout the year, my better half will not abide being a noir widow).
Lots of great mentions (especially Smell & Scarlet), but one personal fave is Criss Cross, another lean, tight Lancaster vehicle directed by Robert Siodmak, who was no slouch in that genre.
Rebecca
IMDB description: When a naive young woman marries a rich widower and settles in his gigantic mansion, she finds the memory of the first wife maintaining a grip on her husband and the servants.
The Uninvited
Crumbling home on the Cornish coast. A cat arches its back at the unseen, flowers wither from a “malignant hand.” Good black and white stuff on a rainy night.
A noir from Kurosawa, High and Low, is riveting.
Then there’s Truffaut’s, Shoot the Piano Player, one of my all time favorites.
Also have to reco I Wake Up Screaming, if for nothing else than for Laird Cregar’s performance.