# Reccommend Some Classic Film Noir **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 10, 2005, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccommend-some-classic-film-noir/303205 "2005-05-10T12:22:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccommend-some-classic-film-noir/303205/1 "2005-05-10T12:22:01Z")
Over the past year and a half or so, I’ve been watching an assortment of movies which came out either before I was born, or before I was old enough to appreciate them. For reasons that are too odd to explain, Film Noir is the genre that I would like to investigate at present. The problem is, I’m not sure I’d recognize it if I tripped over it. So please, provide some titles of your favorite Film Noir. And give me some information that will help me decide which movies, all other things being equal, I will actually watch. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccommend-some-classic-film-noir/303205/2 "2005-05-10T12:28:59Z")
The Maltese Falcon - a real classic with Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre, lots of memorable dialogue and a complicated plot. The Big Sleep - another great mystery with Bogart as a hard-boiled detective. Double Indemnity - Barbara Stanwyck plays the ultimate femme fatale. Touch of Evil - don’t let Charlton Heston playing a Mexican put you off! Chinatown (1974?) - Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway; awesome in every way. L.A. Confidential (1998) - perhaps my favorite movie of the last 10 years. There are others, but those are some landmarks. I love film noir! ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccommend-some-classic-film-noir/303205/3 "2005-05-10T12:39:10Z")
I’ll add the following: **Body Heat** **Kiss Me Deadly** **Out of the Past** A pure film noir usually has a man being led into (or falsely accused of) criminal acts by a double dealing woman. Films also have a dark surface, often filmed mostly at night ( **Body Heat** plays against this by putting everything in bright sunlight), and generally have a downbeat ending. ---
**Author:** ![Hoodoo\_Ulove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/58956e/32.png) [@Hoodoo\_Ulove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoodoo_Ulove)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccommend-some-classic-film-noir/303205/4 "2005-05-10T12:42:08Z")
_Alphaville_, directed by Jean-luc Godard. Science fiction _noir_, if you’re ready for that. This film is literally _noir_, shot entirely at night. Godard’s _Breathless_, (not the shit remake) is also burned into my mind forever. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccommend-some-classic-film-noir/303205/5 "2005-05-10T12:51:09Z")
Another cool sci-fi noir is the more recent Dark City, another favorite of mine. If you’re in the mood for horror noir, I recommend Angel Heart (an '80s movie with Mickey Rourke and Robert DeNiro) and this year’s Constantine, which would make a good double-feature. If you don’t mind violence, Sin City is a real tribute to the entire noir genre with its brilliant visual style and unique, old-fashioned dialogue and narration. Other great recent noir films include Memento (only a few years old), a great twisting, turning mystery, and The Usual Suspects (1995), a crime caper where you don’t know who to trust. Film noir usually features an antihero, a protagonist who might be a sleazebag or a criminal or at the very least, not the most upstanding guy. He’s probably made some mistakes, but for one reason or another (and purely personal, selfish reasons are just fine), he’s trying to do the right thing. Mysteries, detective stories, crime stories are often noir–they introduce us to seamy, scary underworlds, dangerous characters, sexy women, corruption, violence, and the feeling that a “good guy” doesn’t have much of a chance. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccommend-some-classic-film-noir/303205/6 "2005-05-10T13:07:29Z")
**Touch of Evil** , if you can get past Charlton Heston as a Mexican. (Not a Mexi-can’t.) ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccommend-some-classic-film-noir/303205/7 "2005-05-10T13:23:00Z")
I second everything **Big Bad Voodoo Lou** said – with a double vote for _Double Indemnity_, and add _Laura_. ---
**Author:** ![Selkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@Selkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Selkie)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccommend-some-classic-film-noir/303205/8 "2005-05-10T13:27:19Z")
Adding [Key Largo](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040506/) to the great list of films already mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccommend-some-classic-film-noir/303205/9 "2005-05-10T13:51:49Z")
My personal favorite is _Pickup on South Street_. Richard Widmark as a pickpocket who steals from the wrong purse. Not pure _noir_ but very entertaining. _The Postman Always Rings Twice_. The original. _The Last Seduction_. Linda Fiorentino is capital E _Evil_. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccommend-some-classic-film-noir/303205/10 "2005-05-10T13:54:34Z")
Oh dear god, and how could I forget _Mildred Pierce_? Again not pure _noir_ but an outstanding melodrama. ---
**Author:** ![Balle\_M](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/13edae/32.png) [@Balle\_M](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balle_M)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccommend-some-classic-film-noir/303205/11 "2005-05-10T14:06:10Z")
One of my favs is [The Killers](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038669/) with Burt Lancaster. ---
**Author:** ![CBCD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@CBCD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBCD)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccommend-some-classic-film-noir/303205/12 "2005-05-10T14:11:13Z")
I second \*\*Big Bad Voodoo Lou \*\* and **CandidGamera’s** recommendation of Orson Welles’ **Touch of Evil**. Watch the long, unbroken tracking shot that opens up the movie, and prepare to be amazed. It’s brilliant! ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccommend-some-classic-film-noir/303205/13 "2005-05-10T14:12:54Z")
I’ll second **Out of the Past**. It’s my favorite film noir. Also check out **Rififi** , if you don’t mind French. Also, **Kiss Me Deadly** I remember as being good, but I haven’t seen it for a while. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccommend-some-classic-film-noir/303205/14 "2005-05-10T14:16:36Z")
Some of my favorites: Gilda - Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford really love each other, and really hate each other. In A Lonely Place - Gloria Grahame begins to suspect that boyfriend Humphrey Bogart is a killer. He Walked By Night - Richard Basehart against the LAPD. Check out Jack Webb as the lab tech who likes to blow stuff up! The Big Clock - Ray Milland is being set up for the murder of his boss’s mistress, and finds himself trapped in his office building as the boss, Charles Laughton, draws the net around hiim. The Strange Love of Martha Ivers - Barbara Stanwyck pushed her aunt down the stairs as a yung girl, and thinks her secret is safe… until Dana Andrews comes back to town. D.O.A. - Edmund O’Brien is poisoned, and tries to find out who killed him before he dies. ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccommend-some-classic-film-noir/303205/15 "2005-05-10T14:25:36Z")
Time Warner just released a Film Noir classics box set that is, by all accounts, excellent. Haven’t watched it myself, though, although I plan to eventually. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccommend-some-classic-film-noir/303205/16 "2005-05-10T14:26:33Z")
Some say that \*\* Blade Runner \*\* qualifies as a noir/sci-fi hybrid. In any case, it’s in the spirit of noir. Since Robert Mitchum was perhaps the most recognizable noir participant, anything he did before the mid-50’s would probably qualify. After Mitchum, folks like Fred Macmurray, Ray Milland, Alan Ladd, Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, John Garfield, Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Peter Lorre, Vincent Price (before horror got to be his main genre) and maybe a dozen others, were the mainstays in noir. On the female side, there were Ruth Roman, Ida Lupino, Barbara Stanwyck, Veronica Lake, Lizabeth Scott, to name a few. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccommend-some-classic-film-noir/303205/17 "2005-05-10T14:29:23Z")
**The Third Man**. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccommend-some-classic-film-noir/303205/18 "2005-05-10T14:40:35Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#): > > **The Third Man**. I’ve never seen this, but it has been on my list for quite a while, along with the similarly-named The Thin Man, which is a mystery based on a Dashiell Hammett short story. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccommend-some-classic-film-noir/303205/19 "2005-05-10T14:43:59Z")
> [@Big Bad Voodoo Lou](#): > > I’ve never seen this, but it has been on my list for quite a while, along with the similarly-named The Thin Man, which is a mystery based on a Dashiell Hammett short story. The Thin Man (movie) is not a Noir, exactly - but it is an _Excellent_ movie. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccommend-some-classic-film-noir/303205/20 "2005-05-10T14:47:06Z")
**Shadow of a Doubt** – Joseph Cotton as the creepiest bad guy EVER! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccommend-some-classic-film-noir/303205.md?page=2)