The Big Sleep - I need more like this

Maltese Falcon is in my queue, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid of course. What else would you recommend? And is this “film noir”?

My idea of a classic movie Tora Tora Tora, so I’m totally lost trying to figure out where to go next.

TIA

From Maltese Falcon you could follow the author (Dashiell Hammett) to the Thin Man movies, or follow the director (John Huston) to Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

The Big Sleep is quintessential noir.

Also look into:

Laura
A Narrow Margin
The Man Who Wasn’t There
La Confidential
Sin City
Millers Crossing
Collateral

And The Big Lebowski. Lebowski isn’t noir, but there are many parallels between it and The Big Sleep. Plus it’s a real good time.

Ya know…I’ve seen a good number of B&W but I can’t remember the bulk of them for the life of me. Right now there are a couple noirs in theaters: The Black Dahlia and Hollywoodland. Crank isn’t noir by a long shot, but it does take after a noir “classic” titled DOA. You might enjoy seeing the original title and then seeing the new revamped version (which is a total blast).

Out of the Past.

Chinatown (1974)
D.O.A. (1950)
Detour (1946)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Force of Evil (1948)
Gun Crazy (1949)
The Hitch-Hiker (1953)
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
The Third Man (1948)
Touch of Evil (1958)
White Heat (1949)
The Wrong Man (1956)

Good list, Waloon. You only missed “The Postman Aways Rings Twice”.

What betenoir said. :wink:

Try also:

Murder, My Sweet to see Dick Powell’s take on the Philip Marlowe character. He’s damned good, as is Mike Mazurki.

-and-

The Glass Key. Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake make a great tense, chilly couple, and William Bendix and Brian Donlevy are terrific, too.

I must endorse “Double Indemnity.” It’s so awesome watching Fred McMurray as a murderous adulterer.

If the OP likes noir, maybe he should check out Brick? It’s noir-ish enough to qualify, I think.

Dead Man Don’t Wear Plaid is wonderful. Steve Martin when he was funny.

More recently, try **“The Man Who Wasn’t There”. ** It’s a very decent homage to film noir starring Billy Bob Thornton.

To Have and Have Not and Casablanca are other Humphrey Bogart films that have very similar feels to The Big Sleep, IMO: they deal with good characters living in a corrupt world, and they have dialog that positively sparkles. I don’t know that either of them qualifies as film noir, but they’re both excellent films.

Daniel

Also, “This Gun For Hire” with Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake. Not a western.

“The Usual Suspects” has always had a noir kind of feel to it, to me.

No idea if I like noir or not. Just got hooked on The Big Sleep last night (and Dead Men & Casablanca years ago). My queue is getting longer! Thanks!

I second Touch of Evil.

Bonus, includes the Latin Chuck Heston!

I’d add PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET to the list, as classic noir.

TOUCH OF EVIL is wonderfully noir, but you do have to suspend a fair amount of disbelief to accept Charleton Heston as a Mexican.

Well, all of the noir classics I can think of have already been mentioned so I’ll list some neo-noir and post-modern entries in the genre:[ul][li]Chinatown’s been mentioned but I wanted to second it. Definitely my favourite modern noir.[/li][li]The Long Goodbye dir. by Robert Altman is a fascinating deconstruction of the genre starring Elliott Gould (?!) as a slightly befuddled man-out-of-time Philip Marlowe.[/li][li]Blood Simple and The Man Who Wasn’t There are a few good post-modern Coen Bros. examples.[/li][li]Body Heat starring William Hurt and a drop-dead sexy Kathleen Turner as the dangerous femme-fatale.[/li][li]The Last Seduction. Linda Fiorentino was robbed of an oscar nomination for her excellent portrayal of a man-eater.[/li][li]Red Rock West by the same director as Last Seduction starring Nicholas Cage as a man who get in way over his head.[/li]Bound, the first movie by the Wachowski Bros. Gangsters and lesbians. 'Nuff said.[/ul]

I’ll second

The Long Goodbye (look for Schwarzenegger)

and

Touch of Evil (see the one the way Orson Welles intended)

After seeing some of these, you may be ready for The Big Lebowski. Definitely see TLG before TBL.

Casablanca might possibly be my favourite film. To Have And Have Not is the film I was going to mention in this thread (even if it isn’t noir). Dopers should see it if only for the ‘dead bee’ reference that pops up in threads from time to time. And of course, there’s the ‘Just whistle’ classic, Lauren Bacall singing Am I Blue with Hoagy Carmichael on the piano.

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang was one of the best movies of 2005, and a nice homage/parody/deconstruction of film noir and action-buddy movies, with brilliant dialogue and good performances by Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer.

Dark City is one of my all-time favorites, and blends noir conventions with sci-fi elements.

L.A. Confidential is another favorite of mine – the quintessential neo-noir masterpiece – and The Black Dahlia is by the same author, James Ellroy.

I also heartily endorse Brick, which is a noir film moved to a modern-day high school setting. Trust me, it’s better than it sounds. And of course there’s Sin City, a badass noir homage adapted from the stylized, violent comic books by Frank Miller.