I’ve been starting to get into noir, and last night’s montage gives me a good opportunity to find out about more of them. The only one I recognized that I’ve seen was Sunset Boulevard-- a great movie, though I thought it got a bit over the top near the end.
I also recognized The Maltese Falcon, which is in my queue.
The only other noir movie that I can think of that I’ve seen is Kiss Me Deadly. I thought it was good, but not great.
I am not positive, but I thought I saw Double Indemnity in there. Definitely saw The Maltese Falcon.
I recognized *The Big Sleep * (Bogart & Bacall); The Postman Always Rings Twice (Lana Turner & John Garfield) and *Double Indemnity * (virtually the same movie as *Postman * – Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck), and D.O.A. (Edmond O’Brien)
Also *Kiss of Death * – where Richard Widmark pushes the old lady in the wheelchair down the stairs.
This purely from memory of that montage. It also reflects my own memory of decent noir films. For a better survey visit the Netflix site and check their category listing.
This Gun For Hire – Alan Ladd
Double Indemnity – Fred Macmurray and Barbara Stanwyck
Out of the Past – Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas
The Killers – Burt Lancaster
The Maltese Falcon – Humphrey Bogart
DOA – Edmund O’Brien
The Asphalt Jungle – Sterling Hayden
Kiss Of Death – features Richard Widmark (stars Victor Mature)
Other noir films actors that may not have been in that montage:
Robert Ryan
Charles McGraw
John Garfield
Rory Calhoun
Richard Powell
Ida Lupino
Ruth Roman
Joan Crawford
Bette Davis
Paulette Goddard
Hedy Lamarr
Steve Cochran
I’ll keave room for others to comment.
As the the montage, I don’t think I recognized anything that others have not already mentioned.
As to the second part of your question:
In a Lonely Place (Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame?)
The Ice Harvest (John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton)
Purple Noon (this one is based on The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. There is another one, I believe it’s called Ripley’s Game, with John Malkovich as Ripley. He’s a perfect Ripley IMO.
Most of my favorite classic noir has been mentioned, like The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon.
My favorite neo-noir movie has to be Romeo Is Bleeding. Gary Oldman is the neo-noir’s answer to Humphrey Borgart.
I think I spotted a snippet from Night of the Hunter (which struck me as odd, since I normally don’t think of that as a noir film).
A couple of snippets, one showing Mitchum’s tattooed knuckles, and one with Shelly Winters.
I’m no expert, but does the bleak hopelessness of all the characters help make it noir? There was not a moment of joy in that movie.
I am not sure that I’ve ever seen a classic noir film, so I may not be the most qualified to post here, but thought this might interest fans, or budding fans, of the genre…
Last week I saw a new independent film that borrows heavily from noir conventions but puts a modern twist on it. That is, Brick (written/directed by Rian Johnson and - full disclosure - stars a friend of mine, Joseph Gordon-Levitt). According to the writer/director, the writing is based on the style of Dashiell Hammett, author of The Maltese Falcon. It’s a murder mystery, complete with double-crosses, a shady criminal underbelly, and a tortured detective/hero. But, it’s in color, and it’s set in and around a modern California high school.
Now, I know that right there might scare noir fans off, and I was skeptical of the concept myself, but it turned out to be pretty great. It may be color, but the cinematography is beautiful, with curling smoke, deep shadows, and clever lighting schemes. Thankfully it doesn’t put Bogart-esque dialogue into teenagers’ mouths, but creates a whole new - if heavily stylized - sort of language that makes sense coming out of these characters. They speak in clipped, rapid slang that practically requires a glossary. From what little I know of noir, this film seems to honor the genre on all levels, most importantly that it’s done with absolutely no irony - no winking at the camera, music montages, or pop-culture references. The mystery is convoluted, full of untrustworthy characters, and a sense that nothing is what it seems. I may not know much about noir, but my guess is any open-minded fan of the genre would get a kick out of Brick.
I know I write like a the blurb on the back of the video box but I can’t help it - I really did like the movie, and not just 'cause I know someone in it!
I didn’t see the noir montage but my favourite noir lately is Gilda. I avoided it my whole life because I didn’t think I was much for Rita Hayworth but that movie is awesome and now I love her.
If I could only watch 10 noirs in my life I would pick Gilda, Double Indemnity, Out of the Past, Night of the Hunter, The Big Heat, Human Desire, Scarlet Street, Nightmare Alley, In a Lonely Place and Touch of Evil.
That’s really my taste. I also really do like all the Philip Marlowes but Big Sleep is my least favourite. And I like all Joan Crawford noirs I’ve seen.
Night of the Hunter is a noir fair and square because of the expressionistic style and the theme of corrupt authority.
Noir is a genre I’ve been studying for a while now in all of it’s forms: literature, film, music, graphic novels. I don’t know nearly as much as I’d like to, but I have a few reccomendations to make.
If you’re looking for an introduction to noir, perhaps you might want to start at the top rather than the bottom and check out some of the more recent homages to the genre before hitting the orgins.
Last years Sin City remains my second favorite movie of 05’, taking place behind The Incredibles (or was that '04?). It has everything I love in a movie; a rich ambiance, characters that you feel for, poetic tragedy, and wonderfuly beautiful half naked women. Oh, it’s over the top as hell, but intentionaly so. View the trailer if you’ve never heard of it before. If that doesn’t hook you, ignore it.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, is the Coen’s brother more serious and James Cain-esque film The Man Who Wasn’t There. Here’s what I said about it in a thread sometime back:
You can view the trailer here. Again, if you don’t dig the trailer, chances are you won’t dig the movie. I think this particular preview does an awesome job conveying exactly what the movie is about, and it’s wonderful style.
LA Confidential is a wonderful technicolor noir. It starts off slow, but then it builds, and builds, and builds, until you don’t even want to blink. The story revolves around three cops: An extremely violent psycho, a “by the books” up and commer, and a sly cynical smartass. A cafe full of people is shot up, and all three play a part on solving the crime. Sounds like a rehash of a dozen other mysteries, and for all I know it is (as a matter of fact, that may very well be the point), but damnit if it doesn’t make for fine entertainment anyways. The plot twisted, turned, made me grip the arm rests on my chair at times, and had me hitting the “repeat disc” button on my DVD remote. Very well done, and again, very stylish.
As far as literature goes, I’ll throw out Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep (quintessential noir), and Dashielle Hammet’s Red Harvest, which serves as the basis for the films Yojimbo, A Fistfull of Dollars, and Last Man Standing. Even after seeing all these movies, I’d still reccomend the book and see yet another movie based on it. To be honest, the writing is extremely convoluted but it’s filled with some great one liners and the premise is classic. Great opening line too
Thanks for the responses so far. I’ll try to write a better reply tomorrow, but for now…
Romeo is Bleeding
Is that named after a Tom Waits song?
[hijack]Speaking of Tom Waits, I saw Down by Law last week, man that was great. It reminded me a lot of the Coen brothers movies.[/hijack]
Night of the Hunter
I thought that might be one of them too, because I saw the HATE thing. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but it’s been on my Netflix queue. I didn’t think it was considered noir either.
Sin City
Forgot about that one. Yeah, I really liked it.
The Man Who Wasn’t There
I saw that one last year when I was watching all the Coen brothers movies. It wasn’t one of my favorites of theirs, but it wasn’t one of my least favorites either. I liked it well enough.
Did you think about how everything would have played out if the main character really “wasn’t there”? The movie tries to imply that everything would be the same, but not everyone catches onto this. I didn’t until someone else mentioned it
My favorite noir is Pickup on South Street. Richard Widmark, Jean Peters and my favorite of all character actresses, Thelma Ritter. I’ve seen it I don’t know how many times and if it’s on it gets watched.
Sunset Boulevard is another classic noir, with the added bonus of being the greatest “Seamy Underbelly of Hollywood” movie ever made.
Mildred Pierce was in the montage, and deservedly so. High camp noir.
God, so many others, it’s hard to choose from among them to make recommendations.
That’s one I’ve been meaning to re-watch. The ending haunted me, that’s for sure.
I also have to second L.A. Confidential. One of the very best movies of the '90s, noir or otherwise. Alas, I don’t think I can recommend anything that isn’t already mentioned here. Although I think The Maltese Falcon is also an outstanding book.
valderspal, I’m intrigued by your post about Brick. If you can get Joseph Gordon-Levitt to be my friend, I’ll try to track down the movie. 
Brilliant, brilliant movie.
So many things have been mentioned already, I don’t have much to add. Cept to say that *Night of the Hunter *is in my lifetime top ten, and I was thrilled to see the shot of Shelley Winters underwater (what an unlikely image!); I consider it among the most beautiful images ever captured on film.
A couple films that I don’t think have been mentioned that I think were included in the montage are *Gun Crazy *and Detour.
Oh and, whoever mentioned Gilda: among my alltime favorite movies. Some of the best quotes EVER. One was used on the Oscars, but was it in that montage or a different one? “If I’d been a ranch they would have named me the Bar None.” And of course my personal favorite, “Statistics show that there are more women in the world than anything else. Except insects.”
The Killing is a first-rate noir. Sterling Hayden is exceptional.
mm
I didn’t see the montage but one of my favorite noir films is laura with Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, vincent Price and Clifton Webb.
I think I also saw a shot of Orson Welles from “The Third Man” in the montage.
And, in case you didin’t recognize the music, it was from the score for “L.A. Confidential”, which I agree is a great newer noir.