Film Noir masterpieces?

Are there any film noir nuts in the house? Can you steer me to some noir masterpieces to look out for? I can list a few of my favorites, but they're not terribly original. I'm hoping a real enthusiast among you can give a few leads--not just lists, preferably, but brief explanations of why you think your choices are masterpieces. I'm willing to bet the least heard of are the most worth looking out for.

If you'd like, you could make a statement about what makes for a good noir film. My favorite noir elements: chiarascuro photography--the higher contrast the better; a profoundly amoral villain; an innocent hero drawn into close contact with evil; hard-boiled language.

A few of my own favorites:

Scarlet Street, by Fritz Lang, with Edward G. Robinson as a milquetoast henpecked husband and amateur artist who falls so hard for a dame he decides to "keep" her, though he's no sugar daddy. The dame's boyfriend, Johnny, is as rotten a creep as they come.

Out of the Past, by Jacques Tourneur, with Robert Mitchum as a cop trying to escape his love affair with a heartless femme fatale on the run from a mob boss/former lover whom she's screwed in more ways than one. The language is over the top.

Sunset Boulevard, by Billy Wilder. May not be thought of as noir by most people, but it actually fits the bill for me, mainly because of the gorgeously dark cinematography and the twisted plot. I wasn't originally impressed with William Holden's performance, but I saw it again last weekend, and he's definitely perfect in that role of the trapped gigolo.

I'm not too crazy about neo-noir (I like my noir black and white), but Chinatown, by Roman Polanski, is the greatest homage a noir I've seen.

Saw it first when I was about 10. The first 'adult' kinda film I remember watching all the way through without getting bored.

w/ Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame

Not sure, but it sounds right. Great film, by the way.

also :

cape fear (of coursee)
night of the hunter
following (by the same guy who did memento)

but sunset boulevard is probably my favorite

and creepy film. I hadn't heard it described as noir before--but maybe because when I think strict "noir" I think film adaptations of Raymond Chandler.

I saw the first few minutes of it as a kid and I turned it off because it was just too dark for me back then.

How about Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

My all-time favorite noir film. You must have been reading my mind, because I was going to post this thread today too.

Laura--Gene Tierney is unquestionably the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life. It's a great murder mystery with a twist that really, really stands the test of time.

Cat

That's creepy. That's almost noir! Did you just see Laura?

I was inpsired because I got an offer from Kino International to get 15% off some of their titles and they have a great noir selection. I'm also reading a Patricia Highsmith novel that has strong noir elements in it. I'm in a noir state of mind lately.

I've seen it many times, starting years ago, but like you said, I think I'm in a noir state of mind right now too.

Cat

It also has what may be the most beautiful and haunting title song in the history of motion pictures.

by Alain Renais.

It's a french film that uses film noir and new wave techniques to tell the story of a french actress and her Japanese lover, and to tell the story of Hiroshima. Very worthwile. Every film student should see.

I'll have to see it again to see if I agree with you that it's noir. It's definitely true that the French had that noir sensibility before the Americans took it and ran with it. A lot of the earliest noir films from Hollywood were based on French films, like Le Jour se Leve and Pepe le Moko. There's a lot of cross-pollination between French and US cinema.

dupe post

I’m not particularly enamored with modern (color) noir, but an interesting film from ’98 is Dark City. Pay careful attention during the first 30 minutes. And don’t let anyone ask any questions. View it a second time with the director’s comments William Hurt, Jennifer Connelly.

Listening to Roger Ebert's discussion. It's fascinating.

And I'm glad someone else mentioned Dark City. It is a fantastic film in many ways.

Didn't see why Ebert and some others were all flipped out over it and calling it groundbreaking. Rufus Sewell's a hottie, too.

by Fritz Lang. Starring Ann Baxter.

Wouldn't call it a masterpiece, but it is a neat film. The twist is, instead of a man getting in trouble, it's a woman. Ann Baxter gets a Dear Jane letter from her b/f overseas and it goes downhill from there.

I had never heard of it until I saw it recently on Turner Classic Movies.




edit: added Dear Jane

with Robert Morse, Johnathan Winters(in 2 roles), Rod Steiger(playing an effeminate mortician), Milton Berle, Liberace(playing a funeral director), and many more that you would recognize, playing roles completely different than the ones that they are famous for.

On edit: I have a copy on SuperBeta/HiFi, I read that it was out of print, at least to buy.

in the video store. Never heard of it.

The Loved One, with the tagline, "Something to Offend Everyone" is just a great brilliant satire.

Don't forget little Paul Williams as the 14 year-old rocket scientist.

Great, great film. Wish it would come to DVD soon.

Another great one from Billy Wilder! With Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, and Edward G. Robinson. 'Body Heat' with William Hurt & Kathleen Turner was a remake of this one.

"I thought you were smarter than the rest, Walter. But I was wrong. You're not smarter, just a little taller" - Mrs. Deitrichson (Barbara Stanwyck to Fred MacMurray)

Another Billy Wilder masterpiece. A legendary thriller. One of my all time favorite movies.

:)

The BEST adaptation of Cain. They've never gotten "Postman" right (they've never even gotten Cora's haircolor right)

A bit surreal to be classic film noir, but the atmosphere of smoky train stations in Germay at the end of WWII is intense and beautiful in a very noirish way.

by Carol Reed. That's another of my all-time favorites.

God I can't believe I forgot about that one!

It's my former MiL's fav b/c she was a toddler in Vienna at the time. The scenes of bombed out Vienna alone are worth it.

Orson Wells.... thin Orson Wells.

I'm a big fan of Lars von Trier's work in general. Not very "noirish", but things like 'Breaking the Waves' and his freaky hospital series 'The Kingdom' are faves.

Thats a good catch.

Its expressionist cinema, for sure...which started out in Germany. In fact one of the ur-noirs was "M", by Fritz Lang...the first german talky, I think.

Later, this style came to the USA, and influenced noir. Or some have said.

A Touch Of Evil


Blood Simple
Chinatown

"The Maltese Falcon" or "Key Largo" anyone? :-)

He's taken in by Bacall, who sets him up with a plastic surgeon who changes his features so he winds up looking like Bogie?

Although, I don't think Bacall was in that one...

It's not a masterpiece, but it took some risks.

Taking the lazy way out again! :D

Have you seen it?

two of my favorite noir films, also love The Third Man & The Asphalt Jungle...might rent them tonight, in fact.

and also the Joan Crawford noir-camp classic Mildred Pierce

Check it out.

http://www.lafterhall.com/hurrell.html

Thanks.

just about at the end of the genre, but very noir. I only saw it once, 20 years ago, and still have vivid memories of many scenes.

On edit: here's a link, for the uninitiated:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/KissMeDeadly-1031438/

Double Indemnity has already been mentioned, and Body Heat.

...

Devil In A Blue Dress (with Denzel Washington)
Mulholland Falls (with Nick Nolte)
LA Confidential (James Ellroy IS noir)! :D

Body Heat with Kathleen Turner and William Hurt. Great movie!

Wonder if it'll ever hit the big screen.

hadn't thought of it as noir, but the Kiss Me Deadly page recommended it, and on reflection it's about as noir as they come. Best political film ever IMO and damn applicable to the current misadministration.

It's very much on my mind lately. I've been thinking about pilfering some of its elements to write a satire about where we are now.

"Detour"
"Crossfire"

w/ orson welles and joseph cotton

that scene where Orson Well's face is lit by the light from a match, beautiful.

the music is cool too.

That's what I call the "straight to video erotic thriller" genre of the early 90s. Gregory Hippolyte was a truly gifted filmmaker who wrote and directed several of them. He is now known as Greg Brown, and is the leading pop music video director (he's also known as Gregory Dark, the legendary adult filmmmaker)

Another one of the Sci-Fi noirs.

Devil in a Blue Dress was good, too.

Loved both of those very different movies.

I'm seriously considering decorating my iMac flat panel with sea shells.

There is an incredible string of shots in Killer's Kiss wherein there is a foot chase on top of fog-laden Manhattan warehouse roofs that ends up with the climactic confrontation/fight scene in a warehouse of grotesque, otherworldly store mannequins.

Stanley, we miss you.

Very good photography, and more sleaze than you can shake a stick at.

Bladerunner: cyber-punk noir

Dead Again: B&W mysteries in LA (with flashbacks to Old LA)

A hybrid of genres: noir, new-wave, and fairytale romance



Action, arias and assassins all collide in Diva, a romantic thriller directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix (Betty Blue). When Jules, an 18 year old postal worker, secretly tapes the concert of a superstar diva who refuses to be recorded, he finds himself with more than he bargained for. In addition to the concert, Jules accidentally winds up with another tape that identifies a top mobster involved in an international sex and drug ring. Suddenly, he finds himself chased through the streets of Paris by blackmailers, hitmen and the police.

Hitchcock seems too slick to be noir, but he has come out with a few that come close:

Strangers on a Train owes its noir-ness to the Patricia Highsmith novel its based on. Remember that portrait of Robert Walker's mother?

Shadow of a Doubt is a great movie, no matter what genre it is. My favorite nor moment is Joseph Cotton's rant about what sheep certain kinds of women are.

Psycho, though really the original gross-out horror movie, has noir elements that resemble Jim Thomspon's crime novel portraits of Nowheresville, USA.

:)

Took P. K. Dick--one of my favorite authors--and melded it with retro-futuristic noir to create a whole new genre. William Gibson had to run out of the theater in the middle of the flick because he was working on Neuromancer and the movie was too close to what he was imagining--didn't want to be influenced/coopted/contaminated. Great stuff. And one of the great soundtracks of all time--deeply rooted in its time, but transcending it as well: a killer combination.

... but you beat me to posting it :)

Wow, what a ride this movie is! Surprised that it hasn't been mentioned. If you don't have an art house theatre nearby, watch for it on AMC, or go for the DVD/Video. For Kitty's sake (see the movie), you won't regret it!

and it is a classic.

starring Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster.

...it has alot of the noir tricks in lighting & cinematography, and also the noir cynicsm & corruption. Plus the jazz score.

And the dialogue! It is WAY over the top. Almost campy.

Take a day off and look what you can miss out on...I Love Film Noir! Therefore, I will provide a few films for you to possibly check out!

1."Point Blank" (1967,directed by John Boorman and starring Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn, Carol O'Connor, Lloyd Bochner, John Vernon, James B. Sikking (the SWAT guy from "Hill Street Blues). Possibly a "neo-noir" because it's in color and from 1967...Lee Marvin seemingly returns from the dead to enact vengeance on those who double-crossed him during a heist. Can also be seen as a ghost story, as you figure there's no way Marvin could have survived (hence the film's title), but I've read some essays on how he could have survived...This one has it all, except the chiarascuro BW cinematography, but a few classic noirs from the 40s were filmed in color , e.g. "Leave Her to Heaven", so variations can be made...This is a great movie.

2. "His Kind of Woman" (1951, directed by John Farrow, Mia's Dad),starring Robert Mitchum, Vincent Price, Jane Russell, Tim Holt, Raymond Burr, Jim Backus, Charles McGraw...This film almost defies description...Mitchum's an out-of-luck gambler offered 50 grand to leave the US for a year so a deported crime boss (Burr) can assume his identity and return to America and oversee his empire...He agrees, and is ordered to a resort near La Paz, Baja California, to await "further instructions"...(yeah, right, instructions like "die now") There he meets a motley crew including Backus, a bored millionaire (shades of Thurston Howell!), Russell, a cabaret singer who flew there to meet up with her married lover, washed up film star Price (who's never been more delightful and manages to take over the last third of the film as he adopts his washed-up swashbuckler film persona and leads the Mexican police on a daring rescue attempt for Mitchum!). The juxtaposition between scenes of Mitchum getting sadistically beaten by Burr's underlings and Price's rescue attempt are indeed jarring. This movie is so offbeat but so well done it is near the top in my list of favorites...I love it!

3. "Murder My Sweet" (1944, directed by Edward Dmytryk), starring Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley, Otto Kruger, Mike Mazurski...Based on Raymond Chandler's "Farewell My Lovely" and known for Dick Powell's career redefining role as Philip Marlow. Best known as a Busby Berkeley-style song and dance man, Powell redefined his career by asking for the part of Marlow, and it's perhaps his greatest role. This film has it all...Sharp, sarcastic dialogue ("once again, that old floor came up to meet my face"), weird hallucinatory imagery (blinking hotel sign, whirlpool as one descends into la-la land)...Just see it!

So many classics, so little time...in addition I'd mention Gun Crazy, Road House, Criss Cross, The Narrow Margin, DOA...It would be fun to know if this helps....!

I appreciate the care you put into that post. Feel free to write about more films you'd recommend. I haven't seen any of these and you made them all sound great.

:toast:

I'm glad I could be of assistance...Yes I did spend some time on that post but it was a labor of love...I hope you're able to find the films everybody mentioned...

I might recommend seeking out a book called "Film Noir An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style" Edited by Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward, published by the Overlook Press...a big oversize paperback, almost 500 pages long, it has everything about this style in it. I have the third edition, which came out in 1992...

Anyways, happy hunting!

A couple of people have cited some Ray films, but no one mentioned Fuller's Pickup on South Street, for instance, which I've never seen, but which I've heard great things about.


By the way: welcome to DU. (I used to never miss SCTV myself.)

:toast:

The SCTV parody of Chinatown is one of my all-time favorite episodes. The soft trumpet soundtrack, Catherine OHara doing Faye Dunaway--the hat, the lipstick, the spotlight--

the "Tiki" bar....

"Forget it, Jack. It's....Polynesiantown."

rolling up and down the avenue. I think it was Flaherty.

A marvelous perfermance by Richard Widmark as a flake on the make.

whether he was a good guy or a bad guy.

...as was his doppelganger in more than a few ways, Dan Duryea...

Is Richard Widmark still alive?

Accroding to imdb, he's still alive, but he hasn't been in a movie since 1991.

http://www.imdb.com/Name?Widmark,%20Richard

"The Woman in the Window"? with Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bemmett, and I think Dan Duryea is in this one too...It's directed by Fritz Lang!

Similar story but not quite as bleak...:)

One of my faves--and one of Widmark's earliest roles, as a psyocho-killer hitman, Tommy Udo, ultimately tasked to rub out Mature, who has ratted on the mob. "My pal, the big man. Heh. Heh heh heh. Eh hee hee hee hee hee."

Great scene: Udo encounters a helpless old lady in a wheelchair at the top of a long outdoor stairway. Gives her a shove....

Another favorite Widmark of mine--not a noir, but a neglected movie well worth renting: "The Bedford Incident" (1965). He plays a martinet captain on a cold-war-era destroyer, chasing a soviet sub. Sidney Poitier as a journalist aboard, doing a story for a Life-magazine-type publication. Great character-driven story and a devastating finale. Great Widmark role--he's terrific.

A native Minnesota boy, Widmark--'nother reason to like him, in my book.

The Maltese Falcon by John Huston (1941)

It's the first, although noir elements exist in earlier films like High Sierra and the Petrified Forest...Bogie was just beginning to shine in these, also, it's interesting to note Bogie only appeared in a few film noirs, like Key Largo, Dead Reckoning, The Big Sleep, just off the top of my head...

Thanks again! This is a great thread and I'll mark it for the next time I rent a movie.

And thanks everyone else for the great recommendations.

:toast:

Linda Fiorentino was my hero in that movie. It was one of the best films of 1994 but the Academy disqualified it because HBO showed it once before it hit the theaters.

http://us.imdb.com/Details?0110308

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