My Twenty Five Top Film Noirs

What is Film Noir? Well just take  look at Double Indemnity or Criss Cross and you will get the idea. Filled with treacherous woman and dumb men, along with odd camera angles and stark contrast like black and white photography, film noir’s peak period arguably ranges from 1941 to 1958. The term was coined by the French. After the war, an influx of American films began to flood the European cinemas. The French critics noticed a much darker, pessimistic, fatalistic tone in  many the films and coined the phase film noir or dark cinema.

Film Noir is not a genre like says Westerns or Science Fiction. It’s more of a style and a mood. Not every crime film is a noir, though many are. Many film lovers mistakenly label every crime film they see a noir. Kubrick’s The Killing is a noir, Raoul Walsh’s White Heat is not. Film Noir can cross genre’s. For example, the western, Blood on the Moon, has a norish feel to it.

Film Noir’s roots are in German Expressionism and many of the great directors of noir are European diectors who fled Germany before the war. Artists like Fritz  Lang, Otto Preminger, Robert Siodmak  and Billy Wilder. Many critics consider the 1940 film, Stranger on the Third Floor, directed by Boris Instger, the first noir. Others John Huston’s The Maltese Falcon.

One glaring exception you may find surprisingly missing on this list is Billy Wilder ‘s Ace in the Hole. Many have termed it a film noir, I may have done so at times. But with some consideration,  I realized, it’s not. Sure, there is Wilder’s cynicism, but what else to qualify  it as noir. No femmes fatale, no dupe of a guy. The cinematography is in no way dark and moody.  Those who know my taste, know Wilder is one of my favorite directors and Ace in the Hole is one of his masterpieces, but it’s no film noir.

Enough thought on this, let’s just get to the list. Like at list, time could change the rankings, but don’t bet on Double Indemnity,  The Maltese Falcon, Sunset Blvd or Touch of Evil ever dropping out of  the top 10.

One final thing, let’s hear you own thoughts and your own list.

1 – Double Indemnity

2 – The Maltese Falcon

3 –  Criss Cross

4 – The Killers

5- Sunset Blvd.

6 – Touch of Evil

7 – Scarlet Street

8 – Sweet Smell of Success

9 – The Killing

10 – Out of the Past

11 – Act of Violence

12 – Odds Against Tomorrow

13 – The Prowler

14 – The Asphalt Jungle

15 – In a Lonely Place

16 – Pickup on South Street

17 – The Narrow Margin

 

18 – Laura

19 – Raw Deal

20 – The Postman Always Rings Twice

21 – Angel Face

22 – They Live By Night

23 – Kiss Me Deadly

24 – The Spiral Staircase

25 – Mildred Pierce

 

Honorable Mentions

Where the Sidewalk Ends

The Big Heat

Tomorrow is Another Day

Thieve’s Highway

City That Never Sleeps

Tension

Detour

Elevator to the Gallows

The Third Man

The Big Sleep

The Woman in the Window

Human Desire

Murder, My Sweet

Stranger on the Third Floor

The Big Combo

Night and the City