What is your favorite classic Film Noir?

[Jack Rabbit]

Film Noir is a cinematic genre associated with the 1940s and 50s. As a rule, the film was shot in black and white, with the emphasis on photographic blacks. The setting was usually urban and the characters from the seamy side of life. Often, the plot involves underworld activity.

I have listed some of my favorites below.

[LiviaOlivia]

1. Sam Fuller's "Pickup On South Street"

Just came out on DVD and is on it's way to me. It's great.

[Ysabel]

2. Does...

The 39 Steps qualify...?

P.S. or any others by Hitchcock...?

[Jack Rabbit]

4. That would an interesting discussion

I would say No, but there are no hard and fast rules with this kind of thing. While running down a few lists to jog my memory, I noticed that someone named Hitchcock's Notorious as a Film Noir, although I've never thought of it as one. Key Largo might be another that some would include. Other people might wonder why I included The Hustler, but it seems to meet all the criteria.

[Ysabel]

8. hmmm...

okay - thanks...

i think i liked Notorius better than 39 Steps...

anyway - from the list that you put up - lots of good ones - i loved The Maltese Falcon...

[mitchum]

3. "Out of the Past" (no surprise there, huh?)

"Double Indemnity"
"The Big Heat"
"Detour"

[K8-EEE]

9. OUT OF THE PAST!!! DEF!!! MY FAVE!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/6301491920/002-4254741-9372015?v=glance

[stanwyck]

17. My favorite, too

(although I really should say "Double Indemnity!). But I love "Out of the Past". Did you ever see the remake with Jeff Bridges? Not a bad movie, just not anything like the original.

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. I'm a Touch of Evil voter - brilliant film

And the essence of Noir. Though it's very tough to say which is "best" - what you offer is a good bit of wonderful noir, though I'd take Maltese Falcon off the list. Excellent film, but not, to me, seriously noir. But maybe... I don't know.

To Have and Have Not, also good.

Hitchcocks' Stranger On a Train, the British Version, is a good candidate.

The Trial.

I miss film noir. We need more of it.

[Jack Rabbit]

18. Excellent film

The casting of Heston as a Mexican gets a lot of flack, but it was an oddly good part for him. I don't think it matters that Heston isn't at all Mexican; the character, Miguel Vargas, is cosmopolitan enough that a real Mexican isn't required. Vargas has a strong streak of righteous indignation that Heston projects well.

[Rabrrrrrr]

19. Absolutely - I think Heston is perfect in that role

and Welles, as always, is just such a fucking incredibly brilliant perfect actor...

and that opening - my God, what an artist Welles was.

It's really too bad he was so railroaded his whole life (and also too bad he was psychologically unstable; but then, if he wasn't the personality he was, he wouldn't have been the genius he was).

It's such a sad commentary that he ended up doing those Paul Masson ads, but he was so dedicated to his art, that he'd do anything for the money to make films, since he was utterly ignored by the movie industry, even though he was 800 times the film-making genius of anyone else. But then, I'm sure that's why he was shunned - he was a true artist.

Multiple swear words, but America has not seen or had an artist like Welles except perhpas in Mark Twain and Hemingway and maybe a couple others.

[bikebloke]

6. Rififi

As it's entitled now on DVD. The formal title is "Chez des Hommes Rififi". A French underworld heist flick. A classic. Though view it in the original French. There's a trailer with dubbed English that makes it look bad.

[The Magistrate]

20. That Is An Excellent Film, Sir!

Saw it several months ago, and enjoyed it immensely.

[populistmom]

7. Double Indemnity is one of my all-time favorites

I considered using this for an avatar I like it so much, but I thought the undertones to it might be a bit negative:

[K8-EEE]

10. Postman Always Rings Twice

Out Of The Past first, but Postman is def up there -- the Lana Turner version, of course!

[populistmom]

12. Of course

You can't beat Lana. I've loved these bad ass, disgruntled wife movies since I was 12 or 13. Irony is a bitch. (I'm not much of a bad ass though.)

[tigereye]

11. Have to go with the 39 Steps

My husband was a film student at one point and he always intimated that it was about as noir as you could get. Although I really like the Big Sleep.

[Jim Sagle]

13. Kiss Me Deadly

[SOteric]

14. Sunset Blvd., Notorious, and Strangers on a Train.

[Rabrrrrrr]

15. WillPitt looks kinda "noir" in that avatar of yours...

I voted for strangers on a train, too. British version. :-)

[MarianJack]

16. I Voted "The Hustler"...

...but would "Rear Window" also count?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

21. Rear Window

is in color.

[Rabrrrrrr]

23. it's in color, but it's still seriously "noir"

[kskiska]

22. Mildred Pierce

or just about anything with either Joan Crawford or Robert Mitchum.

[TXDemGal]

29. 'Nother Mildred Pierce fan here. n/t

n/t

[GOPisEvil]

24. Then there's modern noir:

LA Confidential
Mulholland Falls
Devil in a Blue Dress

Among others.

But THE classic film noir is THE MALTESE FALCON.

[Jack Rabbit]

26. and my favorite of that genre . . .

Polanski's Chinatown.

[GOPisEvil]

27. Oh, definitely! *slaps forehead*

A great modern noir classic.

[Rabrrrrrr]

28. What about "The Thing"?

The John Carpenter perfect remake?

That has to count as Noir, abso-f-ing-lutely, right?

Gods, what a film that is.

[Zomby Woof]

25. Double Indemnity

I am a big Chandler fan. I have the screenplay to that film in a collection of his work. His essays on Holloywood are recommended reading.

[VOX]

30. "The Third Man," "Out of the Past," "White Heat," "The Killers," "Laura,"

"The Asphalt Jungle," "Mildred Pierce," "Double Indemnity"...

What a great genre -- the list isn't endless, but it could go on for awhile.