Film noir: your favourites

Raymond Chandler, who scripted it and changed the story a great deal, wrote to Cain that the dialogue in the book wouldn't play onscreen as written, putting his finger, in my opinion, on why "Postman" had been somewhat two-dimensional: the film had been too faithful.

I was amused to find out that the 1946 Postman was already the third adaptation, one of them being a foundation-stone of Italian Neo-realism.

Fred MacMurray playing SATAN in 'the Apartment' is even weirder.

'Gilda' to thread!

I got Sam Fuller's Pickup on South Street today. Looks noiry.

the big sleep
the third man
strangers on a train

outside of the definition i have to include

rififi
le cercle rouge
chinatown (my favorite noir, period.)
the long goodbye

I especially recommend the Anthony Mann triple-threat of T-Men, Raw Deal, and He Walked By Night

French - Bob le Flambeur
Band of Outsiders

I think the first noir was "Stranger on the Third Floor," 1940, RKO.

That looks really good, thank you! I've both seen and read Mildred Pierce, they're very different - the novel is not noir at all but the movie tries to shoehorn it into the genre, probably due to the success of Postman and Double Indemnity...

Tony Rome another daylight neo-noir, shot in Miami/Miami Beach while Frank Sinatra was performing at the Fontainebleau

Other (worthy) Daylight Noirs:

Charley Garrick
Night Moves (1975)
Hickey & Boggs
Cutter's Way (kinda?)

*Charley Varrick*

The Criterion Channel recently had a featured collection called something like "Holiday Noir" (can't find it there right now, but it almost certainly featured Purple Noon).

I can't speak to the quality of all these things, but after Miami Vice blew up there were a bunch of MTV Noirs like Against All Odds, Eight Million Ways To Die, and To Live & Die In LA--in addition
to Noir-y TV shows like Crime Story, Private Eye, and Mike Hammer (w/Stacy Keach).

Later in the '80s into the early '90s there were also a number of low-budget/indie Noirs like Kill Me Again, Red Rock West, The Hot Spot, The Grifters, and After Dark, My Sweet--and that's before getting into all the post-QT stuff!

I just rewatched “The Man I Love” (Ida Lupino 1947) which fits the “domestic noir” description above perfectly, smoky jazz clubs and shady mobsters mixed with soap opera-ish melodrama. Now that I’ve seen the majority of the classic noir canon I’ve really come to enjoy these other type of films.

Got to see a great print of Sunset Boulevard at my local arthouse theater last night. Didn't realize until now that H. B. Warner (Mr. Gower in It's a Wonderful Life), who's one of the "waxworks" along with Buster Keaton playing cards, was a silent film star himself. He played Jesus in Cecil B. DeMille's King of Kings.

Another '70s one: Mikey and Nicky

i like a lot of those '90s noirs, there's also China Moon w/Ed Harris and Madeleine Stowe, you could put Light Sleeper in there too (one of my fave films), One False Move, etc. I think many of the films from this time were arrived at for similar reasons as the OG noirs, they needed to be made on a lower budget and couldn't rely on action as much as they needed to rely on mood.

One film I just watched in CC's Noirvember collection is So Long at the Fair, which really pushes the noir definition but it was definitely interesting. Jean Simmons as a young woman from England who journeys to Paris in 1889 with her older brother, for the purposes of seeing the Exposition Universelle. After checking into a hotel, they have a night on the town, and her brother returns to his hotel room and vanishes. No one at the hotel remembers seeing him or believes he was there, or so they say. She turns to fellow Britisher Dirk Bogarde for help. It's not very noirish, it's more a straight-ahead mystery. Not a great film, but it's good! The plot is absolutely batshit insane, once it all comes out.

surely Last Seduction is one of the ultimate 90s noirs?

Yet another '70s one: The Friends of Eddie Coyle

One film I just watched in CC's Noirvember collection is So Long at the Fair, which really pushes the noir definition but it was definitely interesting.

File under Gaslight Noir (another past Criterion Channel collection).

Yeah, So Long at the Fair is a really fun movie, but I don’t consider it noir whatsoever.

The Reckless Moment (1949) which is up on YouTube. Max Ophuls domestic noir, with James Mason being very James Mason-ish, even with a dodgy Irish accent. Blackmail situation that spins out of control - pretty good!

Love that film! What woman doesn't secretly wish for a dashing young blackmailer to free her from her terrible family?

Indeed! All that familial suffocation was well done...

Based on the novel The Blank Wall (1947) by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding, which is even better than the Ophuls imho. Also used as the basis for The Deep End (2001) with Tilda Swinton - might be another one for the modern noir list.

Love Reckless Moment, the remake The Deep End with Tilda Swinton is decent actually, she's very good in it.

been sick, spent the other day watching some Criterion noir collection flicks.

THE SNIPER - This is a pretty good thriller directed by Edward Dmytryk, though it's certainly saddled with one or two too many scenes trying to dig into the psychology of the murderer, a guy who is portrayed as being sadly damaged goods due to having had a lousy mom, and now he kills women with a rifle. I say "sadly" because he's given a lot more empathy than he might be given in a more modern film, and more than he probably deserves. Most female characters in this film are portrayed somewhat less than sympathetically, though there's also the fact that he's a habitually lying creep, which might make him off-putting. it's largely a film that gets by on its performances (mostly very good) and atmosphere (absolutely excellent use of San Francisco locations, as good as Bullitt imo.)

THE BIG CLOCK - I really enjoyed this one, and it felt a bit ahead of its time, maybe a bit more mid-century in some ways than immediately post-war. This is a great concept, a thriller where the wrongly accused is actually never identified, but manages to stay one step ahead the entire time before he winds up being wrongly accused, and manages to bring down the entire crooked enterprise from within. It's not a traditional crime film, it's only got a few noirish touches, it's just an intricate story told remarkably well. And while it doesn't get into the gay subplot of the novel, it leaves enough in for one to get some assumptions about some of the characters. Ray Milland is really good, Charles Laughton could play this role in his sleep, and the setting of the publication's office building is a truly realized location. I also appreciated how this is a film full of very smart people behaving with intelligence and foresight, for the most part. Milland's crew of reporters and investigators are a varied and sharp bunch, and they keep the film moving along at a fast clip and maintain the energy. There's no dead space in this one.

SAPPHIRE - A Basil Dearden film about the murder of a young woman which winds up being racially motivated, which seems to be because someone discovered she was black and passing for white. It's a pretty clumsy and stiff film when it comes to a lot of the racial subject matter, though I suppose its heart was very much in the right place in some ways. We don't learn much about the title character beyond how others reacted to her, as described later in conversations with the police. Much like The Sniper, this is a film which gets by a lot on atmosphere (late '50s London looks great here) and a very assured and steady lead performance by Nigel Patrick as the superintendent investigating the murder. It's got a LOT of problematic material, the black characters range from being treated with utter respect and multiple dimensions to being depicted pretty broadly and jokingly. The mystery resolves pretty satisfactorily in the end, I suppose.

The Big Clock is excellent, the novel it's based on well worth a read as well.

Just watched So long at the Fair, talked about above. No, not noir, but how could you not watch a movie that is a Gainsborough production starring Jean Simmons and Dirk Bogarde, that is some kind of ideal right there. A very enjoyable watch with a completely bizarre twist!

Talking of bizarre twists, also watched recently Taste of Fear/Scream of Fear (1961) - more horror than noir, but with some definite noir overtones... disabled young woman arrives at her father's French Riviera mansion only to be told by her stepmother that her Dad has mysteriously gone away. Only she keeps seeing his corpse as she wanders the house late at night...

Jimmy Sangster wrote a bunch of movies in that mold for Hammer, think he refers to them as post-Diaboliques. They're good fun.

The Big Clock was remade/reimagined as No Way Out with Kevin Costner, also p good.

Taste of Fear is definitely the best of Hammer's Psycho/Diabolique knock-offs, probably because the interesting Seth Holt was the director on it.

I have Sapphire and So Long at the Fair in this box set:

https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/g/idgAAOSwI-JmFVAM/s-l1200.jpg

Maniac is in one of the late Indicator sets and is great, even if there is at least one twist too far and it's a bit telegraphed.

(Also the cave scene appears uncredited and otherwise unmentioned on the back cover of RE/Search: Incredibly Strange Films, which I didn't realise until a couple of years ago)

The Upturned Glass (1947) - a pre-Hollywood James Mason is a homicidal brain surgeon (yes, as good as it sounds!). Not very noir in its setting (upper class London) but pretty damn noir in its plot, structure (elaborate flashback) and ending. Worth a watch, full thing is on YouTube!

Never seen 'I Wake Up Screaming' (1941) before, but have rectified that now. Laird Cregar is wonderful as a deeply creepy softly-spoken detective. Lots of beautiful noir shots.
-
"What's the good of living without hope?"
"It can be done."

Never seen I Wake Up Screaming either, you've piqued my interest.

Last night I watched another noir that's on YouTube, The Chase (1946). Miami noir, adapted from a Cornell Woolrich novel, always a good sign. With Peter Lorre in a secondary role, another good sign. And with an outrageous plot twist in the middle. Maybe not absolute top drawer noir, but pretty damn good!

You’ve sold me!

I hadn't seen THE BIG COMBO before but that's a great one. I guess Palance was supposed to play the Conte role but couldn't make it work, which is fine because Conte is such a smarmy slimeball in the part and the polar opposite of Cornel Wilde's obsessed cop. It is quite similar to THE BIG HEAT in the very basic plot outlines, though it doesn't have nearly the dialogue of that film. But there are a few good zingers in there, a multitude of excellent scenes making clever use of one character's hearing aid, gorgeous cinematography, a great actual crime jazz score, and some stellar acting. And I have no idea how they got away w/sneaking in one vv heavily implied act between Conte and Jean Wallace.

Guest in the House (1944)

Not noir as billed. Weird, stagy and ultimately nonsensical melodrama with Anne Baxter overacting, Ralph Bellamy being wooden, and a supporting cast including Ruth Warrick, Margaret Hamilton, Percy Kilbride and Marie “The Body” McDonald!

I watched He Walked By Night (1948), which is a mix of boilerplate proto-Dragnet complete with a narrator, and eventually shifts into a moodier style in the second half, culminating in an almost dialogue-free climax taking place in both a Hollywood bungalow complex and the sewer system below. The upthread comparisons of this climax to The Third Man are spot-on, it rivals that film in its style and tension at these moments. I think the more trad stuff, the stuff that supporting actor Jack Webb was probably inspired by to create Dragnet, was directed by Alfred Werker and it's pretty good, but the truly revelatory stuff was likely courtesy of the uncredited Anthony Mann and DP John Alton. There are some absolutely top-tier shots in this --

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/79/66/21/79662171e6e53e224645f8da04a4d27f.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/dc/55/bd/dc55bd3af7d4f35a615045ae078be564.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/40/c4/51/40c451675c63b2d8f8b0174907ac7fbf.jpg
https://thecinemaarchives.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/he-walked-by-night.jpg
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNzM2ZjdmMjctODYwOC00MjFkLTk2OTQtOGQzYTU4MTBhNWExXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzk5MDQ0NA@@._V1_.jpg

It's maybe underrated since it doesn't posses a director with much of a pedigree, and lead actor Richard Basehart didn't exactly become a major star. But it's excellent and manages to get better as it goes, from a solid policier to what winds up being one of the better noir finishes.

I haven't heard of this before! Stills are very striking. Lol at *walked* by night, they're really pushing it.

this guy definitely walks around at night at lot, shocked the title deemphasizes his running ability though!

another great bit is one of the best "wounded man removing a bullet from himself" scenes you'll find, obviously you don't see it but you don't need to, the way it's shot. i was wincing about as much as Basehart. this part has been speculated as one of Anthony Mann's contributions as well.

in HD:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfcBuofAJ3E

the youtube version is highly compressed. the amazon prime version is slightly better.

I started UNDER THE SILVER LAKE (2024) w Andrew Garfield last night before I got interrupted but I was enjoying the shit out of it - it FEELS noir so far, and deliberately nodding to all kinds of golden age Hollywood thrillers

fun movie - it came out in 2018 though

ahh whoops i thought he looked young lol

The Sleeping Tiger (1954), the whole thing is on YouTube. Joseph Losey/Dirk Bogarde, how could it be bad? And it isn't! It's a kind of B-movie first stab at The Servant - a psychiatrist takes in a murderous criminal (Bogarde) into his house to try to "cure" him, and said criminal seduces his wife and wreaks general havoc in the household. All kinds of interesting subtexts going on...

Just watched Cutter's Way, which is a) hardly mentioned on this board or ii) really hard to search for. What a strange, sad film. It feels like something huge is happening just off screen, and the characters seem as unlikely to find it as we do.

A few things:
- Jeff Bridges is like a dancer in this.
- He also looks like Ian Botham.
- Whither John Heard? He's incredible in this. As is Lisa Eichhorn.
- Vietnam *might* the big thing off-screen but I don't think so.
- Nitzsche's score is great. I could feel the birth of *Deserter's Songs*.
- Could be twinned with *Night Moves*.
- The scenes with Bridges and Eichhorn are beautiful and heartbreaking.

I think it gets discussed a bit over here: jeff bridges poll!

Cutter's Way is amazing, yes.

Vietnam *might* the big thing off-screen but I don't think so.

Do you mean that the film treats 'Nam as subtext? If so, I would argue that it is not all off-screen. Heard has a memorable speech that addressed it directly.

Under the Silver Lake (2018) is a really good neo-noir film. It reminds me of Richard Kelly's films. David Robert Mitchell hasn't come out with anything since 2018, so it's time

We haven't had a film from Richard Kelly since 2009, I guess we can't expect another one

I cannot keep under the silver lake and southland tells apart in my head and always forget which is which.

Also Silverlake Life: The View From Here.

Do you mean that the film treats 'Nam as subtext? If so, I would argue that it is not all off-screen. Heard has a memorable speech that addressed it directly.

I didn't explain that very well, cryptosicko but yeah, Vietnam is right there in places but there's something else. It's probably that noir trope of the 'world as predator' but it does feel particularly strong here.

A drink? You know, it’s the daily grind that drives me to drink. Tragedy I take straight.