Compelled and Obsessed

     Wouldn't "Compelled and Obsessed" make a good title for a film noir?  I think maybe it would.  Recently on Internet exploring film noir and Alfred Hitchcock's movies and commentary upon them:  Dial "H" For Hitchcock is a good documentary that's on You Tube.

     When not watching / listening to videos about Hitchcock movies, clicking on videos about film noir -- then I start wanting to make my own list of movies that are noir:  I don't want to have a "best noir" list because that's too subjective, and it's like saying other noirs that are not on my list are not good or worthwhile.  And I didn't want my list to "rank" them -- best to -- what, worst??  No no.

     So I made a list entitled Basic FILM NOIR.

     These are "basics" to introduce oneself to the genre.

     I put them alphabetically.  (No playing favorites, or pitting one against the other...)
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Basic FILM NOIR


The Big Sleep   (1946)

Body Heat   (1981)

Double Indemnity   (1944)

Laura   (1944)

The Maltese Falcon   (1941)

Out Of The Past   (1947)

Shadow Of A Doubt   (1943)

Sunset Boulevard   (1950)

Sweet Smell of Success   (1957)

The Third Man   (1949)

     (I include the year each film was released because sometimes another film or films could have the same title, so I want to specify.  Like, if you look up Criminal, or Bad Company -- there are several different movies with those titles....)
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The Guardian online has an article, "Top 10 film noir" (Nov. 29, 2013).

Their list does the 10 to 1 "countdown" style:

10.  They Live by Night
9.  Kiss Me Deadly
8.  Blood Simple
7.  Lift to the Scaffold
6.  The Third Man
5.  Out of the Past
4.  Double Indemnity
3.  Touch of Evil
2.  Chinatown

1.  The Big Sleep

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The Guardian puts lists like this, and then it's -- Let the Reader Comments begin:


Id1983
The Maltese Falcon?

Whitworthflange
Possibly too early to be called noir.  But definitely one of the finest, and incidentally one of the most cynical films of all time, and it should have been there.

Fabrisse
I've always thought of it as the first noir.

Matt O'Neill
Basically Films Noir start with Maltese Falcon and end with Touch of Evil.  By definition they must be American (i.e. French doesn't count).  Chinatown, Blood Simple, etc. are Neo Noirs....
     ...What about The Big Combo, The Big Knife, or In a Lonely Place?

Mildred Plotka
...Replace those with Gilda, The Maltese Falcon, The Lady from Shanghai, The Asphalt Jungle, The Big Heat, The Big Combo, Human Desire, Scarlet Street, Night and the City, Phantom Lady, Woman in the Window, You Only Live Once, Pick Up on South Street...At least something by Fritz Lang.

Mildred Plotka
And Criss Cross, which I don't think has had a mention.


Mildred Plotka
I like the idea that film noir ended half way through Psycho.

streakky > Matt O'Neill
Sir, you are to be commended as one of the few who actually knows the difference between genres.  We've had everything from Citizen Kane to Casablanca suggested below.

But I think if you're gonna comment, you have to come up with your own top 10 so here goes:

The Maltese Falcon
The Big Sleep
Double Indemnity
The Killers

The Killing (Kubrick)
Gilda
Laura
The Asphalt Jungle
Farewell My Lovely
Out of the Past


Sean Murray > Matt O'Neill
At the risk/hope of offending the Noir Police, I'm allowing colour and non-American (though excluding post-60s neo-noir):

1.  The Night of the Hunter.  Expressionist cosmic noir, and possibly the greatest film ever made (Cahiers du Cinema).
2.  Les Bonnes Femmes.  A personal favourite, and one of the most shocking endings ever.
3.  Vertigo.  Yup.

4.  Blast of Silence.  Extraordinary blend of noir and Nouvelle Vague.  Possibly the coolest film ever made.
5.  The Third Man.
6.  Out of the Past.
7.  Nightmare Alley.
8.  They Live by Night.
9.  The Strange Love of Martha Ivers.
10.  Leave Her to Heaven.  Technicolor, but who can seriously doubt this film is noir?

(Skulks down an alley while the Noir Police go galumphing by).




OzMogwai
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid?

Nomates
"You'll take your slaps and like it"
Fantastic!

Brandenburg
Blade Runner
Edward James Olmos' delivery of his final line is a work of art.

JackBurgess > Brandenburg
Look for the Sci-Fi top 10.  I think it's number 3.  But I agree it does have a noir feel to it; especially the music and cinematography.

"It's too bad she won't live.  But then again who does?"
Best line in sci-fi history!


Nick909
Excellent choices!
Does Citizen Kane count as Film Noir???  If so I'd add that as a #11.

Jennyanydots
     Does Citizen Kane count as Film Noir???

--I would say no.
I think "Sunset Boulevard" should be included as a top ten noir film.

alexito
...I might stick I Saw The Devil in, too -- South Korea's been doing fascinating things with noir elements -- and The Last Seduction would tick the 90s erotic thriller box, which is where noir found its home for a good 15 years.

LaszloKovacs
Detour is cool.  But an even better cheap, desperate film noir "B" film is Gun Crazy by Joseph H Lewis.  Check out the 3-minute take from the back of the car during the bank heist.

Paddyboro
Yeah, Gun Crazy -- what a movie:  'The female of the species is more deadly than the male.'  Set the standard for the likes of Bonnie and Clyde and Natural Born Killers -- The 'Lovers on the Run' subgenre.

Rvaucbns
But where oh where is The Long Goodbye.

Numbersix99
Was it elsewhere in one of these lists, perhaps as a "detective" film?  But yes, I think The Long Goodbye is the ultimate Revisionist Noir, following its traits but utterly subverting them at the same time.  Masterly.

Cotillon
It's wearing a trench coat on a rain-sodden sidewalk, smoking a cigarette

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