Contemplating film noir made me think also about the movies by director Alfred Hitchcock. Not noir, but incorporating some noir elements because they are suspenseful and have dark shadowy visuals. Stark contrast of dark and light... etc.... Spooky... Not same as noir, but in the neighborhood...
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Hitchcock movies off the top of my head:
early ones he made in England:
The 39 Steps
The Man Who Knew Too Much
The Lady Vanishes
ones he made in America after he moved here (1940s) --
Rebecca
Foreign Correspondent
Shadow Of A Doubt
Notorious
The above four films were far "ahead" of the early English ones -- his style had focused, progressed, and become more sophisticated and these movies would have broader audience appeal now, I think, than the earliest ones.
The last one from this stage of his career, Strangers On A Train, is kind of like a "bridge" or stepping stone to the movies of Hitchcock's Golden Age -- the 1950s:
Dial "M" For Murder
Rear Window
To Catch A Thief
The Man Who Knew Too Much
Vertigo
North By Northwest.
And then post-Golden Age, his sort of ultimate, experimental, Yikes-effect movie, Psycho, filmed in black-and-white after the director had been using color for a decade.
This movie probably takes up the most real estate in the public's collective imagination and awareness. (The shower-scene music: "Rrnnkkgh! Rrnnkkgh! Rrnnkkgh! Rrnnkkgh!"...)
-30-
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