Film noir: your favourites

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.

In any case, frankiemachine, I would have thought you would have mentioned The Man With The Golden Arm, although I guess that's not a noir per se.

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.

Guilty Bystander (1950) currently on Criterion, is not a great movie, but has enough great bits to recommend it. Zachary Scott is a washed up ex-cop turned to booze, Mary Boland (in her final screen role) is a blowsy flophouse owner, and her dumpy joint, along with seedy bars, waterfront warehouses, and the New York subway, is much better photographed than movies this low-budget generally are. It was thought to be a lost film until its recent restoration, and it looks perfectly shadowy and sleazy.

i really liked Deadline at Dawn from the current "Blackout Noir" collection. it's definitely a noir but has more mystery elements and humor than in your typical noir. it was written by Odets and does lots of wandering off to focus on some tangential character for a minute and has some incredibly florid dialogue (including maybe the first filmed use of "what's the diff" as an abbreviation for "what's the difference"). the ostensible lead character is a doofus but he fades into the background as the ensemble grows, and Susan Hayward and Paul Lukas are both great. overall kinda goofy but it worked for me

Been doing a lot of the 50's French stuff. Diaboliques feels very formative for that genre. They also do a lot of village noirs.

Village Noir should be a Criterion Channel programming theme one of these Noirvembers.

I absolutely love Deadline at Dawn. So happy it’s back for a rewatch.

watched “sweet smell of success” recently - so good

Witness to Murder (1954) is fun. Not great, but the cinematography is extra-noiry, and I’ll watch pretty much anything Stanwyck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9Btx0ApKXU

George Sanders too, it seems.

Oh, the cinematographer is John Alton!