Which is your favorite(1) FILM NOIR and why?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by pig whisperer, Sep 2, 2005.

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  1. andy749

    andy749 Senior Member

    Recently watched GUN CRAZY for the first time.Very Good movie...hard to believe this was made in 1949. The two main leads,John Dall and Peggy Cummins were totally new to me...somehow that made it work even better I think...two strangers in the lead roles.I think I like this better than Bonnie & Clyde...it was definitely ahead of it's time.
    There's a scene where Dall and Cummins first meet where she is performing at a carnival sideshow...she's an Annie Oakley type pistol sharpshooter and she is very hot!
    I'm a little surprised the censors in '49 didn't have her tone down her performance.
     
  2. pig whisperer

    pig whisperer CD Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Tokyo, Japan
  3. Eric B

    Eric B Forum Resident

    Location:
    Baltimore,MD
    Double Indemnity
     
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  4. R. Cat Conrad

    R. Cat Conrad Almost Famous

    Location:
    D/FW Metroplex
    There are so many good ones which use light and shadow to create stunning visuals that it's difficult to limit it to one. I feel obligated to mention classics like Citizen Kane and The Third Man, and virtually all of the films in the recently released Val Lewton Collection, but if I had to select one film which embodied the visual characteristics we define as noir, it would be the silent UFA (German) classic Faust, directed by FW Murnau.

    This film has a plethora of disturbing visual effects using light and shadow to capture the dark atmosphere of it's subject. It's a must see for noir fans, IMHO.

    Here's a link that discusses various version currently available along with screen shot comparisons:

    http://207.136.67.23/film/dvdcompare/faust.htm

    Personally, I prefer the Spanish (Luciano BerriatĂșa Restoration) version which is very difficult to obtain. See cover image below:

    [​IMG]

    There are several drawbacks to it, such as no English language subtitles, the projection speed (FPS) is too fast, and the music is very disappointing. However, the 35mm restored elements are supurb, crisp and clear; very well defined with almost no annoying artifacts or soft images.

    :cheers:
    Cat
     
  5. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    That sounds fun! I've always wanted to do that.

    So the new cut was more impressive to you in this case?
     
  6. jojopuppyfish

    jojopuppyfish Senior Member

    Location:
    Maryland
    Ok new Thread Created.
     
  7. pig whisperer

    pig whisperer CD Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Tokyo, Japan
  8. pig whisperer

    pig whisperer CD Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Tokyo, Japan
  9. HGN2001

    HGN2001 Mystery picture member

    Please pardon the decade-old resurrection of a thread, but I didn't think it deserved a new one.

    One of my old favorites in the film noir genre is one of the more obscure titles, STORM FEAR. This is a 1955 release with Cornel Wilde and his wife at the time, Jean Wallace, also starring Dan Duryea, Lee Grant, Dennis Weaver and a very young Steven Hill in his first role. David Stollery, who played Marty Markham in Walt Disney's SPIN & MARTY plays the boy in the story.

    I first saw STORM FEAR sometime in the '60s. TV stations of the day used to run motion pictures on Saturday and Sunday afternoons when they weren't showing sports or nature documentaries. At our summer cottage, if the weather was bad, we'd gather around the TV and watch whatever the Baltimore, MD stations had to offer, and one rainy day, STORM FEAR was the feature. In the many intervening years, I never saw the film again but it stuck with me in one form or another. After about 20 years, sometime in the '80s, I'd even forgotten the title, but attempted to look it up in one of those Maltin/Ebert movie books and finally found the title.

    Then in the early 90s, I saw it listed in a TV Guide for a run on a Philadelphia channel late at night, for which I set a VCR in order to record it. The print was ragged and got mysteriously darker toward the end of the movie, but as the only source available to me, I dubbed it over the DVD-R a few years ago, cutting out the commercials.

    So obscure was this movie, that the IMDb listing of it had a message forum with only one post in it. I figured it was truly a lost entity and added my own recollections to that message board. A few days ago, I got a message response that STORM FEAR was coming to Blu-ray! Doing some research, I found out that it's true. On August 4th, it will be released on both Blu-ray and DVD from Kino Lorber. I've pre-ordered it from Amazon and my mind is still reeling. Allegedly it's been remastered in HD, and if true, it will be like seeing the film for the first time.

    http://www.amazon.com/Storm-Fear-Blu-ray-Cornel-Wilde/dp/B00YQTCOHI/

    [​IMG]

    The plot is inside the spoiler below:
    The story concerns a bank robber (Wilde) who with his gang (Hill and Grant) intrude on his brother (Duryea) and sister-in-law (Wallace) at their mountain retreat. Duryea is a sickly type trying to have seclusion to write and use the mountain air to help his poor health. Wallace is his long-suffering wife, trying to eek out this secluded life and raise her son (Stollery). They have a farmhand (Weaver) who seems to provide a better father figure to Stollery than Duryea does.

    Wilde arrives with a bullet in his leg from the robbery and wants assistance from Wallace to get it removed. It turns out that he and Wallace once had a thing before she married his brother, who now wants nothing to do with him. And then there is the impending snowstorm...

    Is it the greatest film ever? Hardly. But it's one of those fondly remembered items of the past that help us relive a happy memory. I'm excited that it's getting new life in the home video realm, and it's another in a series of releases I never thought I'd see.

    Harry
     
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  10. Jackson

    Jackson Senior Member

    Location:
    MA, USA
    For me nothing can top ''Chinatown'', it's simply the most atmospheric, well acted/ directed/ not to mention disturbing noir i've ever seen. I don't think Jack Nicholson has ever been better or looked cooler than in this movie, and Faye Dunaway looks beyond stunning, and that ending, it blew me away the first time i saw it in the theater. My favorite movie of all time, everyone associated with it deserves praise.
     
  11. d.r.cook

    d.r.cook Senior Member

    The Grifters

    Angelica Houston, in her father's "Chinatown" trad.

    The characters just seem doomed.
     
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  12. Got to be Carol Reed's "The Third Man", the most beautiful, evocative black&white cinematography I've seen. His "Odd Man Out" is a close second.
     
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  13. smilin ed

    smilin ed Senior Member

    Location:
    Durham
    Out of the Past
    Double Indemnity
    The Killers
    Crossfire
    Strangers on a Train
    The Third Man
    Night and the City
    Touch of Evil
    The Big Sleep
    Sweet Smell of Success
    Where the Sidewalk Ends
    Pursued
    Sunset Boulevard
    In a Lonely Place
    The Lady From Shanghai
    The Hitch-Hiker
    Cry of the City
    Criss Cross

    They don't all have all the noir elements there, but there are enough...
     
  14. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    I've been watching all the "Summer of Darkness" films on TCM (all-day every Friday in June and July, and then for a week "on demand" thereafter). Bogart remains my favorite actor, so "The Big Sleep" and "The Maltese Falcon" would have to top my Noir list.

    Some films I hadn't seen before the festival that were impactful:

    Stranger on the Third Floor
    Johnny Eager
    Woman on the Run
    Detour
    Gun Crazy

    And I was reminded of the greatness of "Act of Violence" and "The Set Up".

    And I am also now fully aware of what a great actor Van Heflin was ("Johnny Eager", "Act of Violence", "Possessed").
     
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  15. smilin ed

    smilin ed Senior Member

    Location:
    Durham
    Yeah, The Set-Up's really good. Some superb cinematography. Ryan is excellent - though I prefer him in Crossfire.
     
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  16. Morpheus

    Morpheus Forum Resident

    Location:
    Texas
    M--Fritz Lang
    Dark Passage
    99 River Street
    Murder, My Sweet
     
  17. rufus t firefly

    rufus t firefly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arizona
    Great thread. Many of my favorites have been mentioned. In a more modern vein.. how about Blood Simple.
     
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  18. progrocker71

    progrocker71 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    [​IMG]

    Jane Greer (breathtaking) in Out Of The Past. The femme fatale for me, with Stanwyck coming in a close second for Double Indemnity.
     
  19. ZackyDog

    ZackyDog Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    With all due respect to the classic, Double Indemnity, Body Heat is my favorite film noir.

    [​IMG]

    The acting is absolutely first rate. I never thought much of Ted Danson's character, Sam Malone on Cheers. But his character, Peter Lowenstein, as lawyer William Hurt's/Ned Racine's wise-cracking, mercurial buddy was a scene-stealer. As was Hurt's scenes with Mickey Rourke, who plays Racine's client and arsonist. The suspense, and the mood created by the story and the music were terrific.

    To me, it was so real that I forgot that it was a movie. It's too bad that he/they (director Lawrence Kasdan & associates?; Kasdan, Hurt and Turner?) agreed not to do a sequel. Although the time would be perfect to pick up from where they left off, 35 years ago.
     
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  20. MDW

    MDW Howard The Duck's Biggest Fan

    Location:
    Arkansas
    "The Lady In The Lake". Why? Strange, strange , strange... But good !
     
  21. Rodney Toady

    Rodney Toady Waste of cyberspace

    Location:
    Finland
    Beyond a Reasonable Doubt - as to why, I can't really say; I just remember it as one of the films that for some reason have made a special impression on me
     
  22. action pact

    action pact Music Omnivore

  23. rockerreds

    rockerreds Senior Member

    Detour- self explanatory
     
  24. The Panda

    The Panda Forum Mutant

    Location:
    Marple, PA, USA
    When this was in the theater, I took a girl to see it first date. She was all over me in the car--this movie raised her "blood pressure" through the roof.:uhhuh:
     
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  25. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US
    The sound the box makes is the best.
     
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