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

Dark Passage
Plastic surgery anyone?

 

Rififi (1955, Jules Dassin)
Granduncle of all heist films (got a brother cross town with Melville's Bob le Flambeur, released the same year, though I like Rififi best). An old school hood joins a handful of others for one last mastermind of a bank heist. It's a beautifully shot world of big city, well dressed, French lowlifes with bourgeois aspirations - the template really for hundreds of copycat mafia yarns on TV and the big screen. This one has a fine, virtually silent 15 minute robbery sequence. Maintaining its edge after 63 years it's mandatory viewing for any noir buff.

Runner up: The Killing (1956, Stanley Kubrick)
Kubrick's satiric spin on the heist/crime procedural. Great script and wonderfully shot on almost no budget.

 

Kiss Me Deadly is one of the few noirs that I was motivated to buy the disc of. That dash of Atomic Age apocalypse is a great twist on the formula.

 

Body Heat. All the elements plus a cast of talented newcomers (relativly at least). IMHO, the best, classic or contemporary.

 

Double Idemnity , just hit all the marks- the cast, the dialogue , the excellent beginning and end . Honorable mention to The Killers , always loved The Maltese Falcon.

 

1.Double Indemnity...along with "The Big Sleep" remains the best of the genre...

MacMurrays line "I did it for the money & the woman & didn't get either" virtually defines the genre...

Over all rating - A+

2.The Pushover (1954)...starring Fred MacMurray & introducing a 20 year old sleek & sexy Kim Novac...

FM last "Film Noir" movie & one of the genre's best...

FM is a good cop gone bad & the smoldering hot Kim Novac & 250 grand in bank robbery bread are the reasons for his rapid decline...

Oh & there is plenty of voyeurism as was the norm for films of the era...

Overall rating - A

3.Woman In The Mirror (1946)...Edward G. Robinson & Robert Ryan star in this very entertaining film with a bizarre twist & hilarious ending scene

Overall rating - A

4&5 The Postman Always Rings Twice (John Garfield & Lana Turner) & Body Heat (Kathleen Turner& William Hurt)...different era same premise...

Overall rating - A

6.Port of New York (1946)...Yul Bryner (w/ hair) in his introductory role as a intelligent ruthless drug smuggling (smack) kingpin & Scott Brady portrays the determined agent out to catch & incarcerate Bryner

Over all rating - B+

7.The Big Combo (1956)...Richard Conte of "The Godfather" fame as the leader of a gang of ruthless thugs (Lee Van Cleef & very young Earl Holliman) & Scott Brady the detective in hot pursuit...

The deaf Brian Donlevy's execution is brilliant film making...

Over all rating - A+

 

Double Indemnity.

"It was a hot afternoon, and I can still remember the smell of honeysuckle all along that street. How could I have known that murder can sometimes smell like honeysuckle?"

Detour, Out Of The Past, Key Largo, Touch Of Evil & The Postman Always Rings Twice, would not be far behind.

 

Does " Laura" (Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney ) count for noir?
I haven't seen it in such a long time I don't remember it having hard bitten dialogue but all the other elements were of that genre. I liked "D.O.A.", too.

 

The Third Man

 

I have enjoyed many films that are film noir including some European efforts that have at least some elements of the genre (Elevator to the Gallows; Mississippi Mermaid). Ftr I do consider the great film Laura to be film noir, and love obvious greats in the genre like The Killers, Out of the Past, Double Indemnity. But since my favorite actor is Bogart, consideration of what is the best film noir comes down for me to a choice between The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep. And it's a tough choice.

Many I have encountered think it easy to choose The Big Sleep. The presence of Lauren Bacall, the screenwriting partly by William Faulkner, the way Bogart's alter ego persona seems somewhat more developed, I would add a noticeably better production quality to at least the versions of the two I have are reasons cited. Some simply do not like Mary Astor as the femme fatale in the Falcon. Some think the direction from Howard Hawks is better than John Huston's early career effort in the Falcon. But I don't think any of those, even all together, are dispositive.

On the other side the Maltese Falcon included in particular excellent work from Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. I think Huston's direction is excellent. And as far as the writing is concerned, The Big Sleep is almost too complicated and on that score suffers in comparison to the excellent story in the Falcon. Bogart's performance of the film noir anti-hero had been developed before he got to the Falcon, and doesn't strike me as in need of more work, either.

I also very much like Mary Astor's work here. Her sometimes hysterics as Bridgett contrasts with Bacall's cool portrayal, but the character Astor portrays is to me more plausible. At least more interesting. Is she using for example seeming so emotional to hide her cunning nature? Sam Spade certainly has to consider that, and does. Astor's hairstyle of just a few years before Bacall's looks from an earlier period, and I would not argue with those who prefer Bacall's appearance in general. But that hardly means Mary Astor was not a good choice for this role. In fact I think she was excellent.

On balance I think I actually prefer The Maltese Falcon, and therefor I think it is the best example of film noir I have seen. If you never have, you owe it to yourself to do so.

 

Another vote for The Third Man here, just watched it 2 nights ago. The little kid with the ball annoys me but the movie is flawless besides that.

 

The Maltese Falcon. Because of the incredible acting.
Key Largo likewise.

 

another for double indemnity...one of billy wilders best

 

This caught my attention but I cannot find any info about it on IMDB. Please enlighten me.

 

TOUGH question and it changes too, of course.

Off the top, one of my favorites is Clash By Night. Robert Ryan's performance as a movie projectionist who hates the world and everyone in it almost as much as he hates himself is a thing of beauty.

My current obsession is Asphalt Jungle, which I think might be one of the best Noirs ever made.

 

I believe the correct title is WOMAN IN THE WINDOW and it's from 1944.

 

That's what I was thinking but Robert Ryan isn't in it.

 

Maybe wrong title ... wrong year ... and confusing Dan Duryea for Robert Ryan (the trifecta)?

 

Honorable Mention: Blade Runner

 

Hear, hear!
But I wish they'd done a better job of casting the male leads; Alan Curtis is so wooden he resembles an oak tree and Franchot Tone doesn't bring anything to the role. But the jazz group scene in the middle with Elisha Cook Jr. and Raines makes it all worthwhile!

 

This one vaulted into my top five, thanks to Eddie Mueller's Noir Alley. Based on a true story this starts out sad and then gets darker and darker. The last 15 minutes are relentless and unforgettable. Lloyd Bridges and Frank Lovejoy are at the top of their game here. How this film has been all but forgotten is beyond me.

 

Perhaps it was the "Lloyd Bridges morphs into a 100 foot tall lunatic" poster that caused the film to fade. He looks ready to destroy Tokyo.

 

It was originally called The Sound Of Fury, and had a different poster. The movie got in trouble because of some political stances that leaned into socialism, it also lambasted the press for sensationalism and the public for a lynch mob mentality.

 

Correction on The Big Combo----that's Cornel Wilde as the detective. I love the dancer with the legs right up to her neck who has a thing for Wilde and gets killed in his apartment....and it turns out she's the real-life mother of Dr. Drew Pinsky.

 

Kiss Me Deadly. The best. When a naked woman in a trench coat gets tortured to death in the first five minutes, you know you’re really in noir territory.