Examples of the genre are movies such
as Double Indemnity,
The Big Sleep, The
Maltese Falcon, and Chinatown,
as well as more current films like Blood
Simple, Lost Highway,
and L.A. Confidential.
- "During the early 1940s through
the late '50s, Hollywood studios cranked out some 300
film noir titles, so named because of their dark
overtones and ever-lurking danger, heightened by
shadowy-lit, grainy black & white film and
sinister-sounding, minor-key soundtracks. Pulp fiction
brought to the big screen, film noir was the collision of
the gangster movie, the sordid crime melodrama, the
thriller, the whodunit, and the gothic romance." --Rhino Records
"Film noir: a term coined by
French critics to describe a type of film that is
characterized by its dark, somber tone and cynical,
pessimistic mood. Literally meaning 'dark (or 'black')
film', the term is derived from roman noir, 'black
novel', which was used by French critics of the 18th and
19th centuries to describe the British Gothic novel.
Specifically, film noir was coined to
describe those Hollywood films of the 40s and 50s which
portrayed the dark and gloomy underworld of crime and
corruption, films whose heroes as well as villains are
cynical, disillusioned, and other insecure loners,
inextricably bound to the past and unsure or apathetic
about the future."
-Ephraim Katz, The Film Encyclopedia
|
Big
Sleep, The (1946)
Blood
Simple (1984)
Chinatown
(1974)
Dark
City (1998)
Double
Indemnity (1944)
Grifters,
The (1990)
History
of Violence,
A (2005)
Key Largo (1948)
Killing,
The (1956)
Kiss
of Death (1995)
Last
Seduction, The (1994)
Laura
(1944) |
L.A.
Confidential (1997)
Lost
Highway (1997)
M
(1931)
Maltese
Falcon, The (1941)
Manchurian
Candidate, The (1962)
Night
of the Hunter, The (1955)
Notorious
(1946)
Sin
City (2005)
Spanish
Prisoner, The (1997)
Sunset Blvd.
(1950)
Touch
of Evil (1958)
Usual Suspects, The (1995) |
ranked by IMDB
users:
|
| Rank |
Rating |
Title |
Votes |
| 1. |
8.6 |
Sunset
Blvd. (1950) |
24,436 |
| 2. |
8.4 |
The
Third Man (1949) |
26,142 |
| 3. |
8.4 |
Double
Indemnity (1944) |
16,839 |
| 4. |
8.4 |
The
Maltese Falcon (1941) |
26,837 |
| 5. |
8.4 |
Touch
of Evil (1958) |
16,301 |
| 6. |
8.3 |
Strangers
on a Train (1951) |
15,598 |
| 7. |
8.3 |
The
Big Sleep (1946) |
14,323 |
| 8. |
8.3 |
Notorious
(1946) |
15,220 |
| 9. |
8.3 |
The
Ox-Bow Incident (1943) |
3,037 |
| 10. |
8.2 |
Ace
in the Hole (1951) |
1,595 |
| 11. |
8.2 |
The
Killing (1956) |
10,572 |
| 12. |
8.2 |
Out
of the Past (1947) |
4,377 |
| 13. |
8.2 |
I
Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) |
1,967 |
| 14. |
8.2 |
Sweet
Smell of Success (1957) |
3,696 |
| 15. |
8.2 |
Shadow
of a Doubt (1943) |
8,951 |
| 16. |
8.1 |
The
Lost Weekend (1945) |
4,514 |
| 17. |
8.1 |
The
Night of the Hunter (1955) |
11,282 |
| 18. |
8.0 |
Nightmare
Alley (1947) |
861 |
| 19. |
8.0 |
White
Heat (1949) |
4,665 |
| 20. |
8.0 |
Laura
(1944) |
6,988 |
| 21. |
8.0 |
The
Set-Up (1949) |
1,199 |
| 22. |
8.0 |
Key
Largo (1948) |
7,948 |
| 23. |
8.0 |
Body
and Soul (1947) |
750 |
| 24. |
7.9 |
Night
and the City (1950) |
872 |
| 25. |
7.9 |
Scarface
(1932) |
3,862 |
| 26. |
7.9 |
Pickup
on South Street (1953) |
1,411 |
| 27. |
7.9 |
The
Big Heat (1953) |
2,607 |
| 28. |
7.9 |
The
Killers (1946) |
2,283 |
| 29. |
7.9 |
Ossessione
(1943) |
918 |
| 30. |
7.8 |
In
a Lonely Place (1950) |
2,387 |
| 31. |
7.8 |
The
Narrow Margin (1952) |
854 |
| 32. |
7.8 |
The
Asphalt Jungle (1950) |
4,032 |
| 33. |
7.8 |
Deadly
Is the Female (1949) |
1,286 |
| 34. |
7.7 |
Scarlet
Street (1945) |
1,490 |
| 35. |
7.7 |
The
Lady from Shanghai (1947) |
3,585 |
| 36. |
7.7 |
This
Gun for Hire (1942) |
914 |
| 37. |
7.7 |
Fury
(1936) |
1,836 |
| 38. |
7.7 |
The
Woman in the Window (1944) |
1,214 |
| 39. |
7.7 |
The
Big Clock (1948) |
930 |
| 40. |
7.7 |
Where
the Sidewalk Ends (1950) |
559 |
| 41. |
7.7 |
Gilda
(1946) |
4,426 |
| 42. |
7.6 |
The
Letter (1940) |
1,750 |
| 43. |
7.6 |
Kiss
of Death (1947) |
914 |
| 44. |
7.6 |
Thieves'
Highway (1949) |
427 |
| 45. |
7.6 |
Brute
Force (1947) |
578 |
| 46. |
7.6 |
Murder,
My Sweet (1944) |
1,622 |
| 47. |
7.6 |
Mildred
Pierce (1945) |
3,565 |
| 48. |
7.6 |
Sudden
Fear (1952) |
550 |
| 49. |
7.5 |
The
Desperate Hours (1955) |
1,626 |
| 50. |
7.5 |
Suspicion
(1941) |
4,815 |
|
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