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theseatheseatheopensea invited me to make one, so here is a list of a
hundred films noirs. It is non-completist. It is non-proscriptive. I had intended it to start with proto-noir and end with neo-noir, but it turned out I had far more than a hundred noirs of the classically defined period to winnow down from and any number of solid citizens and weird little ornaments had already been left by the side of the meme. Like all of the other lists, it will be different tomorrow. Anything on this one that I haven't written about, rest assured that I want to. I would, however, need to sleep more than an hour, which is how the last couple of nights have been going.
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Prrrt! I should very much like that. Love you so.
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I hope you sleep. There must be at least 100 films noirs that come solely from your dreams.
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I have to ask: which are the most obvious three?
I hope you sleep. There must be at least 100 films noirs that come solely from your dreams.
Thank you. I would love to be able to screen them.
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That sounds like a story.
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It is one of the reasons I love Armored Car Robbery. You get all these tough, abstract titles that could mean anything and then this one does what says on tin.
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0 of 100 · 0%
You did better than 0% of users on this list
Your rank: #7 of 7 users on this list
You didn't beat the avg. score of 6
I'm so sorry!!
I very much enjoyed looking at all the posters. I've heard lots of the names before but this was the first time I've been able to put any sort of context to them, even if no doubt often misleading but nevertheless gloriously pulpy and frequently enticing. (I'm still sad that when I did my list they had the 98% incorrect in every details except for the cast names poster for The Traitors, which clearly the artist wasn't having with the low-key little thing that it is, and drew somethng else entirely, but then when I sorted the list the image vanished forever.)
I did notice on this and your other lists a couple of Barbara Stanwycks, which does remind me I should find some more of hers. I picked up The Miracle Woman in a charity shop years ago when I was enjoying all the UK 30s films on my Network Ealing Rarities, and she was definitely a standout. I think that was the first old school US film I actually liked, so it was very encouraging. I was beginning to think all that would ever happen was that I would bounce off all the most famous films in the English-speaking world and become outcast among film buffs and fandom everywhere & it might be better not to risk it.)
ETA: Apologies for the editing, but *hugs* on the lack of sleep. I hope that some is achieved soon. In the meantime, it is an excellent list! <3
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Thank you for your contribution! I did leave a whole lot of noirs off that list.
(Of the ones on it, I would commend The October Man to your attention. It was not precisely my introduction to John Mills, but it was formative and feels like a film with a decent chance of you liking it. Plus there's Joan Greenwood.)
I very much enjoyed looking at all the posters. I've heard lots of the names before but this was the first time I've been able to put any sort of context to them, even if no doubt often misleading but nevertheless gloriously pulpy and frequently enticing.
Many of those posters are absolutely from other dimensions and if I found one in a thrift shop, of course I would take it home.
(I'm still sad that when I did my list they had the 98% incorrect in every details except for the cast names poster for The Traitors, which clearly the artist wasn't having with the low-key little thing that it is, and drew somethng else entirely, but then when I sorted the list the image vanished forever.)
I've noticed this widget is weird about its images! I am not sure what gives. Some of them seem linked to IMDb or Rotten Tomatoes and others do not.
I did notice on this and your other lists a couple of Barbara Stanwycks, which does remind me I should find some more of hers.
I just inflicted a list of favorite Stanwycks on
ETA: Apologies for the editing, but *hugs* on the lack of sleep. I hope that some is achieved soon. In the meantime, it is an excellent list!
Thank you!
*hugs*
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If anyone else is feeling bad, point them to my efforts! XD (I mean, unless they somehow got minus numbers due to personally burninating one of your fave Noirs, they couldn't do worse.)
Of the ones on it, I would commend The October Man to your attention. It was not precisely my introduction to John Mills, but it was formative and feels like a film with a decent chance of you liking it. Plus there's Joan Greenwood.
I will add it to the list that is growing by the day with this meme. I have heard of that one, though!
Many of those posters are absolutely from other dimensions and if I found one in a thrift shop, of course I would take it home
Well, who wouldn't?
I've noticed this widget is weird about its images! I am not sure what gives. Some of them seem linked to IMDb or Rotten Tomatoes and others do not.
I know! Some stay the same, and others you choose carefully, and then they change or vanish!
Anyway, I have probably showed you this before but this is the delightfully baffling The Traitors poster. All I can say is that the fighting on the left is probably James Maxwell's swimming pool scrap at the end, but God knows what's going on in the rest. (The actual film is barely an hour, it is a kitchen sink kind of spy movie, and nobody is used as bait. They should have found a melodramatic way to advertise Anton Rodgers's inability to run a betting shop.)
I just inflicted a list of favorite Stanwycks on [personal profile] skygiants! The Miracle Woman was among them.
Yay, thank you! My list just grew even larger.
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Fingers crossed for a DVD in its proper region! I watched it originally off Netflix in the years when they were useful for that sort of thing and then on YouTube most recently. It's on BFI Player, too.
Anyway, I have probably showed you this before but this is the delightfully baffling The Traitors poster. All I can say is that the fighting on the left is probably James Maxwell's swimming pool scrap at the end, but God knows what's going on in the rest. (The actual film is barely an hour, it is a kitchen sink kind of spy movie, and nobody is used as bait. They should have found a melodramatic way to advertise Anton Rodgers's inability to run a betting shop.)
I mean, I find that dramatically compelling.
(The placement of "BAIT" in that poster is really something.)
Yay, thank you! My list just grew even larger.
Huzzah! My work here is . . . doing.
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It might turn up on TPTV!
I mean, I find that dramatically compelling. (The placement of "BAIT" in that poster is really something.)
It's my favourite bit (apart from James Maxwell going in the swimming pool, obv.) I'm very fond of it, and, yeah, the first time I saw that poster I just assumed it was a different Traitors, but then I found a variation that clearly included the cast names. It is a terrible advertisement for the film; if anyone went in expecting the film in that poster they would have walked out again, or demanded their money back, possibly with angry jumping up and down at the swindle.
(I was trying to poke YT and see if it would cough it up, as I do from time to time, because it is a thoughtful little kitchen sink spy B-Movie with a lot of engagingly grubby 60s London location work & a nifty theme, but alas not, as usual. I did find, though, that a spy movie podcast watched it in 2023 and liked it as much as I did, without having a JM addiction as an excuse. I don't think I can possibly listen to their review, though, it's almost as long as the film!! XD
It goes round and round the back end of our Freeview channels a lot, though, which pleases me every time I see it there. Perhaps new people are watching a blurry b&w James Maxwell chew gum and make paper aeroplanes, who knows?)
Huzzah! My work here is . . . doing.
I need to get on things!
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From such hits to the id are fandoms made!
If it ever shows up on TCM, I will (a) watch it (b) let you know.
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Aww, thanks. <3
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It came around last month! It may well do so again.
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It's nuts and I am very fond of it.
(I know for a fact you have also seen noirs I haven't.)
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Enjoy whenever and however you do!
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This list was such a treat and I could probably be here all day, but I'll just say that I approve of seeing Dassin, and a Gassman noir (to which I'd probably add "Cry of the hunted"), and of course Repeat Performance and The Big Combo! And ohh, Don't bother to knock, which I think is so underrated!
thank you for sharing your list! I hope you manage to sleep more and better soon, and not just because I'd love to read your thoughts about any of these movies! <3
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Nice! And thank you. Chronologically seemed the most sensible way to organize them, as opposed to the order in which I had encountered them which I might or might not be able to reconstruct.
And you included a lot of Don Siegel and I heartily approve! Have you seen The Line-up? I'd always include it my list too.
I have not! But it's got Eli Wallach and Robert Keith, so I don't know why not.
This list was such a treat and I could probably be here all day, but I'll just say that I approve of seeing Dassin, and a Gassman noir (to which I'd probably add "Cry of the hunted"
It was under consideration for sheer queer value! I had to lose so many movies I like!
(Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958) is totally not admissible as a noir rather than a commedia all'italiana caper, but I did think about it.)
and of course Repeat Performance and The Big Combo! And ohh, Don't bother to knock, which I think is so underrated!
Yes! I saw that one with
thank you for sharing your list! I hope you manage to sleep more and better soon, and not just because I'd love to read your thoughts about any of these movies!
Thank you!
*hugs*
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They are both absolutely amazing in it!! The whole thing is incredible. And deranged. And queer. It starts slowly and then it's just a wild, breathless ride, the kind of thing that Siegel does so well. And Eli Wallach's character is an unforgettable villain (in many ways, he's like Tommy Udo, and I hope it's not too spoiler-ish to say that this would make a really nice double bill with "Kiss Of Death") "There's never been a guy like Dancer," is what Roberth Keith's character says about him, and he's *really* not kidding. Also did I mention their
toxicqueer dynamic? I mean, they write down their victims' last words in a book... which is a nice and romantic gesture if you're in a late noir! But honestly we've all been talking so much about lists these past few days, that it's very fitting!no subject
Yeah, look, sold.
I mean, they write down their victims' last words in a book... which is a nice and romantic gesture if you're in a late noir! But honestly we've all been talking so much about lists these past few days, that it's very fitting!
Hee! It looks to be on YouTube which simplifies my life.
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I thought so! ;D (By the way, I really hope I'm not misremembering that there's an almost campy scene, set in the sauna of a very suggestively named club...)
ETA: I was right!
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WHY IS THIS MOVIE NOT MORE FAMOUS.
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*SHAKES GROGGER*
graduate school.
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*SHAKES GROGGER*
graduate school.
I never think of it from a perspective of noir, but that's mostly because I was introduced to it as one of three cinematic representations of the diabolical in the last unit of Andrew Swensen's COML 127a "Night, Death, and the Devil: The Fantastic and the Grotesque." Its absence from this list is a factor of too many other competitors. Reed's Odd Man Out (1947) and The Man Between (1953) also missed the cut. I'm not sure if The Fallen Idol (1948) counts as noir, but if I ever made a strictly British list where I had more latitude, I'd try to sneak it on there.
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... I know far less about noir as a genre than you do, but The Third Man feels too... world-historical? As in, noir theoretically deals in archetypes and abstractions, but they're archetypes and abstractions that theoretically anyone could step into, the Small-Time Crook Down On His Luck, the (eternally questionable, it doesn't work like that in the movies actually but) Femme Fatale. Whereas I'm not saying one should use The Third Man as an allegorical representation of the behavior of various of the Great Powers just post-war, because one really shouldn't, but the important thing is that one could. Even when noir goes possibly-allegorical, it's allegory for smaller things: citizens of a town or country, not the town or country itself. Noir is about people on a human level. Which is also a major reason Pasolini's Mamma Roma is not noir, although content-wise it could appear to be at thirty paces.
And a lot of the horror of The Third Man is the way that the world-historical tramples, smashes, doesn't even notice the human level, but people have to go on being human after all that anyway. In noir, people have generally had some time to go on being human, and are looking at what that has turned them into.
... does that sound right to you? I have no qualifications for this, just vibes.
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It really isn't that I was taught to think of it as another kind of movie and therefore can't change the classification. I watch movies all the time which are presented to me one way and about which I disagree. I could even turn around and use the supernatural aura of The Third Man to argue for its inclusion in the noir canon, since any number of films which I definitely consider noir have that quality where if the weirdness broke surface it would actually start to make sense—for a variety of reasons including it not actually being a real argument I wouldn't, but the film itself did cross my mind for this list because it is traditionally filed as a noir and I like it (although not more than The Fallen Idol, for which I would rather stretch the definition and which still got left out). I can even understand why it gets the categorization: it contains many of the narrative and stylistic tropes, including my own criterion of the shape-shifting world; it's not being confused with a noir just because it has a well-photographed crime in it. I like your point about the world-historical angle, but there's also an element which just clicked in thinking of it in constellation with films outside its director's catalogue, because I realized from my own description that it has something of the same feel for me as Ministry of Fear (1944), in which case the commonality is not Carol Reed or Fritz Lang but Graham Greene, who is clearly interested in shape-shifting, in nightmare, in existentialism, in complicity, all prime noir territory which he seems to investigate in slightly different directions and toward slightly different ends than film noir. I noticed it with the otherwise trashable 1958 film of The Quiet American, whose half-in, half-out of noir ambience lends a veneer of ambiguity to its morally simpleminded proceedings and was not grafted on by the DP (Robert Krasker, of The Third Man) when the same tone can be found in the prose of the novel, admittedly there lined up with the emotional-political action. tl;dr I do not think I would fight anyone who classifies The Third Man as film noir whereas I fully believe that anyone who does the same with Chicago Calling (1951) just hasn't seen enough non-melodramas in black and white, but it feels to me more than it intersects with the mode rather than really employing it. We should watch Brighton Rock (1948), considered one of the canonical British noirs. I'd like to know if it would look that way to us.
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Quite interesting to see all the movie posters, with aesthetics much more colorful and busy than, say, than the black, white, with a dash of red that Criteron Channel uses.
Of course, their overall style is to prominently feature a frame from the film, so in most cases they'd be at least committed to something greyscale, if not starkly black and white.
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Thank you! Its criteria were how much I like the noirs in question and whether there's something in them which I don't usually see.
Quite interesting to see all the movie posters, with aesthetics much more colorful and busy than, say, than the black, white, with a dash of red that Criteron Channel uses.
In fairness, some of their home release covers are terrific.
Of course, their overall style is to prominently feature a frame from the film, so in most cases they'd be at least committed to something greyscale, if not starkly black and white.
Agreed. It can get a little bit Sin City, though.
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Fair! I hope it was a good class.
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Thank you! What did we overlap on?
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I have to admit I have a little trouble classifying Glenda as a noir. Its characters, mood, and plot are so weird and fucked up (not a criticism!) that it defies typical classification for me. My invented classification for it is "proto-David-Lynchian."
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I love Gloria Grahame. She's represented here by Crossfire and The Glass Wall, although she was also a close run for Naked Alibi (1954), which she steals so hard, it owed her a better ending. I've seen The Big Heat, but would not class it among my favorite noirs. I actually have not seen In a Lonely Place, although I have read the novel.
I have to admit I have a little trouble classifying Glenda as a noir. Its characters, mood, and plot are so weird and fucked up (not a criticism!) that it defies typical classification for me. My invented classification for it is "proto-David-Lynchian."
Huh. I've seen noirs I would give that classification, but Gilda does not fall outside of operating parameters of fucked up (also positive!) for noir for me! Mostly
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Recognition by novels is neat! I didn't think to put many noir or pulp novels on my formative books list. I am not counting any of these as definitive.