Favorite Film Noir movies

[GobbleDog 973]

Watching a lot of Film Noir lately. Saw Touch of Evil (1958) recently which was a really weird flick, but Orson Welles was absolutely amazing.  Made me want to watch another Welles film so of course I watched his most famous - Citizen Kane (1941)... talk about a snooze fest. Welles was good, but the story wasn't too interesting. Don't know why people rave about it.

My all time favorit - Key Largo (1948) with Bogart and Edward G. Robinson. Partly because I relate to the old Florida setting and hurricanes, but also because Robinson is the greatest gangsta ever.

What ya got?

[IGotWorms 4,057]

I love citizen Kane but wouldn’t call it film noir

[IGotWorms 4,057]

Some of my favorites:

Maltese Falcon

Double Indemnity

The Night of the Hunter

Does Chinatown count as film noir?

[GobbleDog 973]

2 hours ago, IGotWorms said:

I love citizen Kane but wouldn’t call it film noir

The movie is rated #1 among numerous international polls. It's supposedly great because of "amazing cinematography, great character analysis..." Ok, it had state of the art camera angles for 1941 and Welles acting was good, but shouldn't the story be interesting? Kept waiting for the plot of finding out about Rosebud to take focus... but nope.  Runs newspaper, political campaign, singing wife (which went on way too long)... ugh. I thought the movie was exhausting.

[HellToupee 1,570]

2 hours ago, IGotWorms said:

Some of my favorites:

Maltese Falcon

Double Indemnity

The Night of the Hunter

Does Chinatown count as film noir?

Night of the Hunter is a wild whacked out movie

Maltese  

Double Indemnity is in my top 3 or 4 noirs 

Chinatown is awesome, probably my favorite neo-noir. NN is a great genre

[GobbleDog 973]

2 hours ago, IGotWorms said:

Double Indemnity

I watched that recently... now that had a really interesting story. My only complaint was they gave away the ending in the first 2 minutes. Does he get away with it? Does he get the money or girl? Um no. Now let's watch how he doesn't get away with it or get the money or girl. Would've rather have not known right off the bat.

[MDC 7,082]

Blood Simple

[GobbleDog 973]

5 minutes ago, HellToupee said:

Maltese  

Chinatown is awesome, probably my favorite neo-noir. NN is a great genre

Both on my see-next list. I'll report back.

[HellToupee 1,570]

2 hours ago, GobbleDog said:

Watching a lot of Film Noir lately. Saw Touch of Evil (1958) recently which was a really weird flick, but Orson Welles was absolutely amazing.  Made me want to watch another Welles film so of course I watched his most famous - Citizen Kane (1941)... talk about a snooze fest. Welles was good, but the story wasn't too interesting. Don't know why people rave about it.

My all time favorit - Key Largo (1948) with Bogart and Edward G. Robinson. Partly because I relate to the old Florida setting and hurricanes, but also because Robinson is the greatest gangsta ever.

What ya got?

Not a Citizen Kane fan. Key Largo is a lot of fun. Touch of Evil with Charlton Heston as a Mexican police officer is really good stuff

[HellToupee 1,570]

Notorious- love Hitchcock & Cary Grant. Really dark for the times . Great ending

Out of the Past- I’m a sucker for Mitchum

 

Nightmare Alley

[GobbleDog 973]

10 minutes ago, HellToupee said:

Out of the Past- I’m a sucker for Mitchum

Interesting you mention it. I watched that two nights ago. I thought it was... ok.  I'm also a big fan of Mitchum - Kirk Douglas too, so I had high hopes.  It just didn't make a whole lot of sense... gangster wants to get even with old criminal associate, so he tries to frame him for a murder by sending him there to steal... as if he wasn't gonna link it back if he got caught.?. Just kill him.?.  Also jumped around a lot at the end... at gangster's house, gangster's office, mistress's party, down by the river, back to gangster's house.

Still, always nice to see Mitchum and Douglas. Cool dudes and good actors. 

[GobbleDog 973]

23 minutes ago, HellToupee said:

Touch of Evil with Charlton Heston as a Mexican police officer is really good stuff

Heston was good. Welles was absolutely AMAZING.  The one and only flaw (which apparently all film reviewers agree) - the hotel manager played by Chester from Gunsmoke... holy moly he was bad. Talk about over-acting. It's was cringy, but luckily his part was small. Man was he terrible. Surprised Welles didn't fire him after the first take.

[BunnysBastatrds 2,294]

The Powler

The Hitch Hiker 

Double Indemnity

 All three are incredibly written, actors, and filmography 

 

[seafoam1 2,791]

5 hours ago, IGotWorms said:

I love citizen Kane but wouldn’t call it film noir

 That movie sucks in my opinion. 

A movie I liked a lot from yesteryear (sp?), was Grapes of Wrath. It was just surreal. 

[IGotWorms 4,057]

2 hours ago, GobbleDog said:

The movie is rated #1 among numerous international polls. It's supposedly great because of "amazing cinematography, great character analysis..." Ok, it had state of the art camera angles for 1941 and Welles acting was good, but shouldn't the story be interesting? Kept waiting for the plot of finding out about Rosebud to take focus... but nope.  Runs newspaper, political campaign, singing wife (which went on way too long)... ugh. I thought the movie was exhausting.

 

 

[The Real timschochet 6,354]

Double Indemnity is just awesome. And what’s really great are the old shots of the Glendale hills. 

[BuckSwope 654]

The Third Man is a must watch, IMO.    Especially since you already listed a couple of Welles' already. (acting, not directing here though) 

Another favorite is In A Lonely Place. (to me, better Bogey than Key Largo)  Detour is another I suggest a bit now that I don't see mentioned enough.   

 

I don't argue too much about what is noir and what isn't, but I see a lot of Wilder and Hitchcock on lists when I scan, and that along with the Welles movies was my main entry point.   Movies like Rebecca, Strangers on a Train, Sunset Blvd, Notorious, The Long Weekend, and others I see on lists.   

I also almost forgot one of my favorite Kubrick movies - The Killing.   

[HellToupee 1,570]

7 hours ago, The Real timschochet said:

Double Indemnity is just awesome. And what’s really great are the old shots of the Glendale hills. 

That wig though 

[GobbleDog 973]

39 minutes ago, BuckSwope said:

The Third Man is a must watch, IMO.    Especially since you already listed a couple of Welles' already. (acting, not directing here though) 

Another favorite is In A Lonely Place. (to me, better Bogey than Key Largo)  Detour is another I suggest a bit now that I don't see mentioned enough.  

I also almost forgot one of my favorite Kubrick movies - The Killing.   

I'll add Third Man to my list and report back. "Must watch" ... we shall see.

Saw In A Lonely Place last week. Seemed more like a comedy the first 30 minutes. After the murder, there's no mystery (we know he's innocent) and it's not like evidence points to him and has to prove his innocence... just a slow police chief with a hunch. No plot twists, only an angry writer. Two thumbs down. 

Detour was good  - two main actors were fantastic, though the story seemed far fetched. Hitchhiker's driver dies of a heart attack. Ok, could happen. Hitchhicker (with clean record) panics and steals car. Fine, but then... while stopped at a random gas station he picks up another hitchhiker who - low and behold, knew the car and previous owner. What another amazing coincidence!  Hmm.

Saw The Killing recently too. I loved the story - big heist to steal from horse race. What I didn't like... narrator kept giving timelines like an old cliche detective show - "At 2 o'clock he arrived", "at 8:15...", "30 minutes prior", on and on the whole movie. Bad enough, but then going back and forth in time. The horses must've lined up for the 7th race ten times. One actor who was amazing... Timothy Carey (looked up name after) - sniper who shot the horse. Dude seemed straight out of a modern quinten terrantino film.

[Mike Honcho 5,061]

14 hours ago, IGotWorms said:

I love citizen Kane but wouldn’t call it film noir

I wrote a paper in a film class arguing that Citizen Kane was one of the earliest examples of film noir. Got an A and a note from the T.A. saying I convinced him. 

[Cdub100 3,823]

2016 Ghostbusters

[IGotWorms 4,057]

1 hour ago, Mike Honcho said:

I wrote a paper in a film class arguing that Citizen Kane was one of the earliest examples of film noir. Got an A and a note from the T.A. saying I convinced him. 

How long have you two been married?

[BuckSwope 654]

2 hours ago, GobbleDog said:

I'll add Third Man to my list and report back. "Must watch" ... we shall see.

Saw In A Lonely Place last week. Seemed more like a comedy the first 30 minutes. After the murder, there's no mystery (we know he's innocent) and it's not like evidence points to him and has to prove his innocence... just a slow police chief with a hunch. No plot twists, only an angry writer. Two thumbs down. 

Detour was good  - two main actors were fantastic, though the story seemed far fetched. Hitchhiker's driver dies of a heart attack. Ok, could happen. Hitchhicker (with clean record) panics and steals car. Fine, but then... while stopped at a random gas station he picks up another hitchhiker who - low and behold, knew the car and previous owner. What another amazing coincidence!  Hmm.

Saw The Killing recently too. I loved the story - big heist to steal from horse race. What I didn't like... narrator kept giving timelines like an old cliche detective show - "At 2 o'clock he arrived", "at 8:15...", "30 minutes prior", on and on the whole movie. Bad enough, but then going back and forth in time. The horses must've lined up for the 7th race ten times. One actor who was amazing... Timothy Carey (looked up name after) - sniper who shot the horse. Dude seemed straight out of a modern quinten terrantino film.

I feel you on The Killing, and that criticism.   In general I hate voice over in movies, and it's all over the noir genre.   But I like non-linear timelines in movies and I like how it was like Reservoir Dogs but about 40 years earlier.   It's not the peak of the genre, but one I recommend a lot and people have seemed to miss over the years.   

It's possible you don't like Third Man either.   I love In A Lonely Place and have returned to it a few times.    To me a lot of the main movies you see listed for noir start to feel a bit the same when you watch a bunch, so I like ones that are a bit different like In A Lonely Place.    Nobody I know seems to use it besides me, but I love the Criterion Channel and they always seem to have a noir theme each month and I try to check a couple out.   Recently they had British and Japanese ones for a theme, and the comparison was interesting.  

[GobbleDog 973]

14 minutes ago, BuckSwope said:

It's possible you don't like Third Man either.  

Nobody I know seems to use it besides me, but I love the Criterion Channel and they always seem to have a noir theme each month and I try to check a couple out.   Recently they had British and Japanese ones for a theme, and the comparison was interesting.  

Third Man might work - never know what people will like. I'm all over the map... love some obscure Noir's, dislike some of the "greats." 

One of my favorite's - The Amazing Mr. X  ... a dark / semi-spooky film and many times throughout the film, when I thought I finally knew what the plot was about... it changed. Exactly what a good Noir should be.

Don't know Criterion Channel (no cable), but I do know DopeBox.to ....  oh yeah. Free streams of everything. Just have to close a few porno pop-ups.  Once I deplete all the Noir's from binge watching, I might check out some Brits. I used to love old Sherlock Holmes movies with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. That's actually what got me into black/white movies from when I was young. Come home from work late at night and nothing good on (no cable back then either) except old Holmes movies. Good times.

[The Real timschochet 6,354]

3 minutes ago, GobbleDog said:

Third Man might work - never know what people will like. I'm all over the map... love some obscure Noir's, dislike some of the "greats." 

One of my favorite's - The Amazing Mr. X  ... a dark / semi-spooky film and many times throughout the film, when I thought I finally knew what the plot was about... it changed. Exactly what a good Noir should be.

Don't know Criterion Channel (no cable), but I do know DopeBox.to ....  oh yeah. Free streams of everything. Just have to close a few porno pop-ups.  Once I deplete all the Noir's from binge watching, I might check out some Brits. I used to love old Sherlock Holmes movies with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. That's actually what got me into black/white movies from when I was young. Come home from work late at night and nothing good on (no cable back then either) except old Holmes movies. Good times.

Basil Rathbone is one of those awesome names you never hear anymore. 

[TheNewGirl 1,333]

Gilda. 

For more Neo-noir, I'd probably go with stuff by David Lynch like Fire Walk with Me possibly Blue Velvet. 

 

Tarantino has an air of film noir/neo noir with this storylines and femme fatales, etc. My favorite of his is Death Proof. 

[BuckSwope 654]

3 hours ago, GobbleDog said:

Third Man might work - never know what people will like. I'm all over the map... love some obscure Noir's, dislike some of the "greats." 

One of my favorite's - The Amazing Mr. X  ... a dark / semi-spooky film and many times throughout the film, when I thought I finally knew what the plot was about... it changed. Exactly what a good Noir should be.

Don't know Criterion Channel (no cable), but I do know DopeBox.to ....  oh yeah. Free streams of everything. Just have to close a few porno pop-ups.  Once I deplete all the Noir's from binge watching, I might check out some Brits. I used to love old Sherlock Holmes movies with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. That's actually what got me into black/white movies from when I was young. Come home from work late at night and nothing good on (no cable back then either) except old Holmes movies. Good times.

Criterion has a pay streaming service like NF or Hulu.   

[Fnord 2,045]

Chinatown is pretty much the quintessential noir film, Maltese and Key Largo are wonderful. Don't think I've ever seen a Humphrey Bogart film I didn't like. DePalma's work in that genre is stupendous too (Blow Out, Dressed to Kill, Body Double).

Some more recent noirs I really liked were LA Confidential and Brick. If you are looking for a little comedy in your noir, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is fantastic. As is The Big Lebowski.

[BuckSwope 654]

22 minutes ago, Fnord said:

Chinatown is pretty much the quintessential noir film, Maltese and Key Largo are wonderful. Don't think I've ever seen a Humphrey Bogart film I didn't like. DePalma's work in that genre is stupendous too (Blow Out, Dressed to Kill, Body Double).

Some more recent noirs I really liked were LA Confidential and Brick. If you are looking for a little comedy in your noir, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is fantastic. As is The Big Lebowski.

A Simple Plan is a newer one I recommend as well. 

[TheNewGirl 1,333]

1 hour ago, BuckSwope said:

A Simple Plan is a newer one I recommend as well. 

That's a great movie, I loved it. 

[GobbleDog 973]

5 hours ago, The Real timschochet said:

Basil Rathbone is one of those awesome names you never hear anymore. 

Nobody younger than 50 knows that name, and even that's a stretch. Gotta be an old film buff to know Rathbone. When I typed his name, I didn't think anyone here would get it.  Impressive.

[Stryker Ryker 188]

The Lady from Shanghai 

[zsasz 359]

Kira Noir is probably my favorite noir.  The way she effortlessly handles being airtight is Oscar worthy.  

[IGotWorms 4,057]

6 hours ago, Fnord said:

Chinatown is pretty much the quintessential noir film, Maltese and Key Largo are wonderful. Don't think I've ever seen a Humphrey Bogart film I didn't like. DePalma's work in that genre is stupendous too (Blow Out, Dressed to Kill, Body Double).

Some more recent noirs I really liked were LA Confidential and Brick. If you are looking for a little comedy in your noir, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is fantastic. As is The Big Lebowski.

Loved Body Double. So bizarre

[Fnord 2,045]

13 hours ago, IGotWorms said:

Loved Body Double. So bizarre

Highly underrated film. Maybe because people stopped watching it 2/3 of the way through because it made no sense until the end. Remember watching it in HS with some friends that complained throughout that the movie was terrible other than the nudity. Then it was over and they loved it. And the nudity.

[The Real timschochet 6,354]

18 hours ago, GobbleDog said:

Nobody younger than 50 knows that name, and even that's a stretch. Gotta be an old film buff to know Rathbone. When I typed his name, I didn't think anyone here would get it.  Impressive.

I’m over 50, not so impressive. 

[GobbleDog 973]

Ok, I watched The Maltese Falcon last night... a jumbled mess of corniness.  Detective's partner gets murdered while on a case. Detective (bogart) oddly doesn't care, maybe because he's screwing dude's wife - which has nothing to do with the plot. The real plot is a woman and mobsters are looking for an old treasure (falcon). There's a hundred names to keep up with... murdered people, cops, mobsters, secretary, mistress... hell the woman who first asked detective to find it turns out to have 3 different names. Ugh.

In any case, the falcon eventually shows up when a ship's captain (don't ask) walks all the way to detective's office after being shot several times and dies just as he hands it over - of course. The detective then makes a deal with mobsters to sell it, only if they hand over a fellow mobster to take a murder wrap (seriously). Mobsters agree and sit in office to wait for Falcon's delivery. When it does, it's fake and they leave, but later arrested as we're told at the end. Woman was in on one of the murders so Bogart turns her in, only after she spills her guts explaining to the audience who-shot-who and what exactly happened. The real falcon is never found and the only mystery is why The Maltese Falcon isn't considered a steaming pile of poop. I'd like to say the acting was impressive - it wasn't. Bogart is his same one-liner self and the rest weren't memorable, other than Peter Lorre, who didn't get much screen time.

Guess they can't all be winners. 

[HellToupee 1,570]

1 hour ago, GobbleDog said:

I watched The Maltese Falcon last night... a jumbled mess 

Welcome to noir. You could say that about a lot of the genre 

[GobbleDog 973]

28 minutes ago, HellToupee said:

Welcome to noir. You could say that about a lot of the genre 

Perhaps, but I had high hopes for Maltese... I've heard about it all my life, but never got around to watching it. The story wasn't great and there wasn't much mystery or suspense. It's basically a movie about Bogart doing what he does in every movie - being Bogart.  Cool with quick-wit.

I guess acting didn't become a thing until the 50's and really took off in the 60's. Bogart wasn't an actor, he was a star.

[IGotWorms 4,057]

3 hours ago, GobbleDog said:

Perhaps, but I had high hopes for Maltese... I've heard about it all my life, but never got around to watching it. The story wasn't great and there wasn't much mystery or suspense. It's basically a movie about Bogart doing what he does in every movie - being Bogart.  Cool with quick-wit.

I guess acting didn't become a thing until the 50's and really took off in the 60's. Bogart wasn't an actor, he was a star.

99% on rotten tomatoes, 8/10 on IMDb. Seems like it’s just you bro. But I get it, we’ve all got movies like that