5 Classic Film Noir Movies Worth Seeing

Billy Wilder's 1944 film noir classic Double Indemnity might be based on the novel of the same name by pulp-fiction author James M. Cain, but Wilder, thankfully, injects enough of his own style and tastes into the film to transform 'Double Indemnity' from a mediocre novel into a fantastic movie. Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), a salesman with Pacific All Risk Insurance Co., meets the wife of one of his clients -- Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) -- a sexy but dangerous woman who asks Neff if it would be possible to get a life insurance policy on her husband without him knowing about it. Suspecting Dietrichson is up to no good, Neff attempts to but walk away from the situation, but eventually succumbs to Phyllis's charms and agrees to help her kill her husband and scam his own company out of millions. Although the police are willing accept the idea that Dietrichson's husband died accidentally, Walter's best friend and co-worker Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) suspects that Phyllis might have murdered her husband with the help of another man, and proceeds to try and prove his point, much to Walter's chagrin. Further complicating matters is Mrs. Dietrichson's daughter Lola (Jean Heather), whom Walter can't help but fall in love with. As tensions mount, Walter begins to wonder if he can trust Dietrischson anymore, especially after Lola reveals to him that her husband might not have been her first victim. Wilder had a gift for movies that feature dangerous blondes and expensive murders. The world that Wilder creates for us is one of constant shadows and claustrophobia -- the venetian blinds that create silhouettes reminiscent of jail cells, the apartment hallway that at one point sees Walter, Phyllis, and an investigative Keyes all playing a tension-filled game of hide-and-seek. When it comes to setting the right mood, Wilder knows how to dress and light the set for optimal effect, and there are very few scenes in his picture that don't have you sitting on the edge of your seat or worrying that something might be lurking in the shadows just off camera.Fritz Lang's suspenseful and tension-filled masterpiece 'M' (1931) stars film noir regular and all-around creepy actor Peter Lorre as Hans Beckert, a mentally-unstable serial-killer who preys upon the children of Berlin, Germany, and whose crimes not only inspire fear and angst in the hearts of Berlin's upright citizens and police, but also the criminals who see their crime-dens and businesses raided on a regular basis as the police scramble to catch the serial killer plaguing their city. Eschewing violence and gore, Lang's "serial killer film" instead utilizes rich symbolism and eerie suggestion when examining Beckert's crimes, and transforms the character of Hans Beckert from mere one-dimensional monster into a complex, almost victim-like man who is haunted by his crimes and lust for murder. Lorre, a fine character-actor who was unfortunately type-casted for the vast duration of his career, is splendid and moving as the tortured child-killer, injecting enough pathos into his character so that he somehow comes off as being less evil and degenerate then the racketeers and drug-dealers who seek to capture him in hopes that the police will end their indiscriminate raids. Though a terrific film and a perfect example of film noir outside of the US, Lang's 'M' isn't without its faults -- most of them technical in nature. Being made in the 1930's, 'M' was Fritz Lang's first 'talkie', and as such the film's soundtrack and dialogue can be a bit flat-sounding or muffled at times, while other sections of the film remain completely silent, which can be slightly jarring to modern audiences. However, while the film's soundtrack might be spotty and undesirable in some places, Lorre's acting and Lang's direction create an atmosphere of dread and tragedy that easily make up for these technical fouls, and produces a film noir that's definitely worth the watch. Howard Hawks' 1946 adaptation of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep stars the irreplaceable Humphrey Bogart as Chandler's iconoclastic private investigator Philip Marlowe, who's hired to keep an eye on General Sternwood's (Charles Waldron) daughter Carmen (Martha Vickers), a reckless young woman who has fallen in with some bad company and is likely to do some damage to either to either herself or her entire family. Soon after, Marlowe finds himself falling for Carmen's older sister, Vivien (Lauren Bacall), as well as learning that each problem he confronts seems to center around the vanishing of Sternwood's favorite employee, a man believed to have left the city with mobster Eddie Mars' (John Ridgley) wife, and whose disappearance everyone seems content to leave unsolved. Though Hawks take a number of liberties with Chandler's book, most of these changes were made to accommodate the prudish tastes of the Hayes Code, and their overall effect on the movie is practically nil. Hawks is a versatile director, but he is never better or more provocative than when he is making a film noir: His use of symbolic shadows and harsh lights, his staccato-paced and wittily written dialogue, and his ability to make a story run along on wheels of fire without leaving his audience behind in the dust are Hawks' greatest assets, and what makes him such a talented director. Humphrey Bogart is perfect as the gruff, cynical, and witty Philip Marlowe, what with his natural charisma, his nasally voice, and his acerbic tongue all fitting together wonderfully like a solved jigsaw puzzle and creating a character both iconic and yet grounded in reality. Equally perfect is Bogart's wife, Lauren Bacall, whose portrayal of Vivian Sternwood is deeper than the typical femme fatal. The chemistry between Bogart and Bacall is natural, believable, and utterly entertaining, and the scenes they share with each other are some of the best in the whole film.View the list »
"Film Noir" is French for "Awesome Movies"

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The nineteen-thirties and forties were a dark time in American history -- the Great Depression saw most people doing what they could to elk out a living (be it legal or less than legal) while the shadow of World War II loomed large and dark until it could no longer be ignored, and America saw itself entering into a war of almost biblical proportions. It comes as no surprise then that a great number of movies made during this time period reflected the murky and pessimistic atmosphere that permeated throughout the world, and gave us the distinct and thrilling genre known as "film noir".

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One of the most distinctive and easily recognizable genres in the history of cinema, film noir employs harsh contrasts between light and shadow, mist-mantled scenery, askew camera angles, and rich symbolism to tell dark, violent tales that follow the lives of all sorts of sordid and tragic characters -- the sardonic private eye, the fast-talking gangster, the seductive femme fatal, the tragic and outmatched everyone, these characters and others take that long and violent journey into the darkness, and very few of them come out at the end better off than they were at the beginning.

Owning to its immense popularity, film noir boasts a staggering amount of films to its genre -- some of them classics, others not so memorable. This list focuses on the former over the latter, and provides one with a decent "starting point" for any and all interested in the film noir genre.

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  • Howard Hawks' 1946 adaptation of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep stars the irreplaceable Humphrey Bogart as Chandler's iconoclastic private investigator Philip Marlowe, who's hired to keep an eye on General Sternwood's (Charles Waldron) daughter Carmen (Martha Vickers), a reckless young woman who has fallen in with some bad company and is likely to do some damage to either to either herself or her entire family. Soon after, Marlowe finds himself falling for Carmen's older sister, Vivien (Lauren Bacall), as well as learning that each problem he confronts seems to center around the vanishing of Sternwood's favorite employee, a man believed to have left the city with mobster Eddie Mars' (John Ridgley) wife, and whose disappearance everyone seems content to leave unsolved. Though Hawks take a number of liberties with Chandler's book, most of these changes were made to accommodate the prudish tastes of the Hayes Code, and their overall effect on the movie is practically nil. Hawks is a versatile director, but he is never better or more provocative than when he is making a film noir: His use of symbolic shadows and harsh lights, his staccato-paced and wittily written dialogue, and his ability to make a story run along on wheels of fire without leaving his audience behind in the dust are Hawks' greatest assets, and what makes him such a talented director. Humphrey Bogart is perfect as the gruff, cynical, and witty Philip Marlowe, what with his natural charisma, his nasally voice, and his acerbic tongue all fitting together wonderfully like a solved jigsaw puzzle and creating a character both iconic and yet grounded in reality. Equally perfect is Bogart's wife, Lauren Bacall, whose portrayal of Vivian Sternwood is deeper than the typical femme fatal. The chemistry between Bogart and Bacall is natural, believable, and utterly entertaining, and the scenes they share with each other are some of the best in the whole film.
  • Fritz Lang's suspenseful and tension-filled masterpiece 'M' (1931) stars film noir regular and all-around creepy actor Peter Lorre as Hans Beckert, a mentally-unstable serial-killer who preys upon the children of Berlin, Germany, and whose crimes not only inspire fear and angst in the hearts of Berlin's upright citizens and police, but also the criminals who see their crime-dens and businesses raided on a regular basis as the police scramble to catch the serial killer plaguing their city. Eschewing violence and gore, Lang's "serial killer film" instead utilizes rich symbolism and eerie suggestion when examining Beckert's crimes, and transforms the character of Hans Beckert from mere one-dimensional monster into a complex, almost victim-like man who is haunted by his crimes and lust for murder. Lorre, a fine character-actor who was unfortunately type-casted for the vast duration of his career, is splendid and moving as the tortured child-killer, injecting enough pathos into his character so that he somehow comes off as being less evil and degenerate then the racketeers and drug-dealers who seek to capture him in hopes that the police will end their indiscriminate raids. Though a terrific film and a perfect example of film noir outside of the US, Lang's 'M' isn't without its faults -- most of them technical in nature. Being made in the 1930's, 'M' was Fritz Lang's first 'talkie', and as such the film's soundtrack and dialogue can be a bit flat-sounding or muffled at times, while other sections of the film remain completely silent, which can be slightly jarring to modern audiences. However, while the film's soundtrack might be spotty and undesirable in some places, Lorre's acting and Lang's direction create an atmosphere of dread and tragedy that easily make up for these technical fouls, and produces a film noir that's definitely worth the watch. 
  • Billy Wilder's 1944 film noir classic Double Indemnity might be based on the novel of the same name by pulp-fiction author James M. Cain, but Wilder, thankfully, injects enough of his own style and tastes into the film to transform 'Double Indemnity' from a mediocre novel into a fantastic movie. Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), a salesman with Pacific All Risk Insurance Co., meets the wife of one of his clients -- Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) -- a sexy but dangerous woman who asks Neff if it would be possible to get a life insurance policy on her husband without him knowing about it. Suspecting Dietrichson is up to no good, Neff attempts to but walk away from the situation, but eventually succumbs to Phyllis's charms and agrees to help her kill her husband and scam his own company out of millions. Although the police are willing accept the idea that Dietrichson's husband died accidentally, Walter's best friend and co-worker Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) suspects that Phyllis might have murdered her husband with the help of another man, and proceeds to try and prove his point, much to Walter's chagrin. Further complicating matters is Mrs. Dietrichson's daughter Lola (Jean Heather), whom Walter can't help but fall in love with. As tensions mount, Walter begins to wonder if he can trust Dietrischson anymore, especially after Lola reveals to him that her husband might not have been her first victim. Wilder had a gift for movies that feature dangerous blondes and expensive murders. The world that Wilder creates for us is one of constant shadows and claustrophobia -- the venetian blinds that create silhouettes reminiscent of jail cells, the apartment hallway that at one point sees Walter, Phyllis, and an investigative Keyes all playing a tension-filled game of hide-and-seek. When it comes to setting the right mood, Wilder knows how to dress and light the set for optimal effect, and there are very few scenes in his picture that don't have you sitting on the edge of your seat or worrying that something might be lurking in the shadows just off camera.
  • The plot to Louis Malle's dark and tragic Elevator to the Gallows (1958) is a standard film noir plot: An ex-paratrooper named Julien (Maurice Ronet), and his lover Florence (Jeanne Moreau) plan to murder the latter's husband and make his death look like a suicide so that the two of them can live in relative splendor and with each other. Although Julien is successful in his mission to kill his Florence's husband, things take a turn for the worse when he finds himself trapped in an elevator of the office building where dead man waits to be found by the police.   Further complicating matters is the fact that a young hood named Louis (Georges Poujouly) and his girlfriend Veronique (Yori Bertin) steal Julien's car for a joyride. Florence, seeing Veronique in Julien's car but not seeing Louis, mistakenly believes that Julien has left her for another woman and wanders the city in a morose and broken state while Julien struggles to free himself from the elevator less the police find incriminating evidence on his person and arrest him for the murder of Florence's husband. Despite the fact that Ronet spends most of his screen-time trapped inside of an elevator, he does a terrific job projecting his fears and frustration through his facial expressions and hand gestures, and conveying a sense of true dread and doom without having to speak a single word of dialogue. Malle's direction and choice of soundtrack are also pivotal to the moody atmosphere of the picture, with Miles Davis's lonesome trumpet adding a jazzy but sorrow-filled sound to Malle's already gloomy picture. 'Elevator to the Gallows' is a a bleak, tragic, and highly suspenseful story full of twists and turns that make most of Hollywood's film noirs look rather cheerful and optimistic by comparison.       
  • Tay Garnett's The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) opens with drifter and ne'er-do-well Frank Chambers (John Garfield) stopping off at a rural cafe ran by the beautiful but cunning Cora (Lana Turner) and her much older husband Nick Smith (Cecil Kellaway). Frank and Cora quickly start a love affair, and soon after come up with a scheme a murder Cora's husband so they can start a new life together. However, for Frank and Cora, success ultimately proves to be their downfall. After successfully murdering Cora's husband and making it look like an automobile accident, the suspicious local prosecutor manages to get Frank and Cora to turn on each other in hopes of getting a confession. And while both Frank and Cora attempt to double-cross the other to save themselves, Cora's defense attorney manages to use some underhanded tactics of his own to get Cora off with mere probation. Free from judicial punishment, Frank and Cora now have the money and ability to start their new life together, but both of them find that neither can trust the other, and soon their love and passion for each other quickly turns to hate and paranoia. John Garfield never got the same amount of attention as some of his contemporaries, which is a shame, because as Garnett's film shows us, Garfield was a confident and talented actor, portraying Frank Chambers with equal parts charm and sleaze. Though Chambers has no problems with killing a man for his wife, Garfield externalizes his emotions visibly enough and portrays Chambers with enough pathos to show that the man is not beyond redemption. Equally riveting is Lana Turner, as the sexy and dangerous Cora. From the first moment we see her dressed in white and bathed in light, its easy to understand how Garfield's Chambers could become infatuated with her, and do the unthinkable to get his hands on her.  
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Daniel DiMattei is a graduate of Keene State College, and holds a BA in Film Production. When he is not busy watching and reviewing movies, he is participating in writing, animation, and other creative endeavors. He can be reached d.dimattei@gmail.com for those with any film related questions or...

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