10. The Killing
This is Kubrick's first great film and by far his best film noir. For the film Kubrick recruited a cast of actors who had all been in their fair share of film noirs and they all do a fine job, and the dialogue and (of course) directing are terrific. What is so great about this movie isn't the plot, but rather how the plot is told; which is non-linear and many scenes are done several times but from a different character's perspective each time. The film is only 84 minutes long not a single shot is wasted.
9. The Maltese Falcon
One of the most famous of film noirs to non cinephiles and is often extremely overrated or very underrated, this movie is one of the two movies that made Humphrey Bogart a star (the other being High Sierra) and is considered by many to be the first film noir (it isn't). Nevertheless it's a truly iconic film featuring the most iconic of all film noir actors in Humphrey Bogart, a femme fatale played by Mary Astor, the killer combo of Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre, film noir mainstay Elisha Cook Jr. who makes every movie he's in better, and Ward Bond even drops by for a few minutes. An amazing directorial debut by John Huston that's one of the best mystery stories of all time.
8. In a Lonely Place
For my money the best movie about Hollywood ever made, even better than Sunset Boulevard which was actually released the same year. In a Lonely Place is about a screenwriter (played by Humphrey Bogart) who delivers one of the greatest performances of his career (it's right up there with The Treasure of the Sierra Madre) as the movie follows how his character's life falls apart. A very depressing, but fascinating movie, that's masterfully handled by Nicholas Ray and is one of the most angry, bitter looks at Hollywood ever put to film.
7. Double Indemnity
The film that established Billy Wilder as one of the great directors of his time, andshows how daring a director Billy Wilder was. It features the woman whom I consider to be the greatest (or is it worst?) femme fatale of all time in Phyllis Dietrichson (played terrifically by Barbara Stanwyck) and features solid performances by Fred MacMurray as the man who succumbs to her "charms" and Edward G. Robinson as MacMurray's boss and best friend. The movie starts out pretty messed up with Stanwyck and MacMurray plotting to kill to Stanwyck's husband in order to inherit all of the money his life insurance policy would leave her, and gets progressively more and more fucked up after they murder Stanwyck's husband as Edward G. Robinson who is an insurance inspector realizes that something may be up, and the audience learns more and more about Phyllis Dietrichson and just how reprehensible a character she really is as everything falls apart and is wrapped up in typical noir fashion (people die).
6. The Big Combo
One of the most visually stunning film noirs of all time and one that really just embodies all that is film noir to me. This is one of those movies where the style is the substance, one that takes place in (as Dave Kehr said in his review of the film) an almost dreamlike world. Whenever I hear the words "film" and "noir" in succession this is the movie that I think of.
5. Laura
One of those movies that's kind of hard for me to put into words why I like it so much, but I'll give it a try anyways. All of the performances in this movie are great (most notably Clifton Webb and a very young Vincent Prince), the black and white cinematography is some of the best you'll ever see, and Dana Andrews falls in love with a dead chick.
4. Touch of Evil
One of Orson Welles' best films (I have it in the top four) and my fourth favorite film noir of all time as well. This movie opens with arguably the most famous shot of all time and just keeps going from there as it really is a masterpiece in direction (as are all Welles films) and contains great performances from the entire cast. Even the Charlton Heston's oft-maligned performance as a Mexican is great because even though he's totally unconvincing as a Mexican, his nationality/race is ultimately of no consequence as far as his character goes as Heston plays his typical proud, straight-arrow, and heroic role perfectly. Heston's character is perfect contrast with the corrupt, almost monstrous Hank Quinlan, played by Orson Welles. Charlton Heston may be the star and main character of the movie, but the film is about Hank Quinlan and his loss of innocence and how a great detective became a terrible cop. Also Marlene Dietrich stops by for about 4 minutes and delivers a knockout performance.
3. Out of the Past
Although The Big Combo may be the first movie I think of when it comes to film noir, no movie really embodies film noir as fully as Out of the Past. Out of the Past has a private eye, a femme fatale, a mob boss, flashbacks, chiaroscuro lighting, a nihilistic attitude, and probably the "noiriest" dialogue of any film. “My feelings? About ten years ago, I hid them somewhere and haven’t been able to find them.” That's just one fine example in a film full of them. Probably the best gateway movie for film noir of any in the genre, if you don't like this you probably just don't like film noir.
2. The Third Man
The best film-noir to ever come out of Europe (Britain), a movie that features great on-location shooting (postwar Vienna), gorgeous black and white cinematography, an unforgettable score, and Orson Welles' most memorable role and one of his best performances, certainly his best in a movie that he didn't direct. Welles plays one of my two favorite movie villains of all time in Harry Lime (the other is Reverend Harry Powell from The Night of the Hunter) and gives such a memorable performance despite the fact that he's only on screen for less than ten minutes, he's the character that everyone remembers. However, Orson Welles is far from being the only reason to watch this movie, because as mentioned earlier this movie has some of the most beautiful cinematography you'll ever see in any movie, and the score is one of the best ever. The leads Joseph Cotten and Allida Valli are overshadowed by Orson Welles, but that's mainly because their roles are not as interesting, yet their performances are just as good. This is one of the best movies of all time.
1. The Big Sleep
Objectively, probably a worse film than The Third Man, but Humphrey Bogart is my favorite actor of all time and Howard Hawks is one of my favorite directors so those two combined with my favorite film genre is basically an unbeatable combination in my eyes. Howard Hawks said he learned during the filming of this movie, that a movie isn't so much about having a great story, so much as it is about having a succession of great scenes. This certainly is true for this movie as the plot is almost impossible to follow but it doesn't really matter at all because every scene is memorable, Humphrey Bogart is a badass, and Lauren Bacall and him share some of the best dialogue ever put to film. Some people think that this movie isn't really a film noir, and is moreso just a detective story because the main characters are both good guys and at the end of the day there is basically a happy ending because Bogart survives gets the girl. However, just like Fritz Lang's The Big Heat, although there may appear to be a happy ending on the surface, it is more about how that "happy" ending is obtained that makes it a film noir. In The Big Heat Glenn Ford's quest for justice and later revenge puts several innocent women in danger and leads to three of them being killed, and in The Big Sleep it is Bogart's unwarranted, cruel, and vindictive killing of Eddie Mars that makes this a film noir.
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