Film noir is not an easy genre to pin down, yet it is strangely recognisable. We think of long shadows and smoke dancing, tough guys in fedoras and dames with a history of trouble. Film noir is the mash-up of German Expressionism-influenced direction and American crime writing.
Film noir is downbeat. Noir remains popular, perhaps, because it gives us a chance to walk down those mean streets, take a look at what goes on in the darkness on the edge of town. Maybe it’s the closest we have to Greek tragedy- knowing that fates are against us from the start.
Few genres have been written about as much as noir, maybe because it emerged and went away naturally with no manifesto to guide it. Trying to define film noir by its films is even tougher and in making this list of Top 10 Film Noir I’ve had to be harsh and cut out some great films for lacking that true, doomed sense of noir. Also, I’ve also included films made between 1939 and 1958, my take on the era of noir.
So grab your fedora, grab your trench coat, take a shot of rye for good luck, because the darkness on the edge of town is waiting…
10. The Big Heat (1953)
Dir. Fritz Lang
Cast: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Lee Mavin
Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) is a cop verses the gangsters. He’s moral and upright and will catch the bad guys by the book. But the gangsters don’t like playing by the rules. After killing people close to Bannion, he sets out to get the murderers- whatever it takes.
This film noir contains one of the most shockingly violent scenes in any film noir, when heavy Lee Marvin flings boiling coffee into his moll (Gloria Grahame)’s face. No knowing its; coming is shocking, you can help but be amazed they got away with this in 1953!
Speaking of Marvin and Grahame, although they’re supporting roles, they both ace them. Lee Marvin went from playing the heavy to playing the tough guy heroe, so it’s nice to see how his career started off.
Fritz Lang is one of the most famous directors of German Expressionism, and once he escaped to America he churned out noirs like this. But it still manages to be a Fritz Lang film in its tough realism and brutal violence.
Key Line: Debby: Well you’re as about as romantic as a pair of handcuffs.
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8 Comments
Good list but no “Kiss Me Deadly”, “The Big Sleep” or “The Big Combo”(you even use the iconic image from that film for this article). Nevertheless, good list and there are two movies listed I’ve never seen so thanks.
‘The Big Combo’ and ‘Kiss Me Deadly’ would have been 11 and 12. I cut ‘The Big Sleep’ because I don’t think it’s quite noir enough. Don’t get me wrong, I love the movie a lot, but I don’t think it has a noir enough style to qualify.
Out of interest, which two movies on the list haven’t you seen?
After going through the list it’s only one. Odd Man Out. You know what would be cool? A list of modern Noir movies. But then, without the look and time of the film itself, you kind of bring up the argument of what a “noir” film is. Is Fargo Noir? Memento? Miami Blues? Layer Cake? A Simple Plan? The Big Lebowski? What is required? A femme fatale, betrayal, downbeat ending, morally ambiguous protagonist?
Great list, but no room for the Maltese Falcon or Chinatown? No problem, I’ve only seen two of these and heard of about half of these so maybe they don’t fit in. Good research work.
Oops never mind about Chinatown, saw your criteria in the intro…
Like for The Big Sleep, I cut out The Maltease Falcon because it’s not quite noir enough, if anything I think John Huston’s later The Treasure of The Sierra Madre is closer to noir than Falcon.
I’m a huge noir fan, so I was glad to get the opputunity to take above some of the overlooked classics of the noir, especially Odd Man Out which is a very hard film to track down.
I have been thinking of following this list up with a neo-noir list, Flayne. I think noir is a mixture of mood and style, I don’t think it needs to be about private detectives. Out of the films you list, I’d say Memento is closest to noir. There’s a great essay by James Ellroy about noir fiction that can also be applied to noir movies, it’s in his foreward to the anthology Best American Noir of the Century, arguing that noir is a mood as opposed to its tropes- private eye, femme fatale, etc.
Great list but yeah i also think that The Big sleep and The Maltese Falcon should be there, but the ones that made it are still awesome.