Top 5

Top Classic Noir

Here's my attempt to describe a noir film: protagonists are usually tough but vulnerable, and aren't clearly "good" or "bad."  Trouble usually finds them, and that trouble often consists of murder, elaborate deception, obsession, perversion, alienation.  Darkness and shadow are emphasized visually. 

As far as "classic" goes, for the sake of argument, let's say before 1960.  According to Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Refernce to the American Style, the production of noir films sharply tapered off after '57.  The heyday seems to be '45-'51.

1.  Murder, My Sweet, 1944.  Dig my blog.

2.  Out of the Past, 1947.

3.  Double Indemnity, 1944.

4.  The Big Heat, 1953.

5.  The Big Sleep, 1946.

6.  The Killing, 1956. 

7.  The Asphalt Jungle, 1958.

Re: Top Classic Noir

As much as I have LOVED pretty much every classic film noir I've seen, I'm surprised that I've seen so few.  But here's my top 5.  It's pretty much more than half of all of them I've seen.

1.  Out of the Past, 1947.

2.  Pickup on South Street, 1953.

3.  The Killing, 1956.

4.  The Big Sleep, 1946.

5.  Strangers on a Train, 1951.

If you'd have let it go to 1958, I would have put Touch of Evil up there for sure!

Here's a couple I'm hoping to see.  Anyone want to recommend any of them?
D.O.A., 1949.
The Big Clock, 1948.
The Postman Always Rings Twice, 1946.
In a Lonely Place, 1950.
The Lost Weekend, 1945.
This Gun for Hire, 1942.

Re: Top Classic Noir

What the hey, let's include Touch of Evil.  I like it both earnestly and ironically, depending on what part of the film I'm watching.  That long opening shot is highly impressive.  The scene where the motorcycle gang is forcing her to smoke pot... laughable, man. 

Re: Top Classic Noir

Touch of Evil remains one of my favorite films, which I see a least once or twice each year. The version which I have, is said to be the 'reconstituted' one, the one Orson Wells supposedly had in mind. This one is on Tape and then hoping to catch a DVD version, I watched one, but alas, was very different, horrible even, but also labeled as the 'Director's Cut', but this one missed that wonderful opening tracking shot...'I hear Ticking... kaboom!!! following after'. 

I did love that scene you mentioned, it always reminds me of the tag from Reefer Madness; "In short, a group of teens, seduced by the power of 'reefer', take a few puffs...and instantly become psychotic killers, jazz addicts,and whores."; and they shot her up with heroin; it was not a mere smoke of reefer, was it?

One of my great joys in watching Noir, is the almost unfailing main character made in to a complete chump and in most cases, dying for his troubles and woes (Jim Thompson, is the master or this ( who could forget the book ending of 'the getaway'); and I am having a hard time remembering in any of his books, if the characters just didn't plain die, and die horribly and in fact were not doomed from the very first moment they were introduced; the opening of After Dark my Sweet is spoken as he lay dying outside the car; Fay Collie, and Uncle Ben! gad what names! ).

Certainly, David Lynch  in Lost Highway carried this along and as a segue into it, I have been rethinking my favorite Directors, and not in any real order, but

David Lynch ( I just rewatched 'Fire walk with Me' and found it nothing short of a masterpiece )

Terrance Malick

Takashi Miike

Pedro Almodovar

Kar Wai Wong

Terry Gilliam

Takeshi Kitano

( Gilliam and Miike seem to be the most inconsistent; Miike, maybe from the feverish amount he completes )

and here are some that are very impressive, but I would like to see more of

Christopher Nolan

Steven Frears

Darren Aronofsky

David Fincher

and we have to add the original 'Killers' to any list of Noir!

Re: Top Classic Noir

SkyPilot:

What the hey, let's include Touch of Evil.  I like it both earnestly and ironically, depending on what part of the film I'm watching.  That long opening shot is highly impressive.  The scene where the motorcycle gang is forcing her to smoke pot... laughable, man. 

What do you think about Dennis Weaver's character?  I love it!  Supposedly it had a big influence on the Norman Bates character in Psycho.  Ha, I would have loved to see Dennis Weaver as Norman Bates!

Re: Top Classic Noir

Good god almighty! I think you are absolutely correct!

Weaver was terrific; Norman Bates before Mr. Bates fixed his expression,  learned how and then, steeled himself to kill. His skittering right out of that there road motel when the going got shrill and fun, lead him straight back to the arms of his mother and her delightful abode! 

Weaver would have been a scream in Psycho! 'You will die laughing as Weaver plunges the knife in and out with comedic affect' Beethoven's Erocia 3rd movement plays softly in the background ( I could never figure that one out, why they showed that peice on the phonograph; help anyone??? ). He should have practiced by strangling Tamiroff bugeyed. Can you imagine Tamiroff faced with Weaver instead of Welles? that would have been a real shock.

Re: Top Classic Noir

Re: Top Classic Noir

Moose:

1. Double Indemnity
2. Sunset Boulevard
3. The Maltese Falcon
4. Touch of Evil
5. Sweet Smell of Success

I guess Sunset Boulevard is a film noir.  Joe has a lot of that smart alec clever dialogue.  It collides with Norma Desmond's grandiose silent film world though.  Although things sometimes feel sinister, there's never really any explicit violence until the end (or the results of it we see right at the beginning).  I think it's a great movie, but do you think it's one of the best examples of film-noir?

I've never seen Sweet Smell of Success.

Re: Top Classic Noir

Risselada:

As much as I have LOVED pretty much every classic film noir I've seen, I'm surprised that I've seen so few.  But here's my top 5.  It's pretty much more than half of all of them I've seen.

1.  Out of the Past, 1947.

2.  Pickup on South Street, 1953.

3.  The Killing, 1956.

4.  The Big Sleep, 1946.

5.  Strangers on a Train, 1951.

If you'd have let it go to 1958, I would have put Touch of Evil up there for sure!

 

Here's a couple I'm hoping to see.  Anyone want to recommend any of them?
D.O.A., 1949.
The Big Clock, 1948.
The Postman Always Rings Twice, 1946.
In a Lonely Place, 1950.
The Lost Weekend, 1945.
This Gun for Hire, 1942.

Rizzo-

In my opinion This Gun for Hire is a masterpiece - midget-sized Alan Ladd makes a very tough noir anti-hero. I would also highly recommend The Big Clock (decently remade as No Way Out in the 80's) and D.O.A. (horribly remade in the 80's), but I would caution that I only have one problem with D.O.A. (early in the film there is a sound effect that becomes an annoyingly unsuccessful attempt at humor) . I also love The Postman Always Rings Twice (dissapointingly remade in the 80's - see a pattern?) and In a Lonely Place. The Lost Weekend is a precursor to addiction films like Requium for a Dream and it is well made, but I don't get excited about the subject matter.

Re: Top Classic Noir

Jymkata:

Rizzo-

In my opinion This Gun for Hire is a masterpiece - midget-sized Alan Ladd makes a very tough noir anti-hero. I would also highly recommend The Big Clock (decently remade as No Way Out in the 80's) and D.O.A. (horribly remade in the 80's), but I would caution that I only have one problem with D.O.A. (early in the film there is a sound effect that becomes an annoyingly unsuccessful attempt at humor) . I also love The Postman Always Rings Twice (dissapointingly remade in the 80's - see a pattern?) and In a Lonely Place. The Lost Weekend is a precursor to addiction films like Requium for a Dream and it is well made, but I don't get excited about the subject matter.

Thanks for the insight into all of those.  I was wondering if anyone would say anything.  Man, I'm getting ansty to see some of these now!

What's the deal with all of those 80's remakes?  What was it about the 80's that made people interested in noir again?  It doesn't seem to fit with my impression of anything that went on in the 80's, except for maybe a lot of shitty city scum television series.

I'm soooo curious about this sound effect in D.O.A. now.  My imagination is taking me to strange places.

So what would your list be Jason?