Terrific film, I agree. And MMS is one the four films French film critic Nino Frank cited as marking something new (and “noir”) in American crime films in August 1946, after not seeing American films since the Nazi invasion of France in 1940.
@@drnoir33"Farewell, My Lovely" which is a remake with Robert Mitchum, and a return to the title of the book, is great too. Plus, the plot has been used in other movies and several television episodes.🤔😊👍
@@williambilyeu9801 Indeed. Check out my video on the top Films Noir released after 1966. FAREWELL MY LOVELY - along with another 1970s Chandler adaptation - ranks very high. :)
Love your analysis and the enjoyed the presentation - especially giving time before the title popped up! I've seen so many, but there are many more to watch!
Though not as popular among casual noir viewers as it is with critics, in many ways, *_Murder My Sweet (1944)_* # 5 on this list, is the quintessential detective noir. If you haven't already seen it, do so, it is more than worthy --- moody, atmospheric, deadly, surreal and with great dialogue (how could it not, being based on one of Raymond Chandler's greatest works).
[TMI alert] After my first colonscopy, as I groggily tried to dress, I recalled Dick Powell's Marlowe tries to do the same after being "sapped twice, choked, beaten silly with a gun, shot in the arm until you're as crazy as a couple of waltzing mice." As my wife guided me down the main hallway of the clinic, I kept stopping to remember and recite some other detail. Folks poked their head out of doors and windows to make sure I was OK. :) It is a brilliant film, yes, and I give it some love in this video: ua-cam.com/video/8RVmQsB78hI/v-deo.html
Hope your gastroenterologist was not _Dr. Sonderborg_ (He's a wiz with a hypo) and also that your procedure was _not_ performed at a little rest home on _Descanso Street._
I adore Duryea (say that 10 times fast)! He is getting some love in the video I expect to upload in the next 24 hours. Like that first step, it's a doozy.
@@terrorofmechagodzilla4944 It just misses at #109, tied with THE CHASE (1946). It was only watchable in poor prints until relatively recently, so it may have fallen off the radar somewhat.
Boy is it fun seeing the screenshots of these fantastic movies, especially with other people that love these films also. I would have ordered them slightly differently, but that is okay. I have seen many of the films, but there were a few I was unfamiliar with. Thank you for putting this video together!
You are very welcome, and thank you for your kind words! :) Just to be clear, this is not my personal ranking. I am but a humbler compiler of a few dozen authoritative film noir lists. For more, check out my "To List or not To List" video. I have three (at least) more videos in this format planned: directors, actors, actresses.
Good list. I was hoping to see M (Fritz Lang) appear, although I guess that it may be a proto-Noir film. Same for Night of the Hunter. Still, there are quite a few that I have yet to see, even though they're in my collection (cough...Touch of Evil, Mildred Pierce, Black Angel...cough).
Thank you! If this were my "personal" list, Lang's M would be much higher (my next video puts M and other earlier films in geohistoric context). Joseph Losey's 1951 remake of M is #101 (25 LISTS, 29.0 POINTS), but the original is at #468 (9, 13.0), between THE USUAL SUSPECTS and SIN CITY. NIGHT OF THE HUNTER is at #113 (22 LISTS, 28.0 POINTS), so not too far off.
@@marionmarino1616 Like many flms deemed noir, NOTH is a bit of a genre mashup. Beautiful and terrifying - though Mitchum may have topped himself in the original CAPE FEAR seven years later. Just shows how terrific an actor he was. :)
A note on #33 On dangerous Ground, although originally not credited, Ida Lupino actually directed parts of the film. My personal favorite film noir is #11, The Asphalt Jungle.
@@drnoir33 I agree, she's amazing. I'll watch anything she's had a hand in ... just a shame she didn't have more support in Hollywood, as an actress but perhaps even more so as a Director. I would have loved to see her evolve with bigger budgets and even juicier screenplays. She's like a female Val Lewton, did so much with so much less. The Asphalt Jungle had everything, a GREAT ensemble cast, great story, superb performances and an ending that will always make me tear up --- for the "bad" guy. Speaking of Sterling Hayden, glad to see The Killing make the list as well, it's so well-crafted and again, great ending.
Very interesting list and great effort; thanks! Curious to know if you considered / factored in how those sources ranked or rated the movies? Im sure some if not most of these books not only listed movies but maybe even ranked or rated them.
Thank you so much! This is a great question. Very few sources rated or ranked these films (an enormous undertaking when the median number of films in a source is 373), so the answer is no. However, I did add "points" if a film appeared on a "highlighted" sublist or two within a larger list. And a few of the sources had no explicit filmography of any kind, meaning I had to use my best judgment; I erred on the side of inclusion. In epidemiological terms, I maximized specificity over sensitivity. Appendix II of my Interrogating Memory book details how I used each source. If I ever create a Patreon, I may post it as a short video there.
What a great list! I don't know your points system but I would have included two more: "Mask of Dimitrios" (which takes a couple of bits of technical inspiration from "Citizen Kane") and "Three Strangers". Both of these, if nothing else, feature two great Noir faces: Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet.
Thank you!! As I explain at the start of the video, LISTS is citation in one of 32 authoritative sources with more than 120 titles (up to 3,253!). Adding appearances in shorter lists/sublists yields POINTS, which maxes out at 67.0. My book (shameless plug) has an annotated bibilography that explains all of this. I also go into a some detail in my video "To List or not To List." Funnily enough, I mention both films - and the Greenstreet/Lorre pairing - in my newest video. MASK OF DIMITRIOS is tied with CAUGHT for #121 (21 LISTS, 27.0 POINTS). THREE STRANGERS is tied for #343 (14, 16.5) with THE PARADINE CASE.
@@drnoir33 Very nice: looking forward the next video! And will take a look at previous ones to the hang of your method. I haven't seen "The Paradine Case" in a long time. Ann Todd is one of those actors you kind need to warm up to, but she's very, very good here (my intro her was in "Seventh Veil"). Alida Valli is another experienced Noir presence, and "Third Man" is a family favorite. She's plenty scary in "Eyes Without A Face".
Great films, great actors and directors, and so many familiar faces. Richard Conte, who played Barzini in 'The Godfather" must have been in 20 of them. "LA Confidential" didn't show up but it is great and certainly seem noir-ish.
Thank you! Compiling these data was a blast. I love Conte, who stars in five of the top 100 films (Bogart and Elisha Cook, Jr. lead with 7 each). He ranks 6th overall among male film noir actors, based upon film POINTS and relative billing (this will be in a later video). LA CONFIDENTIAL is my favorite film, period. It ranks #229 (14 LISTS, 21 POINTS), but it is #5 among post-1960 films.
I am really guilty of not knowing how prominent Don Barzini was as an actor back in the day until the last few years. And only because of UA-cam have I got to see some Noir movies that he was in (that did not make this list) like The Brothers Rico, House Of Strangers, New York Confidential, and Hollywood Story that I had no clue of existence. I don't think they showed those on TCM and AMC. RIP Mr. Conte.
@@terrorofmechagodzilla4944 Whereas I had long known Conte from his 40s and 50s films, then was pleasantly surprised to see him in THE GODFATHER...along with fellow noirspian Sterling Hayden. Yes, I just invented the word "noirspian." :)
Thank you. What a list x I think no list will please all, but I loved getting some movies right, loads wrong 😂 and being reminded of some to watch again/ watch probably for the first time. Brilliant job, loved it 🙏
THE HITCH-HIKER #107 (26 LISTS, 28.0 POINTS) TOO LATE FOR TEARS t-#108 (25 LISTS, 28.0 POINTS) THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER #112 (22 LISTS, 28.0 POINTS) ASCENSEUR POUR L'ECHEFAUD t-#598 (9 LISTS, 10.0 POINTS)
@@drnoir33 Thanks! Are you able to tell me what would have been included were Chinatown (neo-Noir) and the Hitchcock movies (which I personally don't count as noir) were excluded?
Thank you for watching! Appendix III of my INTERROGATING MEMORY book lists all 514 films, sorted by POINTS and LISTS, I categorize as Universal because they have 12.0 or more POINTS. I am slowly building a Patreon where this Appendix will be available for $1 a month. Appendix II - the annotated bibliography showing how I calculate the two measures - and Chapter 6 ("So...What is Film Noir, Again?") will also be included. As for IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Maltin stars, etc., you are on your own. :)
According to the IMDb, SIDE STREET was first screened - somewhere- on December 14, 1949. However, I find no record of this in contemporary newspapers. In fact, a December 25, 1949 articles explictily states it had not yet been released. It ACTUALLY premiered at the Palace Theater in New York City on March 24, 1950. Dorothy Masters gives it a solid review in the New York Daily News. It appears as though filming wrapped up by October 1949 (there is a great story about filming on the streets of NYC), but it was not released until five months later (possibly not to compete with BORDER INCIDENT). This is not the first time the IMDb has gotten a release date wrong, by the way. There is a mysterious April 1944 Brazil premiere for DOUBLE INDEMNITY I suspect is a typo.
@@danibtec I am curious where the AFI got its information, since it conflicts with contemporaneous accounts. It is certainly possible, of course, the film was privately screened somewhere, and there is no newspaper record of it. It is also possible this is a typo by AFI. It is also possible the AFI is going by production date, not release date, in whcih case 1949 is correct (though not the metric I use). Either way, I trust the newspapers, and I conclude March 23, 1950 is when SIDE STREET officially premiered in the United States.
It may be a matter of definition, and of the kind of source that you used as a base, but I think there are a number of French movies that I personally would have put on that list, like Rififi, Grisbi or The Wages of Fear.
At some point, I will attempt mathematically to tease out the bias toward black-and-white American films of the 40s and 50s in these sources. For now, however, I note that DU RUFIFI CHEZ LES HOMMES - which was screened by NOIR CITY in both 2014 and 2017 - ranks #171 overall (18 LISTS, 24.0 POINTS), making it the highest-ranked French film in the database (top 4%!). I also saw LE SALARIE DE LA PEUR (THE WAGES OF FEAR) at NOIR CITY in 2014. It is in a 35-way tie for #901 (5, 6.0), putting it in the top 20%. Finally, TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI is in a 19-way tie (including ASCENSEUR POUR L'ECHEFAUD [ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS]) for #599 (9, 10.0), solidly in the top 12% of films.
@@drnoir33 with rankings like these, bias will be cultural and I don’t see how mathematics can get rid of that. Almost no foreign films get any fair representation in English language markets, simply because there’s enough English language product to saturate them, and dubbing risks not doing the films justice. Dubbing is an art in itself and for English language films, it’s done locally by specialists. Specialists who don’t have their equals in the American market. The dialogue of many French classics is very typical and can be interesting and high quality, with very typical slang in gangster movies (“grisbi” and “rififi” are slang words for “money” and “fight”).
@@thomasalbrecht5914 Obviously, an expert must be aware of a film to list it as a film noir. And only in the last 25 or so years did "lost b-movies" and other obscure AMERICAN titles return to the attention of experts, pushing them onto more LISTS. So, it is possible that with the passage time and increase in exposure, films made outside the US will appear on more LISTS, boosting their totals. A possible rejoinder, however, is that the French authors who first described what we now call film noir - Frank, Chartier, Chabrol, Bourde and Chaumeton - focused almost exclusively on American films. Even the 1979 updating of B&C's PANORAMA OF FILM NOIR discussed all but a handful of American films. That is, from the original French perspective, film noir consisted of American films made in a certain era - a "series" with a clear beginning and end, according to B&C. Clearly the nouvelle vague and other foreign film movements were inspired by American films now widely considered film noir, but it is not clear that the original French critics would have considered films like RIFIFI and GRISBI to be film noir. We simply do not know. Also, dubbing may matter less here. I argue in my INTERROGATING MEMORY book that because film is a visual medium, the "look" of a film should be included in an ultimate definition of "film noir." (Once again: NO UNIVERSALLY-ACCEPTED DEFINITION OF FILM NOIR EXISTS.) In theory, one could watch WAGES OF FEAR, say, or ELEVATOR TO THE SCAFFOLD without any sound and still draw a conclusion about whether the film is "noir." I may explore in a future video or essay the extent to which smaller lists are more Ameri-centric than larger lists.
Now would you link in youtube videos of as many of these 100 as you can find. I might like to see some of the ones I mentioned generally not ever seeing before.
French, though Nino Frank and Jean-Pierre Chartier meant different things when using "noir" and "film noir" in articles about American films released three months apart in 1946. Four of the earliest writings on the subject were written in French. However, the term gained wide use with an American article from 1972.
A worthy effort and iIndeed a majority of them very worthwhile. But stopped watching after 'Sweet Smell of Success' came up, a favorite movie of mine since its first release. But not a "noir" at all -- other than it was not a colour feature. Some of the Hitchcock movies displayed earlier are bona-fide classics, but not noirs either. My concern lies in finding out later on that in listing faux "noirs", more legítimate ones might be excluded.
Hey, I am thrilled you watched that far! :) Bear in mind, however, that **no univerally-accepted definition of "film noir" exists**. Literally all we have in terms of what titles are - or are not - "film noir" is whatever experts deem to be "noir" at any given time. Fully 26 of my 32 primary sources label SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS "film noir," usually quite explicitly. Ditto for the four Hitchcock films. I impose no personal judgment about what is or is not film noir - I merely tally what experts say. Heck, there are folks on this platform who say the 1941 THE MALTESE FALCON is not "film noir." And yet, in August 1946, when Nino Frank first applied the term "noir" (referencing the popular Serie Noire reprints of crime novels) to darker American crime films he was watching for the first time since the Nazi occupation of Paris six years earlier, he included TMF among his four exemplary films. Basically, we are chasing our own tails trying to determine what is or is not film noir minus that elusive universally-agreed-upon definition.
@@drnoir33 Fair enough in regards to the objective factor in your interesting post. I was remiss in not acknowledging that the titles compiled were not your own. Still, as indicated before, my most immediate concern involved the possibility that movies that I regard within the legítimate "noir" canon might be excluded. In my opinion, a predatory female protagonist is a necessary and legitimate imprint (which, it can be said 'Sweet Smell...' does not bear) of any true noir movie. Still have not pursued the movies beyond 'Sweet Smell...", but will likely do so, frustrating as doing so might result. SO: I assume that 'Dead Reckoning', 'Kiss Me, Deadly'; 'Body Heat' and 'Blood Simple' are listed. Still, it would be helpful to learn that some of the following favorites are among the few remaining titles: 'Leave Her to Heaven'; 'Against All Odds'; 'Femme Fatale'; 'Devil in a Blue Dress'; 'The Hot Spot' (Dennis Hopper); 'Delusion' (Jennifer Rubin, a standout); 'The Man Who Wasn't There'; 'Miller's Crossing' or 'L.A. Confidential.' "Noirs", of course, need not be in black and white. Also: anyone suggesting that 'The Maltese Falcon' does not belong ("Bridget O'Shaughnessy", anyone?) merits no credibility. Best regards, and a sincere thank you for your earnest comment.
Two different factors are at play here. Firstly, the standard debate of what is or isn’t Noir, the difference between classic Noir and neo-Noir (or any other subset you care to mention), can eg Kurosawa films be included, or French films, etc. Secondly, this list is only 100, so many great Noir films were never going to be acknowledged by this method; I’m sure we can all name quite a few that didn’t make the cut. All of these aspects are what keeps the Noir kettle boiling! Many thanks for the format of this and all the effort involved!
@@richardking3206 You are welcome. My database has 4,825 titles, meaning there is a vast range of titles authorities deem film noir. Hard to fit all of them into a single list of 100 most-cited. :) As for subsets, I was agnostic - if a title was deemed “noir” in any sense, I included it. In epidemiology terms, I maximized specificity at the possible cost of sensitivity. :)
Further to my comments of five days ago. The title of the initial imdb list proposed movies exclusively in the "noir" genre, a strict and demanding concern while neo-noir is a more modern regard, presumably not an indication of modernity but a sub-genre under a different set of standards. The neo-noir subset could legitimately include the old-fashioned classics, such as 'Double Indemnity' or 'The Postman Always Rings Twice', either version. Yet it might be fair to suggest that the twain should not meet, so as to say, again, that a list about noirs might best not introduce neo-noirs by sacrificing authentic noirs. Have not yet confirmed whether any of the titles recommended earlier are listed in the compilation. Therefore, have still not looked up beyond 'Sweet Smell of Success', which, as well any number of others, are perhaps included in preference to, for instance, 'Dead Reckoning', 'The Last Seduction', 'Body Heat' or 'Femme Fatale' -- either of which fit my admittedly arbitrary requirement that there be a female character of devious purpose. "Noirs", implicitly, would entail a proto-feminist proposal that involves an unwitting male protagonist who will fall -- pun intended -- complicit under the allure of a beautiful woman, whether it be Lizabeth Scott, Linda Fiorentino, Kathleen Turner (*) or Rebecca Romjin. (*) "You're not too smart. I like that in a man."
I will leave that to the film students and critics. :) My approach is aggregate and mathematical - I am quantitative, not qualitative. One can also peruse my first book: justbearwithme.blog/2021/08/17/interrogating-memory-now-available-for-purchase/
You can’t be excluding British Noir because “The Third Man” is on your list. So I’d definitely include “It Always Rains on Sunday” which is terrifically noirish.
I exclude nothing. :) If one of my 32 sources deemed it film noir, into the database it went. I saw IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY as part of a "British" double feature (with the outstanding BRIGHTON ROCK) at NOIR CITY 12 in January 2014. Solid film.
A splendid tribute-listing to 'Film Noir' = 'Dark Movie' !! Also (and gone as unnoticed by almost all commenting here) your coupling with the equally splendiferous first movement of Pyotr Ilyich's B-flat minor Piano Concerto, Maitre L. Berman doing the honors at the 88, proved as fine accompaniment. Perfect actually. Just now found you & now you're mine, as subscribed.
Thank you! To be honest, though, as much as I love Tchaikovsky, I chose that piece of music simply because it was long enough, and I had a copy of it. Kraftwerk's Autobahn was another possibility.
I much prefer the 1953 remake of "I Wake Up Screaming" titled "Vicki". The acting, for the most part, is far superior and the atmosphere of the film stays true to the grittier "Noir" feel throughout. Richard Boone is superb as Cornell!
Fun. Citations from many sources as a ranking method makes the list more eclectic than some postwar purists might prefer. All are “nourish” at least. Big directors, big stars, big budgets, lesser-known directors, not so big stars, modest budgets, but it’s all good. Noir levels the playing field and strips the game to its essence.
Thank you. I was completely agnostic when compiling the 46 total sources, which nicely expands the playing field, as I observe in my most recent video.
Thank you so much - what a wonderful compilation! Playing along with the stills game I'm thinking (I am sure like so many others) ..."Oh yeah I love that movie! That was great... uh, uh, uh, with so and so, it's called.... duh........"
Pushover (1954) seems to be missing. And The Brasher Dubloon (1947) and plenty more. Just goes to show how many great film noir movies where made. Some of the B grade ones are the best in my opinion because they are so gritty. Too many to remember.
PUSHOVER ranks #111 (24 LISTS, 28.0 POINTS) and BRASHER is in a five-way tie for #180 (21, 23.0) with CRY DANGER, FRAMED, THE MAN WHO CHEATED HIMSELF and WOMAN ON THE BEACH. I agree with you regarding the B's (Arthur Lyons wrote a terrific book about this in 2001). It is almost as though, (shameless plug) as I note in my book, film noir followed two parallel tracks. The studio A-units made the "famous" films (MALTESE FALCON, SHADOW OF A DOUBT, DOUBLE INDEMNITY, LAURA, MURDER MY SWEET, LOST WEEKEND, MILDRED PIERCE) early in the cycle, but the real action all along was in the B-units, especially under directors like Edgar G. Ulmer, Richard Fleischer and Curtis Bernhardt. There are good economic reasons for this, but that is a different conversation.
Love every one of these films. The same actors appeared in several films, Gloria Graham, Joseph Cotton and my favorite Richard Widmark, sometimes the Gillian, sometimes the hero.
Thank you for watching! Widmark made a great villain, but he was lovely offscreen. Two actors appeared in seven of these films - and together in two of the top ten - Humphrey Bogart and the ubiquitous Elisha Cook, Jr. :)
An utterly fantastic selection of classic Film Noir movies. I've been watching Film Noirs for over thirty years now, however, there are some in this selection that I haven't seen! Here are a few other considerations: The Snake Pit (1947) The Manchurian Candidate (1962) The Last Seduction (1994) Linda Florentino plays the ultimate femme fatale, truly vicious and amoral. Although it is outside the time frame of the genre, the character Bridget is in the grand tradition of cold-hearted women played by Barbara Stanwyck and Lana Turner. Keep up the fine work.
Thank you so much! Have you seen my top 25 directors video? It is brand new. I adore THE LAST SEDUCTION, which ranks #336 (13 LISTS, 17.0 POINTS), which is the film the classic era director could not make because of the Hays Code. THE SNAKE PIT is tied for #828 (6, 6.5) and THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE is tied for #494 (11, 12.0).
You are very kind, thank you! I had a blast putting together this video...as well as the database on which it is based. I will be producing similar videos (directors, actors, etc.) over the next few months.
I would have thought the The Third Man, would have been much higher on this, also thought In a Lonely Place would have been top 10, maybe top 5, but otherwise a really strong list.
Thank you. You are not the first to comment on THE THIRD MAN. I suspect if I were to update my database with more recent sources (after 2017), it would move up a bit.
The Third Man would be at the top according to quality, but I think the reason it's lower on this list is because some critics don't consider it a true noir, and this is a compiled ranking.
@@melanie62954There is also some bias toward American films in a certain color palette from a certain era, though that is changing. To counter this, I was as inclusive as possible (some of my sources were implicit) when building my database.
You are not the first person to bring up TNOTH. :) Remember, this ranking is derived from a few dozen film noir "lists" published by experts, not my personal assessments. (See my TO LIST OR NOT TO LIST video to learn more.) TNOTH ranks a very solid #113 (top 2.5% of 4,825 titles), appearing on 22 (of 32 LISTS) with 28 POINTS. Its exclusions follow no obvious pattern. It is only 1.0 POINTS shy of the top 100, so do not take this ranking overly literally.
I just skipped to the top 10. Lady From Shanghai while very good was taken away from Welles and recut without his permission so I can't place it in the top 10. If he had the final cut it would probably be there. Touch of Evil is one of my 3 all time favorite noirs as is Kiss Me Deadly. I've written a review of it--if you like I could post it. I prefer The Big Sleep to The Maltese Falcon. Out of the Past is in my top 5 noirs. Vertigo (yes, it's a color noir) is one of my 3 all time favorite noirs. The other two in my top 6 are The Lineup and White Heat, although some might say it's simply a gangster film. An oddball pick for me and one of my 13 all time favorite films is Shoot the Piano Player. Yes, to me it's a noir as is Breathless.
My sole purpose here is to note how often other, more established authorities cite titles as film noir. However, I now take a point of personal privilege and say that if David Goodis - buried just a few hundred yards from my own father, with whom he shared a Hebrew name - had anything to do with it, it is almost certainly noir. If by "noir" one means "bleak, alienated, cynical, obsessive and rife with bad decisions." Down There (aka Shoot the Piano Player) was the first Goodis novel I ever read, and it is one of his best.
@@drnoir33 very interesting comment. Maybe some day I'll read the novel to see how it differs from the film. I would be very much surprised if the scene where the "ugly" guy fights with Charlie in the back alley with its incredible dialog is in the novel. If all that dialog is there in the novel, then big up Goodis. That is an unforgettable scene.
Fascinating list. When you include so many variables and data points, it distills the criteria to ensure great films that are incontrovertible noirs at the top. Vertigo is one of the best films ever made, but not really a noir, etc. Postman isn't a great film, but 100% noir with a legendary femme fatal. The top 2 are evergreen and impossible to argue. Thx for the analysis. Great job!
You are welcome, and thank you both for watching and for your kind words. Interestingly, once you get to 10 or so "lists" of 125 or more titles, the overall ordering changes very little with each new list. Nonetheless, with 32 such lists, there is more spread (i.e., higher variance). Given that there is no universally-accepted definition of "film noir," I cannot say whether ANY film is "noir" or not. The best I can do is aggregate expert opinion. These are the films most often cited by experts as exemplifying "noir."
Key Largo, Notorious, and Call Northside 777 are far too low in this list. The critics lists and point values you used for basis must have suffered from a fatigue factor -- due to the stars in these three pictures being in so many great movies. I'm seeing two or three dozen movies listed ahead of these three that I've never even heard of, and that's odd because this genre of movie is my most favorite. And hands down, Maltese Falcon should be #1 on this list of top noir films. It usually makes #1 or 2 in all-time lists of ALL movies, not just noir. Double Indemnity is good, but not better than Maltese Falcon.
I thought of a "film noir" you didn't list: "My Name Is Julia Ross." I love that movie! Maybe it isn't considered a film noir, but I think it was! The suspense in that movie is overwhelming and great stars!
@@drnoir33 I agree! There is something so original that I return to it yearly. The actors are fantastic and the plot, really different: basically a nightmare!
Good _color_ noir films (mostly made after the 50's) tend to get lost in the shuffle --- 3 good examples that in my opinion would deserve to be on this list if the critics had only recognized them as viable noir's would be *_Stormy Monday (1988), The Hot Spot (1990)_* and *_L.A. Confidential (1997)._*
LA CONFIDENTIAL is my favorite film, period. It ranks #229 (14, 21.0) overall, which is top 0.5%, and #5 among films released after 1964. STORMY MONDAY (6, 6.0) is tied for #839 with 61 other films, near the bottom of what I call the "Debatable" category; categories based upon percentiles (top 10%, next 10%, bottom 80%). THE HOT SPOT (9, 9.0) is tied for #632 with 22 other films, putting it in the middle of the Debatable category. You make a great point about "recognition." For a film to be cited as noir, the source has to be aware of the film enough to have made a decision about it. The epidemiological analog is someone not being recorded "not a case" because that person does yet know s/he has whatever outcome is being studied. Uproarious hijinks ensue.
@@Giselle62 DESERT FURY is tied for #328 with 15 LISTS, 17.0 POINTS. It is possible that because it is in color, it is not cited in as many sources as "film noir." I have yet to test that mathematically. :)
' The Big Combo ' is my number one. Everything is in this film. As another person mentioned ' Night of the Hunter ' should have been there and way up, and also ' M ' directed by Joseph Losey. ' The Prowler ' but what about ' The Big Night ' ? I know, I know the list could go on. I really do not think ' Double Indemnity ' merits number one. Stanwyck looks like a drag queen in it, and over the top in the wrong way.
Even with the sound off and the speed doubled, this is still unwatchable. Showing the stills and then eventually showing the title is backward. In order to learn anything, we need to see title first, then the stills. It is annoying and exasperating in the extreme, and I'm not sure that it's not supposed to be anything, but annoying. Anyone with any common sense would know this is backward, and the opposite of helpful, and yet, you did it anyway. I'm looking for every educational video I can find on film noir. I forced myself to watch 6 minutes of this, that was more than I could tolerate.
Surprised Murder My Sweet ranked so highly but I’m here for it
Terrific film, I agree. And MMS is one the four films French film critic Nino Frank cited as marking something new (and “noir”) in American crime films in August 1946, after not seeing American films since the Nazi invasion of France in 1940.
@@drnoir33"Farewell, My Lovely" which is a remake with Robert Mitchum, and a return to the title of the book, is great too. Plus, the plot has been used in other movies and several television episodes.🤔😊👍
@@williambilyeu9801 Indeed. Check out my video on the top Films Noir released after 1966. FAREWELL MY LOVELY - along with another 1970s Chandler adaptation - ranks very high. :)
Love your analysis and the enjoyed the presentation - especially giving time before the title popped up! I've seen so many, but there are many more to watch!
Though not as popular among casual noir viewers as it is with critics, in many ways, *_Murder My Sweet (1944)_* # 5 on this list, is the quintessential detective noir. If you haven't already seen it, do so, it is more than worthy --- moody, atmospheric, deadly, surreal and with great dialogue (how could it not, being based on one of Raymond Chandler's greatest works).
[TMI alert] After my first colonscopy, as I groggily tried to dress, I recalled Dick Powell's Marlowe tries to do the same after being "sapped twice, choked, beaten silly with a gun, shot in the arm until you're as crazy as a couple of waltzing mice." As my wife guided me down the main hallway of the clinic, I kept stopping to remember and recite some other detail. Folks poked their head out of doors and windows to make sure I was OK. :)
It is a brilliant film, yes, and I give it some love in this video: ua-cam.com/video/8RVmQsB78hI/v-deo.html
Hope your gastroenterologist was not _Dr. Sonderborg_ (He's a wiz with a hypo) and also that your procedure was _not_ performed at a little rest home on _Descanso Street._
@@Hernal03 Happily, no and no. :)
I like the remake "Farewell, My Lovely" with Robert Mitchum too.
@@williambilyeu9801 It is a solid film, one more faithful to the original novel.
Out of the Past and Double Indemnity are my two favorites, depending on which I watched last.
Brilliant films
My top ten:
1 - Sunset Boulevard (1950)
2 - Scarlet Street (1945)
3 - Laura (1944)
4 - Double Indemnity (1944)
5 - Detour (1945)
6 - Rififi (1955)
7 - Touch of Evil (1958)
8 - On Dangerous Ground (1951)
9 - Gun Crazy (1950)
10 - The Big Heat (1953)
A very solid list. Thank you for watching!
@@drnoir33 You are welcome! Thank you for making the list
I couldn’t quote less than 30 and more for personal choice , even some obscure "B movie" included !
Sunset Boulevard probably my all time favourite also
Thanks for doing this. The guess in four-frames feature was terrific fun.
You are very welcome. I had a blast putting it together. More like it to follow.
The fffffr
great game
As long as people are mentioning actors who appeared in many of these films, let me plug Dan Duryea. Wonderful villain.
I adore Duryea (say that 10 times fast)! He is getting some love in the video I expect to upload in the next 24 hours. Like that first step, it's a doozy.
Speaking of, how did Too Late For Tears not make this list?
@@terrorofmechagodzilla4944 It just misses at #109, tied with THE CHASE (1946). It was only watchable in poor prints until relatively recently, so it may have fallen off the radar somewhat.
Love Dan!
Boy is it fun seeing the screenshots of these fantastic movies, especially with other people that love these films also. I would have ordered them slightly differently, but that is okay. I have seen many of the films, but there were a few I was unfamiliar with. Thank you for putting this video together!
You are very welcome, and thank you for your kind words! :)
Just to be clear, this is not my personal ranking. I am but a humbler compiler of a few dozen authoritative film noir lists. For more, check out my "To List or not To List" video.
I have three (at least) more videos in this format planned: directors, actors, actresses.
Good list. I was hoping to see M (Fritz Lang) appear, although I guess that it may be a proto-Noir film. Same for Night of the Hunter. Still, there are quite a few that I have yet to see, even though they're in my collection (cough...Touch of Evil, Mildred Pierce, Black Angel...cough).
Thank you! If this were my "personal" list, Lang's M would be much higher (my next video puts M and other earlier films in geohistoric context). Joseph Losey's 1951 remake of M is #101 (25 LISTS, 29.0 POINTS), but the original is at #468 (9, 13.0), between THE USUAL SUSPECTS and SIN CITY. NIGHT OF THE HUNTER is at #113 (22 LISTS, 28.0 POINTS), so not too far off.
I would consider Night of the Hunter a horror film. One of only two movies that really scared me. The other was The Shining, with Jack Nicholson.
@@marionmarino1616 Like many flms deemed noir, NOTH is a bit of a genre mashup. Beautiful and terrifying - though Mitchum may have topped himself in the original CAPE FEAR seven years later. Just shows how terrific an actor he was. :)
@@drnoir33 That scene, where the killer and the old woman sing a hymn together - that is the stuff of nightmares. Absolutely terrifying.
A note on #33 On dangerous Ground, although originally not credited, Ida Lupino actually directed parts of the film. My personal favorite film noir is #11, The Asphalt Jungle.
Ida Lupino is a personal hero of mine. She was so far ahead of her time as a female producer and director. THE ASPHALT JUNGLE is astonishing.
@@drnoir33 I agree, she's amazing. I'll watch anything she's had a hand in ... just a shame she didn't have more support in Hollywood, as an actress but perhaps even more so as a Director. I would have loved to see her evolve with bigger budgets and even juicier screenplays. She's like a female Val Lewton, did so much with so much less.
The Asphalt Jungle had everything, a GREAT ensemble cast, great story, superb performances and an ending that will always make me tear up --- for the "bad" guy. Speaking of Sterling Hayden, glad to see The Killing make the list as well, it's so well-crafted and again, great ending.
Very interesting list and great effort; thanks!
Curious to know if you considered / factored in how those sources ranked or rated the movies? Im sure some if not most of these books not only listed movies but maybe even ranked or rated them.
Thank you so much!
This is a great question.
Very few sources rated or ranked these films (an enormous undertaking when the median number of films in a source is 373), so the answer is no. However, I did add "points" if a film appeared on a "highlighted" sublist or two within a larger list. And a few of the sources had no explicit filmography of any kind, meaning I had to use my best judgment; I erred on the side of inclusion. In epidemiological terms, I maximized specificity over sensitivity.
Appendix II of my Interrogating Memory book details how I used each source. If I ever create a Patreon, I may post it as a short video there.
@@drnoir33 Thanks for the explanation!
Missing a few of my favourites in the top 10 but I will catch up on a few I haven’t seen on your list
@@fredsalfa Thank you for watching! And it is not *my* list, it is a compendium of everyone else’s lists. :)
What a great list! I don't know your points system but I would have included two more: "Mask of Dimitrios" (which takes a couple of bits of technical inspiration from "Citizen Kane") and "Three Strangers". Both of these, if nothing else, feature two great Noir faces: Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet.
Thank you!!
As I explain at the start of the video, LISTS is citation in one of 32 authoritative sources with more than 120 titles (up to 3,253!). Adding appearances in shorter lists/sublists yields POINTS, which maxes out at 67.0. My book (shameless plug) has an annotated bibilography that explains all of this. I also go into a some detail in my video "To List or not To List."
Funnily enough, I mention both films - and the Greenstreet/Lorre pairing - in my newest video. MASK OF DIMITRIOS is tied with CAUGHT for #121 (21 LISTS, 27.0 POINTS). THREE STRANGERS is tied for #343 (14, 16.5) with THE PARADINE CASE.
@@drnoir33 Very nice: looking forward the next video! And will take a look at previous ones to the hang of your method.
I haven't seen "The Paradine Case" in a long time. Ann Todd is one of those actors you kind need to warm up to, but she's very, very good here (my intro her was in "Seventh Veil"). Alida Valli is another experienced Noir presence, and "Third Man" is a family favorite. She's plenty scary in "Eyes Without A Face".
@@melenatorr Thank you. I have yet to see EYES WITHOUT A FACE, though I am certainly familiar with it.
@@drnoir33 You are in for a scary, edgy treat!
Great films, great actors and directors, and so many familiar faces. Richard Conte, who played Barzini in 'The Godfather" must have been in 20 of them. "LA Confidential" didn't show up but it is great and certainly seem noir-ish.
Thank you! Compiling these data was a blast. I love Conte, who stars in five of the top 100 films (Bogart and Elisha Cook, Jr. lead with 7 each). He ranks 6th overall among male film noir actors, based upon film POINTS and relative billing (this will be in a later video).
LA CONFIDENTIAL is my favorite film, period. It ranks #229 (14 LISTS, 21 POINTS), but it is #5 among post-1960 films.
@@drnoir33 Robert Ryan seemed to be a lot on this list.
@@terrorofmechagodzilla4944 Six, to be exact. :) Only Humphrey Bogart and Elisha Cook, Jr. (7 each) appear in more of the top 100 films by POINTS.
I am really guilty of not knowing how prominent Don Barzini was as an actor back in the day until the last few years. And only because of UA-cam have I got to see some Noir movies that he was in (that did not make this list) like The Brothers Rico, House Of Strangers, New York Confidential, and Hollywood Story that I had no clue of existence. I don't think they showed those on TCM and AMC. RIP Mr. Conte.
@@terrorofmechagodzilla4944 Whereas I had long known Conte from his 40s and 50s films, then was pleasantly surprised to see him in THE GODFATHER...along with fellow noirspian Sterling Hayden.
Yes, I just invented the word "noirspian." :)
Thank you. What a list x I think no list will please all, but I loved getting some movies right, loads wrong 😂 and being reminded of some to watch again/ watch probably for the first time. Brilliant job, loved it 🙏
Thank you! I have similar videos for directors and films released after 1966, and I am working on videos for actors and actresses.
Where did Night of the Hunter, The Hitchhiker, Elevator to the Gallows and Too Late for Tears rank?
THE HITCH-HIKER #107 (26 LISTS, 28.0 POINTS)
TOO LATE FOR TEARS t-#108 (25 LISTS, 28.0 POINTS)
THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER #112 (22 LISTS, 28.0 POINTS)
ASCENSEUR POUR L'ECHEFAUD t-#598 (9 LISTS, 10.0 POINTS)
@@drnoir33 Thanks! Are you able to tell me what would have been included were Chinatown (neo-Noir) and the Hitchcock movies (which I personally don't count as noir) were excluded?
You don't happen to have the list in textual format? maybe with IMDB ratings also...?😉
Thank you for watching!
Appendix III of my INTERROGATING MEMORY book lists all 514 films, sorted by POINTS and LISTS, I categorize as Universal because they have 12.0 or more POINTS. I am slowly building a Patreon where this Appendix will be available for $1 a month.
Appendix II - the annotated bibliography showing how I calculate the two measures - and Chapter 6 ("So...What is Film Noir, Again?") will also be included.
As for IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Maltin stars, etc., you are on your own. :)
What a beautiful walk on Memory Lane.
Thank you!
It's amazing how many of these movies I have never seen. Thanks...I'm going to buy some DVDs...
You are welcome. Enjoy!
Nice work! Small matter: why do you think that there's a lot of sources that state that the year of Side Street is 1950?
According to the IMDb, SIDE STREET was first screened - somewhere- on December 14, 1949. However, I find no record of this in contemporary newspapers. In fact, a December 25, 1949 articles explictily states it had not yet been released. It ACTUALLY premiered at the Palace Theater in New York City on March 24, 1950. Dorothy Masters gives it a solid review in the New York Daily News. It appears as though filming wrapped up by October 1949 (there is a great story about filming on the streets of NYC), but it was not released until five months later (possibly not to compete with BORDER INCIDENT). This is not the first time the IMDb has gotten a release date wrong, by the way. There is a mysterious April 1944 Brazil premiere for DOUBLE INDEMNITY I suspect is a typo.
@@drnoir33 The December 14, 1949 of IMDB was updated by me yesterday. It's based on AFI Catalog
@@danibtec I am curious where the AFI got its information, since it conflicts with contemporaneous accounts. It is certainly possible, of course, the film was privately screened somewhere, and there is no newspaper record of it. It is also possible this is a typo by AFI. It is also possible the AFI is going by production date, not release date, in whcih case 1949 is correct (though not the metric I use). Either way, I trust the newspapers, and I conclude March 23, 1950 is when SIDE STREET officially premiered in the United States.
A GIFT FROM ALMIGHTY GOD…….YOUR CHANNEL
You are very kind, though as a Jewish-raised atheist, I demur on the first part. :)
It may be a matter of definition, and of the kind of source that you used as a base, but I think there are a number of French movies that I personally would have put on that list, like Rififi, Grisbi or The Wages of Fear.
At some point, I will attempt mathematically to tease out the bias toward black-and-white American films of the 40s and 50s in these sources.
For now, however, I note that DU RUFIFI CHEZ LES HOMMES - which was screened by NOIR CITY in both 2014 and 2017 - ranks #171 overall (18 LISTS, 24.0 POINTS), making it the highest-ranked French film in the database (top 4%!). I also saw LE SALARIE DE LA PEUR (THE WAGES OF FEAR) at NOIR CITY in 2014. It is in a 35-way tie for #901 (5, 6.0), putting it in the top 20%. Finally, TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI is in a 19-way tie (including ASCENSEUR POUR L'ECHEFAUD [ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS]) for #599 (9, 10.0), solidly in the top 12% of films.
@@drnoir33 with rankings like these, bias will be cultural and I don’t see how mathematics can get rid of that. Almost no foreign films get any fair representation in English language markets, simply because there’s enough English language product to saturate them, and dubbing risks not doing the films justice. Dubbing is an art in itself and for English language films, it’s done locally by specialists. Specialists who don’t have their equals in the American market.
The dialogue of many French classics is very typical and can be interesting and high quality, with very typical slang in gangster movies (“grisbi” and “rififi” are slang words for “money” and “fight”).
@@thomasalbrecht5914 Obviously, an expert must be aware of a film to list it as a film noir. And only in the last 25 or so years did "lost b-movies" and other obscure AMERICAN titles return to the attention of experts, pushing them onto more LISTS. So, it is possible that with the passage time and increase in exposure, films made outside the US will appear on more LISTS, boosting their totals.
A possible rejoinder, however, is that the French authors who first described what we now call film noir - Frank, Chartier, Chabrol, Bourde and Chaumeton - focused almost exclusively on American films. Even the 1979 updating of B&C's PANORAMA OF FILM NOIR discussed all but a handful of American films. That is, from the original French perspective, film noir consisted of American films made in a certain era - a "series" with a clear beginning and end, according to B&C.
Clearly the nouvelle vague and other foreign film movements were inspired by American films now widely considered film noir, but it is not clear that the original French critics would have considered films like RIFIFI and GRISBI to be film noir. We simply do not know.
Also, dubbing may matter less here. I argue in my INTERROGATING MEMORY book that because film is a visual medium, the "look" of a film should be included in an ultimate definition of "film noir." (Once again: NO UNIVERSALLY-ACCEPTED DEFINITION OF FILM NOIR EXISTS.) In theory, one could watch WAGES OF FEAR, say, or ELEVATOR TO THE SCAFFOLD without any sound and still draw a conclusion about whether the film is "noir."
I may explore in a future video or essay the extent to which smaller lists are more Ameri-centric than larger lists.
Agree with the top 3 all great movies 😊
Check out Don McKay!!! Extremely underrated spin on the noir genre in my opinion. Thomas Haden Church, Melissa Leo, Elisabeth Shue... It's good.
Now would you link in youtube videos of as many of these 100 as you can find. I might like to see some of the ones I mentioned generally not ever seeing before.
Il manque "party girl" de Nicholas Ray.
is "film noir", french or american expression ?
French, though Nino Frank and Jean-Pierre Chartier meant different things when using "noir" and "film noir" in articles about American films released three months apart in 1946. Four of the earliest writings on the subject were written in French. However, the term gained wide use with an American article from 1972.
Good work!👍🏻
Thank you!
A worthy effort and iIndeed a majority of them very worthwhile.
But stopped watching after 'Sweet Smell of Success' came up, a favorite movie of mine since its first release. But not a "noir" at all -- other than it was not a colour feature.
Some of the Hitchcock movies displayed earlier are bona-fide classics, but not noirs either.
My concern lies in finding out later on that in listing faux "noirs", more legítimate ones might be excluded.
Hey, I am thrilled you watched that far! :) Bear in mind, however, that **no univerally-accepted definition of "film noir" exists**. Literally all we have in terms of what titles are - or are not - "film noir" is whatever experts deem to be "noir" at any given time. Fully 26 of my 32 primary sources label SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS "film noir," usually quite explicitly. Ditto for the four Hitchcock films. I impose no personal judgment about what is or is not film noir - I merely tally what experts say. Heck, there are folks on this platform who say the 1941 THE MALTESE FALCON is not "film noir." And yet, in August 1946, when Nino Frank first applied the term "noir" (referencing the popular Serie Noire reprints of crime novels) to darker American crime films he was watching for the first time since the Nazi occupation of Paris six years earlier, he included TMF among his four exemplary films. Basically, we are chasing our own tails trying to determine what is or is not film noir minus that elusive universally-agreed-upon definition.
@@drnoir33
Fair enough in regards to the objective factor in your interesting post. I was remiss in not acknowledging that the titles compiled were not your own.
Still, as indicated before, my most immediate concern involved the possibility that movies that I regard within the legítimate "noir" canon might be excluded.
In my opinion, a predatory female protagonist is a necessary and legitimate imprint (which, it can be said 'Sweet Smell...' does not bear) of any true noir movie.
Still have not pursued the movies beyond 'Sweet Smell...", but will likely do so, frustrating as doing so might result.
SO: I assume that 'Dead Reckoning', 'Kiss Me, Deadly'; 'Body Heat' and 'Blood Simple' are listed. Still, it would be helpful to learn that some of the following favorites are among the few remaining titles:
'Leave Her to Heaven'; 'Against All Odds'; 'Femme Fatale'; 'Devil in a Blue Dress'; 'The Hot Spot' (Dennis Hopper); 'Delusion' (Jennifer Rubin, a standout); 'The Man Who Wasn't There'; 'Miller's Crossing' or 'L.A. Confidential.'
"Noirs", of course, need not be in black and white.
Also: anyone suggesting that 'The Maltese Falcon' does not belong ("Bridget O'Shaughnessy", anyone?) merits no credibility.
Best regards, and a sincere thank you for your earnest comment.
Two different factors are at play here. Firstly, the standard debate of what is or isn’t Noir, the difference between classic Noir and neo-Noir (or any other subset you care to mention), can eg Kurosawa films be included, or French films, etc. Secondly, this list is only 100, so many great Noir films were never going to be acknowledged by this method; I’m sure we can all name quite a few that didn’t make the cut. All of these aspects are what keeps the Noir kettle boiling!
Many thanks for the format of this and all the effort involved!
@@richardking3206 You are welcome. My database has 4,825 titles, meaning there is a vast range of titles authorities deem film noir. Hard to fit all of them into a single list of 100 most-cited. :)
As for subsets, I was agnostic - if a title was deemed “noir” in any sense, I included it. In epidemiology terms, I maximized specificity at the possible cost of sensitivity. :)
Further to my comments of five days ago.
The title of the initial imdb list proposed movies exclusively in the "noir" genre, a strict and demanding concern while neo-noir is a more modern regard, presumably not an indication of modernity but a sub-genre under a different set of standards.
The neo-noir subset could legitimately include the old-fashioned classics, such as 'Double Indemnity' or 'The Postman Always Rings Twice', either version.
Yet it might be fair to suggest that the twain should not meet, so as to say, again, that a list about noirs might best not introduce neo-noirs by sacrificing authentic noirs.
Have not yet confirmed whether any of the titles recommended earlier are listed in the compilation. Therefore, have still not looked up beyond 'Sweet Smell of Success', which, as well any number of others, are perhaps included in preference to, for instance, 'Dead Reckoning', 'The Last Seduction', 'Body Heat' or 'Femme Fatale' -- either of which fit my admittedly arbitrary requirement that there be a female character of devious purpose. "Noirs", implicitly, would entail a proto-feminist proposal that involves an unwitting male protagonist who will fall -- pun intended -- complicit under the allure of a beautiful woman, whether it be Lizabeth Scott, Linda Fiorentino, Kathleen Turner (*) or Rebecca Romjin.
(*) "You're not too smart. I like that in a man."
Great resource but need discussion videos, perhaps 10 movies per video?
I will leave that to the film students and critics. :) My approach is aggregate and mathematical - I am quantitative, not qualitative.
One can also peruse my first book: justbearwithme.blog/2021/08/17/interrogating-memory-now-available-for-purchase/
You can’t be excluding British Noir because “The Third Man” is on your list. So I’d definitely include “It Always Rains on Sunday” which is terrifically noirish.
I exclude nothing. :) If one of my 32 sources deemed it film noir, into the database it went. I saw IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY as part of a "British" double feature (with the outstanding BRIGHTON ROCK) at NOIR CITY 12 in January 2014. Solid film.
A splendid tribute-listing to 'Film Noir' = 'Dark Movie' !!
Also (and gone as unnoticed by almost all commenting
here) your coupling with the equally splendiferous first
movement of Pyotr Ilyich's B-flat minor Piano Concerto,
Maitre L. Berman doing the honors at the 88, proved as
fine accompaniment. Perfect actually.
Just now found you & now you're mine, as subscribed.
Thank you! To be honest, though, as much as I love Tchaikovsky, I chose that piece of music simply because it was long enough, and I had a copy of it. Kraftwerk's Autobahn was another possibility.
@@drnoir33
Aha! Fair enough!
Onward and upward.
Thank you.
Thanks a million 😅
You are welcome. There is more like this coming.
I much prefer the 1953 remake of "I Wake Up Screaming" titled "Vicki". The acting, for the most part, is far superior and the atmosphere of the film stays true to the grittier "Noir" feel throughout. Richard Boone is superb as Cornell!
Fun. Citations from many sources as a ranking method makes the list more eclectic than some postwar purists might prefer. All are “nourish” at least. Big directors, big stars, big budgets, lesser-known directors, not so big stars, modest budgets, but it’s all good. Noir levels the playing field and strips the game to its essence.
Thank you. I was completely agnostic when compiling the 46 total sources, which nicely expands the playing field, as I observe in my most recent video.
nice to see Gun Crazy at no.16
Thank you so much - what a wonderful compilation! Playing along with the stills game I'm thinking (I am sure like so many others) ..."Oh yeah I love that movie! That was great... uh, uh, uh, with so and so, it's called.... duh........"
Thank you for playing!
Same here with uh, uh knowing the title but not fast enough before it's shown 🤔😍😃
Great music
Pushover (1954) seems to be missing. And The Brasher Dubloon (1947) and plenty more. Just goes to show how many great film noir movies where made. Some of the B grade ones are the best in my opinion because they are so gritty. Too many to remember.
PUSHOVER ranks #111 (24 LISTS, 28.0 POINTS) and BRASHER is in a five-way tie for #180 (21, 23.0) with CRY DANGER, FRAMED, THE MAN WHO CHEATED HIMSELF and WOMAN ON THE BEACH.
I agree with you regarding the B's (Arthur Lyons wrote a terrific book about this in 2001). It is almost as though, (shameless plug) as I note in my book, film noir followed two parallel tracks. The studio A-units made the "famous" films (MALTESE FALCON, SHADOW OF A DOUBT, DOUBLE INDEMNITY, LAURA, MURDER MY SWEET, LOST WEEKEND, MILDRED PIERCE) early in the cycle, but the real action all along was in the B-units, especially under directors like Edgar G. Ulmer, Richard Fleischer and Curtis Bernhardt. There are good economic reasons for this, but that is a different conversation.
Love every one of these films. The same actors appeared in several films, Gloria Graham, Joseph Cotton and my favorite Richard Widmark, sometimes the Gillian, sometimes the hero.
Thank you for watching! Widmark made a great villain, but he was lovely offscreen. Two actors appeared in seven of these films - and together in two of the top ten - Humphrey Bogart and the ubiquitous Elisha Cook, Jr. :)
An utterly fantastic selection of classic Film Noir movies. I've been watching Film Noirs for over thirty years now, however, there are some in this selection that I haven't seen!
Here are a few other considerations:
The Snake Pit (1947)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
The Last Seduction (1994)
Linda Florentino plays the ultimate femme fatale, truly vicious and amoral. Although it is outside the time frame of the genre, the character Bridget is in the grand tradition of cold-hearted
women played by Barbara Stanwyck and Lana Turner. Keep up the fine work.
Thank you so much! Have you seen my top 25 directors video? It is brand new.
I adore THE LAST SEDUCTION, which ranks #336 (13 LISTS, 17.0 POINTS), which is the film the classic era director could not make because of the Hays Code.
THE SNAKE PIT is tied for #828 (6, 6.5) and THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE is tied for #494 (11, 12.0).
Fantastic job putting this together!
You are very kind, thank you! I had a blast putting together this video...as well as the database on which it is based. I will be producing similar videos (directors, actors, etc.) over the next few months.
I would have thought the The Third Man, would have been much higher on this, also thought In a Lonely Place would have been top 10, maybe top 5, but otherwise a really strong list.
Thank you. You are not the first to comment on THE THIRD MAN. I suspect if I were to update my database with more recent sources (after 2017), it would move up a bit.
The Third Man would be at the top according to quality, but I think the reason it's lower on this list is because some critics don't consider it a true noir, and this is a compiled ranking.
@@melanie62954There is also some bias toward American films in a certain color palette from a certain era, though that is changing. To counter this, I was as inclusive as possible (some of my sources were implicit) when building my database.
I'm sure that's it. There's no way in the world it isn't top five at the very least.
@@melanie62954 Then it's hard to think much of those critics.
Off the bat, films that have been colorized no longer count as Noir!!!!! (well.....thats just my useless opinion)
Amen
Junior. Your opinion is not useless. I disagree with several. "Niagara" and "Possessed," to name a couple. Color? -- forget about it!
@@TheSaltydog07 Niagara was never filmed in black and white.
Niagara and Leave Her to Heaven are definitely noir. Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Chinatown and LA Confidential are neo-noir at least
You are right @
Funny to . there are at least 30 more from the top of my head that aren’t on here and are still top notch films. Could be list of 200 easy.
good list, no duds.
This humble compiler of LISTS thanks you. :)
you included some Hitchcock films but overlooked ROPE (1948)... Chinatown was filmed in 1974, so it was not true to the screenplay's era.
No "Pushover"?
You should weed out the dramas. Check with Eddie Muller, care of "Noir Alley."
Agree. Start with "Mildred Pierce."
See you in the shadows.
You missed “A Prairie Home Companion” (the movie) which had the ultimate noir investigator Guy Noir.
I'm really scratching my head right now.. no Night of the Hunter??!! What??!!!
You are not the first person to bring up TNOTH. :)
Remember, this ranking is derived from a few dozen film noir "lists" published by experts, not my personal assessments. (See my TO LIST OR NOT TO LIST video to learn more.)
TNOTH ranks a very solid #113 (top 2.5% of 4,825 titles), appearing on 22 (of 32 LISTS) with 28 POINTS. Its exclusions follow no obvious pattern. It is only 1.0 POINTS shy of the top 100, so do not take this ranking overly literally.
Thanks!!!
Killer 2 the Nth Degree. Regards, The '62 Mathew St. 1-Man Band (Total Retro Rock)
I just skipped to the top 10. Lady From Shanghai while very good was taken away from Welles and recut without his permission so I can't place it in the top 10. If he had the final cut it would probably be there. Touch of Evil is one of my 3 all time favorite noirs as is Kiss Me Deadly. I've written a review of it--if you like I could post it. I prefer The Big Sleep to The Maltese Falcon. Out of the Past is in my top 5 noirs. Vertigo (yes, it's a color noir) is one of my 3 all time favorite noirs. The other two in my top 6 are The Lineup and White Heat, although some might say it's simply a gangster film. An oddball pick for me and one of my 13 all time favorite films is Shoot the Piano Player. Yes, to me it's a noir as is Breathless.
My sole purpose here is to note how often other, more established authorities cite titles as film noir. However, I now take a point of personal privilege and say that if David Goodis - buried just a few hundred yards from my own father, with whom he shared a Hebrew name - had anything to do with it, it is almost certainly noir. If by "noir" one means "bleak, alienated, cynical, obsessive and rife with bad decisions." Down There (aka Shoot the Piano Player) was the first Goodis novel I ever read, and it is one of his best.
@@drnoir33 very interesting comment. Maybe some day I'll read the novel to see how it differs from the film. I would be very much surprised if the scene where the "ugly" guy fights with Charlie in the back alley with its incredible dialog is in the novel. If all that dialog is there in the novel, then big up Goodis. That is an unforgettable scene.
Love the pacing. Love the music. We agree on **Double Indemnity **
Fascinating list. When you include so many variables and data points, it distills the criteria to ensure great films that are incontrovertible noirs at the top. Vertigo is one of the best films ever made, but not really a noir, etc. Postman isn't a great film, but 100% noir with a legendary femme fatal. The top 2 are evergreen and impossible to argue. Thx for the analysis. Great job!
You are welcome, and thank you both for watching and for your kind words.
Interestingly, once you get to 10 or so "lists" of 125 or more titles, the overall ordering changes very little with each new list. Nonetheless, with 32 such lists, there is more spread (i.e., higher variance).
Given that there is no universally-accepted definition of "film noir," I cannot say whether ANY film is "noir" or not. The best I can do is aggregate expert opinion. These are the films most often cited by experts as exemplifying "noir."
Key Largo, Notorious, and Call Northside 777 are far too low in this list. The critics lists and point values you used for basis must have suffered from a fatigue factor -- due to the stars in these three pictures being in so many great movies. I'm seeing two or three dozen movies listed ahead of these three that I've never even heard of, and that's odd because this genre of movie is my most favorite. And hands down, Maltese Falcon should be #1 on this list of top noir films. It usually makes #1 or 2 in all-time lists of ALL movies, not just noir. Double Indemnity is good, but not better than Maltese Falcon.
notorious near top. strangers on a train.
best game
Amazing work ! Congrats andThanks for sharing
Thank you! It was a blast to make.
I thought of a "film noir" you didn't list: "My Name Is Julia Ross." I love that movie!
Maybe it isn't considered a film noir, but I think it was!
The suspense in that movie is overwhelming and great stars!
MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS just misses the top 100, tied with DARK CITY (1950) and DETECTIVE STORY at #116. Pretty high placement out of 4,825 films! :)
@@drnoir33 I agree! There is something so original that I return to it yearly.
The actors are fantastic and the plot, really different: basically a nightmare!
i don't even want to argue about the order; it was very enjoyable to watch.
Thank you! The order is based solely on a few dozen authoritative "lists." No authorities were harmed in the making of this video. :)
Good _color_ noir films (mostly made after the 50's) tend to get lost in the shuffle --- 3 good examples that in my opinion would deserve to be on this list if the critics had only recognized them as viable noir's would be *_Stormy Monday (1988), The Hot Spot (1990)_* and *_L.A. Confidential (1997)._*
LA CONFIDENTIAL is my favorite film, period. It ranks #229 (14, 21.0) overall, which is top 0.5%, and #5 among films released after 1964.
STORMY MONDAY (6, 6.0) is tied for #839 with 61 other films, near the bottom of what I call the "Debatable" category; categories based upon percentiles (top 10%, next 10%, bottom 80%). THE HOT SPOT (9, 9.0) is tied for #632 with 22 other films, putting it in the middle of the Debatable category.
You make a great point about "recognition." For a film to be cited as noir, the source has to be aware of the film enough to have made a decision about it. The epidemiological analog is someone not being recorded "not a case" because that person does yet know s/he has whatever outcome is being studied. Uproarious hijinks ensue.
DesrtFury
@@Giselle62 DESERT FURY is tied for #328 with 15 LISTS, 17.0 POINTS. It is possible that because it is in color, it is not cited in as many sources as "film noir." I have yet to test that mathematically. :)
' The Big Combo ' is my number one. Everything is in this film. As another person mentioned ' Night of the Hunter ' should have been there and way up, and also ' M ' directed by Joseph Losey. ' The Prowler ' but what about ' The Big Night ' ? I know, I know the list could go on. I really do not think ' Double Indemnity ' merits number one. Stanwyck looks like a drag queen in it, and over the top in the wrong way.
Those were movies! Not the crap made since 1990. The images were B&W, but the characters were colorful. When America was GREAT.
Great idea, we needed it ! Thanks from us "NOIR crazy" !
ok how much for that data bank of 4,0p00 film noirs? People will pay to see that, and ill be the first to pay u
It is not for sale. However, there is another way you can support my work. justbearwithme.blog/make-a-donation-3/
Even with the sound off and the speed doubled, this is still unwatchable. Showing the stills and then eventually showing the title is backward. In order to learn anything, we need to see title first, then the stills. It is annoying and exasperating in the extreme, and I'm not sure that it's not supposed to be anything, but annoying. Anyone with any common sense would know this is backward, and the opposite of helpful, and yet, you did it anyway. I'm looking for every educational video I can find on film noir. I forced myself to watch 6 minutes of this, that was more than I could tolerate.
FUCKING AMAZING MOVIES😀
Thank you! Or, rather, thank the filmmakers who made these films. I am merely a humble compiler. :)
Ca alors ! Que des films yankees