Classic FILM NOIR Greats
Mar 10 '01 (Updated May 24 '03)
The Bottom Line Film Noir is the dark side of the human experience, stories of doomed love, violence, and betrayal with cynical anti-heroes and sexy "femme fatales"
Film Noir, like the Western, is a distinctly American cinematic genre. Film noir flourished during a specific period, generally regarded by film historians as beginning with The Maltese Falcon in 1941 and ending with A Touch of Evil in 1958. Film Noir was an artistic response to the nihilism, evil, and corruption of World War II and the alienation, and moral bankruptcy of the post war world. The term Film Noir, literally black film, was coined in 1946 by a long forgotten French film critic to describe the dark themes and characters of many Hollywood movies of this period.
Classic Film Noir is always Black & White. The stark visual drama of the settings (hotel rooms, dingy offices, sleazy bars, diners, cars, trains, alleys, and rain slicked streets) is best seen in shades of gray. The dark atmosphere is an integral component of the austere urban landscapes where the dramas are played out. The influence of German Expressionism, especially directors like Pabst, Murnau, and Lang is obvious in the low-key lighting, long shadows, and tight expressive face shots. The atmosphere of casual menace is heightened and magnified by the harsh lighting and gritty realism of the staging. Urban settings are depicted as cold, impersonal, and more permanent than the characters that move through them. In rural settings the characters are overshadowed by their environment, clearly out of place.
In Film Noir the director is the "auteur" the author who creates the story, often told in flashbacks or with dramatic voice-over narration. Story and character development are paramount, and are never sacrificed to special effects or large-scale action. The camera work and compositional technique are used to create the moody feelings of apprehension, tension, and anticipation. Pacing is quick, and the dialog is snappy, with lots of one-liners and streetwise slang. Sexual tension is pervasive and constant. Editing, scene changes and cuts are smooth, and uncontrived.
Many of the most popular films in this genre were based on novels by writers like Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and James M. Cain. These were existential stories of betrayal and alienation with flawed cynical heroes and doomed dames. The characters are as sharply drawn as the protagonists and antagonists in Greek drama. The male leads are usually working class cops, private detectives, drifters, or loners.
Women in Film Noir are almost always portrayed in a misogynistic light; either they are beautiful, deceitful, manipulative, and completely amoral dames or they’re sweet more or less virginal good girls who need the help of a strong man. The rich and powerful are portrayed as greedy, spoiled, selfish, and corrupt. Officials (cops, judges, and politicians) are either the willing tools of the rich; powerless or afraid to act against the all pervasive corruption that surrounds them, or lazy, venal, and uncaring.
Classic Film Noir was the strongest and most direct influence on the French new wave cinema of the late fifties and early sixties. Jean Paul Belmondo’s character in Breathless is a direct and linear descendant of Humphrey Bogart, Fred MacMurray, and John Garfield. Godard’s direction pays obvious and respectful homage to the work of John Huston, Howard Hawks, Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang, and others.
If imitation truly is the sincerest form of flattery, then Film Noir is still exerting an important and continuing influence on the art of the cinema. The ten movies listed below are the cream of the Film Noir crop. The runners-up could easily be in the first ten and are every bit the equals of my ten personal favorites.
1.) Detour 1946 (Edgar Ulmer) Many critics and film historians regard Detour as the finest low budget movie ever made. Shot in just six days with a cast (Tom Neal, and Patricia Savage) of hungry unknowns, and on a budget that would have severely challenged Ed Wood ($20,000), the film tells an incredible story using just a few sets, two major actors, and one unexpected (and tragic) plot twist after another. Ulmer’s apprenticeship under Murnau and his work with other German Expressionism directors during the twenties had a large influence on his visual style and direction. The melancholy tone (and fatalism) of Detour influenced Truffaut, Godard, and other new wave directors. I saw this film the first time when I was eleven years old, with my Dad, at a Saturday Matinee.
2.) The Big Sleep 1946 (Howard Hawks) Screenplay by William Faulkner & Leigh Brackett from the novel by Raymond Chandler. Humphrey Bogart, & Lauren Bacall. Bogie plays Private Eye Phillip Marlowe, hot on the trail of blackmailers, murderers, and missing persons. This film has a complex plot, with devious characters, gorgeous dames, and perverted pornographers, the movie is a classic Warner Brothers thriller.
3.) This Gun For Hire 1941 (Frank Tuttle) From the novel by Graham Greene. Alan Ladd & Veronica Lake. Ladd, in his first major role, plays a cold-blooded, hired killer out to get the client who double-crossed him. He spends much of the film hiding from the cops with Lake as his hostage.
4.)The Maltese Falcon 1941 (John Huston) From Dashiell Hammett’s classic 1929 novel. Humphrey Bogart, Sidney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Mary Astor. The hard-boiled dialog was taken directly from the novel. Surrounded by betrayal, deception, false identities, and desperate characters, Bogie, as Private Eye Sam Spade, pursues the killer of his partner. This film was Huston’s debut as a director. Generally regarded as the first true film noir.
5.) Double Indemnity 1944 (Billy Wilder) From a short story by James M. Cain, screenplay by Wilder and Raymond Chandler. Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, and Edward G. Robinson. Stanwyck convinces Insurance Salesman MacMurray to help her kill her husband for the insurance money. If they can make it look like an accident she collects double.
6.) The Narrow Margin 1952 (Richard Fleisher) The cops must transport mob widow Marie Windsor from Chicago to Los Angeles, where she is to testify against a powerful mobster. The mob is out to stop her at all costs, and the train trip from Chicago to L.A. is filled with one exciting twist after another, with an incredible surprise ending.
7.) Out of the Past 1947 (Jacques Tourneur) Best known for his atmospheric horror films, Cat People and I Walked With a Zombie, Tourneur created one of the best film noirs of all time, with Robert Mitchum, Kirk Douglas, and Jane Greer. Betrayal, double cross, and triple cross, nothing in this tense thriller is what it seems.
8.) D.O.A. 1950 (Rudolphe Mate) Edmund O’Brien stumbles into a police station and says “I want to report a murder”. “Who got killed?” asks the cop on duty, “Me” says O’Brien. He’s been poisoned and has only a short while to live, the rest of the story is told in flashback, as O’Brien tries to figure out who fed him a slow acting poison, and why.
9.) The Postman Always Rings Twice 1946 (Tay Garnett) From the Novel by James M. Cain. Staring John Garfield and Lana Turner as illicit lovers who plot to kill Turner’s husband. Adultery, lust, greed, murder, and blackmail, this fast-paced movie has it all, plus a wonderfully twisted surprise ending.
10.) The Big Heat 1953 (Fritz Lang) The director of Metropolis and M was one of the leading auteurs of the German Expressionism movement when he fled Nazi Germany for Hollywood. In this movie honest Police Detective Glen Ford embarks on a violent one-man campaign of bitter vengeance against the mobsters who killed his wife. In a stunning finale Ford learns that he is becoming what he hates most, a monster, little different from those he is trying to destroy.
Classic Noir films: The Runners-Up
1.) Kiss Me Deadly 1955 (Robert Aldrich) The first Mike Hammer film. Film noir meets cold war paranoia in hipster Los Angeles---with the most twisted surprise ending of all time.
2.) The Big Steal 1947 (Don Siegel)
3.) The Killing 1955 (Stanley Kubrick) Caper flick with dialog by Jim Thompson
3.) Key Largo 1948 (John Huston) Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Barrymore, and Edward G. Robinson. Bogie takes on a gang of mobsters in the Florida keys.
4.) Kiss of Death 1947 (Henry Hathaway)
5.) A Touch of Evil 1958 (Orson Welles) The last true classic Film Noir. A restored "directors" cut (from Welles' notes) played the big screen recently.
6.) Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1948 (John Huston) from the novel by B. Traven. Bogie, Walter Huston (John's father), and Tim Holt with John Huston in a cameo role. "Treasure" has every classic film noir element except the devious dame.
7.) The Big Combo 1955 (Joseph H. Lewis)
Classic NEO Noir
These films contain many of the elements of classic Film Noir, and their makers were clearly influenced by the directors, writers, cinematographers, and actors of classic noir films. They are all worth seeing in their own right, and as excellent examples of the continuing influence of Film Noir on cinema art.
1.) Body Double 1984 (Brian De Palma)
2.) Slamdance 1987 (Wayne Wang)
3.) Chinatown 1975 (Roman Polanski) Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, and Polanski (as a knife wielding thug) in one of the finest films ever made.
4.) Blood Simple 1984 (Joel Coen)
5.) Body Heat 1980 (Laurence Kasdan) Kasdan’s first film as a director. He wrote the screenplays for The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Kathleen Turner made her sultry acting debut in this film, playing William Hurt for a prize chump.
6.) Night Moves 1975 (Arthur Penn) Gene Hackman. Melanie Griffith and James Woods made their acting debuts in this movie.
7.) The Long Goodbye 1973 (Robert Altman) Eliot Gould as Phillip Marlowe.
8.) The Late Show 1977 (Robert Benton) Art Carney & Lilly Tomlin.
9.) Bullitt 1968 (Peter Yates) Steve McQueen, Robert Vaugn, and Jaqueline Bissett. Set in San Francisco, this film is mostly about political corruption and mob influence and contains what is arguably the best car chase ever filmed. Look for Robert Duvalle in an early role.
10.) Point Blank 1967 (John Boorman) Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson. There truly is no honor among thieves and Marvin is out for revenge against the L. A. mob. Based on the Parker series written by Donald Westlake (writing as Richard Stark).
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Member: Howard Creech
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