Jump to content
 
Search In
  • More options...
Find results that contain...
Find results in...

Favorite 40's and 50's Film Noir?


bhryun
 Share

Recommended Posts

I would love to read of your favorite film noirs from the forties and fifties. My ABSOLUTE favorite is The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, and Too Late For Tears (aka Killer Bait). BTW, I would LOVE for TCM to have an entire "Best of Film Noir Weekend"....awesome. Your favorites?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can't argue with any of the ones you listed! Check out these:

 

Black Angel - Dan Duryea, June Vincent, Peter Lorre and Brodrick Crawford. One of the best.

 

This Gun for Hire - Alan Ladd and the incredible Veronica Lake.

 

The Killing - Sterling Hayden. One of Kubrick's early films and has a small cameo by one of my favorites Timothy Carey.

 

Touch of Evil - Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh and Orson Wells (director). What more do you want? And one of the best films of any genre ever made.

 

Many more, but those are some of my favorites.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good stuff! You mentioned Veronica Lake (thump, thump, thump).....she was so beautiful, so talented and such a sad, sad ending. I only wish her other two fims with Alan Ladd were on DVD. I haven't seen either of those in years. This Gun For Hire was a great film - love it!

 

Black Angel - one of my favorites as well.

 

Wouldn't you love to see back-to-back classic noir films over a weekend on TCM? Something I wish I could do more of is see these great films on the big screen. I saw Psycho on the biggie not long ago - that wasn't so old, but it was still great fun. I had only seen it on television. I have always said I would LOVE to see Veronica Lake at the theater!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You know there are so many obscure movies I have not see, but of the ones I have LAURA is at the top of the list. I can hardly wait for its release on DVD next month. I understand a deleted scene is even going to be included on the release.

 

Last year I saw the film RAW DEAL on a large screen at the Walter Reade Cinema at Lincoln Center, and I thought it was terrific - very entertaining, suspenseful and real noirish photography.

 

I am glad you mentioned DARK PASSAGE, I loved that film and I have not seen it in years. Another awesome film noir just sitting on my unopened DVD shelf is OUT OF THE PAST.

 

I really need to do have my own film noir festival one night soon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

YES please!!!:)

 

Check out the titles that were recently shown at the Film Forum, under the drop down 'Alphabetical List of Films'.

 

Wouldn't YOU like to see each and every one of these on TCM??? I would.....

 

http://www.filmforum.com/films/essentialnoir.html

 

Oh, Laura was glorious.....Waldo Lydecker, "A dame once got a fox fur out of me", the beautiful Gene Tierney....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

TCM did do a crime genre week back in the summer. This included mostly film noir. I would love to see TCM spin-off a sister station with just film noir! That would be too good to be true.

 

My favorite noir classic is KISS ME DEADLY: such a dark film with an antihero(Ralph Meeker) who borders on the psychotic. Surprises me a film like this got made in 1955. A couple others that are also favorites of mine:

 

DOUBLE INDEMNITY was quite good. Great rapid fire dialogue. Besides almost any film with Edward G. Robinson can't be that bad anyway.

 

RIDE THE PINK HORSE was outstanding. Thomas Gomez certainly deserved the Oscar for convincingly playing a sympathetic Mexican.

 

ODDS AGAINST TOMORROWA fitting noir piece for the end of the era(1959). Robert Ryan stole the film as a sadistic racist. Love that loungey jazz music.

 

Sorry to hijack your thread but I would like to mention three of my neo-noir favorites from the 70's,80's and 90's respectively:

TAXI DRIVER: Another favorite Neo-noir film. The streets of NY look like something out of Hell.

 

BLUE VELVET: Probably the most vile of all neo-noir classics but still a great powerful film about the ugly underbelly of suburbia.

 

PULP FICTION Tarantino was weaned on thousands of films(mostly noir)and he conjures them all up to make this original,violent classic.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am sick of swestern's and WAR movies, don't we have enough, of a war going on now? What ever happened to those old great romantic movies? Lana Turner, Susan Hayward, Gene teriney, Rita Hawyard, Grace Kelly, ETc....those were thebest & with all that is going on in our world today, I think we need to sit back and think of the good old days again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am sick of western's and WAR movies, don't we have enough, of war going on now in real life? What ever happened to those old great romantic movies? Lana Turner, Susan Hayward, Gene teriney, Rita Hawyard, Grace Kelly, ETc....those were the best & with all that is going on in our world today, I think we need to sit back and think of the good old days again.

Thanks much,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another great list. Hey! You're not hijacking the thread with your neo-noir films. I agree on all but - surprisingly - Pulp Fiction. I know, I know. I get razzed about it all the time, but for me, it was just too much. The scene in the car and Samuel Jackson has brain tissue in his hair - that was just too much. I think what I liked about the old films is the 'take me to the edge, but don't push me over' filmmaking. I miss that. I know I'm in a minority with Pulp Fiction, but.....Oh.....Double Indemnity was a great film that, as you said, had that nice quick rapid dialogue. That's why I like The Big Sleep so much. It certainly wasn't the plot! It was the perfectly crafted dialogue in each and ever scene where ever scene was a work of art on its own.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

> I am sick of western's and WAR movies, don't we have

> enough, of war going on now in real life? What ever

> happened to those old great romantic movies? Lana

> Turner, Susan Hayward, Gene teriney, Rita Hawyard,

> Grace Kelly, ETc....those were the best & with all

> that is going on in our world today, I think we need

> to sit back and think of the good old days again.

> Thanks much,

 

This is what is nice about TCM. You can have the old,romantic(feel good) films of the bygone era. However for those of us that like grittier and darker films TCM has them as well. Best of both worlds.

If you are opposed to film with violent themes then this thread may not be for you. Film Noir deals with darker themes then what you may like.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Noir is definitely my favorite genre or movement or whatever it is. I can't get enough. Some of my favorites include:

 

The Killing

Touch of Evil

Kiss Me Deadly

Out of the Past

The Night of the Hunter

The Asphalt Jungle

Criss Cross

Sweet Smell of Success

The Postman Always Rings Twice

Pickup on South Street

The Third Man

Detour

Force of Evil

Gilda

Mildred Pierce

Sunset Boulevard

 

Ok, ok, I'll stop myself. But I honestly consider ever film I listed above to be truly great films (and there's a bunch of other noirs I think fit the bill too, but I shouldn't make too big a list).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also, I have to mention that this year is looking like a great one for noir fans. We've already gotten the two Dassin films from Criterion (which I still need to pick up) and White Heat in the WB Gangsters collection. And still coming is Fox's film noir series (which I'm tremendously excited about: either 9 or 12 noirs this year!) as well as another Film Noir Classic Collection from WB (which hopefully will be announced soon). Plus there are a number of stray releases that are trickling out from other companies. And hopefully Universal will release another batch of their Noir Collection this year too, and maybe, just maybe, they'll finally release Double Indemnity.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That crime week TCM did, had people worried about me, as I woke up early and sat in front of the TV for hours on end. My favorite film noir, is the Big Sleep (which did feature during that TCM special)So I suppose Im unoriginal like that, but I think Humphrey Bogart, does empitomize the genre.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love film noir. First I have to say that to me the two ultimate film noirs is Detour and The Postman Always Rings Twice but they are not my favorites. I really didn't care for Detour. The Postman Always Rings Twice is a good movie, but none one I have to watch all the time. I'm not really that fond of John Garfield.

 

There are many I have not seen yet. A few of my favorites-

1. The Third Man

2. Touch of Evil

3. The Maltese Falcon

4. Ride the Pink Horse

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 Share

© 2022 Turner Classic Movies Inc. All Rights Reserved Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Cookie Settings
×
×
  • Create New...