Top 10 Noir Movies
Here’s the skinny: We put a couple gumshoes on the case to track down all of film noir’s low-lifes, grifters, heels, and molls so we could assemble a lineup worthy of this amazing genre.
So you’d better get wise and read our Top 5 Noir Movies before the G-men come after ‘em.
10. Notorious
Had to represent Hitchcock on this list. The triptych of Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Rains—legends of '40s Hollywood—turn this into a crackling espionage thriller with an all-time ending. —Chad Comello
9. Sweet Smell of Success
On its surface, Alexander Mackendrick’s Sweet Smell of Success is pure vibe. The hustling post-war nightlife of 1950s New York City, the razor-sharp screenplay fiercely delivered by its cast, the rousing jazz score performed by Chico Hamilton and Elmer Bernstein—somehow a movie night on the couch feels like a night on the town. But underneath the surface we’re presented with the dark side of human nature; the destructive powers of American ambition and greed and what one’s obsession with getting ahead can do to those they leave behind. Burt Lancaster is a force of nature, embodying both a physicality and vulnerability never quite rendered in another leading man before or since. —Kevin Prchal
8. Memento
Seeing this in early high school was my first encounter with Christopher Nolan, Guy Pearce, and the unique thrill of getting my mind blown by a film. It’s also the rare twist-ending movie that offers more to see and untangle with every rewatch. —Chad Comello
7. Zodiac
Zodiac continues to be a front-runner of mine, which I find remarkably difficult to talk about or review. It’s colossal, pioneering, daunting, and fervent filmmaking that at no time falls short of leaving my heart floored and my mind genuinely disquieted. I have watched it umpteen times and, in some peculiar way, when “Hurdy Gurdy Man” gently surges from the screen, I am hopeful for a conclusion unlike the ones I have experienced and seen previously. My favorite part of Zodiac is Dave Toschi’s bow ties; my second favorite part is when all the boys call each other on the phone. —Natalie Bauer
6. Double Indemnity
This isn’t the first major noir (fedora-tip to The Maltese Falcon) but damned if it isn’t the genre’s absolute peak: femme fatale, no-nonsense narration, crime gone wrong, investigator on the case. It’s hard to pick Billy Wilder’s best movie but this has to be near the top. —Chad Comello
5. Touch Of Evil
I think Lucifer would look like Orson Welles. (If the devil existed, I mean.) Bucketloads of charisma, he would order you to do things and you would hate him, for being so smug, so goddamned sure you would do what he wanted. With all your heart, you’d despise him, and you’d still end up doing what he ordered because he’s so heartbreakingly wonderful and confident and exasperating. For years Welles argued and battled with the studios to get his creative vision across, the expenses (whether financial or professional) be damned. With Touch Of Evil, his approach persists on broad spectacle, very markedly in the beginning three-and-half-minute tracking shot of an exploding device being planted on a car in a run-down Mexican outpost town, a car which happens to be driven by a wealthy American development financier along with his escort across the American border where it immediately blows up. Welles illustrates remarkably a great deal above merely flaunting his technological ability — it is daring filmmaking of the highest order and justly praised.—Natalie Bauer
4. Blue Velvet
Welcome to David Lynch’s America, where his disruption of the idyllic way of life leads you on an exploration of naïveté gradually collapsing via the uncovering of a secret underworld unlike any other. With Blue Velvet, David Lynch already has arranged the essential components that would typify an excellent neo-noir, but it further evolves into the ideal structure of his particular, chaotic description of Middle America in the way that we perceive it. The curious realm that Lynch drags you into is one that encourages you to question whether the loss of innocence is a thing you are able to be spared from, particularly after having been susceptible to all the badness in life. As a depiction of every bucolic American lifestyle deconstructed down to its essence, especially because it is challenged by the spirit of a sinister force that practically appears perverse, it remains harrowing because it makes the idea of being normal appear extremely grim. (Honorable mention: Dean Stockwell as commedia dell'arte Liberace is one of my favorite things I have seen in any movie ever.) —Natalie Bauer
3. Sunset Blvd
Like any good noir, Billy Wilder’s Sunset Blvd gives us a naive and hopeful protagonist thrust into a world far beyond his understanding. It’s in this world where he meets the lavishly aging actress Norma Jean, played iconically by the great Gloria Swanson. Desperate for work in Hollywood, he slips into her orbit and we watch through our fingers as he slowly but oh so surely is devoured by it. As for Norma? Well, her star gets the chance to shine again after all. Exquisitely dark and cynical, Sunset Blvd is a searing lens on Hollywood that leaps off the screen in today’s hyper-fueled grasp for fame and attention. —Kevin Prchal
2. The Third Man
It doesn’t take long to realize that Carol Reed’s The Third Man is not your typical whodunit. Its slanted, expressionistic depiction of post-war Vienna boggles the brain and surprises you at every turn. From the city’s highest Ferris wheel to its darkest tunnels, we stumble along as our American “hero” Holly Martins gathers clues and chases shadows in search of his said-deceased friend Harry Lime. It’s a remarkable mind game that captures the disorientation of our modern times better than any film I can think of. And for the world-weary folks among us, don’t worry—as any noir film should, The Third Man will leave you emptier than the arms of Mr. Martins himself. —Kevin Prchal
1. The Night of the Hunter
Robert Mitchum in The Night of the Hunter is quite simply a presence you never forget. Not unlike Javier Bardem’s Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men, Mitchum is relentless in his search for a lost fortune. But unlike Chigurh’s blank embodiment of evil, Mitchum’s is something far more cunning as he ventures town-to-town, house-to-house, kill-to-kill in the guise of a smooth-talking minister. You may never hear “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” the same again. —Kevin Prchal