Flipside Movie Emporium

[Fred C. Dobbs]

One of my favorite sub-genres, alongside Western and Blaxploitation.

What are some of your favorite noir films? For the record, I don't consider Sunset Boulevard, Chinatown, or Citizen Kane noir films...although I have heard people call these such. Of course, we all have our own interpretation of the term, so lets not argue about semantics, if possible.

My ten favorites (in order):

Night of the Hunter

Touch of Evil

The Big Heat

The Maltese Falcon

Laura

Key Largo

The Killers

Double Indemnity

Kiss Me Deadly

The Postman Always Rings Twice

I'm not sure how well this is going to go over on this forum (especially since one of the forum members uses the psuedonym!) but I think The Third Man is seriously overrated, and maybe if it were directed by Welles (or had a little bit more of Welles in it!) I would have enjoyed it more. Another overrated noir is the confusing 1946 film The Big Sleep, and Bogart is my favorite actor. Didn't really like this one at all. The Lady From Shanghai is a good noir, but it really only compares to Welles other films in the last 20 minutes, which is brilliant. The whole chinese theatre/carnival/hall of mirrors scene(s) are absolutely amazing.

I still have many noir films to catch up on: The Asphalt Jungle, The Set-Up, Out of the Past, Force of Evil, Odds Against Tomorrow, The Mask of Dimitrios, The Woman in the Window, Gun Crazy, D.O.A., He Walked By Night...but luckily, many of these have been issued on DVD or have been announced for a 2004 release, sans Mask of Dimitrios and Woman in the Window unfortunatley (although I have VHS dubs of these), which still need to be issued on DVD.
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"Pino, fuck you, fuck your fuckin' pizza, and fuck Frank Sinatra."

[matt header]

Excellent list, Mr. Dobbs - film noir is one of my favorite subgenres as well. (Although I must admit The Third Man is one of my favorite movies.) Have you seen Gilda with Rita Hayworth? Her famous striptease scene - in which she only removes her gloves - still smolders. Out of the Past is great as well.

[beltmann]

Another good list; I'd say of those my favorite is Night of the Hunter, followed closely by Double Indemnity. You've got to hunt down The Set-Up and Out of the Past, and I agree with Matt regarding Gilda.

To be honest, I don't typically think of noir films as noir first. My mind doesn't lump them together that way.

Eric

[bassi43]

how would you interperet an noir film?
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