Time for me to make a post before this ends up being War and Peace.
Stranger on the Third Floor was not on my ballot but was a close contender. Gave it a re-watch after it was revealed and it still holds up very well. Great visual style and I really like the characters, especially Peter Lorre of course doing what he does best.
I had
Woman on the Run placed at #22. It's got a very unique flavour about it and it's probably thanks in no small part to Ann Sheridan's gutsy no-nonsense performance and interesting dialogue. The nice location photography and tense roller coaster scene at the end make it a stand out.
I Want to Live! was on my ballot at #10. The beginning's quite noirish but it does then admittedly move into being more of a tense drama concerning the justice system. Whatever the facts in reality may be about Barbara Graham it made the basis for a great movie, and the phenomenal knock-out performance from Susan Hayward is one you can never forget.
Brighton Rock is one I think I may have only vaguely ever heard of, which is interesting as I've seen a lot of Richard Attenborough's earlier films. Great to see a Brit film like this make the countdown as most of them don't get tagged film noir as much as the American films.
He Walked By Night was on my list at #19 and I saw it again after the reveal. No messing around in this film as it gets on with the job of portraying the tense cat and mouse game between the criminal and the police investigators. Great lighting in this throughout, especially in the underground sequence. And great sound for that portion as well with all the cops advancing and the subsequent gun battle. Very cool to see how much this influenced Jack Webb and
Dragnet. Incidentally I was considering the 1954 Dragnet movie for my ballot, a film which in my opinion was ahead of its time.
Seen
The Dark Corner a couple of times but can't remember much about the story. I do however remember the visuals being outstanding, so there's that at least. Also seen
Angel Face several times and liked it just fine. The ending was easily predictable but brutal all the same.
Had
Force of Evil at #4. It's an interesting thing that whenever I think of film noir this is always the first film to come to my mind. There's just something about it that symbolises the genre to me, which is peculiar I guess because there were certainly a lot of better noirs made overall which will no doubt be appearing here in due course. This clip from
A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies encapsulates what I mean:
Seen
Born To Kill a couple of times and really enjoyed it. A lot of powerful stuff there about a guy to whom murder comes casually and very irrationally (although is murder ever rational?). Lawrence Tierney plays his part with ease and Claire Trevor makes for a natural counterpart to his corruption. A similarly great cast in
All The Kings Men but otherwise I didn't care for it unfortunately.
The Amazing Mr. X is one I've not heard of, and
Too Late For Tears ticks a lot of noir boxes and Lizabeth Scott and Dan Duryea are always great. It's a solid noir although I did find some of the plot a little frustrating to endure at times. Not seen
Fallen Angel or
Confidential Report.
Also watched
Crime Wave from the one pointers and thought it was excellent. Really appreciated the high frequency of realistic lighting and locations. I'm wondering if Kubrick was influenced by it in any way for when he made
The Killing.
So that's five from my ballot so far (these in addition to
Sorry, Wrong Number) with 14/22 seen, and I'm currently expecting three on my list to not make the cut.