Wow, this is my third two-fer in this countdown! That's never happened to me. I'm just hooked on Noir, so I guess that accounts for it.
I love
Detour and the first time I saw it, it played almost like a horror film to me, with Ann Savage's character like the unstoppable monster stalking Tom Neal. The moment after he picks her up and she's "sleeping" then suddenly opens her eyes and is glaring at him without him knowing---that still freaks me out! She was off the chain in this, but towards the end, I did feel sorry for her in the moments where she was reaching out to Neal for some sort of comfort---but she'd burned her bridges by the time and he was, ahem, wasn't haven' any.
The cinematography was great, with the shadow play being aces, like the horn players on the wall behind Claudia Drake, the lights growing dim on Neal's face in the diner as he tells his story, with only the minimal light around his face---just excellent stuff. And the ending is perfect Noir. My #18 And totally killing the idea of Noir, here's the cast all happy:
The Postman Always Rings Twice is one I've known about for decades, as I've mentioned before that John Garfield was liked by most of my family---I maybe wasn't as huge of a fan but I certainly liked the guy's movies. This one is tops for me in his resume. And once you see Lana Turner, you can't blame him for wanting to help her kill her husband. Wow---I doubt that she's ever looked this fine. And I agree with @
Citizen Rules that Hume Cronyn played one of his best roles here. I tried to get into the remake with Nicholson and Lange but for me they took out the doom that this one laid out and replaced it with sad tragedy. Meh. I had this one at #12
#4
The Big Combo List Proper #52
#6
Kansas City Confidential List Proper #53
#12
The Postman Always Rings Twice List Proper #23
#13
Murder, My Sweet List Proper #28
#14
Kiss of Death List Proper #59
#15
He Walked By Night List Proper #88
#16
The Naked City List Proper #60
#18
Detour List Proper #24
#20
Gun Crazy List Proper #36
#22
This Gun For Hire List Proper #78
#23
The Narrow Margin List Proper #43
#25
Crossfire List Proper #51