The MoFo Top 100 Film Noir Countdown

Have you seen Ray Milland in The Man With The X-Ray Eyes? Good stuff!

Hm who would know if your #13 makes it or not. Guess you'll have to wait to find out.

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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

Ha I wondered if anyone would notice that. Truth is I'm too lazy to go look at the master list I have and so I really don't know if it will make it or not. But based on it's title it's not that popular and we're into the more well known noirs now.

I've yet to see The Lost Weekend but that's not from lack of wanting to. It's just that there's so many movies to watch in life! I'm glad it made it because of its reputation.

I watched Nightmare Alley after the Countdown began, and wow! Not only is this a great Noir, but for me it's simply a great film. It quickly became one of my all-time favorites and I wish I'd seen it before we started but I don't care because it's seen now and I love it. Power was top-shelf in this, with co-stars Joan Blondell and Mike Mazurki doing fine work. But Coleen Gray and Helen Walker are beyond-beautiful and represent two ends of the spectrum when it comes to being human beings: Gray is decent and Walker is evil. But this is Power's show when it comes down to it and I don't recall him being better. Like @Citzen Rules I gave this one 5 popcorn buckets. So glad it made the list.

I haven't but there's an image that I've been thinking about lately that may happen on Monday if people look at the solar eclipse the wrong way:




#4 The Big Combo List Proper List Proper #52
#6 Kansas City Confidential List Proper #53
#14 Kiss of Death List Proper List Proper #59
#15 He Walked By Night List Proper #88
#16 The Naked City List Proper #60
#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

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"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."

Ironically, I've only seen 4 of his films: Dial M for Murder, Ministry of Fear, The Uninvited, and Love Story. It's an actor I keep wanting to see more of, so I'll add that one to the watchlist.

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Yes! Another fan of Nightmare Alley. Poor Tyrone Power he wasn't taken seriously as an actor by some. He often was thought of as a matinee idol which is what most of his earlier movies were. Luckily he managed to land in a few choice movies like Witness for the Prosecution, The Razor's Edge and of course his triumph Nightmare Alley. Then he dies young at age 44 while doing a dueling scene for a movie...The same way his father who was an actor had died.

I watched The Breaking Point and Act of Violence today. I thought both had good performances, but Act of Violence was the more interesting and effective of the two. Bob Le Flambeur is now the only remaining film (so far) on this countdown that I haven't seen.

Seen: 67/68

Count me as a fan of Milland. I've seen all those films except I haven't got around to Love Story yet. I did watch him recently in the noir The Big Clock (1948) and did a little write up on the now famous Noirvember 2023 Rate the Last Noir You Watched thread.
Sean and John-Connor also wrote it up and the links with the ratings are on the 1st post. One of my favorite Milland movies was Golden Earrings with Marlene Dietrich.

#36 Gun Crazy - Here's a snappy, dazzling, fast-paced film that hits hard throughout it's typically short film noir runtime. There are so many scenes from Gun Crazy that get recalled when I read about the genre as a whole, because it has that intensity derived from lust - something which all the best film noir classics have. The combination of lust and violence is bridged by passion, and it's something every human being can feel in their gut. So when gun lover Bart (John Dall) gets led astray by sociopath Laurie (Peggy Cummins) it's tragic, but makes some kind of sense in a fundamental way - a deadly, toxic mix of passions that spells doom for the young man. Such a great movie. I had it at #16 on my film noir ballot.

#35 Rebecca - I caught up with this years ago, because Rebecca has that kind of "great movie" reputation, and I liked everything about it except for the way Laurence Olivier played his role - I just felt like his dialogue was spat out at much too rapid a pace. Sometimes so fast I couldn't grasp it. I guess that was his character, but it started to drive me crazy. The film doesn't depend on that one factor though, and the story is told in gripping style and a dark, brooding mood. Just seen it the once, a while ago - it couldn't make my ballot.

#34 The Lost Weekend - I've been looking forward to this film for years and years. Still haven't gotten around to watching it - one day. One day.

#33 Nightmare Alley - It was the remake which spurred me to go back and check out the original Nightmare Alley. I felt that this version was more direct and the moral and ethical reading of what everything means is more neatly laid out and easier to read. (In other words, it wasn't as flashy and grandiose.) Great performance from Tyrone Power, whose eyes command most of our attention almost as if he were hypnotizing us in the audience. I'd always prefer to watch an original before seeing the remake, but I found the two movies to be quite distinct from each other, despite telling the same story. Really liked it a lot. I had it at #22 on my ballot.

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Seen : 16/68
I'd never even heard of : 45/68
Movies that had been on my radar, but I haven't seen yet : 7/60
Films from my list : 7

#33 - My #22 - Nightmare Alley (1947)
#36 - My #16 - Gun Crazy (1950)
#44 - My #19 - Criss Cross (1949)
#54 - My #12 - D.O.A. (1950)
#58 - My #23 - The Breaking Point (1950)
#61 - My #21 - Act of Violence (1949)
#67 - My #18 - The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

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Can't find my The Lost Weekend review but I remember it being very good with a memorable performance by Ray Milland. I have it at #44. Nightmare Alley is good especially the scenes in the carnival setting, always nice to see Colleen Gray. The remake was terrible, not even Cate Blanchett could save it.

SEEN 35/68
BALLOT 9/25

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The weekend is over, but that doesn't mean that the games are. Here's a little simple game of Fill in the Blanks. See how you do!

Missing Word: Film Noir

Let us know how you do!

I couldn’t figure out how to move past 711 Ocean…

That’s the only one I would have missed though

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Letterboxd

You don't have to do them in order. You can just keep typing the others and it'll take them.

No votes for me on the last couple, once again!

That said, I did get to one of the films that has appeared earlier in the list that I hadn't seen, which was He Walked by Night.



Steeped in noir imagery and lighting, this was excellent. May very well have made my ballot if I had seen it before the deadline.

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I'll play! The remaining titles from my ballot...

1. definitely
2. definitely
3. Too Late for Tears
4. The Set-Up
5. absolutely
6. for sure
7. of course
8. Odd Man Out
9. Criss Cross
10. must be, probably soon
11. 100%
12. The Big Combo
13. Phantom Lady
14. Born to Kill
15. gotta be
16. I would think so
17. nope, must have missed the cut
18. He Walked By Night
19. Fallen Angel
20. for sure
21. would have said 100% when we started, now...50%
22. Panic in the Streets
23. nope, not at this point
24. Crossfire
25. The Crimson Kimono (one-pointer)

So of my remaining thirteen, ten for sure will show, two I think no way, and one on the bubble.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

I see Too Late for Tears up on Prime, so I think I will take that one in next...

I'm pretty confident that all but one from my ballot will make it. Not because I'm so good, cause I'm not, but because I assembled it without putting much thought into it, so I really didn't include a lot of obscure, out-of-left-field picks.

These are my odds:

1. 100%
2. 100%
3. 90%
4. 100%
5. 100%
6. 90%
7. 100%
8. 100%
9. 85%
10. 100%
11. Criss Cross (#44)
12. 90%
13. 100%
14. 80%
15. 85%
16. 95%
17. The Narrow Margin (#43)
18. 100%
19. 100%
20. Gun Crazy (#36)
21. The Hitch-Hiker (#67)
22. 50%
23. The Woman in the Window (#65)
24. D.O.A. (#54)
25. Kansas City Confidential (#53)

#32 Stray Dog (1949)

Director: Akira Kurosawa
Production: Toyo Company
Cast: Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Awaji
173 Points, 14 Lists

#31 The Lady From Shanghai (1947)

Director: Orson Welles
Production: Mercury Productions
Cast: Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Everett Sloane
173 Points, 16 Lists