The MoFo Top 100 Film Noir Countdown

So what's our final, guaranteed top 20?

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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."

Here are 20 I gotta assume make it.


Ace in the Hole
Double Indemnity
In a Lonely Place
Kiss Me Deadly
Laura
Mildred Pierce
Notorious
Out of the Past
Shadow of a Doubt
Strangers on a Train
Sunset Boulevard
Sweet Smell of Success
The Big Sleep
The Killing
The Maltese Falcon
The Night of the Hunter
The Third Man
Touch of Evil
The Asphalt Jungle
The Big Heat

Had both Pick Up on South Street (#24) and The Killers (#5) on my ballot. Don't have much to say about Pick Up but The Killers was pretty good. On my ballot the top 4 are pretty spectacular then there's a bit of a drop off but The Killers is the best of rest, imo. This may be my favorite performance from Lancaster.

#20 Notorious (1946)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Production: RKO
Cast: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains
266 Points, 22 Lists

#19 Ace in the Hole (1951)

Director: Billy Wilder
Production: Paramount Pictures
Cast: Kirk Douglas,Jan Sterling, Robert Arthur
268 Points, 18 Lists

Notorious was #15 on the MoFo Top 100 of the 1940s and Ace in the Hole was #44 on the MoFo Top 100 of the 1950s.

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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

Two fantastic films,both of which made my ballot. Notorious was my 13 and Ace in the Hole was my 14.

Seen: 81/82

Didn't get my chance to predict the Top Twenty, though Notorious would have immediately busted it as I only had it as a possible alternate. But for the record I would have guessed....

Ace in the Hole
The Asphalt Jungle
The Big Heat
The Big Sleep
Diabolique
Double Indemnity
In a Lonley Place
The Killing
Laura
The Maltese Falcon
Mildred Pierce
Night of the Hunter
Out of the Past
Shadow of a Doubt
Strangers on a Train
Sunset Blvd.
The Sweet Smell of Success
The Third Man
Touch of Evil
The Woman in the Window

Liked Notorious the first round but haven’t gone back.

Ace in the hole was mid for me first time. I wouldn’t have considered it here anyway.

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Letterboxd

A couple of winners. I didn't have Ace in the Hole on my list but only because I had two other Billy Wilder films on my list (and pretty high too). Kirk Douglas excels and the subject matter is still very relevant after all these years. I did have Notorious on my list at #7. What a cast in one of Hitch's best pictures. The master at work here.

7. Notorious (1946)
10. Stray Dog (1949)
13. Detour (1945)
15. Bob le flambeur (1956)
16. The Killers (1946)
17. Rififi (1955)
20. Gilda (1946)
21. Pickup on South Street (1953)
23. White Heat (1949)
25. Nightmare Alley (1947)

I don't think this one will make the list, personally.

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IMDb
Letterboxd

Notorious didn't make my ballot, but it's very good.

Ace in the Hole was #13 on my ballot. I was initially dissatisfied by its ending, but I warmed up to it over time. Heck, it might've even made it higher on my ballot had I rewatched it in time. Douglas plays a complex character who disregards human suffering so he can create the ultimate story, representing how the media often goes too far for extreme sensationalism. It's a powerful film which is still relevant today.

5) Night and the City
8) White Heat
9) Detour
13) Ace in the Hole
14) Gun Crazy
16) The Postman Always Rings Twice
18) The Stranger
19) Odd Man Out
22) The Lost Weekend
24) Crossfire

I only managed 50% of those. Some are glaring omissions on my part but hey, personal preference wins out in the end I suppose.

0 for 2 today! I'm like that NFL team that totally falls apart or doesn't bother to show up during the playoffs.

Notorious was one of the small handful of Hitchcock films I thought I could wait on or do without watching like Torn Curtain. And Ace in the Hole is another of those hiding-in-plain-sight movies that I've had multiple opportunities to watch but never have.

This is the way the countdown ends, this is the way the countdown ends, this is the way the countdown ends, not with a bang but a whimper.

48 of 82 seen.

Notorious is Top Tier Hitchcock. Torn Curtain is not.


"Woolf, Huberman, woof!"

Killer's Kiss?

Ace in the Hole was, checks list, #4 on my ballot. Dark melodrama noir did well on my ballot. I look at the literal circus in the movie and think, "I guess this is an example of satire that doesn't actually register as comedy for me. Am I viewing it wrong?"


I think I've already said on these forums that Samuel Fuller remains a blindspot that I'm slowly working on correcting (but never in time for the appropriate countdowns).


The Killers - I thought I had seen parts of this as a young teen. Not sure. After watching it for the countdown, still not sure. Last year I did see the Siegal remake and the Tarkovsky adaptation (it was a short of just the initial set up for the hit). And the one thing really bugging me through the movie, "why is the insurance company the primary detective character in this movie? Why? (I know the answer is Double Indemnity, but still, why?!?!)" Did not make my ballot. If shots of Ava Gardner were valid options for this countdown, those might have though.

Notorious - have not seen. I don't think I would have considered it, as it sounds a lot more like one of Hitchcock's spy thrillers to me than noir.

8 of mine remain but I've only officially ruled out one of them. I love me some Hitch but I didn't consider most if any of his films for this countdown.

I had Ace in the Hole at #17. It is not the only Billy Wilder film on my list, let's just say. I have two Hitchcock films, one yet to be revealed, but I left off Notorious, maybe because I don't really see it as noir. I certainly like it far more than The Wrong Man, which was on my list, but that's how I saw it.

My List:
6. Pickup on South Street (#21)
7. Stray Dog (#32)
11. Where the Sidewalk Ends (#66)
15. Elevator to the Gallows (#41)
17. Ace in the Hole (#19)
18. Gilda (#27)
20. This Gun for Hire (#78)
21. The Postman Always Rings Twice (#23)
22. The Wrong Man (#39)
23. The Set-Up (#46)
24. Scarlet Street (#29)
25. Gun Crazy (#36)

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I may go back to hating you. It was more fun.