The MoFo Top 100 Film Noir Countdown

The 1946 theatrical release of The Big Sleep is the version most people watch. It was shot in 1944 during WWII and just as the film was being finished, the war was coming to an end. Warner Brothers Studio had a lot of war themed movies in the pipeline and wanted to get those out before they became passe. So The Big Sleep was put on the shelf and it's release held.

Meanwhile Lauren Bacall who had shot to stardom in her first film,To Have and Have Not, had her second film released Confidential Agent which critics hated her in. They had considered her a major talent, but after Confidential Agent, they questioned even if she could act at all...and her future as an actresses was in serious doubt.

Seeing how The Big Sleep was in limbo, Jack Warner ordered additional scenes to be shot of Bacall that would allow her to shine with her sexual innuendos and insolence that had made her a star in To Have and Have Not. Thus the original 1945 film was never released but a reworked film came out in 1946, which was a huge success and so was Lauren Bacall who went on to have a long film career.

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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

It was a classic film noir I had to include. The Big Sleep was my #16. I'm rather surprised Altman's version of Chandler's The Long Goodbye will end up placing higher on the neo-noir countadown than The Big Sleep did on this countdown.

My List:
6. Pickup on South Street (#21)
7. Stray Dog (#32)
8. The Killing (#11)
9. Laura (#10)
10. Shadow of a Doubt (#12)
11. Where the Sidewalk Ends (#66)
13. The Big Heat (#17)
14. Sweet Smell of Success (#9)
15. Elevator to the Gallows (#41)
16. The Big Sleep (#8)
17. Ace in the Hole (#19)
18. Gilda (#27)
19. Mildred Pierce (#15)
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.

I am supposed to be catching up on many of these noirs I haven't seen yet, but instead, I found myself watching Siodmak's The Killers again yesterday. Yea, I probably should have put that one a few slots higher on my ballot.

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I absolutely love The Big Sleep. I've seen it many times, and I still watch it occasionally. Despite that, IMO the picture is a little light-hearted for a sinister and cynical noir, so I chose another Chandler for my list.

I'd seen TBS years before, but when I lived in Hollywood in the '70s/'80s I read all of Chandler's novels, the first of which was TBS. I walked by the Cahuenga Building frequently, where Marlowe had his office; and I was able to imagine much of the settings and moods of the Marlowe novels.

There is so much written about TBS, but my favorite is when they were shooting the scene where the police were dredging up the limousine out of the bay, director Hawks called Chandler to ask who had killed the chauffeur (Owen Taylor - Sternwood's driver), Chandler replied that he didn't know!.. IMO Taylor committed suicide when he was rebuffed by Carmen Sternwood.

Two actors who left an impression on me were cowboy star Bob Steele playing the sarcastic deadly Lash Canino, one of Eddie Mars' henchmen, who kills the Elisha Cook, Jr. character. Steele had the perfect '40s bad guy voice.

The other was the smoldering Dorothy Malone, who played the bookstore clerk across the street from Geiger's bookstore. Her cameo part almost was sexier than Lauren Bacall's!

The picture is very confusing with only one viewing. Re-watches help, but reading the book clears it all up.

well, what do you know. it was #8 on my ballot. like i said about memento and neo-noir, this is easily one of the first films to come to mind when you process the phrase "film noir".

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Yes! When I first saw this years and years ago, I couldn't believe this was the same Dorothy Malone who would end up guest-starring on TV shows like Vega$ and The Hardy Boys. In The Big Sleep she was sex on a stick! I wanted more of her also. Martha Vickers was a kitten also. Voom. This movie had all kinds of babes planted everywhere. But yes, Bogie and Bacall were the flavor of the day so what can you do? I loved The Big Sleep for the reason a lot of people did---it was lots of fun. The lighter attitude didn't bother me at all. It was just a whole Noir ball of wax that happened to work. I was laughing at the video that @Holden Pike posted where Eddie Muller talks about Raymond Chandler being responsible for all those story titles with "The Big" in them. I've done that for fun, combining Noir film titles, always using "The Big" and mixing-and-matching. Like say, "The Big, Long..." ooh, I'd better stop there. Also, who knew that Mason Reese was connected, however slightly, to Film Noir? Small World.

#1 The Killing List Proper #11
#2 The Asphalt Jungle List Proper #16
#3
#4 The Big Combo List Proper #52
#5 Pickup on South Street List Proper #23
#6 Kansas City Confidential List Proper #53
#7 The Big Sleep List Proper #8
#8 While the City Sleeps NM
#9 Lady in the Lake NM
#10 The Big Heat List Proper #17
#11 Kiss Me Deadly List Proper #13
#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
#17 The Killers List Proper #22
#18 Detour List Proper #24
#19 The Glass Key NM
#20 Gun Crazy List Proper #36
#21 Impact NM
#22 This Gun For Hire List Proper #78
#23 The Narrow Margin List Proper #43
#24 Pitfall NM
#25 Crossfire List Proper #51

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"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."

Another one of my Classic Noir no-shows…



Black Angel (1946) is Cornell Woolrich piece. Woolrich is best known for the Hitchcock classic Rear Window but he had many stories adapted into films, including Phantom Lady (#69) from our collective list (thirteenth on my ballot). This one was made as a star vehicle for Dan Duryea, who had become a Noir sensation as the delightfully slimy baddies in The Ministry of Fear (#75), Woman in the Window (#65), and Scarlet Street (#29) and later in Too Late for Tears (#81) and Criss Cross (#44), the last two of which were Top Ten material on my ballot. In Black Angel they gave him a chance at the lead, albeit a flawed one.

Duryea is Marty Blair, a piano player and songwriter who had a steamy relationship with a popular singer, Mavis Marlowe (Constance Dowling), they had even been secretly married. But now she wants nothing to do with him, especially on their anniversary. He tries to see her and give her a brooch, but she has the doorman turn him away. While outside he sees another man go up to see her, so he goes to a saloon to drown his sorrows. Later yet another man calls on the beautiful singer, but when he is let upstairs he finds her murdered. He also senses a prowler in the apartment, perhaps the murderer, but they get away including with that brooch. He flees the scene too but is identified, later picked up by the police (led by Broderick Crawford) as the prime suspect. Turns out he is married, was having a brief affair with the singer, but she was now blackmailing him. Though his wife (June Vincent) is upset by the affair, she believes in her husband’s story and innocence. But this mysterious prowler cannot be found so he is convicted and sentenced to death.



Now as the execution date approaches, she desperately teams with Duryea, who did see that other man go up to the apartment that evening, in trying to find the real killer and free an innocent man. Their prime suspect becomes a shady nightclub owner (Peter Lorre). Like many mysteries, convoluted but loads of fun, thanks to the great cast, and Duryea is still charming and menacing as the protagonist rather than the supporting psycho. It was the final film of director Roy William Neill, whose career started in 1917 and was best known for helming the bulk of the Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes flicks. He died suddenly of a heart attack not long after Black Angel was completed. He was only fifty-nine.

I had Black Angel down at number twenty-three on my ballot.

HOLDEN'S BALLOT
2. The Killers (#22)
3. Too Late for Tears (#81)
4. The Set-Up (#46)
7. The Asphalt Jungle (#16)
8. Odd Man Out (#47)
9. Criss Cross (#44)
10. Stray Dog (#32)
11. The Killing (#11)
12. The Big Combo (#52)
13. Phantom Lady (#69)
14. Born to Kill (#84)
15. Pickup on South Street (#21)
16. The Big Heat (#17)
18. He Walked By Night (#88)
19. Fallen Angel (#80)
20. Shadow of a Doubt (#12)
21. Thieves’ Highway (DNP)
22. Panic in the Streets (#98)
23. Black Angel (DNP)
24. Crossfire (#51)
25. The Crimson Kimono (DNP)

#8 The Big Sleep (1946) - The Big Sleep is a big movie, and to tell you the truth I like Humphrey Bogart in just about everything I've ever seen him in - but here he has a coolness and style that really dazzles as the famous Philip Marlowe. The whole movie has that cool style to it. It's one of those movies where the hero and his love interest share a certain wit - at times poisonous, but always sexually charged and clever. At first I was slightly befuddled by The Big Sleep's story, but after a second go I had it all worked out - I can't seem to be able to really enjoy any of these film noir classics until I understand each twist and every character's motivation and real story. The biggest problem comes when they lie, then seemingly tell the truth, then it's discovered they lied again and I start losing track of what's real and which information I need to do away with because it's no longer relevant. Suffice to say, I could never be a Philip Marlowe myself. I'd get lost and cases would never get solved. Anyway, this movie is excellent, with Bogart and Bacall in fine form. I had it at #6 on my ballot.

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Seen : 31/93
I'd never even heard of : 47/93
Movies that had been on my radar, but I haven't seen yet : 15/93
Films from my list : 19

#8 - My #6 - The Big Sleep (1946)
#9 - My #9 - Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
#10 - My #24 - Laura (1944)
#11 - My #13 - The Killing (1956)
#13 - My #4 - Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
#14 - My #10 - The Night of the Hunter (1955)
#16 - My #15 - The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
#21 - My #17 - Pickup on South Street (1953)
#24 - My #20 - Detour (1945)
#27 - My #14 - Gilda (1946)
#28 - My #11 - Murder, My Sweet (1944)
#31 - My #25 - The Lady From Shanghai (1947)
#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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Since my initial guess order has been pretty damn close so far, only missed flipping Laura and Sweet Smell of Success, I'll stick with what I had and guess that today we are taking a trip to Vienna looking for The Third Man. When will you realize Vienna waits for you?

I have that on vinyl^^

Anyway - As they say in the old classics, sometin' stinks about yer order! I am just trying to figure out what it is.

Maybe it's that I think both Touch of Evil and The Third Man are for sure Top 5? I think perhaps Out of the Past will be a couple slots lower...

I will guess Out of the Past for today's film noir entry.

Another failure for me yesterday as far as rectification. Instead, I watched The African Queen.

I'm going to guess "In a Lonely Place". Go for the double Bogey.

Just added this to my watchlist. I love Dan Duryea, I love Peter Lorre, Broderick Crawford was great in All the King's Men, and Roy William Neill was the director of a mostly unknown Pre-Code film I saw and liked a while ago called The 9th Guest, so yeah, I'm on board.

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Black Angel was on my short list of noirs for my ballot. I hated to cut it but like everyone else the host only gets 25 noirs to vote for. I've seen Black Angel twice and if I had gotten around to a rewatch of it while I was composing my ballot I might have included it. Previously I reviewed and rated Black Angel

#7 Out of the Past (1947)

Director: Jacques Tourneur
Production: RKO
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas
489 Points, 33 Lists

And once again one of my write ups from one of those many Film Noir HoFs I've done.

It's all about Jane Greer!...I swear once I started looking for an image for this review I got fixated on finding the perfect screenshot of Miss Greer. She was indeed lovely, angelic like...so no wonder Robert Mitchum's character fell like a sack of potatoes for her.

I know some noir fans don't like female leads in their noirs. But me, I prefer a noir that has a strong female lead that causes the events to unfold. Relationships good and bad, that's life. But, I could see why Mitchum's character might've wised he'd never meet the devil in a white dress.

Robert Mitchum is the coolest and you've to pair him up with somebody that can stand up to his strong screen presence and I think Jane Greer did just that. Her character is well written...I actually cheered when she was shot and killed in a car crash. Now usually I've a soft spot for the femme fatale no matter what they might've done. But Kathie (Jane Greer) turned out to be so manipulative that she deserved her fate!...I'm voting Jane Greer prettiest and nastiest femme fatale

Only had that at #17 but it could have been higher. Folks like Tourneur.

I liked Out of the Past, but it isn't one of my favourite noirs, so it was left out of my ballot.

Seen: 93/94

Out of the Past was #32 on the MoFo Top 100 of the 1940s.