The MoFo Top 100 Film Noir Countdown

I know I have seen The Lady From Shanghai, but damned if I can recall much about it save the end. The comments in this thread aren't inspiring to rush out and see it again.

I must admit I have never seen or paid attention to Stray Dog. I must rectify that!

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My first top 10 made it, Stray Dog at #7. The movie oozes with heat and desperation. When I saw The Lady from Shanghai show up, my first thought was I didn't care for it, except the ending, and then I see a bunch of others wrote the same thing.

My List:
7. Stray Dog (#32)
11. Where the Sidewalk Ends (#66)
15. Elevator to the Gallows (#41)
20. This Gun for Hire (#78)
22. The Wrong Man (#39)
23. The Set-Up (#46)
25. Gun Crazy (#36)

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

Unfortunately, despite liking Kurosawa quite a bit, I've never heard of Stray Dog. I will have to see it now.

I have seen The Lady From Shanghai and my feelings about seem to echo most everybody's here. Welles' Irish accent, liking it mostly for the justifiably famous ending in the hall of mirrors. But I'll add something that people might not agree with: Hayworth's blonde hair. I just didn't like that look on her. Still, it's a watchable movie. I really feel for Welles and what he went through in his career. It's like the studios had some sort of vendetta against him, what with all his films getting chopped to pieces. I'd pay to see a restored version of this one if the cut footage even exists anymore.

No joy for me today.

#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."

1 for 2. I actually watched Stray Dog and it's my #14 pick. Watched it during my Kurosawa binge when TCM ran like 24 straight hours of his films. Back when I had cable. And a DVR. That was time well spent. How often can you say that? I was hoping High and Low would make the countdown but it's more of a police procedural. Great Kurosawa though.

Haven't seen The Lady from Shanghai. I've had chances to watch it and have never pulled the pin. Add one to the pile of films I need to check out.

40 out of 70 seen.

Agreed. Rita Hayworth looked much better with red and long hair.

The Lady From Shanghai is actually a very good picture, but it might possibly have been a great picture but for the meddling of Columbia head, Harry Cohn.

As Citizen Rules mentioned earlier, so much of Welles' version was cut, and re-shot that, we can only imagine what Welles' film was, as he made it.

Unfortunately, reportedly none of that edited out footage remains, and probably no longer exists. For example, Welles' had intended that the slow build to the climax scene in the funhouse to be a major finale. Welles' version of that scene was 20 minutes long, but Cohn had it cut to only 3 minutes!

Evidently there survives stills of entire scenes that were edited out.

This may not be a good comparison, but can you imagine if 30 minutes had been edited out of Citizen Kane??

There's some very clever stuff in "Shanghai", but we'll never know how that would have jibed with the full film that was destroyed.

Liked Stray Dog, but I think I'd like it more with another viewing.

Shanghai Lady squeezed onto my ballot.

3. Rififi (#42)
6. The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (#40)
7. Body and Soul (#94)
13. Detective Story (#57)
15. Force of Evil (#85)
16 Ride the Pink Horse (#45)
19. Nightmare Alley (#33)
20. The Blue Dahlia (#74)
21. The Lady from Shanghai (#31)
23. The Stranger (#38)
24. Drunken Angel (#70)
25. The Letter (#72)

I think I'll get 25/25 of my list making the countdown. That would mean 21 of the next 30 films posted will be on my list.

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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."

I do too. I Just can't imagine that the movies on my list will not be on the main list.


1. D.O.A.
2. definitely
3. definitely
4. of course
5. definitely
6. The Letter
7. Rebecca
8. of course
9. definitely
10. maybe
11. Suspicion
12. definitely
13. definitely
14. of course
15. definitely
16. The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
17. of course
18. maybe
19. Leave Her to Heaven
20. definitely
21. Fallen Angel
22. of course
23. Spellbound
24.maybe
25 A Woman's Face (my one-pointer)

I don't recall that complaint registering in my head as I watched it, though it was the one known complaint about it I remember hearing before going into it (mainly because that complaint is in Jarmusch's The Limits of Control).

1.
2.
3. High Sierra (1940)
4.
5. Ride the Pink Horse (1947)
6. Mystery Street (1950)
7. Gun Crazy (1950)
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14. Stray Dog (1949)
15.
16.
17.
18.
19. The Narrow Margin (1952)
20. Kansas City Confidential (1952)
21. Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)
22. Too Late for Tears (1949)
23.
24. The Set-Up (1949)
25.

Of my top 15, only two have been revealed (Rififi and Elevator to the Gallows), one is ineligible (M), and of the remaining, I think only one of those isn't going to make it. This is more, I wasn't that original with those slots.
Of my 16-25, only four haven't been revealed and I don't think any of those will make it. So, probably 19 out of 24 will probably be revealed. I take that more as a sign of me not being well schooled in film noir than having great taste though.

#30 White Heat (1949)

Director: Raoul Walsh
Production: Warner Bros.
Cast: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien
179 Points, 14 Lists

#29 Scarlet Street (1945)

Director: Fritz Lang
Production: Fritz Lang Productions
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Dan Duryea
181 Points, 13 Lists

White Heat is fantastic and was my #21. Scarlet Street is good, but not one of my favourite noirs, so it didn't make my ballot.

Seen: 71/72

White Heat was #42 and Scarlet Street #73 on the MoFo Top 100 of the 1940s.

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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 just looked at your ballot and it's easily as well chosen as any of the ballots on the countdown. You have lots of great choices, some popular noirs and some hidden gem noirs. It's a solid ballot and I'm glad you sent it in.

White Heat was climbing that Noir watchlist pretty quickly but I didn’t get to it unfortunately.

Scarlet Street has all the elements for me to love it, but I didn’t first watch. Maybe next time.

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Letterboxd

Lost Weekend is one of those blank spots in my films seen list. Like To Kill A Mockingbird it stands out but never seems to be filled.

The Lady From Shanghai is a film I think I've seen, but then look at and realise I haven't. I think I started watching it once and there's where the confusion comes from?

Never thought of White Heat as noir, but it's a great film I enjoy a lot.

Scarlett Street is one I thought about adding but it's been so long (over 30 years) since I saw it (and I only saw it the once) that can't say I remember anything at all about it except Edward G Robinson talking to a woman on a bed, I think?

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

1 seen, but not on my ballot.

Scarlet Street is well acted and entertaining, but as far as Robinson/Bennett/Duryea/Lang joints, I kinda prefer The Woman in the Window a bit more.

I haven't seen White Heat, but it's been on my radar. It's one of those that I feel I should've seen already, but just haven't.


SEEN: 18/72
MY BALLOT: 7/25

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