Best Noir film of all time

I liked it, but I can't consider it as one of the very best.

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Maltese Falcon
Key Largo
Big Sleep
Cape Fear

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I am resurrecting this thread due to the fact that I am becoming a noir junky and have seen some really good films lately, the best of them being The Third Man. It is absolutley phenominal. A few movies make me rewatch it immediately after viewing and this was one of them.

I also have recently seen The Conversation and I liked it a whole bunch as well. I think after watching this Gene Hackman will forever be Harry Caul in my mind. It was that kind of actor/role where he fit it so perfectly you couldn't see anyone else doing it. Or at least I couldn't.

I reckon everything has been said about best noir et blanc film noir.

Here's a dark story in the blinding sun,

U-Turn (1997)

Oliver Stone
Screenplay by John Ridley from his own book, Stray Dogs.

People generally dislike the film.
The isolated small town in the desert, the old diner with its jukebox.
The creeps. The cinematography alone was good enough for me.
Surprising cast... I remember my friend mocking, "it's a neo-noir-neo-spaghetti".
Billy Bob Thornton plays an unforgettable king of the evil dumbs.


He's a main character in this other twist on the genre,

The Ice Harvest (2005)
based on Scott Phillips' novel

Directed by Harold Ramis

I agree with those who prefer the alternate ending.

Haven't seen any old ones...only neo noirs. I intend to rectify that soon but for now here is five that I love:

5. L.A. Confidential
- love the cast, love the story

4. Memento
- simply the best twist

3. Se7en
- so incredibly evil and awesome at the same time

2. Chinatown
- five minutes after seeing it i hated it, then five minutes of reflection later i loved it and i still can't get it out of my head...love Nicholson in this

1. Brick
- don't think this is mentioned on the board but i thought it was a great stylish neo-noir

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Oh and is 'The Big Lebowski' considered noir? I heard someone say that it was and I was thinking 'huh?' but looking at it it does draw some paralells. Anyone else agree?

You mean like The Big Sleep, The Big Heat, The Big Clock, The Big Knife, etc.? Sure, it's noir.

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How do you not mention The Big Combo there, Marko?!

I mentioned it under the term "etc." Trust me; growing up, I had the hots for Jean Wallace (Mrs. Cornel Wilde).

It does have the whole crime thing going for it but I still wouldn't call it noir.

Also surprised no one has mentioned Fritz Lang's "M" yet. I would say it ranks up with the greatest noirs of all time.

I think the best, definitive, textbook example of good ol' fashioned film noir is In a Lonely Place. It was made during the high-water period for Hollywood noirs, features some of the best looking set pieces of the genre and it's got the finest performance ever given by the greatest movie star of all time.



In terms of modern, neo-noir riffs on the genre, I'd say my favorite is Danny Boyle's Shallow Grave. There have been a ton in recent years that I've really dug, and I just love the recent trend of dousing science fiction flicks with noirish touches (a la Minority Report). But defining the parameters of "film noir" is tough and I don't even know what really qualifies anymore. But in the most classic sense of the term, I think In A Lonely Place trumps all.

I say go with Indemnity because I wouldn't really count Taxi Driver as a noir. That film was more about crime and immorality in society, and the frusturation towards it.

Awesome post! This movie is totally underrated, but brought great performances from every actor. Story was haunting and can't get old.

In a Lonely Place
directed by Nicholas Ray
screenplay by Andrew Solt
adapted by Edmund North
from the novel by Dorothy Hughes
cinematography by Burnett Guffey
original music by George Antheil
starring Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame,
Frank Lovejoy, Art Smith and Carl Benton Reid
1950, approx. 94 minutes
via YouTube

Humphrey Bogart gave one of the greatest performances of his career in this underseen masterwork from director Nicholas Ray. Set in Los Angeles, Bogie stars as Dixon Steele. Dix is a screenwriter, and when he can stay sober and focused a very good one. But he is a mean drunk, and he greets most of his Hollywood assignments these days with nothing but contempt and more alcohol. Coming up against a deadline in adapting a popular romance novel of the day, he enlists the help of a hatcheck girl who he realizes loves the book. Rather than bother trying to read something he considers trash, he'd much rather have this young woman come back to his bungalow and simply tell him the story in her own words. Not only will he get the basic story that way, but he'll know exactly what parts most caught the imagination and attention of this happy fan. Dix is actually refraining form drinking this night, as there is work to be done. And even though this young girl is attractive, he has no amorous intentions. They get a lot of work done, he thanks her and he sees her off in the early hours of the morning.



The next day the Police come around. That girl has turned up dead, murdered, and of course Dix Steele is their prime suspect. He lucks into an affirmation for his alibi of the girl leaving unharmed when his new neighbor across the courtyard, Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame), was up late and did indeed notice the young girl leaving. She's never met Dix but is sure of what she saw. The police have nothing to arrest him on at this point, but they still think he must be their man, especially with his well-known reputation around town as a violent drunk. Dix is appreciative for her coming forward and the two begin a fast relationship. She keeps him organized and makes it easy for him to work, plus there is a mutual attraction. But the closer she gets and the more she gets to know him Laurel realizes that his rages are real, and even though she saw the girl leave unharmed she's even beginning to wonder if this man she's involved with might not actually be the murderer after all.



Very well realized character piece with suspense overtones and, for me, it is Bogart's second best performance (after Treasure of the Sierra Madre). Dix is a complicated man and neither the film nor Bogart shy away from showing the ugliness of his darkest edges. It builds to a wonderfully ironic ending that is sadder and darker than most mainstream Studio pictures of its day, especially starring a beloved movie star. A great movie that is often missed when listing off the best Noirs of the period because it's more of a character-driven tale than a crime one, and deserves to be better known.

"I was born when she kissed me, I died when she left me, I lived a few weeks while she loved me."

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Yeah, it really is great, isn't it?

In A Lonely Place, while in some ways a perfect example of what that period's Hollywood noirs were all about, is also a big-time departure from what a lot of people picture when they think of these kinds of flicks. The movie's unrelentingly bleak and it never sells itself out. A lot of the classic noirs that have been thrown around in this thread are so glossy and glamorous, whereas this one doesn't even come close to that and never romanticizes anything. There's a dark cloud that pervades every frame of In A Lonely Place and the ending is the inevitable culmination of this excruciating, continuous darkness.

Like you said, HP, it's definitely a character-driven piece that noticeably downplays the whodunit angle of its story and focuses instead on what makes the Dixon Steele character tick. And, sorry, but the Dixon Steele character is the best role Bogart ever played. While Bogie was more of a "movie star" than an actor, you really have to appreciate the magnitude of him taking on a character like this. Fred C. Dobb's unrealistic and hokey downward spiral doesn't even begin to compare with the sheer existential blackness and soulless bursts of anger exhibited by Steele. I like Sierra Madre okay, but it's not in the same league as In a Lonely Place.

In A Lonely Place is perfect. It's a perfect noir.

Hey, Holds, I would have sworn you thought Dix Steele was Bogie's greatest. I certainly prefer his hokey turn in Sierra Madre, even though nothing tops the courtroom scene in The Caine Mutiny.

"In a Lonely Place" by the Smithereens (that's one lonely cat)


Queeg/The Caine Mutiny
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(why can't they link up the audio to the video?)

Yea, Maltese is unbeatable for the noir category. But it's still good to see that people are aware of the little watched film, In a Lonely Place.

A lot of movies mentioned, really stretching the definition to call them noir, even of the neo variety.

But the definition to some degree is arbitrary. It is said to have begun in the early forties. But the Bogart Maltese Falcon is film noir, but the 1931 isn't? Same story and practically the same script.

Often overlooked, but one of the earliest (by the official definition) and a good one, predating Double Indemnity, is I Wake Up Screaming. Much more than the officially recognized first one, Stranger on a Third Floor, it has all the film noir ingredients, moody photography, a femme fatale ( a dead one), murky anti hero, and sinister cops in an urban setting.

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The movie also predates the Bogart Maltese Falcon. Notice how Laird Cregar is photographed the same way Sidney Greenstreet was, at low angles to emphasize his girth. If he wasn't under contract at Twentieth Century Fox, Huston most likely would have cast him as the Fat Man. Cregar sounds like the American he is here, but in most of his films adopted an English accent. Greenstreet was plucked from Broadway to make his film debut in the third version of the Falcon. Cregar's morally ambiguous ruthless fat cop also anticipates Welles in A Touch of Evil.

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Touch Of Evil.

Simply the best.