Felix's Film Noir 100
by fah_jazzman | created - 01 Jun 2014 | updated - 02 Jun 2014 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)
Approved | 64 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An aspiring reporter is the key witness at the murder trial of a young man accused of cutting a café owner's throat and is soon accused of a similar crime himself.
Director: Boris Ingster | Stars: Peter Lorre, John McGuire, Margaret Tallichet, Charles Waldron
Votes: 4,611
Chronologiquement, c'est le premier film qui rassemble des éléments apparemment disparates (influence à la fois des suspenses américains d'avant-guerre et de styles européens - décors et éclairages rappellent autant le cinéma allemand que le réalisme poétique français, et la présence de Peter Lorre dans un rôle inquiétant renvoie évidemment à M de Lang) se cristallisant un peu maladroitement certes mais avec une belle naïveté dans ce qu'on peut considérer comme le premier film noir.
2. High Sierra (1940)
Passed | 100 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
After being released from prison, notorious thief Roy Earle is hired by his old boss to help a group of inexperienced criminals plan and carry out the robbery of a California resort.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart, Alan Curtis, Arthur Kennedy
Votes: 19,244
Alors que The Roaring Twenties du même Raoul Walsh appartient encore au genre quelque peu moralisateur du film de gangster de l'époque du Code de production, High Sierra marque un tournant dans le genre avec la figure tragique de Roy Earle, premier rôle important de Bogart. À noter que le film fut refait deux fois: une première par Walsh lui-même sous forme d'un (excellent) Western (Colorado Territory, 1949), une seconde avec Jack Palance dans le rôle du gangster (I Died a Thousand Times, Stuart Heisler, 1955).
3. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Passed | 100 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
San Francisco private detective Sam Spade takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar and their quest for a priceless statuette, with the stakes rising after his partner is murdered.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George, Peter Lorre
Votes: 166,634 | Gross: $2.11M
Bien que le roman de Dashiell Hammett eût déjà été adapté deux fois dans les années 1930, la version de John Huston (son premier film comme réalisateur) demeure la version de référence, grâce à une lecture fidèle du récit et à l'interprétation inimitable de Bogart en Sam Spade à la recherche du fameux faucon... the stuff that dreams are made of!!! Les seconds couteaux (Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Elisha Cook, Jr.) y sont aussi pour beaucoup!
4. I Wake Up Screaming (1941)
Passed | 82 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Why is Inspector Ed Cornell trying to railroad Frankie Christopher for the murder of model Vicky Lynn?
Director: H. Bruce Humberstone | Stars: Betty Grable, Victor Mature, Carole Landis, Laird Cregar
Votes: 5,383
Petit film noir « de studio » typique de la première moitié des années 1940, I Wake Up Screaming se distingue par... son titre d'abord (!!!), son atmosphère nocturne et son inquiétant inspecteur Cornell, interprété par le corpulent Laird Cregar...
5. This Gun for Hire (1942)
Passed | 81 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
When assassin Philip Raven shoots a blackmailer and his beautiful female companion dead, he is paid off in marked bills by his treasonous employer who is working with foreign spies.
Director: Frank Tuttle | Stars: Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, Laird Cregar
Votes: 10,626
Si l'intrigue de Graham Greene a été modifiée pour s'accommoder du climat du temps de guerre, le film a tout de même des qualités indéniables, depuis la chimie du couple Alan Ladd-Veronica Lake (que l'on reverra dans au moins deux autres films noirs essentiels) jusqu'au méchant dédaigneux interprété de nouveau par Laird Cregar... Le tueur à gages laconique de Ladd allait influencer plus tard Jean-Pierre Melville et Alain Delon pour l'iconique Samouraï (1967).
6. The Glass Key (1942)
Passed | 85 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A crooked politician finds himself being accused of murder by a gangster from whom he refused help during a re-election campaign.
Director: Stuart Heisler | Stars: Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Brian Donlevy, Bonita Granville
Votes: 7,403
Second film pour le couple Ladd-Lake, avec cette fois Hammett comme inspiration... Le film est aussi un remake (il en existe une version rare de 1935 avec George Raft). On retiendra de celle-ci une intrigue compliquée dans le monde de la politique et quelques scènes particulièrement rudes de passage à tabac.
7. Street of Chance (1942)
Approved | 74 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
After an accident, a New York man with amnesia finds out the ugly truth about his real identity and past by interacting with people who seem to know him well.
Director: Jack Hively | Stars: Burgess Meredith, Claire Trevor, Louise Platt, Sheldon Leonard
Votes: 744
Nouvel exemple du « petit film de studio », Street of Chance est une des premières adaptations de Cornell Woolrich (alias William Irish), dont le style onirico-somnambulesque est bien rendu par cette histoire construite autour d'un personnage amnésique, thème qui sera souvent repris par la suite (par Mann dans le méconnu Two O'Clock Courage, par Mankiewicz dans Somewhere in the Night, entre autres). La vénéneuse Claire Trevor fait ici son entrée dans le film noir, dont elle deviendra l'une des icônes.
8. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Passed | 108 min | Film-Noir, Thriller
A teenage girl, overjoyed when her favorite uncle comes to visit the family in their quiet California town, slowly begins to suspect that he is in fact the "Merry Widow" killer sought by the authorities.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten, Macdonald Carey, Henry Travers
Votes: 70,527
Les thrillers britanniques de Hitchcock eurent sans doute une influence déterminante sur le cinéma hollywoodien en général et sur le film noir en particulier. Venu en Amérique au début des années 1940, il était inévitable que son oeuvre recoupe le genre. Bien que ses premiers films américains furent des thrillers plutôt victoriens ou gothiques (Rebecca, Suspicion), Shadow of a Doubt, avec son suspense s'insinuant au sein d'une petite famille ordinaire dans une petite ville californienne typique, avec le charmant oncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten) traînant un secret peu avouable, avec enfin la perte de l'innocence de la jeune Charlie et la révélation de l'horreur derrière les apparences de la vie de tous les jours, le film est certainement l'un des plus noirs de son auteur derrière son apparence bon enfant. Hitchcock lui-même ne s'y trompait pas, y voyant l'un de ses films favoris.
9. Journey Into Fear (1943)
Approved | 68 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
An American ballistics expert in Turkey finds himself targeted by German agents. Safe passage home by ship is arranged for him, but he soon discovers that his pursuers are also on board.
Directors: Norman Foster, Orson Welles | Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dolores Del Río, Ruth Warrick
Votes: 4,687
Avec son premier film, Citizen Kane, Orson Welles allait révolutionner la narration cinématographique de façon presque immédiate. La forme même du récit - une enquête - laissa une empreinte au sein du film noir (voir notamment The Killers de Siodmak). Mais ses projets suivants pour la RKO furent contrés ou avortés, hormis celui-ci, finalement réalisé par Norman Foster. Thriller modeste adapté de Eric Ambler, situé à Istanbul et sur un navire rempli de personnages douteux, Journey Into Fear plonge un américain (Joseph Cotten) dans une intrigue obscure l'opposant à un tueur bedonnant et mélomane, intrigue qui sera finalement dénouée par le persistent colonel Haki (Welles).
10. Double Indemnity (1944)
Passed | 107 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A Los Angeles insurance representative lets an alluring housewife seduce him into a scheme of insurance fraud and murder that arouses the suspicion of his colleague, an insurance investigator.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Byron Barr
Votes: 167,530 | Gross: $5.72M
L'intrigue sulfureuse (pour l'époque) de James M. Cain devait être un succès retentissant malgré les réserves de la censure... L'histoire de cet agent d'assurances qui se retrouve complice d'une épouse adultère et vénéneuse semble aujourd'hui très classique, et elle fut en effet plagiée à répétition. La performance de Barbara Stanwyck, malgré sa perruque (« j'ai engagé Stanwyck et je me retrouve avec George Washington », se serait écrié le producteur...) et celle de Edward G. Robinson en enquêteur tenace et ulcéré portent le film.
11. Laura (1944)
Passed | 88 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he is investigating.
Directors: Otto Preminger, Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price
Votes: 51,476 | Gross: $4.36M
"I shall never forget the weekend Laura died...": cette phrase est le sésame de ce film envoûtant, à l'image de sa star (Gene Tierney), qui l'habite même dans l'absence. C'est l'histoire d'une obsession - une double obsession en fait: d'abord celle d'un pygmalion pour sa création, ensuite celle d'un enquêteur pour une morte...
12. Murder, My Sweet (1944)
Approved | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
After being hired to find an ex-con's former girlfriend, Philip Marlowe is drawn into a deeply complex web of mystery and deceit.
Director: Edward Dmytryk | Stars: Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley, Otto Kruger
Votes: 14,707
Le roman de Chandler s'intitulait "Farewell, My Lovely", mais le studio crut bon changer le titre: en effet, la vedette étant Dick Powell (alors célèbre pour ses rôles chantants), le public aurait pu s'y tromper... La transformation de Powell en Philip Marlowe, cynique et désinvolte, mal rasé, se retrouvant drogué, battu et enfermé dans un asile, est réussie (et fut appréciée par Chandler lui-même). Elle permettra à l'acteur d'apparaître dans nombre d'excellents films noirs au cours de la décennie suivante. Les seconds rôles (Claire Trevor, le suave Otto Kruger, la brute Mike Mazurki) ajoutent à l'atmosphère nébuleuse de l'histoire de Chandler, tordue à souhait...
13. Phantom Lady (1944)
Passed | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A devoted secretary risks her life to try to find the elusive woman who may prove her boss didn't murder his selfish wife.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Franchot Tone, Ella Raines, Alan Curtis, Aurora Miranda
Votes: 5,754
Le film n'est probablement pas plus vraisemblable que l'histoire de Woolrich dont il est tiré. Mais on ne va pas bouder son plaisir pour autant: en secrétaire menant une enquête entêtée pour innocenter son patron accusé de meurtre, Ella Raines est excellente et nous fait avaler sans coup férir les outrances du scénario... La scène du solo de batterie-orgasme dans une cave de jazz est à voir pour y croire...
14. The Woman in the Window (1944)
Passed | 107 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
When a conservative middle aged professor engages in a relationship with a femme fatale, he's plunged into a nightmarish world of blackmail and murder.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Raymond Massey, Edmund Breon
Votes: 17,794
De tous les cinéastes européens venus travailler à Hollywood, Fritz Lang est sûrement celui dont les thèmes ont le plus nourri le film noir. Auteur de M le Maudit en Allemagne (1931), il réalisa à son arrivée en Amérique Fury (1936) et You Only Live Once (1937), films sociaux à la morale pessimiste et aux héros anonymes. C'est aussi un monsieur-tout-le-monde que joue ici Edward G. Robinson, tranquille professeur entraîné par les circonstances dans une histoire tragique... et tout ça à cause de ce portrait dans une vitrine...
15. Mildred Pierce (1945)
Approved | 111 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A hard-working mother inches towards disaster as she divorces her husband and starts a successful restaurant business to support her spoiled daughter.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden
Votes: 28,686
Si les cinéphiles se souviennent de Mildred Pierce comme du rôle qui relança la carrière de Joan Crawford, c'est aussi le mélodrame noir par excellence. Cette histoire mêlant l'ambition, le dévouement et la cupidité par James M. Cain n'avait pas la même réputation sulfureuse que Double Indemnity ou The Postman Always Rings Twice... néanmoins, le vétéran Michael Curtiz, maître de l'atmosphère (il venait de réaliser Casablanca quelques années auparavant) sut bien mener la redoutable Joan (et Ann Blyth dans le rôle de sa fille gâtée-pourrie).
16. Scarlet Street (1945)
Approved | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A man in mid-life crisis befriends a young woman, though her fiancé persuades her to con him out of the fortune they mistakenly assume he possesses.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Dan Duryea, Margaret Lindsay
Votes: 19,207
Réunissant le trio de comédiens de The Woman in the Window (Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett et le toujours ignoble Dan Duryea), Fritz Lang reprit une histoire de Georges de La Fouchardière que Jean Renoir avait déjà adaptée au début du parlant. Christopher Cross (Robinson) est un tranquille employé, peintre du dimanche, qui tombe dans les filets de Kitty (Bennett) et de son amant (Duryea). Lang sait tirer de ce triangle une tragédie presque classique.
17. Fallen Angel (1945)
Approved | 98 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
A slick con man arrives in a small town looking to make some money, but soon gets more than he bargained for.
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: Alice Faye, Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell, Charles Bickford
Votes: 6,518
18. Detour (1945)
Passed | 66 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
The life of Al Roberts, a pianist in a New York nightclub, turns into a nightmare when he decides to hitchhike to Los Angeles to visit his girlfriend.
Director: Edgar G. Ulmer | Stars: Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake, Edmund MacDonald
Votes: 19,727 | Gross: $0.02M
Detour est sans conteste le film le plus fauché de cette liste, mais son exécution modeste lui confère une qualité dépouillée et ne rend que plus poignant le drame de cet auto-stoppeur particulièrement malchanceux, et de la femme fatale qui croise son chemin...
19. Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
Passed | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
A writer falls in love with a young socialite and they're soon married, but her obsessive love for him threatens to be the undoing of them both as well as everyone around them.
Director: John M. Stahl | Stars: Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain, Vincent Price
Votes: 14,786
Souvent donné comme l'exemple parfait du film noir en couleurs, Leave Her to Heaven est un portrait assez complexe d'un personnage féminin aux impulsions de plus en plus malsaines... Gene Tierney donne merveilleusement vie à ce personnage troublant, très bien dirigée par l'un des maître oubliés du mélodrame, John M. Stahl.
20. The Killers (1946)
Passed | 103 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Hit men kill an unresisting victim, and investigator Reardon uncovers his past involvement with beautiful, deadly Kitty Collins.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, Albert Dekker
Votes: 23,642
Précurseur du récit "hardboiled", Hemingway donne à ce classique du film noir sa prémisse: dans une petite ville tranquille, deux tueurs viennent régler son compte au Suédois, ancien boxeur qui travaille désormais comme pompiste... Au lieu de fuir, celui-ci les attend et se laisse descendre. Voilà pour la nouvelle d'Hemingway. Le reste du film, lui, doit beaucoup à Citizen Kane, l'histoire du Suédois se révélant peu à peu selon les témoins interviewés par un enquêteur d'assurances tenace (Edmond O'Brien). En plus de révéler Burt Lancaster et Ava Gardner, le réalisateur Robert Siodmak sut bien utiliser les patibulaires Charles McGraw, William Conrad et Jack Lambert, et reçut l'aide de John Huston et Richard Brooks pour peaufiner le scénario... pas mal!
21. The Big Sleep (1946)
Passed | 114 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a wealthy family. Before the complex case is over, he's seen murder, blackmail and what might be love.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely, Martha Vickers
Votes: 90,548 | Gross: $6.54M
D'une histoire particulièrement nébuleuse de Chandler (l'auteur lui-même ne sut pas résoudre l'un des meurtres apparaissant dans le scénario...), le vétéran Howard Hawks (et ses scénaristes, dont William Faulkner) fit un écrin parfait pour le couple Humphrey Bogart-Lauren Bacall, quitte à laisser quelques détails dans le vague... Résultat: un classique absolu du film noir! Philip Marlowe (Bogart), engagé par un vieux général pour régler des problèmes de famille, se retrouve au milieu d'histoires de chantage et de meurtre, et doit se débattre avec les filles dudit général (dont Lauren Bacall, qui l'intéresse tout de même beaucoup!), des bouquinistes et quelques personnages aussi peu fréquentables (dont le toujours minable Elisha Cook, Jr.)...
22. The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
Passed | 113 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A married woman and a drifter fall in love and then plot to murder her husband.
Director: Tay Garnett | Stars: Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway, Hume Cronyn
Votes: 22,895 | Gross: $8.33M
Après le succès de Double Indemnity, la très puritaine MGM (propriétaire des droits du roman de James M. Cain) se trouva enfin en mesure de réaliser une adaptation de cette histoire réputée infilmable selon la censure de l'époque... Ayant déjà fait l'objet de deux adaptations sous des cieux plus permissifs (Le Dernier tournant de Pierre Chenal en France, 1939, et Ossessione / Les Amants diaboliques de Luchino Visconti en Italie, 1943), Le Facteur... trouva sa forme hollywoodienne sous la direction du vétéran Tay Garnett. Ce fut surtout une occasion pour ses deux vedettes - John Garfield et Lana Turner - de briller dans leurs rôles, très certainement parmi les meilleurs de leurs carrières.
23. Gilda (1946)
Approved | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
A small-time gambler hired to work in a Buenos Aires casino discovers his employer's new wife is his former lover.
Director: Charles Vidor | Stars: Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready, Joseph Calleia
Votes: 35,291
24. Notorious (1946)
Not Rated | 102 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
The daughter of a convicted German spy is asked by American agents to gather information on a ring of German scientists in South America. How far will she have to go to ingratiate herself with them?
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Louis Calhern
Votes: 107,311 | Gross: $10.46M
25. The Dark Corner (1946)
Passed | 99 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A secretary tries to help her boss who's been framed for murder.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: Lucille Ball, Clifton Webb, William Bendix, Mark Stevens
Votes: 5,208
26. The Blue Dahlia (1946)
Passed | 96 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
An ex-bomber pilot is suspected of murdering his unfaithful wife.
Director: George Marshall | Stars: Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, William Bendix, Howard Da Silva
Votes: 9,668 | Gross: $2.70M
27. Somewhere in the Night (1946)
Passed | 110 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
George Taylor returns from WWII with amnesia. Back home in Los Angeles, while trying to track down his old identity, he stumbles onto a 3-year old murder case and a hunt for a missing $2 million.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: John Hodiak, Nancy Guild, Lloyd Nolan, Richard Conte
Votes: 3,523
28. The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)
Unrated | 116 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
A man is reunited with his childhood friend and her husband who believes he knows the truth about the death of her rich aunt years earlier.
Director: Lewis Milestone | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott, Kirk Douglas
Votes: 11,095
29. Out of the Past (1947)
Approved | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A private eye escapes his past to run a gas station in a small town, but his past catches up with him. Now he must return to the big city world of danger, corruption, double crosses, and duplicitous dames.
Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming
Votes: 40,942
30. Dark Passage (1947)
Passed | 106 min | Film-Noir, Thriller
A man convicted of murdering his wife escapes from prison and works with a woman to try to prove his innocence.
Director: Delmer Daves | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Bruce Bennett, Agnes Moorehead
Votes: 21,987
31. Dead Reckoning (1946)
Passed | 100 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A soldier runs away rather than receive the Medal of Honor, so his buddy gets permission to investigate, and love and death soon follow.
Director: John Cromwell | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lizabeth Scott, Morris Carnovsky, Charles Cane
Votes: 8,734
32. T-Men (1947)
Approved | 92 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller
Two US Treasury agents hunt a successful counterfeiting ring.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Dennis O'Keefe, Wallace Ford, Alfred Ryder, Mary Meade
Votes: 3,910
33. Crossfire (1947)
Approved | 86 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A man is murdered, apparently by one of a group of demobilized soldiers he met in a bar. But which one? And why?
Director: Edward Dmytryk | Stars: Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame
Votes: 9,709 | Gross: $1.30M
34. Kiss of Death (1947)
Approved | 99 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A crook arrested for a jewelry heist initially refuses to give up his accomplices, but he changes his mind once his wife dies under worrying circumstances.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: Victor Mature, Brian Donlevy, Coleen Gray, Richard Widmark
Votes: 9,577
35. Nightmare Alley (1947)
Passed | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir
The rise and fall of Stanton Carlisle, a mentalist whose lies and deceit prove to be his downfall.
Director: Edmund Goulding | Stars: Tyrone Power, Joan Blondell, Coleen Gray, Helen Walker
Votes: 13,420
36. Born to Kill (1947)
Approved | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A calculating divorcée risks her chances at wealth and security with a man she doesn't love by getting involved with the hotheaded murderer romancing her foster sister.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Claire Trevor, Lawrence Tierney, Walter Slezak, Phillip Terry
Votes: 6,087
37. Railroaded! (1947)
Passed | 72 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A beautician and her crooked boyfriend attempt to rob the bookie operation located in the back room, but when the plan goes wrong, they frame an innocent man.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: John Ireland, Sheila Ryan, Hugh Beaumont, Jane Randolph
Votes: 1,807
38. Fear in the Night (1946)
Passed | 72 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A man dreams he committed murder, then begins to suspect it was real.
Director: Maxwell Shane | Stars: Paul Kelly, DeForest Kelley, Kay Scott, Ann Doran
Votes: 1,808
39. The Devil Thumbs a Ride (1947)
Approved | 62 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Law-abiding Jimmy Ferguson soon regrets giving a ride to killer Steve Morgan.
Director: Felix E. Feist | Stars: Lawrence Tierney, Ted North, Nan Leslie, Betty Lawford
Votes: 1,031
40. Ride the Pink Horse (1947)
Passed | 101 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
WW2 veteran Lucky Gagin arrives in a New Mexico border-town intent on revenging against mobster Frank Hugo but FBI agent Bill Retz, who also wants Hugo, tries to keep Gagin out of trouble.
Director: Robert Montgomery | Stars: Robert Montgomery, Thomas Gomez, Wanda Hendrix, Andrea King
Votes: 3,427
41. Force of Evil (1948)
Passed | 79 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An unethical lawyer who wants to help his older brother becomes a partner with a client in the numbers racket.
Director: Abraham Polonsky | Stars: John Garfield, Thomas Gomez, Beatrice Pearson, Marie Windsor
Votes: 7,673
42. Key Largo (1948)
Approved | 100 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A man visits his war buddy's family hotel and finds a gangster running things. As a hurricane approaches, the two end up confronting each other.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore
Votes: 43,994
43. The Naked City (1948)
Not Rated | 96 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A step-by-step look at a murder investigation on the streets of New York.
Director: Jules Dassin | Stars: Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Duff, Dorothy Hart, Don Taylor
Votes: 15,510
44. The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
Not Rated | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Fascinated by gorgeous Mrs. Bannister, seaman Michael O'Hara joins a bizarre yachting cruise, and ends up mired in a complex murder plot.
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Everett Sloane, Glenn Anders
Votes: 33,340 | Gross: $0.01M
45. Cry of the City (1948)
Passed | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Police Lieut. Candella, longtime friend of the Rome family, walks a tightrope in the case of cop-killer Martin Rome.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Victor Mature, Richard Conte, Fred Clark, Shelley Winters
Votes: 3,735
46. The Big Clock (1948)
Not Rated | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A magazine tycoon commits a murder and pins it on an innocent man, who then tries to solve the murder himself.
Director: John Farrow | Stars: Ray Milland, Maureen O'Sullivan, Charles Laughton, George Macready
Votes: 9,540
47. Act of Violence (1948)
Passed | 82 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
An embittered, vengeful POW stalks his former commanding officer who betrayed his men's planned escape attempt from a Nazi prison camp.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh, Mary Astor
Votes: 5,718
48. Pitfall (1948)
Not Rated | 86 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller
Married insurance adjuster John Forbes falls for femme fatale Mona Stevens while her boyfriend is in jail and all suffer serious consequences as a result.
Director: André De Toth | Stars: Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Jane Wyatt, Raymond Burr
Votes: 4,544
49. Road House (1948)
Passed | 95 min | Action, Drama, Film-Noir
A night club owner becomes infatuated with a torch singer and frames his best friend/manager for embezzlement when the chanteuse falls in love with him.
Director: Jean Negulesco | Stars: Ida Lupino, Cornel Wilde, Celeste Holm, Richard Widmark
Votes: 3,161
50. Hollow Triumph (1948)
Passed | 83 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Pursued by the big-time gambler he robbed, John Muller assumes a new identity, with unfortunate results.
Directors: Steve Sekely, Paul Henreid | Stars: Paul Henreid, Joan Bennett, Eduard Franz, Leslie Brooks
Votes: 3,188
51. They Live by Night (1948)
Passed | 95 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Romance
An escaped convict injured during a robbery falls in love with the woman who nurses him back to health, but their relationship seems doomed from the beginning.
Director: Nicholas Ray | Stars: Cathy O'Donnell, Farley Granger, Howard Da Silva, Jay C. Flippen
Votes: 9,357
52. The Street with No Name (1948)
Approved | 91 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A covert FBI agent infiltrates a ruthless gangster mob, but his life is at risk from a mysterious informant who funnels inside information to the hoodlums.
Director: William Keighley | Stars: Mark Stevens, Richard Widmark, Lloyd Nolan, Barbara Lawrence
Votes: 3,340
53. Raw Deal (1948)
Approved | 79 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Joe Sullivan (Dennis O'Keefe) has taken the rap for Rick (Raymond Burr), who double-crosses him with a flawed escape plan and other means intended to get rid of him.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Dennis O'Keefe, Claire Trevor, Marsha Hunt, John Ireland
Votes: 5,611
54. White Heat (1949)
Not Rated | 114 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien, Margaret Wycherly
Votes: 35,770
55. Gun Crazy (1950)
Passed | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Two disturbed young people release their fascination with guns through a crime spree.
Director: Joseph H. Lewis | Stars: John Dall, Peggy Cummins, Berry Kroeger, Morris Carnovsky
Votes: 14,856
56. Criss Cross (1949)
Not Rated | 84 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An armored truck driver and his ex-wife conspire with a gang to have his own truck robbed on the route.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Yvonne De Carlo, Dan Duryea, Stephen McNally
Votes: 9,604
57. Thieves' Highway (1949)
Passed | 94 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
A war veteran turned truck driver attempts to avenge the crippling and robbing of his father at the hands of an amoral produce scofflaw.
Director: Jules Dassin | Stars: Richard Conte, Valentina Cortese, Lee J. Cobb, Barbara Lawrence
Votes: 6,876
58. Caught (1949)
Approved | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An ambitious young LA department store model gets her wish of marrying a millionaire but she eventually discovers that rich life isn't always a happy one.
Director: Max Ophüls | Stars: James Mason, Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Ryan, Frank Ferguson
Votes: 4,357
59. The Reckless Moment (1949)
Not Rated | 82 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
After discovering the dead body of her teenage daughter's lover, a housewife takes desperate measures to protect her family from scandal.
Director: Max Ophüls | Stars: James Mason, Joan Bennett, Geraldine Brooks, Henry O'Neill
Votes: 5,658
60. The Set-Up (1949)
Approved | 73 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Sport
Expecting the usual loss, a boxing manager takes bribes from a betting gangster without telling his fighter.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Robert Ryan, Audrey Totter, George Tobias, Alan Baxter
Votes: 10,091
61. Shockproof (1949)
Approved | 79 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A parole officer falls in love with his client, a ravishing blonde who served time for murder, and he's determined to help her go straight despite her interfering criminal boyfriend.
Director: Douglas Sirk | Stars: Cornel Wilde, Patricia Knight, John Baragrey, Esther Minciotti
Votes: 2,293
62. Whirlpool (1950)
Approved | 98 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A woman suffering from kleptomania is hypnotized in an attempt to cure her. Soon afterwards, she's found at the scene of a murder with no memory of how she got there, and seemingly no way to prove her innocence.
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: Gene Tierney, Richard Conte, José Ferrer, Charles Bickford
Votes: 4,800
63. The Window (1949)
Approved | 73 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
To avoid the heat of a sweltering summer night a 9-year-old Manhattan boy decides to sleep on the fire escape and witnesses a murder, but no one will believe him.
Director: Ted Tetzlaff | Stars: Bobby Driscoll, Barbara Hale, Arthur Kennedy, Paul Stewart
Votes: 4,858
64. Impact (1949)
Passed | 111 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A unfaithful wife plots with her lover to kill her husband, but the lover is accidentally killed instead. The husband stays in hiding and lets his wife be charged with conspiracy.
Director: Arthur Lubin | Stars: Brian Donlevy, Ella Raines, Charles Coburn, Helen Walker
Votes: 4,722
65. Too Late for Tears (1949)
Not Rated | 99 min | Crime, Film-Noir
Through a fluke circumstance, a ruthless woman stumbles across a suitcase filled with $60,000, and is determined to hold onto it even if it means murder.
Director: Byron Haskin | Stars: Lizabeth Scott, Don DeFore, Dan Duryea, Arthur Kennedy
Votes: 5,698
66. Night and the City (1950)
Not Rated | 96 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
A small-time grifter and nightclub tout takes advantage of some fortuitous circumstances and tries to become a big-time player as a wrestling promoter.
Director: Jules Dassin | Stars: Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney, Googie Withers, Hugh Marlowe
Votes: 15,292 | Gross: $3.60M
67. In a Lonely Place (1950)
Not Rated | 94 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
A potentially violent screenwriter is a murder suspect until his lovely neighbor clears him. However, she soon starts to have her doubts.
Director: Nicholas Ray | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy, Carl Benton Reid
Votes: 35,288
68. The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Passed | 112 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A major heist goes off as planned, but then double crosses, bad luck and solid police work cause everything to unravel.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen, James Whitmore
Votes: 29,982
69. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Passed | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir
A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson
Votes: 236,556
70. Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)
Not Rated | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Det. Sgt. Mark Dixon wants to be something his old man wasn't: a guy on the right side of the law. Will Dixon's vicious nature get the better of him?
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, Gary Merrill, Bert Freed
Votes: 9,970
71. Side Street (1949)
Passed | 83 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A struggling young father-to-be gives in to temptation and impulsively steals money from the office of a shady lawyer--with catastrophic consequences.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Farley Granger, Cathy O'Donnell, James Craig, Paul Kelly
Votes: 3,331
72. D.O.A. (1949)
Approved | 83 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Frank Bigelow, told he's been poisoned and has only a few days to live, tries to find out who killed him and why.
Director: Rudolph Maté | Stars: Edmond O'Brien, Pamela Britton, Luther Adler, Beverly Garland
Votes: 13,094
73. Strangers on a Train (1951)
PG | 101 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A psychopathic man tries to forcibly persuade a tennis star to agree to his theory that two strangers can get away with murder by submitting to his plan to kill the other's most-hated person.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Farley Granger, Robert Walker, Ruth Roman, Leo G. Carroll
Votes: 141,072 | Gross: $7.63M
74. The Enforcer (1951)
Approved | 87 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller
A crusading district attorney finally gets a chance to prosecute the organizer and boss of Murder Inc.
Directors: Bretaigne Windust, Raoul Walsh | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Zero Mostel, Ted de Corsia, Everett Sloane
Votes: 5,649
75. He Ran All the Way (1951)
Passed | 77 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Nick and his partner Al stage a payroll holdup. Al is shot, and Nick kills a policeman. Nick hides out at a public pool, where he meets Peg Dobbs. They go back to her apartment, and he forces her family to hide him from the police manhunt.
Director: John Berry | Stars: John Garfield, Shelley Winters, Wallace Ford, Selena Royle
Votes: 3,020
76. The Prowler (1951)
Approved | 92 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
After Susan Gilvray reports a prowler outside her house police officer Webb Garwood investigates and sparks fly. If only her husband wasn't in the way.
Director: Joseph Losey | Stars: Van Heflin, Evelyn Keyes, John Maxwell, Katherine Warren
Votes: 4,095
77. Angel Face (1952)
Approved | 91 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Ambulance driver Frank Jessup is ensnared in the schemes of the sensuous but dangerous Diane Tremayne.
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons, Mona Freeman, Herbert Marshall
Votes: 9,034
78. On Dangerous Ground (1951)
Approved | 82 min | Drama, Film-Noir
Rough city cop Jim Wilson is disciplined by his captain and is sent upstate, to a snowy mountain town, to help the local sheriff solve a murder case.
Directors: Nicholas Ray, Ida Lupino | Stars: Ida Lupino, Robert Ryan, Ward Bond, Charles Kemper
Votes: 8,068
79. Kansas City Confidential (1952)
Not Rated | 99 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An ex-con trying to go straight is framed for a million dollar armored car robbery and must go to Mexico in order to unmask the real culprits.
Director: Phil Karlson | Stars: John Payne, Coleen Gray, Preston Foster, Neville Brand
Votes: 8,147
80. The Narrow Margin (1952)
Approved | 71 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A woman planning to testify against the mob must be protected against potential assassins on the train trip from Chicago to Los Angeles.
Directors: Richard Fleischer, William Cameron Menzies | Stars: Charles McGraw, Marie Windsor, Jacqueline White, Gordon Gebert
Votes: 8,660
81. The Big Heat (1953)
Passed | 89 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller
Tough cop Dave Bannion takes on a politically powerful crime syndicate.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Jocelyn Brando, Alexander Scourby
Votes: 29,194
82. The Blue Gardenia (1953)
Not Rated | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A telephone operator ends up drunk and at the mercy of a cad in his apartment. The next morning she wakes up with a hangover and the terrible fear she may be a murderess.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Anne Baxter, Richard Conte, Ann Sothern, Raymond Burr
Votes: 6,199
83. Pickup on South Street (1953)
Passed | 80 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
A pickpocket unwittingly lifts a message destined for enemy agents and becomes a target for a Communist spy ring.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, Thelma Ritter, Murvyn Vye
Votes: 16,156
84. The Hitch-Hiker (1953)
Approved | 71 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Two fishermen pick up a psychopathic escaped convict who tells them that he intends to murder them when the ride is over.
Director: Ida Lupino | Stars: Edmond O'Brien, Frank Lovejoy, William Talman, José Torvay
Votes: 10,531
85. Crime Wave (1953)
Approved | 73 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Reformed parolee Steve Lacey is caught in the middle when a wounded former cellmate seeks him out for shelter.
Director: André De Toth | Stars: Gene Nelson, Sterling Hayden, Phyllis Kirk, Ted de Corsia
Votes: 4,554
86. Pushover (1954)
Passed | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An undercover police officer falls for the beautiful moll of a bank robber on the run, and together they plan to double-cross the hood and the cops.
Director: Richard Quine | Stars: Fred MacMurray, Kim Novak, Philip Carey, Dorothy Malone
Votes: 4,128
87. Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Not Rated | 106 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
A doomed female hitchhiker pulls Mike Hammer into a deadly whirlpool of intrigue, revolving around a mysterious "great whatsit".
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart, Juano Hernandez
Votes: 22,092
88. The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Not Rated | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A self-proclaimed preacher marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real dad hid the $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery.
Director: Charles Laughton | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, James Gleason
Votes: 97,414 | Gross: $0.65M
89. The Big Combo (1955)
Not Rated | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A police lieutenant is ordered to stop investigating deadly crime boss Mr. Brown because he hasn't been able to get any hard evidence against him. He goes after Brown's girlfriend, who despises him, for information instead.
Director: Joseph H. Lewis | Stars: Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte, Jean Wallace, Brian Donlevy
Votes: 8,626
90. House of Bamboo (1955)
Approved | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Planted in a Tokyo crime syndicate, a U.S. Army Investigator attempts to probe the coinciding death of a fellow Army official.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Robert Ryan, Robert Stack, Shirley Yamaguchi, Cameron Mitchell
Votes: 4,096
91. The Killing (1956)
Approved | 84 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Crook Johnny Clay assembles a five-man team to plan and execute a daring racetrack robbery.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards, Jay C. Flippen
Votes: 97,573
92. Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956)
Not Rated | 80 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A novelist aided by his future father-in-law conspires to frame himself for the murder of a burlesque dancer as part of an effort to ban capital punishment.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Dana Andrews, Joan Fontaine, Sidney Blackmer, Arthur Franz
Votes: 5,902
93. While the City Sleeps (1956)
Approved | 100 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A serial killer has been killing beautiful women in New York and the new owner of a media company offers a high ranking job to the first of his senior executives who can get the earliest scoops on the case.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, George Sanders, Howard Duff
Votes: 7,083
94. The Wrong Man (1956)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama, Film-Noir
In 1953, an innocent man named Christopher Emanuel "Manny" Balestrero is arrested after being mistaken for an armed robber.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Anthony Quayle, Harold J. Stone
Votes: 31,383
95. Nightfall (1956)
78 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Through a series of bizarre coincidences, an artist finds himself falsely accused of bank robbery and murder and is pursued by the authorities and the real killers.
Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Aldo Ray, Anne Bancroft, Brian Keith, Jocelyn Brando
Votes: 4,568
96. Touch of Evil (1958)
PG-13 | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping and police corruption in a Mexican border town.
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, Janet Leigh, Joseph Calleia
Votes: 109,835 | Gross: $2.24M
97. Vertigo (1958)
PG | 128 min | Mystery, Romance, Thriller
A former San Francisco police detective juggles wrestling with his personal demons and becoming obsessed with the hauntingly beautiful woman he has been hired to trail, who may be deeply disturbed.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore
Votes: 427,171 | Gross: $3.20M
98. Murder by Contract (1958)
Approved | 81 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Claude is a ruthless and efficient contract killer - until he finds his next target is a woman.
Director: Irving Lerner | Stars: Vince Edwards, Phillip Pine, Herschel Bernardi, Caprice Toriel
Votes: 4,369
99. Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)
Approved | 96 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
In need of quick money, a fallen former cop recruits a hard-bitten ex-con and a debt-ridden nightclub singer to pull off a bank job. But as the animosity between them boils over, the entire plan threatens to implode.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame, Shelley Winters
Votes: 5,565
100. Underworld U.S.A. (1961)
Not Rated | 99 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A teenager who witnesses the murder of his father vows to exact revenge on the four mobsters involved in the killing.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Cliff Robertson, Dolores Dorn, Beatrice Kay, Paul Dubov
Votes: 3,928
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