-A Few Words Before Reading-

Please be kind to the film at number 01 on this list because that one means a lot to me. Any comment expressing negativity towards number 01 will be deleted. So once again, please be polite 🙂

-Introduction-

Why am I first deciding to concoct a list of my top 10 favorite film noirs of all time to close out November? Simple. Throughout the entire month, November is more or less dedicated towards film noirs. Hence the word Noirvember, a monthly long holiday dedicated towards film noirs that originated in 2010 by great female film critic Marya E. Gates (read here). So now in it’s fourteenth year, I decided to compile a list of ten titles that I consider to be some of the greatest ever made. There were choices that I wish I could have included, but that would take a lot longer because I have tons of favorite noirs. Now I limited the list to film noirs alone as opposed to neo noir and tech noir. The reason for this is because traditional noir (film noir in this case) came first and I felt that it only made sense to focus solely on that. One of these days though, I will provide another list dedicated towards neo, tech and proto noirs, which came before film noir. Also, click here to listen to some fitting music for the mood If you readers want 🙂 Now without further ado, I present to you all:

-My Top 10 Favorite Film Noirs of All Time-
(#10-01)

10.) The Narrow Margin (1952)
Dir: Richard Fleischer
Country: United States
Color: Black and White
When it comes to 1950’s film noirs, The Narrow Margin stands out as quite possibly the most inventive of them all. Along with Alfred Hitchcock’s 1938 British mystery classic The Lady Vanishes, The Narrow Margin ranks as the quintessential train thriller. Like that aforementioned earlier film, The Narrow Margin is set almost entirely on a train. As directed by the frequently reliable, not to mention unfairly overlooked, Richard Fleischer, The Narrow Margin is an assured piece of genre filmmaking. Throughout it’s slim 72-minute running time, The Narrow Margin remains a taut B Noir full of twists, turns and clever dialogue.

Click here to watch a youtube video link to TCM’s (Turner Classic Movies) Eddie Muller’s intro to the film from his Noir Alley series

Click here to watch a youtube video link to TCM’s (Turner Classic Movies) Eddie Muller’s outro to the film from his Noir Alley series

Click here to watch a youtube video link to the film’s original theatrical trailer

09.) They Live by Night (1948)
Dir: Nicholas Ray
Country: United States
Color: Black and White
Nicholas Ray’s 1948 directorial debut is also the film that cemented his reputation as the poetic outsider of Classical Hollywood cinema. Stylistically, Ray would go on to make bolder films, but his personal themes have never been presented more assuredly than in They Live by Night. As with most of Ray’s films, They Live by Night examines the contrast between it’s anti-hero and the environment surrounding them. Adapted from Edward Anderson’s 1937 Depression-era novel Thieves Like Us, They Live By Night centers on an escaped convict’s struggle to break free from his criminal past. As usual, Ray’s expressive mise-en-scene blends perfectly with the film’s melodrama. No other film noir is simultaneously electrifying and poignant as They Live by Night.

Click here to watch a youtube video link to TCM’s (Turner Classic Movies) Eddie Muller’s intro to the film from his Noir Alley series

Click here to watch a youtube video link to TCM’s (Turner Classic Movies) Eddie Muller’s outro to the film

Click here to watch a youtube video link to the entire film

I can’t really find a proper trailer for the film

08.) The Killing (1956)
Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Country: United States
Color: Black and White
If Fear and Desire and Killer’s Kiss resembled the work of a talented beginner, than The Killing resembles that of a master filmmaker. Director Stanley Kubrick’s breakthrough third feature is also the most tightly constructed of his films. Not unlike John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle, The Killing centers on the planning, execution and aftermath of a robbery that goes awry. Only here, Kubrick presents this film noir’s narrative in a nonlinear fashion and as a storytelling device, it served as an influence on Quentin Tarantino when he made his 1992 directorial debut Reservoir Dogs. All in all, The Killing may just be the greatest heist film ever made.

Click here to watch a youtube video link to TCM’s (Turner Classic Movies) Eddie Muller’s intro to the film from his Noir Alley series

Click here to watch a youtube video link to TCM’s (Turner Classic Movies) Eddie Muller’s outro to the film from his Noir Alley series

Click here to watch a youtube video link to the film’s original theatrical trailer

07.) Murder by Contract (1958)
Dir: Irving Lerner
Country: United States
Color: Black and White
Cited by master filmmaker Martin Scorsese as the film that has influenced him the most, Murder by Contract also happens to be my number one favorite B Noir of all-time. For me, Murder by Contract remains every bit as fresh today as it was during it’s initial theatrical release back in 1958. Lucien Ballard’s black and white cinematography and Perry Botkin’s minimalistic guitar score fit perfectly with the film’s deadpan tone and it’s existentialist anti-hero. If anything else, Murder by Contract is debatably the closest thing the American cinema will ever get in giving us a Bressonian film noir, albeit one with a dry sense of humor. I do not know about the rest of director Irving Lerner’s output, but the fact that he made the extraordinary Murder by Contract is an achievement in itself.

Click here to watch a youtube video link to TCM’s (Turner Classic Movies) Eddie Muller’s intro to the film from his Noir Alley series

Click here to watch a youtube video link to TCM’s (Turner Classic Movies) Eddie Muller’s outro to the film from his Noir Alley series

Click here to watch a youtube video link to the entire film

Click here to watch another youtube video link to the entire film

Click here to watch a youtube video link to the film’s original theatrical trailer

06.) Angel Face (1952)
Dir: Otto Preminger
Country: United States
Color: Black and White
If I were to program a double bill of two Otto Preminger films that consisted of a literary adaptation and a film noir, I would choose Bonjour Tristesse for the former and Angel Face for the latter. The great former Chicago Reader film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum could not have stated it any better when he said that in some ways, Angel Face is Preminger’s first draft of his 1958 Bonjour Tristesse. The similarity is that both films center on a spoiled, wealthy and ultimately destructive young female. As the conniving Diane Tremayne, Jean Simmons creates one of the most interesting cinematic femme fatales ever. As with lead actor Robert Mitchum, Simmons is simultaneously charismatic and sexy. Effortlessly blending film noir with melodrama, Angel Face (like Bonjour Tristesse after it) emerges as the purest expression of Preminger’s mise-en-scene with an audacious ending to boot.

Click here to watch a youtube video link to TCM’s (Turner Classic Movies) Eddie Muller’s intro of the film from his Noir Alley series

Click here to watch a youtube video link to TCM’s (Turner Classic Movies) Eddie’s Muller’s outro to the film from his Noir Alley series

Click here to read former Chicago Reader film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum’s article on film noirs in which he talks about Angel Face. The title of the article is Ten Overlooked Noirs.

Click here to watch a youtube video link to the film’s original theatrical trailer

05.) The Shanghai Gesture (1941)
Dir: Josef von Sternberg
Country: United States
Color: Black and White
Even after meeting all of the demands imposed on it by the Hays Office for a seal of approval, The Shanghai Gesture still emerges as a sensual cinematic work of art. As directed by the great Josef von Sternberg, The Shanghai Gesture is an inspired marriage between form and content. Since it was inevitably going to be adapted as a toned down version of John Colton’s provocative 1926 Broadway play of the same name, the Austrian-American Sternberg ended up doing the next best thing. Sternberg’s reliance on Boris Leven’s stylized art direction and Oleg Cassini’s sexy and stylish costume designs go a long way in shaping The Shanghai Gesture’s mise-en-scene as one of decadence, which is represented here by a casino (in Colton’s play, it was a brothel). If anything else, as a film noir, The Shanghai Gesture is the crowning achievement of visual style.

Click here to watch a youtube video link to an essay on the film from a channel on the site called One Way Ticket Productions

Click here to watch a youtube video link to the entire film

Click here to watch another youtube video link to the entire film

I could not a link the film’s original theatrical trailer

04.) The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
Dir: Orson Welles
Country: United States
Color: Black and White
With the exception of Edgar G. Ulmer’s Detour, no other film noir has benefited as tremendously from it’s shortcomings as The Lady from Shanghai. Director Orson Welles original cut of The Lady from Shanghai reportedly ran 155 minutes, but Harry Cohn (then head of Columbia Pictures) despised it and recut the film (read here). Not unlike the similarly truncated The Magnificent Ambersons, The Lady from Shanghai was coincidentally released in an 88-minute cut and remains the only existing version of the film as of 2024. Even so, when one takes into account film noir’s emphasis on twists and turns (i.e. The Big Sleep), a credible argument can be made that The Lady from Shanghai works as an elaborate spoof of the aforementioned subgenre. As instructed by Welles, Rita Hayworth cut her long natural red hair short and bleached it blonde to play the femme fatale of the title much to Cohn’s dismay (read here). Along with Lana Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice, the always sexy Hayworth creates one of the sexiest cinematic blonde femme fatales ever with her portrayal of Elsa “Rosalie” Bannister. Last, but not least, The Lady from Shanghai is noted for it’s dazzling climactic sequence set in a House of mirrors that has been referenced in everything from Enter the Dragon to John Wick: Chapter 2 and beyond.

Click here to watch a youtube video link to TCM’s (Turner Classic Movies) Eddile Muller’s intro to the film from his Noir Alley series

Click here to watch a youtube video link to TCM’s (Turner Classic Movies) Eddie Muller’s outro to the film from his Noir Alley series

Click here to watch a youtube video link of Mueller and Alicia Malone discussing the film and it’s lead actress Rita Hayworth from TCM (Turner Classic Movies) a few years back

Click here to watch a youtube video link to the film’s original theatrical trailer

03.) The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Dir: Charles Laughton
Country: United States
Color: Black and White
Indifferently received by both critics and audiences during it’s initial theatrical release back in 1955, The Night of the Hunter has since been reassessed (and deservedly so) as one of the greatest directorial debuts in cinematic history. Unfortunately, the film’s then polarizing reception reportedly disillusioned actor Charles Laughton so much that he decided to never direct another film again. A shame because The Night of the Hunter resembles the work of a cinematic giant. German Expressionism has influenced film noir in a number of ways, but never more deeply than in The Night of the Hunter. Stanley Cortez stylized black and white cinematography gives The Night of the Hunter a dreamlike vibe that harkens back to the films of the Silent era. As conman/serial killer Harry Powell, Robert Mitchum creates one of the screen’s most unforgettable villains. Behind Powell’s charming phony preacher persona lies a man of unadulterated evil. With the exception of Cape Fear, Mitchum has never been more menacing than he is here. Referenced in everything from The Rocky Horror Picture Show to Do the Right Thing to more recently, Promising Young Woman, The Night of the Hunter has also influenced the work of directors as diverse as Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Joel and Ethan Coen and Guillermo del Toro to name just a few.

Click here to watch a youtube video link featuring directors William Friedkin and Spike Lee and horror icon Robert Englund’s appreciation of the film

Click here to watch a youtube video link of Guillermo del Toro’s appreciation of the film

Click here to watch a youtube video link of the film’s original theatrical trailer

02.) Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
Dir: John M. Stahl
Country: United States
Color: Color
Extraordinary on every single level imaginable, Leave Her to Heaven also happens to be my number one favorite film noir of the 1940’s. As the first film noir shot in color (read here), Leave Her to Heaven is noted for uniquely blending elements belonging to that aforementioned subgenre with that of melodramas, romantic dramas and psychological thrillers. The result still stands out today as an American masterpiece in a class of it’s own. Though he made two other very excellent films that Douglas Sirk would later not only equal, but surpass (Magnificent Obsession and Imitation of Life), Leave Her to Heaven towers above them all as director John M. Stahl’s greatest film. Leon Shamroy’s gorgeous Technicolor cinematography and Kay Nelson’s stylish costume designs serve as only two of many aspects that shape Stahl’s dazzling mise-en-scene. For my money, the always sexy Gene Tierney delivers a performance for the ages as the cold-hearted and narcissistic Ellen Berent Harland, who simultaneously ranks as the sexiest and most complex femme fatale in cinematic history. Aside from ranking as the second highest grossing film of 1945 after The Bells of St. Mary’s, Leave Her to Heaven also reportedly ranked as 20th Century Studios (then 20th Century Fox) biggest box-office hit of the decade. Now that is something.

Click here to watch a youtube video link to TCM’s (Turner Classic Movies) Alicia Malone’s intro and outro to the film from a few years back

Click here to watch a youtube video link to master filmmaker Martin Scorsese’s introduction of the film at the 2007 New York Film Festival

Click here to watch a youtube video link to Scorsese introducing it again. Only this time it was from this year in 2024. The date he introduced it was on Sunday, November 10, 2024

Click here to watch a youtube video link to the entire film

Click here to watch another youtube video link to the entire film

Click here to watch a youtube video link to the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to watch another youtube video link to the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to watch another youtube video link to the film’s original theatrical trailer

01.) Vertigo (1958)
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Country: United States
Color: Color
The other great former Chicago Reader film critic Dave Kehr eloquently praised Vertigo as One of the landmarks-not merely of the movies, but of 20th-century art. I am in total agreement with him. Coincidentally, Vertigo simultaneously ranks as my number one favorite film noir and film of all time (read here, here, here and here). For me, Vertigo not only stands out as the crowning achievement of Classical Hollywood cinema, but of filmmaking on a whole. No other cinematic masterwork has impacted me on so many levels than this 1958 American classic. Set to celebrated composer Bernard Herrmann’s unforgettable music score, Vertigo opens with a characteristically expressive title sequence designed by the legendary Saul Bass. After this, we are treated to one of the most atmospheric and visually stunning films ever made. In the center, Vertigo is two beautifully realized films for the price of one. What begins as a riveting mystery, suddenly turns into a haunting drama of sexual obsession. The result is every bit as erotic as it is disturbing and ultimately tragic. As directed by the iconic Alfred Hitchcock (a.k.a. The Master of Suspense), Vertigo is a masterpiece of form and content. More than that, Vertigo serves as Hitchcock’s magnum opus. Though renowned (and justifiably so) as a showman, Hitchcock also deserves to be lauded as an artist. This latter trait has never been more evident than in Vertigo. In that same review, Kehr summed up Vertigo as the most intensely personal movie to emerge from the Hollywood cinema. Kehr is totally right on that. For everybody involved, Vertigo represents the pinnacle of their careers. What else left is there for me to say except that Vertigo is (for myself) the greatest film ever made.

Click here to read former Chicago Reader film critic Dave Kehr’s review of Vertigo

Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to view the film’s 1996 Restoration trailer

Click here to view the film’s 60th anniversary 4K Restoration trailer

Click here to view legendary title designer Saul Bass masterful opening title sequence

Click here to view the film’s memorable psychedelic dream sequence

Click here to listen to Bernard Herrmann’s haunting music for the film

Click here to view the documentary on Vertigo’s 1996 Restoration from 1997 entitled Obsessed with Vertigo

Let me conclude this blog entry with two questions for my dear readers below:

What are your top 10 favorite film noirs of all time? (not proto, neo or tech)

What links (video or otherwise) interested you the most?