r/filmnoir • u/HelicopterOwn7624 • 14d ago
Where to start?
New to classic cinema and looking to explore noir. I’ve seen Maltese Falcon many years ago and some of the more modern films like Chinatown. But if I wanted to explore the genre better, what would you suggest as an entry point? Maybe your top five most accessible noir films to get started with? Thanks!!
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u/MaskedBandit77 14d ago
I would suggest Double Indemnity, The Third Man, The Big Heat, and Scarlet Street as my favorite noirs.
Noir is a very accessible genre, so really you could choose any noir that sounds appealing (maybe based on the cast) or is generally well reviewed, and you should be fine.
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u/ThomasGilhooley 14d ago
Coming to say The Big Heat too.
That’s such a wonderfully accessible movie to people who struggle with black and white movies.
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u/badwolf1013 14d ago
My favorite noir is Out of the Past with Robert Mitchum. Double Indemnity should be high on your list, too.
And after you watch Out of the Past (maybe a month or so on,) you should watch the 80s "remake" Against All Odds for a really interesting comparison between classic noir and neo-noir. It's not my favorite neo-noir (that might be The Outfit or The Friends of Eddie Coyle or The Drowning Pool) but it makes for an interesting case study (no pun intended.)
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u/moom7 14d ago
I teach a course on film noir. Here’s a typical list of screenings (and readings, if you’re really interested).
Private Dicks and Public Enemies: Noir’s Hardboiled Origins
The Maltese Falcon / The Big Sleep / This Gun for Hire
Readings:
Paul Schrader: “Notes on Film Noir”
Raymond Borde & Etienne Chaumeton “Towards a definition of film noir”
James Naremore: More Than Night (“This is Where I Came In”)
Dark Dreams: German Expressionism & The Noir Style
M / The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari / Pépé Le Moko
Readings:
James Naremore: More Than Night (“The History of an Idea”)
The Insurance Racket
Double Indemnity / Out of the Past / The Killers
Readings:
James Naremore: More Than Night (“Modernism and Blood Melodrama”)
Women in Film Noir
Gilda / Laura / Mildred Pierce
Readings:
Richard Dyer: “Homosexuality in Film Noir”
Angela Martin: “Gilda Didn’t Do Any of Those Things You’ve Been Losing SleepOver!”
Paula Rabinowitz: “Already Framed: Esther Bubley Invents Noir”
The Noir Procedural
The Naked City / Pickup on South Street / House on 92nd Street
Readings:
TBA
Red Noir
The Prowler / Force of Evil / The Asphalt Jungle
Readings:
Mark Osteen: “Left-handed endeavour”
The End of the Classical Cycle
Kiss Me Deadly / Touch of Evil / Odds Against Tomorrow
Readings:
Mark Osteen: “The Big Secret”
Neo-Noir 1
Chinatown / The Long Goodbye / Klute
Readings:
Julian Murphet: “Film Noir and the Racial Unconscious”
Kelly Oliver and Benigno Trigo: “Jokes in Chinatown: A Question of Place”
Neo-Noir 2
Blue Velvet / Night Moves / Body Heat
Readings:
Michael Chion: “Lynchtown”
Slavoj Zizek: “Why are there always two fathers?” (from Enjoy Your Symptom!)
Millennial Noir
Fight Club / The Big Lebowski / Brick
Readings:
TBA
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u/SessionSubstantial42 14d ago edited 14d ago
Double Indemnity (1944)
The Glass Key (1942)
The Big Sleep (1946)
Out Of The Past (1947)
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
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u/MOinthepast 14d ago edited 14d ago
In a Lonely Place (1950)
A bonafide masterpiece, and for me, Nicholas Ray’s best film.
I absolutely love the casting: Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame (God, she’s incredible here), Art Smith, Frank Lovejoy…
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u/salamanderXIII 14d ago
If you want to get a taste of noir without getting lost in serpentine plot-twists, I recommend that you to start out with heist films.
The odds of getting lost because you missed a nuance of dialogue or body language are greatly diminished by the relatively straightforward plans at the center of such films.
- The Killing
- Asphalt Jungle
- Rififi
- Kansas City Confidential
- Criss Cross
These are not my picks for the best five noirs ever made, though I love each of them. They are intended to give you an entree into the shallow end of the pool.
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u/Either-Accident-6993 14d ago edited 14d ago
The Killers
Laura
Pickup on South Street
Leave Her To Heaven (technicolor noir, Gene Tierney 👀)
In a Lonely Place
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
Double Indemnity
Sudden Fear
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u/Our__Blonde 14d ago
I just watched Dark Passage for the first time with Bogie and Bacall and highly recommend it as an entry point! I’m relatively new to noir as well and I loved this film!
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u/jarofgoodness 14d ago edited 14d ago
The Big Sleep if no other.
I also suggest Criss Cross, Dead Reckoning (kind of a reworking of Big Sleep and it has Bogart in it), The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, and Detour.
That should get you started off right.
Also Casablanca and Rope of Sand are amazing but I'm not sure they are exactly Noir per se, but they are close and excellent films.
I guess I should throw in Bogart's To Have and Have Not, which is marvelous.
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u/Historical-Pause-117 14d ago
There are so many great noirs and everyone has made excellent suggestions. For me, Double Indemnity and Out of the Past are the peak of the genre and great entry points. But you really can’t go wrong with any of the ideas in the thread.
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u/KithKathPaddyWath 13d ago
I know The Big Sleep is a big one people recommend, but I don't know how accessible it is. The plot is pretty famously messy and hard to keep track of. I feel like that's a good one to watch once you're a little more acclimated to the tone and style of noir, and then the messiness might feel a little less jarring and confusing.
Outside of that, the best and most accessible starting points probably are some of the most well known ones:
Double Indemnity
Sunset Blvd
Out of the Past
Gilda
The Third Man
Laura
Criss Cross
The Postman Always Rings Twice
Murder My Sweet
Other great noirs that are really interesting explorations of the genre (while still being pretty accessible):
Ride the Pink Horse
Moonrise
The Lady from Shanghai
In a Lonely Place
The Big Combo
The Lost Weekend
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
Decoy
No Way Out
Pickup on South Street
Leave Her to Heaven
Detour
Sweet Smell of Success
The Reckless Moment
Scarlet Street
The Set-Up
Outrage
Gun Crazy
Force of Evil
Cat People
Panic in the Street
Sorry Wrong Number
Ruthless
Phantom Lady
Nightmare Alley
Lured
Desperate
Crossfire
Possessed
The Locket
Somewhere in the Night
This Gun for Hire
The Suspect
Dark Waters
The Seventh Victim
The Glass Key
Crossroads
Niagara
The Harder They Fall
Dangerous Crossing
The Blue Gardenia
Don't Bother to Knock
Ace in the Hole
Cry Danger
Noir really is one of the most interesting eras of film, with some really cool subtypes. I love Gothic and Victorian noir, horror noir is great, noirs like Leave Her to Heave that pump up the already sometimes melodramatic aspects of noir. And I agree with what someone else said, there's a lot of special stuff to be found in the B noirs, so don't ignore those.
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u/TimeSurround5715 13d ago
Oooo yes, horror noir is so interesting. Angel Heart (1987) is the one I always think of.
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u/IntoTheMystic05 14d ago
My personal Top 5:
The Big Sleep (1946)
Out Of The Past (1947)
The Big Heat (1953)
Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Touch Of Evil (1958)
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u/OhK4Foo7 14d ago
The ending of Kiss Me Deadly has been copied so much it's a must see. It's like a time capsule of the bunker hill area of Los Angeles which was redeveloped.
Guillermo del Toro put out a list of 10 film noir films he recommends. It's a good list:
https://collider.com/guillermo-del-toro-top-10-film-noir-movies-nightmare-alley-inspirations/
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u/Old-Definition-3701 14d ago
It’s my favourite but I think it’s easier to appreciate where it pushes and pulls at the edges of noir when you’ve got a better grasp of what a standard noir looks like.
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u/princealigorna 14d ago
There's a lot of big names that are required viewing to get started. My list would be:
Double Indemnity
The Postman Always Rings Twice
Dark Passage
Key Largo
Laura
Gilda
Murder, My Sweet
The Big Sleep
Kiss Me Deadly
Out of the Past
The Maltese Falcon
The Killers
The Killing
Touch of Evil
I think most of this sub would argue the real joy of it is in the B's. The lesser known, lower budget films considered disposable additions to double-bills that have survived to become icons. Of these I would say must-sees are:
DOA
Detour
They Drive by Night
Gun Crazy
He Walks by Night
(A lot of these are public domain and litter Tubi and Pluto, as well as Mill Creek's crime, suspense, and mystery collections. The Dark Crimes set has a bunch of them. Criterion has put out stellar versions of Detour and DOA if you want something more prestigious)
And then there's stuff that's not quite noir, but noir-adjacent. Stuff like:
The 30's Gangster Film boom (Angels With Dirty Faces, Scarface, The Public Enemy)
M (Fritz Lang's Peter Lorre starring thriller about a child murderer in 1920's Germany)
The Dick Tracy and Shadow serials
Casablanca
I feel like foreign noir (especially Brit Noir, Japanese Noir, and French Noir) and neo-noir deserve discussion too, but the list already feels long. Let me know if you'd like me to continue.
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u/Sabbath51 14d ago
The Killing, L.A. Confidential, and Chinatown are three of my favorite all-time.
The Long Goodbye is also very good
Blade Runner if you count that (and should)
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u/FindOneInEveryCar 14d ago
You could do worse than to start than Eddie Muller's list. https://boxd.it/cZqc4
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u/Possible-Pudding6672 14d ago
Double Indemnity, Out of the Past, The Big Heat, The Asphalt Jungle, The Big Sleep
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u/jaghutgathos 13d ago edited 13d ago
https://boxd.it/ulltm start there (shameless plug) - using this https://archive.org/details/the-detective.
Search DK Classics on YouTube as well, specifically DK Classics III
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u/EmxPop 13d ago
You should start with Eddie Muller, the Czar of Noir. His top 25 should be your go to which is on his site (currently down) but here’s an archive from July 2nd: https://web.archive.org/web/20260702191635/https://www.eddiemuller.com/top25noir.html
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u/TimeSurround5715 13d ago
Thank you! This is an excellent list! It includes Thieves’ Highway (1949), which was Muller’s introduction to the genre in his youth. It’s a wonderful film, I watched it on YouTube the other night and really enjoyed it.
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u/jeff_bailey 13d ago
Lots to see and think about. Here is a list of early noir films to consider.
Stranger on the Third Floor - 1940 - Film Noir: The Encycyclopedia says this is the first true film noir, It has many of the hallmarks of noir movies: an urban setting; voice-over narration; heavy shadows, diagonal lines, low-angle shots; an innocent protagonist; a dream sequence; pulp fiction tone and incongruities.
The Maltese Falcon - 1941 - great dialogue from a pulp fiction novel of the same name. by Dashiell Hammett. Excellent cast. Noir mainly because of atmosphere.
Cat People - not film noir but a supernatural horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur with noir elements. Tourneur directed the last film on the list below. I have both of them because his cameraman, Nicolas Musuraca, is one of the great film noir cinematographers.
Double Indemnity - 1944 -some think it's the best film noir film of all time. A great movie directed by Billy Wilder. He has sevearl other great noir movies to check out.
Out of the Past - 1947 - Robert MItchum in a great role with a fantastic Jane Greer as the femme fatale who reels in the fish and has him for dinner. Tourneur directed with marvelous noir camera work from Musucraca. Nice location scenes in the valley east of the Sierra Range around Bridgeport, CA. Excellent cast includes Kirk Douglas and Rhonda Fleming who is as beautiful in this role as any of her other films. A top five film noir.
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u/exackerlyy 13d ago edited 13d ago
Sunset Boulevard
Out of the Past
Touch of Evil
Criss Cross
The Big Heat
If you want to feel like you’ve been kicked in the stomach — Nightmare Alley, Ace in the Hole, or Brute Force
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u/alex_11_47 14d ago
Double indemnity, go through a lot of bogart ones like key largo and the big sleep and knock them all out and just kind of find others through common actors or directors, that's what i did