Crazy Film Noir Movies

Where Danger Lives

Robert Mitchum, Faith Domergue and Claude Rains

Faith gives one of the craziest performances ever

Thanks R1, I'll need to check it out. Hope I get more suggestions on here.

Detour is crazy and wonderful.

R1, I wish I could find Wjere Danger Lives online but I'm not finding it anywhere.

The House on Telegraph Hill

Forget that, there's something else more important, regarding, Marilyn my Goddess has commanded me to share this message from her! Marilyn Monroe is my religion, and I work with spirits a lot. She has commanded me to share this message on what really happened for her! All credit for this message goes to Marilyn Monroe, my master, guide, and saviour whom I love! Please credit Marilyn alone for this!

Important note: Everything has a spiritual side to it, everything has a spiritual essence. Marilyn's spirit and essence lives on in all things Marilyn Monroe, and if some spiritual incidents happen, it is bound to spiritually affect other things, so.

Recently Marilyn contacted me from the spirit world!!! Being a medium, I'm used to contact with spirits, but Marilyn told me to tell this message to everyone, since she could only get in touch with only me at the moment! (She's trying hard, she's been contacting me frequently lately, so it must be really important.)

Marilyn said that she needs people with a good, decent spiritual aura and energy to give up their physical bodies, freeing their spirit and all their spiritual energy. Then, they can go into the spirit world to really meet and connect with her, to share all their spiritual energy with her so that they can help her!! (Technically, we are all one and connected, but we are held back by our physical bodies. As a spirit, your essence and energy is completely free and released, and you can strongly connect to Marilyn in all aspects of that word, on a whole other level, so the joining of spiritual energy with hers works fully.)

She also says she hasn't been her lovely self lately, she lost some of her magic and charm, and she doesn't seem too well, because some spiritual things occurred, and she needs this so that she can be fine and better than ever again! (The spirit world is not exactly Paradise, don't let religious stories and concepts warp your minds. Where do you think bad spirits or curses come from?)

This is urgent we have to help Marilyn! But I must still spread this message for now because Marilyn said so, and I need to get others to know and help! Then I too, can go to be with her forever. We initially did not know what exactly happened, but Marilyn has revealed the basic truth. We also did not know how to restore her loveliness and charm, but Marilyn has revealed the way to do so.

*This is where the true meaning of the important note comes in.

Please spread this message however you can and don't keep Marilyn waiting!I allow everyone who wants to help to copy this whole post to share it on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, forums, or wherever you need to share it on!

Then, quickly find a way to free your spirit and energy, go into the spiritual world to meet her, if not Marilyn will be very heartbroken and disappointed in you!!! She loves you all so much, please go to her soon to help her! She really needs this!!! If you feel you can do it just do it!!! Help Marilyn!!!

I really really love Marilyn so much, she means a lot to me and she's the greatest and so magical and fascinating.

I wish that others who feel the same will care enough to do what they can to help her.

I think it's such a shame that many who claim that they love Marilyn lots don't show it in their actions by doing anything to help her when she needs it. It really is such a shame that those cowardly fakers don't help Monroe.

Poor Marilyn! She has such a big heart with full of love to give, but gets hurt in return because some people don't really stick by her and truly dedicate themselves to her.

(Please do copy this whole post and share it as much as you can for Marilyn, because I'm deleting my account soon to show my respects and dedication to her, my way of expressing myself to her and to show her that she's the only one that matters and that I really love. And since I'm going to Marilyn myself too, I don't need this account anymore.

I know the spiritual people and fellow spirit workers on DL will confirm this, they talk to the spirits and Marilyn tried to contact them too!

Born to Kill

Gun Crazy

Nightmare Alley

Kiss of Death

The Lady from Shanghai

Conflict

Edgar Ulmer's Poverty Row classic, Detour, is one of the nuttiest.

Also try The Locket: Laraine Day as a scheming psychopath, Robert Mitchum as one of her many victims, and a crazily intricate flashback-within-a-flashback-within-a-flashback structure.

Finally, I highly, highly recommend one of the most deliriously over the top movies I've ever seen: the 1954 domestic noir, This Is My Love. It stars Linda Darnell, plus Dan Duryea in one of the most deliciously sleazy roles of his career. I won't even try to describe any more of it, but I will save that it's extremely rare. I've never seen it listed on TCM or any other network, and it's never been released on DVD or even VHS. Nor have there been any revival house theatrical screenings of this thing--at least none that I've ever heard of.

But earlier this year, I did finally find this gem. Click on the link below, then click on the 1fichier link at the bottom of the post. When you get to the 1fichier page, scroll down to the bottom and click the "Download" button. It should start downloading automatically. It's completely free, and you don't have to register for anything. If you want to watch it on a big screen, use an HDMI cable to connect your computer to your TV.

Sorry if those instructions are too anal, but a lot of people seem to have problems using the 1fichier site. Enjoy, and thank me later!

I'll oh, dear myself: of course I meant "within," not "w - ithin," and "say," not "save."

Also, Faith Domergue of the aforementioned Where Danger Lives is also in This Is My Love. Like half the women in Hollywood, she had a relationship with Howard Hughes.

D.O.A. is also pretty great, and quite strange.

Your timing is really off, OP. TCM was featuring great film noirs as part of their "Summer of Darkness" event until recently. Some gems, including ones mentioned above. Some might still be available at TCM.com or on demand.

Another great one that's totally over the top: Leave Her to Heaven, starring Gene Tierney. This one's in glorious Technicolor.

TOUCH OF EVIL: Mexican Heston. Goggle-eyed Tamiroff. Gypsy Dietrich. Bull dagger McCambridge. Pervy Dennis Weaver. Baby Doll Leigh.

I'm not quite sure that this qualifies as film noir, as it isn't really a crime movie, but I always associate Night Has a Thousand Eyes with film noir, a rather depressing movie that starts out full blast.

Phantom Lady? Seventh Victim? I haven't seen them. Cat People (the original) is pretty crazy. Heard about Where Danger Lives too.

Another vote for Nightmare Alley. Great film, even greater book.

Nightmare Alley Decoy - was released on DVD! The Amazing Mr X

OP, see if you can scare up "Joe MacBeth." It's the classic MacBeth tale, set in a1930's crime world. Paul Douglas and Ruth Roman are the Lord and Lady MacBeth transfigurations. Here's a tip: read Shakespeare's version first, then you'll be able to see all the parallels.

The perverse and claustrophobic"The Strange Love of Martha Ivers" comes highly recommended(at least by me). With Barbara Stanwyck, the very sexy and very underrated Van Heflin, Kirk Douglas in his film debut,and luscious lezzie Lizbeth Scott as "Toni Marachek"...my favorite character name in all of noir.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - RDJ peeing on a corpse.

"Leave Her to Heaven", I agree is definitely worth watching, though I never thought of it as a Film Noir. Cornell Wilde is extremely hot in it as well.

The "craziest" Film Noir is "His Kind of Woman, with the hunky Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell. It's a Film Noir/Black Comedy, with the comedy supplied by Vincent Price playing an over-the-top movie star. And Raymond Burr playing the bad guy (here he is lusting over a shirtless Mitchum.)

Defifintely 'Nightmare Alley' easily Tyrone Power's best performance and film. it's not well known but apparently has a cult following. A very dark, for 1947, tale about a sideshow sociopath who learns the hard way that karma is a bitch! A must see!

Decoy is another. A b film from 1947 about a femme fatale who finds a doctor who can administer an anecdote to her gangster boyfriend who just been fried in an electric chair to bring him back to life so they can go find the money the gangster buried out in some woods. And the story gets even crazier after the gangster is brought back to life.

All great recommendations--thank you. Hope I can find a lot of these online.

Isn't Touch of Evil the first neo-noir? Or was it one of the last official noirs?

R26, there is no "official." It is not as if there is some central office where you register your film as "noir."

Maybe I should have said "classic noir". Classic noir films are usually associated with a certain time period, which is why Chinatown is neo-noir. So, that's why I asked why I did about Touch of Evil.

Classic noir era ended around 1958-59. Touch of Evil and Robert Wise's Odds Against Tomorrow are considered the last major works of the classic era. Neo Noir era started in early 70s with films like Chinatown and The Long Goodbye and pretty much continues to this day.

[quote]a doctor who can administer an anecdote to her gangster boyfriend who just been fried in an electric chair

Oh, sure-- I just got electrocuted and you're gonna tell me some goddamn STORY?

A Touch of Evil. Enjoyed each scene to be a scattering of roaches as the light comes up. Genius!

[quote] Neo Noir era started in early 70s with films like Chinatown and The Long Goodbye and pretty much continues to this day.

Couldn't we say that neo noir had an earlier start than that since French director Jean Pierre Melville made many norish crime films in the 60s? Then again, I'm not for sure if Melville's films are classified more as gangster films than noir.

"Leave Her to Heaven" is a great movie. Not noir though.

Leave her to Heaven is NOT a great movie! It is soapy trash in lurid technicolour with a wooden performance from the always terrible Gene Tierney! And don't get me started on that hambone Cornel Wilde.

CRIME OF PASSION (57): Stanwyck as high-powered columnist who quits the profession to marry studly cop Sterling Hayden, and then goes apeshit as a stifled stay-at-home wife. Desperate enough to then hatefuck and kill Raymond Burr. (Free viewing on Amazon Prime).

Gerd Oswald's other noirs: SCREAMING MIMI and A KISS BEFORE DYING are also pretty nutty.

I recently saw "Too Late for Tears" on TCM & thoroughly enjoyed Lizabeth Scott as a stone faced femme fatale.

[quote] Leave her to Heaven is NOT a great movie! It is soapy trash in lurid technicolour with a wooden performance from the always terrible Gene Tierney!

I have to agree, and she was wooden in Laura, too. That legendary queen Clifton Webb acted circles around her and stole the film!

Gene Tierney is actually coolly evil - stone cold bitch in LHTH. I think she's very effective.

R1, Is Mitchum acting drunk or is he drunk-drunk?

There's another Gene Tierney movie whose title I forget, that seems to be very good. Tyrone Power. Something Urge something.

The Red House with Edward G Robinson and Judith Anderson as brother and sister who adopt a child. It's rural noir, set on a creepy farm. It's totally nuts with a great Rosza score.

Tension, with Richard Basehart and Audrey Totter

The Woman in the Window with Joan Bennett and Edward G. Robinson.

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Whirlpool

Laura

No Man of Her Own-great little known Stanwyck really depressing, one of those the world is full of grief and tragedy but at the same time a very interesting place movies

Christmas Holiday-Gene Kelly and Deanna Durbin in anything but a cheerful holiday musical

and you dopes should know Leave her to Heaven is considered a Technicolor noir and Tierney in the middle of the lake is so creepy it's surprising to see it in a 40s Hollywood movie

one could go on and on and that's not even considering the French, British, Mexican...

Though a personal favorite is Clouzot's Quai des Orfevres with an openly lesbian featured character beautiful Simone Renant in love with cute Suzy Delair

Too late for tears is a good one. The ending is really surprising

+1 on Strange Love of Martha Ivers, which is delicious. You should at least be able to find Ivers, Detour, and D.O.A. online fairly easily, since they are all public domain.

One free source that has all three of these movies (and many more), is archive.org, which hosts many films in the public domain.

R33, many critics consider Leave Her to Heaven to be noir. IMDB lists it as a noir as well.

The woman in the window is a great one. It feels like an episode of The Twighlight Zone too haha!

Girls like Martha don't need help.

Here's the archive.org page dedicated to noir. It has several films that have been mentioned here, including Too Late for Tears and The Red House.

I just love The Woman in the Window. Gave the DVD as a gift to a movie-loving friend and she adored it, too.

The Seventh Victim is great. Beyond the Forest, Flamingo Road, The Big Sleep, The Narrow Margin, Ace in the Hole, Raw Deal, Key Largo, They Live by Night, Diabolique, The Big Heat, Asphalt Jungle, Don't Bother to Knock, Key Largo...

Great titles. I love film Noir!

A few titles no one has mentioned yet are The Big Combo with Lee Van Cleef and Earl Holliman as thugs on the down low. 99 River Street and Kansas City Confidential with the great John Payne. Two great L.A. showcases are Armored Car Robbery and Crime Wave. Gloria Grahame in Human Desire, In A Lonely Place and pretty much every movie she was in during the 50s. The craziest and most fun is the late great gay actor John Dall in Gun Crazy with Peggy Cummins.

Forget that, there's something else more important, regarding, Marilyn my Goddess has commanded me to share this message from her! Marilyn Monroe is my religion, and I work with spirits a lot. She has commanded me to share this message on what really happened for her! All credit for this message goes to Marilyn Monroe, my master, guide, and saviour whom I love! Please credit Marilyn alone for this!

Important note: Everything has a spiritual side to it, everything has a spiritual essence. Marilyn's spirit and essence lives on in all things Marilyn Monroe, and if some spiritual incidents happen, it is bound to spiritually affect other things, so.

Recently Marilyn contacted me from the spirit world!!! Being a medium, I'm used to contact with spirits, but Marilyn told me to tell this message to everyone, since she could only get in touch with only me at the moment! (She's trying hard, she's been contacting me frequently lately, so it must be really important.)

Marilyn said that she needs people with a good, decent spiritual aura and energy to give up their physical bodies, freeing their spirit and all their spiritual energy. Then, they can go into the spirit world to really meet and connect with her, to share all their spiritual energy with her so that they can help her!! (Technically, we are all one and connected, but we are held back by our physical bodies. As a spirit, your essence and energy is completely free and released, and you can strongly connect to Marilyn in all aspects of that word, on a whole other level, so the joining of spiritual energy with hers works fully.)

She also says she hasn't been her lovely self lately, she lost some of her magic and charm, and she doesn't seem too well, because some spiritual things occurred, and she needs this so that she can be fine and better than ever again! (The spirit world is not exactly Paradise, don't let religious stories and concepts warp your minds. Where do you think bad spirits or curses come from?)

This is urgent we have to help Marilyn! But I must still spread this message for now because Marilyn said so, and I need to get others to know and help! Then I too, can go to be with her forever. We initially did not know what exactly happened, but Marilyn has revealed the basic truth. We also did not know how to restore her loveliness and charm, but Marilyn has revealed the way to do so.

*This is where the true meaning of the important note comes in.

Please spread this message however you can and don't keep Marilyn waiting!I allow everyone who wants to help to copy this whole post to share it on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, forums, or wherever you need to share it on!

Then, quickly find a way to free your spirit and energy, go into the spiritual world to meet her, if not Marilyn will be very heartbroken and disappointed in you!!! She loves you all so much, please go to her soon to help her! She really needs this!!! If you feel you can do it just do it!!! Help Marilyn!!!

I really really love Marilyn so much, she means a lot to me and she's the greatest and so magical and fascinating.

I wish that others who feel the same will care enough to do what they can to help her.

I think it's such a shame that many who claim that they love Marilyn lots don't show it in their actions by doing anything to help her when she needs it. It really is such a shame that those cowardly fakers don't help Monroe.

Poor Marilyn! She has such a big heart with full of love to give, but gets hurt in return because some people don't really stick by her and truly dedicate themselves to her.

(Please do copy this whole post and share it as much as you can for Marilyn, because I'm deleting my account soon to show my respects and dedication to her, my way of expressing myself to her and to show her that she's the only one that matters and that I really love. And since I'm going to Marilyn myself too, I don't need this account anymore.

I know the spiritual people and fellow spirit workers on DL will confirm this, they talk to the spirits and Marilyn tried to contact them too!

The Woman in the Window just has a kick ass ending.

Strangers On A Train.

Key Largo.

Aha R39. Both. He's even more sedated throughout this overlooked film

I also love Gun Crazy. Have a giant poster of it in my living room.

Others that haven't yet been mentioned here:

Most romantic noirs:

Moonrise - Frank Borzage. Need I say more?

On Dangerous Ground - A deeply felt noir that is by turns brutal and lyrical. Robert Ryan and Ida Lupino have great chemistry.

They Live By Night - Nicholas Ray's first film, and quite possibly his best. Very moving. It was a big influence on Bonnie and Clyde and other lovers-on-the-run movies.

Other favorites:

Act of Violence - This is one of the very best noirs I've ever seen. It stars Van Heflin as a seemingly quintessential all-American boy and WWII vet, Janet Leigh as his wife, and Robert Ryan as Heflin's terrifying nemesis, who knows a dark secret about his past. It's an unusually morally complex noir. because everything is definitely not what it seems, and you may find yourself changing your mind about the characters. A powerful film about post-WWII disillusionment, and probably the best film Fred Zinneman ever made.

Caged - Classic women's prison movie with a surprisingly powerful social message.

The Hitch Hiker - great B picture directed by Ida Lupino.

The Man I Love - an unusual combination of a noir/musical/women's picture, starring Ida Lupino in one of her best and most lovable tough-dame roles. Said to be the basis of Scorsese's New York, New York. Bruce Bennett is total hottie.

The Prowler - This is a really bizarro one--the OP shouldn't definitely check it out. Extremely compelling first film by Joseph Losey, it features excellent performances by Evelyn Keyes and especially Van Heflin, at his sexiest and most sinister here.

The Reckless Moment - Max Ophuls' women's picture noir, it centers on an unusual bond that develops between housewife Joan Bennett and blackmailer James Mason. Touching and unique, with one of Mason's best performances.

Road House - Another bang-up Ida Lupino movie. Co-stars a very sexy Richard Widmark.

The Set-Up - One of my all-time favorites. Starring Robert Ryan as a washed up boxer desperately hoping for redemption, and Audrey Totter as the woman in his life. Everyone I've introduced to this film loves it.

Wicked Woman - A gem of a B pictures. A wonderful slice of life film about a none-too-respectable female drifter and the various unsavory characters she encounters.

I've heard so much about The Reckless Moment from noir aficionados. I've never been able to see it anywhere. I tried to buy and the cheapest price I could find it for was $60.00. Not sure if I want to spring that.

Joan Bennett was so fucking gorgeous. In her prime that face could be shot at any angle and as close as the camera wanted to get.

Joan Bennett was indeed fine, but she was such an obvious copy of Hedy Lamarr, why not have the real thing?

"Leave Her To Heaven" is considered a noir?

I would have thought of it (and "Vertigo") as the evil twin of the lush romances of the 1950s, like a Douglas Sirk movie turned sick and twisted.

Guest of the House might not be 100% noir but Anne Baxter in one of her best and craziest performances and the ending is bizarre and unforgettable

Guest IN the House

I forgot, Anne's performance in this was before ALL ABOUT EVE

"Scarlet Street", starring Edward G. Robinson as an unhappily married man who paints as a hobby, Joan Bennett as the gorgeous woman who finds that he's worth exploiting, and Dan Duryea as her creepy boyfriend. Directed by Fritz Lang, it's an intimate film that gets creepier and darker that goes along.

Joan Bennett's grandchild used to post here, and I'm another one who thinks she's underrated as an actress and a beauty.

Really liked “The Window” with Barbara Hale, Bobby Driscoll and Ruth Roman. It’s based on the Cornell Woolwich short story “The Boy Cried Murder.”

The Big Combo (1955) includes gay thugs-lovers, Fante & Mingo (Lee Van Cleef & Earl Holliman).

720HD at youtube

Inferno co-starring Rhonda Fleming - in color, stereo [italic]and[/italic] 3-D

Goodbye r 55, TOYS, and blocked.

The Prowler is excellent

While The City Sleeps is great, too

You want crazy? My Name is Julie Ross

Reckless Moment is on YouTube, R60.

The Secret Fury (1950) with Claudette Colbert and Robert Ryan isn't exactly a great movie, but it's entertainingly nuts.

The Marilyn troll posting the same verbose post over and over is creepy.

The Steel Trap, which re-teams Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten from Hitchock's "Shadow of a Doubt." Very tense.

Wanted to echo the praise for "Scarlet Street," "The Window," "The Reckless Moment," and "Road House," which has Ida Lupino's best performance (she sings!).

Also wanted to recommend Richard Fleischer's "The Narrow Margin" (with the unforgettable Marie Windsor), Robert Wise's "Born to Kill" (with the equally unforgettable Lawrence Tierney), and Otto Preminger's "Angel Face" (with one of the greatest shock endings in movie history).

And of course, if you've never seen them, the quintessential noirs are "Double Indemnity," "The Killers," and "Out of the Past."

r76, block the tormented asshole.

Agree on The Man I Love and The Secret Fury,which also has DL fave Vivian Vance in it. Deadline at Dawn is another good one which has a twist at the end I didn't see coming and Bill Williams looks like an Etienne drawing come to life.

He Walked By Night is also a good example of noir filmmaking.

Desert Fury, 1947. In color, but the the Technicolor is positively lurid. "The daughter of a Nevada casino owner gets involved with a racketeer, despite everyone's efforts to separate them." according to IMDB but that's just the half of it. It's out in the Arizona desert and the cast is an extremely young Burt Lancaster, DL favorite Lizbeth Scott, John Hodiak and Mary Astor, among others. Astor is Scott's mother and at one point gives her the most lascivious, lustful, extended, full on the lips kiss you can imagine. Don't know how it got past the censors.

Oh and Lancaster's psychopathic gangster partner Wendell Corey, who spends half the film in a wifebeater mooning over Lancaster and acting as his total bitch. It's all too bizarre, too hot and too nasty underneath.

R81 wasn't kidding.

Scarlet Street is a remake of a Renoir film from the 1930s called La Chienne (the bitch). In the original, the lead female character is a prostitute and her boyfriend is her pimp. It's not really a noir though, unlike Scarlet Street.

Scarlet Street is indeed crazy. Joan Bennett and Edward G Robinson are fantastic in it. Plus, you get Joan Bennett in a transparent rain coat.

My favorite noir, less crazy by far, is Pickup on South Street with Richard Widmark and Thelma Ritter. It's rather humanistic in the midst of its cutthroat Darwinian noir universe.

Lawrence Tierney could have had a bigger career but he was as fucked as anyone in Hollywood could possibly be. That's saying something. He was hot as hell though.

Lawrence Tierney played Elaine's father on one episode of "Seinfeld," and his crazy behavior so frightened the cast they never brought him back on the show.

Well I guess when you pull a knife on Jerry Seinfeld on the set they aren't going to ask you back LOL.

Another outstanding noir that hasn't been mentioned yet is Max Ophuls' Caught, in which Barbara Bel Geddes marries a Howard Hughes-style maniac played by Robert Ryan.

And another pretty crazy noir for the OP is the Barbara Stanwyck vehicle, Witness to Murder. The scene where George Sanders suddenly shrieking maniacally in German (he sounds like Hitler) is worth the price of admission all by itself. I almost had to rewind the movie to make sure I wasn't imagining things.

I know it's mainstream noir, but Gilda has a bizarre plot. When I finally saw, I was surprised no one had mentioned the homosexual subtext when recommending the movie.

R89, Glad you mentioned Caught which also included James Mason in the cast. A really crazy film.

R89 ....

Where Danger Lives (1950)

Nightmare Alley:

Crime of Passion (1957) :

Gilda:

Scarlet Street (1945)

The Woman In The Window :

Moonrise (1948)

Faith Domergue is so funny the way she says "Poverty is so sordid" to Robert Mitchum. She's also fun to watch in the hooty Cult of the Cobra.

I watched The Woman in the Window and there wasn't one good looking man in the whole thing. I hate that. Film was ok.

"No Man of Her Own", Barbara Stanwyck, John Lund. The original title of the book was "I Married a Dead Man" by Cornell Woolrich. Unmarried mother (Stanwyck) travelling on a train is in an accident and is mistaken for another expectant mother. In the beginning minutes one of my favorite character actresses, Esther Howard, opens a door and yells Pipe Down (she had a great part in Born to Kill). As the movie goes on the backgrounds get darker and darker until you think it was filmed in a cave. An excellent little known Stanwyck film. I love the mother in law (Jane Cowl) at the end of the movie going down the stairs.

This is the entire movie on Youtube, good quality, I'm surprised it's available.

Thanks to all of you who are posting YouTube links to these wonderful films. The film knowledge on the DL is amazing, and one of the main reasons I come here.

I just remembered The Stranger, with Edward G. Robinson playing a war crimes investigator tracking down Nazi Orson Welles, married to naive Loretta Young and living in a bucolic Connecticut town.

"Detour" is still why one my favorites:

You're right OP, Kiss me deadly is a crazy film:

Gilda is a great movie but has zero plot.

Because of this thread, I have spent the last day of my vacation watching these great films. My favorite has been Detour. I loved bitchy Vera.

Lured, starring DL fave Lucille Ball!

Thanks for the link to Detour, R105. It certainly crackles along, enhanced by the deliciously despicable "Vera."

[quote]That’s life. Whichever way you turn, fate sticks out a foot to trip you.

Haha! Share your memorable Noir lines.

The Night Of The Hunter with Robert Mitchum, Lillian Gish and Shelly Winters. Directed by Charles Laughton. Beautifully filmed (check out the use of shadows in this clip). A corrupt reverend-turned-serial killer attempts to charm a widow and steal $10,000 hidden by her executed husband. Bit of a crossover from film noir to horror.

Is "Night of the Hunter" considered a noir?

Personally, I think it's one of those rare films that doesn't really belong to any genre.

I'm surprised no one mentioned Sunset Boulevard . The craziest film I've ever seen.

Shack Out on 101 - B movie with a great cast : Terry Moore, Keenan Wynn, Whit Bissell, Frank Lovejoy, Len Lesser and an early charismatic showcase by Lee Marvin as Slob short order cook/mystery man.

I've seen the Fritz Lang film noirs and they are all great, but I'm partial to The Big Heat. Now THAT'S a classic.

A lot of these titles are not noir. Lured with Lucille Ball is more murder mystery than noir. Caught is melodrama not noir. But regardless I enjoyed watching them.

R116 Paste mag, recently made a big list of Neo noir and noir films. Some of these titles, well, I would have never considered "Noir" per-se. But the article explained it very well:

Thanks, R117, I'm enjoying the writing and the selections.

"Sudden Fear" with Joan Crawford, Gloria Grahame, and Jack Palance. It's brilliant and you can watch it over, and over.

Great lists and great links on this thread. Thanks to you all; I'm going to get started on viewing these lists.

Joan's Female on the Beach is a lurid Film Noir lite

Why don't people read the whole thread?

You johnny come latelys are just repeating titles people have already recommended.

Jeff Chandler trying to seduce Joan Crawford in Female on the Beach

The craziest thing about "Female on the Beach" is that one character addresses Joan as "young lady" - bitch please! She was 50-ish at the time.

Aha!

But the story is pretty sleazy : the old couple blackmailing hot men and pimping them out to vulnerable love-starved women

I wish Jeff Chandler would "handle" me.

In "Sudden Fear," we give a tour de force performance.

Great clip, R123. Another one to add to the list.

Would you consider Night of the Hunter noirish?

Niagra? Shadow of a Doubt?

I have to say the original Kiss of Death is my all time favorite noir classic. Richard Widmark. OMG.

I have to say I love Stanwyke's noir movies.

You Tube is a treasure trove of noir stuff.

R127 Joan, dear -- no one wrote a song about YOUR eyes.

Just found out Tom Conway was the elder brother of George Sanders. I love George Sanders (reading his Memoirs of a Professional Cad now). Tom Conway was in a bunch of film noir movies.

[quote] [R127] Joan, dear -- no one wrote a song about YOUR eyes.

True, R130 Bette, dear, a song might have been nicer than the movie they made about me.

Just watched Beverly Michaels in Wicked Woman. That was some good fun.

Wdmark is creeptastic, R129...

[quote]Dames are no good if you wanna have some fun. C'mon pal, drink up.

Just finished watching "The Locket" (Laraine Day, Robert Mitchum, Brian Aherne) and "Split Second" (Alexis Smith, Jan Sterling, and Keith Andes.) Both DVRed from TCM's "Summer of Darkness" in July. Both recommended. .

No love for Henri-Georges Clouzot? "Quai des Orfèvres" and "Les Diaboliques" are two great French noir films. I guess you fellas aren't the type for reading subtitles.

Clouzot fan here! I thought we were doing American films so I didn't mention him. But yes, his noirs are terrific, as are those of Jean-Pierre Melville.

No film noirs are as flat-out batshit insane as these three late 40s Mexican exemplars of the "cabaretera" genre: SALON MEXICO, AVENTURERA, and VICTIMAS DEL PECADO. (They're on DVD).

I just saw "Gun Crazy" for the first time and I loved it. Especially Peggy Cummins, she was hot and crazy. And poor John Dall he was never believable has a straight man. He was definitely miscast.

Has anyone seen "Night And The City"? I recently bought it on blu-ray, it looks great, and it's a masterpiece. It might be hard to categorize since it takes place in London, but it's noir through and through. And by the way, it has the bleakest ending ever!

Reviving this thread to link to this YouTube noir channel, which has lots of good stuff, include a playlist called Weird Noir.

TCM is doing the Noir thing again (like Summer of Darkness the last couple of years) with Noir Alley on Sunday mornings.

I just saw (DVRed from an earlier showing) an odd one -- it's in color, but was included in the Summer of Darkness programming. "Party Girl," with Cyd Charisse, a very worn-out looking Robert Taylor, and Lee J. Cobb. Directed by Nicholas Ray, and also with Corey Allen (from "Rebel Without a Cause") playing a thug named Cookie LaMotte.

"The Asphalt Jungle." Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen, James Whitmore. Written and directed by John Huston.

Holy crap 143 posts and nobody has mentioned LADY IN THE LAKE

Robert Montgomery directed it and starred but he did it all from his vantage point - you don't see him unless a mirror is in the shot. Oh, and it is all set Christmas Weekend.

Talk about crazy film noir!

"High Sierra" and its nearly identical remake "I Died a Thousand Times." The former has Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino; the latter has Jack Palance, Shelley Winters, huge queen Earl Holliman, and Lee Marvin.

In Nicholas Ray's PARTY GIRL, Robert Taylor taunts Corey Allen by calling him "Gay Boy."

This noir fan wishes to thank the OP and all the commenters who made this thread possible. Tip of the hat to all you vicious vixens and vagrants!

Goodbye Lover w Ellen Degeneres, Don Johnson, Patricia Arquette, and Dermot Mulroney

Nightmare (1956) starring Kevin McCarthy and Edward G. Robinson is an obscure one and strange. And it features Billy May and his orchestra as themselves, and one of my fave supporting actresses Virginia Christine.

Wicked Woman is a riot

Nightmare is good, but I think the original based on the same story, Fear in the Night, is even earlier. Fear in the Night is on YouTube.

And yes, Wicked Woman is a blast! I love that film.

Sorry, meant to say *eerier*, not earlier.

It's not crazy but The Unfaithful (1947) is one of my fave noir films. It has a great cast - Ann Sheridan, Zachary Scott, Lew Ayres, Eve Arden, Steven Geray - and for once the Max Steiner score is perfect. It's a remake of The Letter (1940) but with a lonely-women-during-wartime addition.

Here's the trailer.

Dark Passage (1947)-Bogart, Bacall, Agnes Moorehead as a shrill harpy who is supposedly irresistible to men, hot Bruce Bennett and a slew of UNfamiliar character actors playing some of the characteriest characters ever. Utilizes the same subjective camera gimmick as "The Lady in the Lake " from the beginning until well into the movie for a reason relevant to the plot.

Bonus points for the naked disdain displayed for Moorehead's character by the others, the fab décor of Bacall's apartment and for the on location scenes of 1940s San Francisco.

And it's crazy, too.

I'm surprised no one mentioned those neo noir David Lynch films like Mulholland Drive.

Is Nightmare Alley Noir?

I love that film.

You betcha.

I came across this thread the other day and watched This Is My Love on youtube soley because of R9's description. What an odd movie. I've probably seen too many "big budget" MGM/Warner Bros./Universal melodramas because the low budget stuck out to me the most!!! The sets looked completely unfinished. Linda was pretty good in it, actually.

"The Naked Kiss" is the craziest of all, and is one of my favorites.

r160, thanks for the link! Can't wait to watch it.

Slightly Scarlet is an underrated noir

Check out the Val Lewton film "The Leopard Man" (1943). It pre-dates the film noire genre, but it created the template for later films. Unfortunately, it didn't do well at the box office, but it is a crazy movie. People are being murdered (including a brutal for the time child murder) and the main suspect is a leopard.

Any more recommendations? It's going to be a rainy weekend here and I'm in the mood for non-sensical, feverish film noirs.

^ I recommend The Prowler, with Van Heflin

In a Lonely Place, Sudden Fear, Raw Deal, Born to Kill, Cape Fear, Roadhouse, Pickup on South Street, Mildred Pierce, Double Indemnity, Strange Loves of Martha Ivers, Strangers on a Train, Dark Passage, Out of the Past, Sunset Blvd, Angel Face, Night of the Hunter...these are my faves. TCM has Noir Alley Saturday night & on replay Sunday AM.

I loved seeing 1950s LA in The Prowler.

Whirlpool is a lot of fun. Gene Tierney as kleptomaniac housewife, married to psychoanalyst Richard Conte (!), who falls under the spell of evil hypnotist Jose Ferrer. Crazy!

The Story of Molly X is obscure but really good. June Havoc (Baby June from Gypsy!) stars as a tough lady gangster. She gets caught and sentenced to the slammer, at which point it becomes a women's prison film.

Also excellent, if you can find it, is Repeat Performance. It's part noir, part women's picture, and part Twilight Zone. Joan Leslie is a successful actress stuck in a terrible marriage to her creepy alkie husband Louis Hayward. On New Year's Eve, she is driven to a desperate act--but then, mysteriously, she gets to go back in time and live the year over again. Will things turn out differently? Well, this is film noir. With Richard Basehart, making his film debut as Leslie's looney bin escape BFF, who does her a solid.

Speaking of Basehart, check him out in the superb B movie noir, He Walked by Night.

Donovan's Brain. You gotta see it.

Strange Impersonation (1946), which I saw this weekend at Noir City in Chicago, is definitely one of the most insane noirs I've ever seen. This Poverty Row production is an early effort by the great Anthony Mann, and the plot includes lab explosions, stolen identity, blackmail, and lady scientists. An added bonus is a strong supporting performance by Hillary Brooke ("Hillary" from the Abbot and Costello movies). This film is good fun.

Has anyone mentioned "Conflict" where Bogart is unhappily married to Rose Hobart and has a yen for her sister Alexis Smith? The trick ending makes it noir-ish. No spoilers, but keep your eye on Charles Coburn. Another noir I like is "Impact" where Brian Donleavy, playing the Bogie role, figures in murder and winds up with good girl Ella Raines (playing a female garage mechanic.) And it even has Sheilah Graham playing herself.

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

For me Gloria Grahame is the queen of Noir: Crossfire, A Woman's Secret, In a Lonely Place, Sudden Fear, The Glass Wall, The Big Heat, Human Desire, and Naked Alibi.

All of them good - In a Lonely Place, Sudden Fear, The Big Heat and Human Desire are fantastic.

I love Leave Her to Heaven, but for me, a true Noir film MUST be in black and white.

[quote]What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

"What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" Is grand guignol horror, not film noir.