Though its conception is still argued and debated, there was no denying the strange phenomenon happening in American cinema around the turn of the early 1940s. The term, originally coined byFrench critic Nino Frank, was the outsider who observed what had been unraveling on the big screen. To define noir by its atmosphere and the list of clichés would be a disservice to the masterpieces that fit into its description, but, it’s a good place to start. The films often have a cast of misfits, desperate people,low-level criminals, hard-boiled detectives, the hard-drinking man caught in over his head, and the femme fatale. The noir film had its ingredients but what was present was the use of hard shadows and a sense of melancholy to elevate the pulpy material.
Noir was not without its doubts about the American empire and all of its trappings. Noir, for the most part, was inhabited by the sunken faces of Humphrey Bogart, Joseph Cotten, and countless others to match the moody material. Also heralded by a new class of filmmakers, often international, like Billy Wilder and Fritz Lang who bought a sense of German expressionism when they came to America. But, what stands with noir, is its modern storytelling, hard-boiled dialogue, and sense of mystery that makes the film genre still relevant and watchable today.
Updated on August 11th, 2023, byRafa Boladeras:This article has been updated with additional content to keep the discussion fresh and relevant with even more information and new entries.
15Nightmare Alley (1947)
Nightmare Alleyis the circus noir movie that inspired the recent Guillermo Del Toro film of the same name. Tyrone Power stars as Stan, a con man who is part of a circus and wants to learn from Mademoiselle Zeena’s “mental powers”. After killing her husband (maybe involuntarily), Stan leaves with his lover and goes to Chicago to start his own schemes.
The movie has as many twists and turns as a carnival dancer, and its ending is pretty bleak and dark, but that’s what happens when you try to con every person you meet. Originally, the film wasn’t that much of a success, but in the last twenty years has earned much more recognition, even before Del Toro and Bradley Cooper did their own version of the story.
14Kiss Me, Deadly (1955)
A tough private eye named Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) picks up an almost naked mysterious hitchhiker (Cloris Leachman in one of her first roles ever). When she ends up dead, and he ends up in the hospital after some bad guys get to them, Hammer decides to solve the mystery. That’s the start ofKiss Me, Deadly,one of the weirdest noir movies as what everyone is looking for is a mysterious box with some kind of glowing substance that could be worth millions.
The movie is as violent as they come, and the ending is one of the darkest and most surprising ever in a film of this genre, so much so, that when it was released it was deemed too much. With the passing of time, many great directors like Francois Truffaut or Quentin Tarantino (the briefcase glowing visual inPulp Fictionis an homage to the weird box here that does the same) have shown how it was an influence on them, making it a later classic.
13Out of the Past (1947)
Out of the Pastis as exemplary noir film as they come. Robert Mitchum plays the tough detective, that drinks too much and gives voice-over exposition and whose past comes to get him one last time.
Kirk Douglas plays the mobster who knows all his secrets and makes him get dirtier, and Jane Greer plays the femme fatale. The movie is dark, sad, violent, nihilistic, and bleak with incredible dialogue; the movie is one of the best noirs ever made and a must-watch in the genre.
12Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
Taking the realm of noir and moving it to the world of journalism to show how the game can be played by dirty, seedy men without morals was a fascinating ride. With a towering Burt Lancaster performance as the man behind the curtain, calling the shots, and a desperate Tony Curtis battling it out to move up in the world,The Sweet Smell of Successis a jazzy masterclass.
The film has a quick-witted, sharp script, loaded with quotable dialogue directed with a wry, cynic edge from Alexander McKendrick that elevates the material to an indelible piece of pulp.Sweet Smell of Successis simply one of the best.
11The Big Sleep (1946)
The Big Sleepis one of the best Raymond Chandler books andone of his best adaptations, as Humphrey Bogart becomes Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall is the femme fatale. As with many Chandler stories, the mystery resolution is the least important part.
Howard Hawkes’ direction, the incredible Chandler dialogue, and the absolutely incredible chemistry between Bogart and Bacall (this is the movie where they met and fell in love) all helped makeThe Big Sleepa hit. If you’re looking for some noir film, this is the perfect example of what the genre was about; tough guys, violence, mystery, surprising twists and turns, and women who know how to use men for their advantage.
Related:The 10 Best Neo-Noir Movies Ever Made, Ranked
10Touch of Evil (1958)
Touch of Evilwas one of the last classical film noirs ever made as the genre concluded in 1959. It was also one the best possible ways to end the genre as the film has all the characteristics of a great noir film with some modern touches by director Orson Welles.
The film is still known as one of the best movie beginnings ever, with a unique three-minute tracking shot when those were much rarer and difficult to execute. Charlton Heston (playing a Mexican, one of the elements of the film that has aged poorly) and Janet Leigh are the stars of the movie as a recently married couple, in a corruption story in a border town near Mexico where Welles himself plays a drunk police officer. An absolute classic.
9Double Indemnity (1944)
One of Billy Wilder’s strongest assets as a director is his ability to find bursts of comic joy and playfulness amidst films ripe with cynicism.Double Indemnityisn’t just a mysterious noir with a multilayered plot scheme that at times confuses its audience.
It’s also an anti-capitalist dig and the dangers of getting lost in your work. With a stacked cast and a sultry Barbara Stanwyck performance carrying the story’s nasty ride into desperation, Billy Wilder crafted another film that is an absolute staple of noir.
8The Night of The Hunter (1955)
The multi-faceted, layered, and haunting noir from Charles Laughton was much maligned by critics upon its release but, in recent years it has come back to retain its status as a seminal work from the longtime actor whose only chance to direct wasThe Night of The Hunter. Dark for its subject matter at the time, Robert Mitchum plays the killer preacher man to devilish delight.
With“Love and Hate”tattooed on his fists, the religious allegory becomes physical, manifesting in the duality of a priest who relishes in hell. Mitchum tails two kids that he dreams of murdering, Laughton’s film is a dark horror in a genre not known for pulling any punches.
7The Maltese Falcon (1941)
The reliable cool of Humphrey Bogart is itself, a staple of noir. In John Huston’s powerful debut as a filmmaker, he directed one of the greatest noir mysteries of all time,The Maltese Falcon. Packed with eloquently hard-boiled dialogue where no line is spared, slowly moving the tightly wound and mysterious plot with double-crosses and murders abound.
Huston never loses the dark punch while framing Bogart perfectly in its center. Playing a man whose seen it all, never wavering among the schemes but also plays it with a hot temper when he has to get what he wants. The final reveal at the end still stands to be one of the greats.
6The Killing (1956)
The lone noir in Stanley Kubrick’s historic filmography is a slaughterhouse of nihilism where every player is liable to kill or be killed. With a steely Sterling Hayden in the center, he rallies a troop of desperate criminals to perform a daring heist at the horse track.
Kubrick opts for an approach only he would take, by focusing on the build-up by tracing the lives of each heist member before the big job.The Killingis a heartbreaking noir with its pulse on betrayal and brutality.
