1:01 Maltese Falcon (1941) 1:52 The Big Sleep (1946) 2:50 Out of the Past (1947) 3:35 Sweet Smell of Success (1957) 4:39 Laura (1944) 5:30 They Live By Night (1948) 6:07 In A Lonely Place (1950) 7:13 The Third Man (1949) 7:54 The Lady From Shaghai (1947) 8:32 Touch Of Evil (1958) 9:48 Double Indemnity (1944) 10:44 Sunset Boulevard (1950) Great List. But forget it Jake, It's Chinatown (1974). lol
@@stevemcnary7963Colour doesn’t make a film neo-noir! It’s that it was made after the classic period ended. Colour or monochrome has nothing at all to do with it. Where do people get this idea from?
When I watched The Maltese Falcon many years ago, I could not help but notice that its dialogue sounded rather elevated compared to what I was accustomed to hearing in movies. I understood why when the final credits rolled and I saw that the screenplay was written by William Faulkner.
@@michaels4255 “Don’t worry about a script. Film the book!” Was the advice that Huston received when preparing for The Maltese Falcon”, his very first directorial job. He did just that.
*_Murder My Sweet_* (1944) may be the most quintessential example of dark, atmospheric _Detective_ Noir ever made. Also adds a bit of hallucinatory, daliesque style visuals in one key section of the film. Lesser known and quite underrated --- undeservedly so.
@TheGoldenHourFilmPodcast Admittedly, that surreal section of the film is very small but you most definitely should check the film out if you've never seen it before. Like the Big Sleep, it's protagonist is Phillip Marlowe.
If one is going to refer to The Maltese Falcon, one must pronounce it correctly. The correct pronunciation-so spoken in the movie itself in fidelity to the euphony that Dashiell Hammett clearly had in mind-is "mawl-tease fawl-kun." The "mawl"/"fawl" echo was quite deliberate.
I have seen just about all of the movies on your list, however, any Film Noir with Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum, Edward G. Robinson, Orson Wells, and the great Barbara Stanwyck is a great watch. The funniest and a great homage to the genre was “Dead men don’t wear plaid”.
Two more to mention, "Murder my sweet. "Dick Powell may have been a dweeb, but the hallucination scene here is a classic.Also, try "His kind of Woman," Mitchum in Mexico, with Vincent Price and Raymond Burr chewing up the scenery.
Saw the Maltese Falcon at the AFI theater in 1969. Nothing matched that presentation of this timeless masterpiece. Not bad for a first time director. Tho he did grow up on movies sets...
Here's a few more good Film Noir films: Detour Scandal Sheet Human Desire Strangers on a Train Gun Crazy The Killers The Hitchhiker Without a Doubt Scarlet Street
I like some film noir movies... but there are also some good more modern noir films. I like "To Live and Die in LA" (1985). Maybe you can do a list of modern color film-noir?
Again, a film isn’t noir or neo-noir because it’s made in monochrome or colour. It’s about WHEN it was made and nothing else. Touch of Evil is generally felt to be the final film of the classic noir period. After that they are neo-noir.
Lists of Films Noir do tend to omit candidates from non-US countries. There are plenty of brilliant examples so creators of these lists should do one of films from other places. It was good to see The Third Man included here as it is often omitted because it’s British. The term Film Noir was brought into use by the French (the Nouvelle Vague, in fact, and was the used retrospectively). It’s often termed a genre, but it has very few discernible characteristics in the way others have. If you refer to Westerns or Musicals, for example, they can be clearly and definitively recognised. Noir is really much more of a style, as its constituents are otherwise much more varied and differing. German Expressionism was its source (all the European directors escaping the Nazis carried their techniques to the US), but it can be tricky to differentiate it from Crime films or gangster films. Hitchcock was working in Germany for several years before he created his first ‘Hitchcockian’ film, The Lodger’. It’s a moot point as to whether he ever made a noir film in his career, however.
@sheltonterry6589 Thanks! I really like both but if I had to say which I prefer, I think it would be The Maltese Falcon for it's added humour on top of the quintessential noir elements
OK sorry to jump in so soon, but The Maltese Falcon is NOT the first film noir. Stranger on the Third Floor beat it out by a few months i believe.. Of course, it is nowhere near as well known as Falcon. All the others are solid choices although I have some serious reservations about The Third Man and In a Lonely Place would not even be in my top 35 noirs. (My Third Man review on request. I also can not put Lady From Shanghai on my all time favorite list because the studio took the final cut away from Welles. The two major omissions IMO are Kiss Me Deadly, a stone cold masterpiece in every way and far ahead of its time, and Vertigo (yes, it's a color noir and very very great) A few other tremendous noirs are The lineup, White Heat, Night of the Hunter , if it is a noir, and Shoot the Piano Player.
@willieluncheonette5843 Yes I agree that The Maltese Falcon isn't necessarily the first noir, just that many consider it to be. It isn't an exhaustive list by any means though, there are so many incredible noirs that if I was to list all of my recommendations it would be 10x as long which nobody wants! Thanks for all your recommendations though!
Kiss Me Deadly really pushed the envelope on violence in those days. Even the poster has a woman tied up with some gunsel looming over her. It was a rough movie. I recall finding it kind of over-the-top gratuitous, though it's tame compared to Lupino's The Hitchhiker! Crikey, what an exploration of psychological sadism that was. I guess Lupino was saying "You don't think a woman can direct a tough movie? Check this out." Vertigo is a unique film and I can see how one might not consider it noir.
These best-of-the-best lists are always tough, because it's all so subjective after all. Three I would have added are The Killers with Burt Lancaster, Ministry of Fear, and Out Of The Past. (The title on that one has worked out to be a final nice touch for a classic old movie!)
@bartstewart8644 Out of the Past is in there! A film I really love. And yeah, I tried to just recommend a bunch that I love as opposed to doing any kind of ranking or declaration of 'the best' because as you say, it's just subjective
Humphrey Bogard wasn't the first Sam Spade. Ricardo Cortez played Spade 10 years earlier Warner Bros.'s first adaptation of The Maltese Falcon. And didn't Odds Against Tomorrow come out after Touch of Evil?
Wow - Barbara Stanwick was REALLY nice looking. I only ever knew her as Victoria Barkly in The Big Valley. Still a very nice looking woman, but old enough not to shine in quite the same way.
They are two directors absents, both German exiled, which both filmed two very similar films with the same actor. The films are "Scarlett St" and "The Woman in the Window" directed by Fritz Lang with Edward G.Robinson, and "The Killers" and "Criss-Cross" directed by Robert Siodmak with Burt Lancaster. At least "Scarlett St." and "The Killers"could be in the list. On the other side, I find "The Asphalt Jungle" a much better film than "The Maltese Falcon"(being both Huston´s films).
Excellent list, would add though Pickup on South Street, by the great Sam Fuller, Richard Widmark as a total street punk and Thelma Ritter hitting the pathos hard as a lower level shady type floating around the criminal underworld. The start of the film in the train is just mesmerising plus it also has added Cold War paranoia!
Long before South Street was "Kiss Of Death" where Richard Widmark made his film debut playing the psycho gangster Tommy Udo-Classic Film Noir.Victor Mature had top billing but Widmark stole that movie with his performance.
Comecei a assistir bons filmes noir, no início dos anos 2000 (exceção: "Crepúsculo dos Deuses", no cinema, nos Anos 90) através dos boxes & DVDs. Meus preferidos: "Pacto de Sangue" "Rififi" "A Mulher Fantasma" "Amar foi a minha Ruína" "O Grande Assalto" "Fuga do Passado" "Pânico nas Ruas" "O Segredo das Jóias" "Os Assassinos" "Gilda" e "Passos na Noite" e "Anjo do Mal" e muitos outros 🎬🎬🎬🎞🎞🎞🎞🙋🏼♂️
I was always curious about the lounge singer scene in that film. She sings in such a low-pitched voice. And I have heard other female vocalists of that time singing almost like a baritone! Was that some short-lived fad of the era? Bacall of course had that smokey, low pitch.
Where's 1947 "The Killers" a great film with Lancaster in his debut with Edmond Obrien and Albert dekker with the "killers" robustly played by a young william conrad and film noir regular charles mcgraw.
Where's "The Narrow Margin" with Charles McGraw(Lead role) and the great Marie Windsor("Force Of Evil" with John Garfield & "The Killing" with Sterling Hayden).
You left out one of the greatest, directed by the great Charles Laughton, Night of the Hunter. It flopped when it first came out but has become a cult film. The French consider it the 2nd greatest film after Citizen Kane. Also almost all of these films are American. How about the mesmerising film directed by Jean-PIerre Mellville Le Samourai with an incredible Zen performance by Alain Delon?
The Night of the Hunter is an absolutely incredible film, agreed! I left it out since there's some debate as to whether it's a noir or not (and I'm not sure exactly where I fall on that argument) but I adore the film.
YOU SHOW YOUR ILLITERACY! AS THE GREAT AUTHOR AND LITERARY - CRITIC : ANTHONY BURGESS, SAID: THE IRISH LANGUAGE, SYNTAX / GRAMMAR , AND INDEED ACCENT ARE ELIZABETHAN ENGLISH PRESERVED IN AMBER ! THE AFORESAID OFTEN INVOLVES NOVEL SYLLABIC ADDITIONS OR OMISSIONS! JUDGING BY YOUR EGREGIOUS EPIGRAMMATIC PUT-DOWN ,YOU ARE PROBABLY IGNORANT OF THE FACT THAT ELIZABETHAN ENGLISH IS CONTEMPORANEOUS WITH SHAKESPEAREAN ENGLISH! OF COURSE I AM AWARE THAT I AM FIGURATIVELY SPEAKING TRYING TO TEACH A BABOON DIFFERENTIAL OR INTEGRAL CALCULUS!!!💥💥💥💥💥
NO DOUBT A FUNCTION OF YOUR ABYSMAL IGNORANCE AND ILLITERACY! YOU USE THE VULGARIAN PARLANCE : " CHEEZ " AND HAVE THE UNMITIGATED GALL TO QUESTION SOMEONE ELSE'S VERBAL COHERENCE?!!! 💥💥💥💥💥
1:01 Maltese Falcon (1941)
1:52 The Big Sleep (1946)
2:50 Out of the Past (1947)
3:35 Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
4:39 Laura (1944)
5:30 They Live By Night (1948)
6:07 In A Lonely Place (1950)
7:13 The Third Man (1949)
7:54 The Lady From Shaghai (1947)
8:32 Touch Of Evil (1958)
9:48 Double Indemnity (1944)
10:44 Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Great List. But forget it Jake, It's Chinatown (1974). lol
@inventist Thanks for this!
Chinatown is technically a neo noir since it's in color.
Touch of evil is boring.
@@stevemcnary7963Colour doesn’t make a film neo-noir! It’s that it was made after the classic period ended. Colour or monochrome has nothing at all to do with it. Where do people get this idea from?
When I watched The Maltese Falcon many years ago, I could not help but notice that its dialogue sounded rather elevated compared to what I was accustomed to hearing in movies. I understood why when the final credits rolled and I saw that the screenplay was written by William Faulkner.
their episode on maltese falcon is good!
Faulkner was one of the writers in the script for The Big Sleep, not the Maltese Falcon.
@@PIPEBITE I checked and you're right! It has been so long since I watched those old movies that I had gotten them mixed up. Mea culpa.
@@michaels4255 “Don’t worry about a script. Film the book!” Was the advice that Huston received when preparing for The Maltese Falcon”, his very first directorial job. He did just that.
*_Murder My Sweet_* (1944) may be the most quintessential example of dark, atmospheric _Detective_ Noir ever made. Also adds a bit of hallucinatory, daliesque style visuals in one key section of the film. Lesser known and quite underrated --- undeservedly so.
@@Hernal03 Thanks for the recommendation, I'll have to check this one out at some point! The Dali-esque visual style sounds particularly interesting
@TheGoldenHourFilmPodcast Admittedly, that surreal section of the film is very small but you most definitely should check the film out if you've never seen it before. Like the Big Sleep, it's protagonist is Phillip Marlowe.
If one is going to refer to The Maltese Falcon, one must pronounce it correctly. The correct pronunciation-so spoken in the movie itself in fidelity to the euphony that Dashiell Hammett clearly had in mind-is "mawl-tease fawl-kun." The "mawl"/"fawl" echo was quite deliberate.
Great director though he was Billy Wilder did not do the dialogue for Double Indemnity - that was by the incomparable Raymond Chandler!
Impact with Brian Donlevy
I have seen just about all of the movies on your list, however, any Film Noir with Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum, Edward G. Robinson, Orson Wells, and the great Barbara Stanwyck is a great watch.
The funniest and a great homage to the genre was “Dead men don’t wear plaid”.
Two more to mention, "Murder my sweet. "Dick Powell may have been a dweeb, but the hallucination scene here is a classic.Also, try "His kind of Woman," Mitchum in Mexico, with Vincent Price and Raymond Burr chewing up the scenery.
The Big Combo (1955). Not the leads; but Lee van Cleef and Earl Holliman as "best friends".
You should do a list of "films that are not quite films noir but still have that film noir atmosphere."
Saw the Maltese Falcon at the AFI theater in 1969. Nothing matched that presentation of this timeless masterpiece. Not bad for a first time director. Tho he did grow up on movies sets...
Love all of the films on this list. Another fave is 'The Big Heat'.
Thanks for using the proper plural of "Film Noir!" Now, I'll watch this video for sure!
Of course! Thank you!
Here's a few more good Film Noir films:
Detour
Scandal Sheet
Human Desire
Strangers on a Train
Gun Crazy
The Killers
The Hitchhiker
Without a Doubt
Scarlet Street
My favorite noir is "Requiem For A Heavyweight", starring Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason with a ca meo from Muhmmad Ali (nee Cassius Clay).
@@jamesdunn1641 Wow, don’t know that one!
I think it was a tv movie? Scripted by Rod Serling?
and if you like "The Third Man" try "Journey into Fear" with a similar cast and feel
I like some film noir movies... but there are also some good more modern noir films. I like "To Live and Die in LA" (1985). Maybe you can do a list of modern color film-noir?
Again, a film isn’t noir or neo-noir because it’s made in monochrome or colour. It’s about WHEN it was made and nothing else. Touch of Evil is generally felt to be the final film of the classic noir period. After that they are neo-noir.
Lists of Films Noir do tend to omit candidates from non-US countries. There are plenty of brilliant examples so creators of these lists should do one of films from other places. It was good to see The Third Man included here as it is often omitted because it’s British. The term Film Noir was brought into use by the French (the Nouvelle Vague, in fact, and was the used retrospectively). It’s often termed a genre, but it has very few discernible characteristics in the way others have. If you refer to Westerns or Musicals, for example, they can be clearly and definitively recognised. Noir is really much more of a style, as its constituents are otherwise much more varied and differing. German Expressionism was its source (all the European directors escaping the Nazis carried their techniques to the US), but it can be tricky to differentiate it from Crime films or gangster films. Hitchcock was working in Germany for several years before he created his first ‘Hitchcockian’ film, The Lodger’. It’s a moot point as to whether he ever made a noir film in his career, however.
Good List but let me add "Murder My Sweet " . Based on Farewell My Lovely and it is a Wonderful film.
Great list! But is it just me, but I like The Big Sleep slightly better than The Maltese Falcon.
@sheltonterry6589 Thanks! I really like both but if I had to say which I prefer, I think it would be The Maltese Falcon for it's added humour on top of the quintessential noir elements
I agree The Big Sleep has such great dialog and the short scene with Dorothy Malone...wow. Makes me want to carry a
flask of rye for such an occasion.
@nickelndime5 Fantasy moment right there
OK sorry to jump in so soon, but The Maltese Falcon is NOT the first film noir. Stranger on the Third Floor beat it out by a few months i believe.. Of course, it is nowhere near as well known as Falcon.
All the others are solid choices although I have some serious reservations about The Third Man and In a Lonely Place would not even be in my top 35 noirs. (My Third Man review on request.
I also can not put Lady From Shanghai on my all time favorite list because the studio took the final cut away from Welles.
The two major omissions IMO are Kiss Me Deadly, a stone cold masterpiece in every way and far ahead of its time, and Vertigo (yes, it's a color noir and very very great)
A few other tremendous noirs are The lineup, White Heat, Night of the Hunter , if it is a noir, and Shoot the Piano Player.
@willieluncheonette5843 Yes I agree that The Maltese Falcon isn't necessarily the first noir, just that many consider it to be. It isn't an exhaustive list by any means though, there are so many incredible noirs that if I was to list all of my recommendations it would be 10x as long which nobody wants!
Thanks for all your recommendations though!
Kiss Me Deadly really pushed the envelope on violence in those days. Even the poster has a woman tied up with some gunsel looming over her. It was a rough movie. I recall finding it kind of over-the-top gratuitous, though it's tame compared to Lupino's The Hitchhiker! Crikey, what an exploration of psychological sadism that was. I guess Lupino was saying "You don't think a woman can direct a tough movie? Check this out."
Vertigo is a unique film and I can see how one might not consider it noir.
Thank you for Night of the Hunter. And how about M directed by Fritz Lang, with an incredible turn by Peter Lorre. A classic.
@@elizabethcsicsery-ronay1633 M is considered a proto noir and it is a masterpiece. Fritz Lang is the premier noir director for sure.
@@willieluncheonette5843 Thank you.
These best-of-the-best lists are always tough, because it's all so subjective after all. Three I would have added are The Killers with Burt Lancaster, Ministry of Fear, and Out Of The Past. (The title on that one has worked out to be a final nice touch for a classic old movie!)
@bartstewart8644 Out of the Past is in there! A film I really love. And yeah, I tried to just recommend a bunch that I love as opposed to doing any kind of ranking or declaration of 'the best' because as you say, it's just subjective
Double Indemnity, great movie, first for me
We actually just covered it last week on the podcast also. An absolute favorite of ours for sure!
I agree with your choices 100%.
@@craigfishburn Thanks!
Humphrey Bogard wasn't the first Sam Spade. Ricardo Cortez played Spade 10 years earlier Warner Bros.'s first adaptation of The Maltese Falcon. And didn't Odds Against Tomorrow come out after Touch of Evil?
Wow - Barbara Stanwick was REALLY nice looking. I only ever knew her as Victoria Barkly in The Big Valley. Still a very nice looking woman, but old enough not to shine in quite the same way.
They are two directors absents, both German exiled, which both filmed two very similar films with the same actor. The films are "Scarlett St" and "The Woman in the Window" directed by Fritz Lang with Edward G.Robinson, and "The Killers" and "Criss-Cross" directed by Robert Siodmak with Burt Lancaster. At least "Scarlett St." and "The Killers"could be in the list. On the other side, I find "The Asphalt Jungle" a much better film than "The Maltese Falcon"(being both Huston´s films).
@@andreshombriamate745 Thanks for these recommendations! I've heard good things about 'The Killers' and have liked the Siodmak films I've seen
This guy talks too much…worthless opinions
well done fromanold film buff!
@@tadgmcloughlin6061 Thank you!
Excellent list, would add though Pickup on South Street, by the great Sam Fuller, Richard Widmark as a total street punk and Thelma Ritter hitting the pathos hard as a lower level shady type floating around the criminal underworld. The start of the film in the train is just mesmerising plus it also has added Cold War paranoia!
@markeggins890 I'm a sucker for a Cold War thriller so this sounds like my kinda film! Thanks for the recommendation 😀
@@TheGoldenHourFilmPodcast Defo one of Fuller's best, and he didn't really do any duds...ruclips.net/video/gChW9YbyBnw/видео.html
Long before South Street was "Kiss Of Death" where Richard Widmark made his film debut playing the psycho gangster Tommy Udo-Classic Film Noir.Victor Mature had top billing but Widmark stole that movie with his performance.
Is "Kiss Me Deadly" (Aldrich) a Film Noir?
@ottonormalo4638 Yes I believe it is, that's one that I haven't managed to watch yet but it's very high up on my watchlist!
@@TheGoldenHourFilmPodcast Worth seeing!
It’s definitely Film Noir!
Comecei a assistir bons filmes noir, no início dos anos 2000 (exceção: "Crepúsculo dos Deuses", no cinema, nos Anos 90) através dos boxes & DVDs. Meus preferidos: "Pacto de Sangue" "Rififi" "A Mulher Fantasma" "Amar foi a minha Ruína" "O Grande Assalto" "Fuga do Passado" "Pânico nas Ruas" "O Segredo das Jóias" "Os Assassinos" "Gilda" e "Passos na Noite" e "Anjo do Mal" e muitos outros 🎬🎬🎬🎞🎞🎞🎞🙋🏼♂️
Always need to put a timeline
#13. "Dead Reckoning" with H.B,
@maureencora1 I liked Dead Reckoning too!
@@TheGoldenHourFilmPodcast Touche' (smile)
I was always curious about the lounge singer scene in that film. She sings in such a low-pitched voice. And I have heard other female vocalists of that time singing almost like a baritone! Was that some short-lived fad of the era? Bacall of course had that smokey, low pitch.
@@bartstewart8644 Touche' (smile)
Where's 1947 "The Killers" a great film with Lancaster in his debut with Edmond Obrien and Albert dekker with the "killers" robustly played by a young william conrad and film noir regular charles mcgraw.
Where's "The Narrow Margin" with Charles McGraw(Lead role) and the great Marie Windsor("Force Of Evil" with John Garfield & "The Killing" with Sterling Hayden).
@laner47
Exactly, my friend!!
MCGRAW was in several good noirs including "T-Men" and
"The Threat ".
"sunset boulevard" n'est pas un
film "noir", c'est une peinture au vitriol d'Hollywood.
Maltese flacon is your best episode
You left out one of the greatest, directed by the great Charles Laughton, Night of the Hunter. It flopped when it first came out but has become a cult film. The French consider it the 2nd greatest film after Citizen Kane. Also almost all of these films are American. How about the mesmerising film directed by Jean-PIerre Mellville Le Samourai with an incredible Zen performance by Alain Delon?
The Night of the Hunter is an absolutely incredible film, agreed! I left it out since there's some debate as to whether it's a noir or not (and I'm not sure exactly where I fall on that argument) but I adore the film.
What is a fillum?
YOU SHOW YOUR ILLITERACY! AS THE GREAT AUTHOR AND LITERARY - CRITIC : ANTHONY BURGESS, SAID: THE IRISH LANGUAGE,
SYNTAX / GRAMMAR , AND INDEED ACCENT ARE ELIZABETHAN ENGLISH PRESERVED IN AMBER ! THE AFORESAID OFTEN
INVOLVES NOVEL SYLLABIC ADDITIONS OR OMISSIONS! JUDGING BY YOUR EGREGIOUS EPIGRAMMATIC PUT-DOWN ,YOU ARE
PROBABLY IGNORANT OF THE FACT THAT ELIZABETHAN ENGLISH IS CONTEMPORANEOUS WITH SHAKESPEAREAN
ENGLISH! OF COURSE I AM AWARE THAT I AM FIGURATIVELY SPEAKING TRYING TO TEACH A BABOON DIFFERENTIAL OR
INTEGRAL CALCULUS!!!💥💥💥💥💥
The Big Heat
Night of the Hunter
Brute Force
DOA
Dark Passage
Kiss Me Deadly
Gritty, grungy, depressing, riveting: DETOUR. (Follow wt must read wiki-bio of Tom Neal.)
Cheez, he's hard to understand.
NO DOUBT A FUNCTION OF YOUR ABYSMAL IGNORANCE AND ILLITERACY! YOU USE THE VULGARIAN PARLANCE : " CHEEZ "
AND HAVE THE UNMITIGATED GALL TO QUESTION SOMEONE ELSE'S VERBAL COHERENCE?!!! 💥💥💥💥💥