Dark Noir
by J_Frank_Parnell | created - 5 months ago | updated - 3 weeks ago | PublicThe crème de la crème of mid-century edgelords...
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1. Dark Passage (1947)
Passed | 106 min | Film-Noir, Thriller
A man convicted of murdering his wife escapes from prison and works with a woman to try to prove his innocence.
Director: Delmer Daves | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Bruce Bennett, Agnes Moorehead
Votes: 21,967
2. The Dark Past (1948)
Passed | 73 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller
An escaped psychopathic killer who takes the family and neighbors of police psychologist hostage reveals a recurring nightmare to the doctor.
Director: Rudolph Maté | Stars: William Holden, Nina Foch, Lee J. Cobb, Adele Jergens
Votes: 2,144
3. The Dark Corner (1946)
Passed | 99 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A secretary tries to help her boss who's been framed for murder.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: Lucille Ball, Clifton Webb, William Bendix, Mark Stevens
Votes: 5,199
4. The Dark Mirror (1946)
Approved | 85 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A man is found murdered, and witnesses are sure about the woman they saw leaving his apartment. However, it becomes apparent that the woman has a twin, and finding out which one is the killer seems impossible.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Olivia de Havilland, Lew Ayres, Thomas Mitchell, Richard Long
Votes: 5,677
5. Nightmare Alley (1947)
Passed | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir
The rise and fall of Stanton Carlisle, a mentalist whose lies and deceit prove to be his downfall.
Director: Edmund Goulding | Stars: Tyrone Power, Joan Blondell, Coleen Gray, Helen Walker
Votes: 13,413
6. The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Not Rated | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A self-proclaimed preacher marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real dad hid the $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery.
Director: Charles Laughton | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, James Gleason
Votes: 97,340 | Gross: $0.65M
7. Night and the City (1950)
Not Rated | 96 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
A small-time grifter and nightclub tout takes advantage of some fortuitous circumstances and tries to become a big-time player as a wrestling promoter.
Director: Jules Dassin | Stars: Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney, Googie Withers, Hugh Marlowe
Votes: 15,269 | Gross: $3.60M
8. Nightfall (1956)
78 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Through a series of bizarre coincidences, an artist finds himself falsely accused of bank robbery and murder and is pursued by the authorities and the real killers.
Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Aldo Ray, Anne Bancroft, Brian Keith, Jocelyn Brando
Votes: 4,562
9. Hell Bound (1957)
Approved | 69 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
After World War II, a Los Angeles crime ring uses a complex scheme, involving a freight ship, a junkie, and a corrupt health officer, to smuggle drugs into the USA.
Director: William J. Hole Jr. | Stars: John Russell, June Blair, Stuart Whitman, Margo Woode
Votes: 723
10. Black Friday (1940)
Approved | 70 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Dr. Sovac transplants the brain of a gangster into his professor friend's body to save his life, but there is a side effect that causes a dangerous split personality.
Director: Arthur Lubin | Stars: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Stanley Ridges, Anne Nagel
Votes: 2,878
11. Black Angel (1946)
Passed | 81 min | Adventure, Crime, Film-Noir
When Kirk Bennett is convicted of a singer's murder, his wife tries to prove him innocent...aided by the victim's ex-husband.
Director: Roy William Neill | Stars: Dan Duryea, June Vincent, Peter Lorre, Broderick Crawford
Votes: 3,951
12. Dead Man's Eyes (1944)
Approved | 64 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
When an artist is blinded, his fiancée's father offers an operation to restore his sight. When the benefactor suddenly dies, the artist becomes a suspect.
Director: Reginald Le Borg | Stars: Lon Chaney Jr., Jean Parker, Paul Kelly, Thomas Gomez
Votes: 1,022
13. D.O.A. (1949)
Approved | 83 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Frank Bigelow, told he's been poisoned and has only a few days to live, tries to find out who killed him and why.
Director: Rudolph Maté | Stars: Edmond O'Brien, Pamela Britton, Luther Adler, Beverly Garland
Votes: 13,085
14. Please Murder Me! (1956)
Approved | 78 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A lawyer suffers a guilt complex after getting a murder acquittal for his client, and then finding out she did commit the crime.
Director: Peter Godfrey | Stars: Angela Lansbury, Raymond Burr, Dick Foran, John Dehner
Votes: 1,622
15. Murder, Inc. (1960)
Not Rated | 103 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
The rise and fall of a 1930's Brooklyn crime syndicate, known as Murder Incorporated, led by mobster Lepke Buchalter.
Directors: Burt Balaban, Stuart Rosenberg | Stars: Stuart Whitman, May Britt, Henry Morgan, Peter Falk
Votes: 1,670
16. Fallen Angel (1945)
Approved | 98 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
A slick con man arrives in a small town looking to make some money, but soon gets more than he bargained for.
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: Alice Faye, Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell, Charles Bickford
Votes: 6,512
17. Blast of Silence (1961)
Approved | 77 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A hired killer from Cleveland has a job to do on a second-string mob boss in New York, but a special girl from his past and a gun dealer with pet rats get in his way.
Director: Allen Baron | Stars: Allen Baron, Molly McCarthy, Larry Tucker, Peter Clune
Votes: 5,667
18. Murder by Contract (1958)
Approved | 81 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Claude is a ruthless and efficient contract killer - until he finds his next target is a woman.
Director: Irving Lerner | Stars: Vince Edwards, Phillip Pine, Herschel Bernardi, Caprice Toriel
Votes: 4,364
19. Gun Crazy (1950)
Passed | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Two disturbed young people release their fascination with guns through a crime spree.
Director: Joseph H. Lewis | Stars: John Dall, Peggy Cummins, Berry Kroeger, Morris Carnovsky
Votes: 14,834
20. Touch of Evil (1958)
PG-13 | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping and police corruption in a Mexican border town.
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, Janet Leigh, Joseph Calleia
Votes: 109,795 | Gross: $2.24M
21. Inner Sanctum (1948)
Approved | 62 min | Film-Noir, Horror, Mystery
A man fleeing the police after having committed a murder hides out in a boarding house in a small town.
Director: Lew Landers | Stars: Charles Russell, Mary Beth Hughes, Billy House, Dale Belding
Votes: 1,164
22. The Prowler (1951)
Approved | 92 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
After Susan Gilvray reports a prowler outside her house police officer Webb Garwood investigates and sparks fly. If only her husband wasn't in the way.
Director: Joseph Losey | Stars: Van Heflin, Evelyn Keyes, John Maxwell, Katherine Warren
Votes: 4,087
23. The Hitch-Hiker (1953)
Approved | 71 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Two fishermen pick up a psychopathic escaped convict who tells them that he intends to murder them when the ride is over.
Director: Ida Lupino | Stars: Edmond O'Brien, Frank Lovejoy, William Talman, José Torvay
Votes: 10,518
24. The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)
Passed | 119 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A junkie must face his true self to kick his drug addiction.
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: Frank Sinatra, Kim Novak, Eleanor Parker, Arnold Stang
Votes: 12,211
25. M (1951)
Not Rated | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
In this Americanization of the 1931 German thriller, both the police and the criminal underworld stalk a mysterious serial killer who preys on little girls.
Director: Joseph Losey | Stars: David Wayne, Howard Da Silva, Martin Gabel, Luther Adler
Votes: 2,365
26. Moontide (1942)
Approved | 94 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
In California, Bobo and his mooching pal Tiny are doing odd jobs and getting drunk and they hide a secret about the unsolved murder of sailor Pop Kelly but suicidal waitress Anna, saved by Bobo, unravels the mystery.
Directors: Archie Mayo, Fritz Lang | Stars: Jean Gabin, Ida Lupino, Thomas Mitchell, Claude Rains
Votes: 2,229
27. This Gun for Hire (1942)
Passed | 81 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
When assassin Philip Raven shoots a blackmailer and his beautiful female companion dead, he is paid off in marked bills by his treasonous employer who is working with foreign spies.
Director: Frank Tuttle | Stars: Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, Laird Cregar
Votes: 10,615
28. Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965)
Not Rated | 107 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A woman reports that her young daughter is missing, but there seems to be no evidence that she ever existed.
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: Keir Dullea, Carol Lynley, Laurence Olivier, Martita Hunt
Votes: 10,226
29. Pushover (1954)
Passed | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An undercover police officer falls for the beautiful moll of a bank robber on the run, and together they plan to double-cross the hood and the cops.
Director: Richard Quine | Stars: Fred MacMurray, Kim Novak, Philip Carey, Dorothy Malone
Votes: 4,120
30. Drive a Crooked Road (1954)
Passed | 83 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An upright car mechanic falls in love with the girlfriend of a gangster. This forces him to participate in the criminal underworld.
Director: Richard Quine | Stars: Mickey Rooney, Dianne Foster, Kevin McCarthy, Jack Kelly
Votes: 2,015
31. The Breaking Point (1950)
Approved | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An otherwise moral captain of a charter boat becomes financially strapped and is drawn into illegal activities in order to keep up payments on his boat.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: John Garfield, Patricia Neal, Phyllis Thaxter, Juano Hernandez
Votes: 4,393
32. Shakedown (1950)
Approved | 80 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Unscrupulous and opportunistic San Francisco news media photographer Jack Early steps on and uses folks to get ahead, but in the end he tangles with the wrong people.
Director: Joseph Pevney | Stars: Howard Duff, Peggy Dow, Brian Donlevy, Lawrence Tierney
Votes: 729
33. Crime Wave (1953)
Approved | 73 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Reformed parolee Steve Lacey is caught in the middle when a wounded former cellmate seeks him out for shelter.
Director: André De Toth | Stars: Gene Nelson, Sterling Hayden, Phyllis Kirk, Ted de Corsia
Votes: 4,546
34. Quicksand (1950)
Approved | 79 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
After taking 20 dollars from his employer to go on a date with plans to repay it the next day, an auto mechanic falls into increasingly disastrous circumstances for more and more money which rapidly spirals out of his control.
Director: Irving Pichel | Stars: Mickey Rooney, Jeanne Cagney, Barbara Bates, Peter Lorre
Votes: 2,672
35. Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954)
Not Rated | 80 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Fed up with the inhumane prison living conditions, a general prison riot breaks out, leading to hostage-taking, a stand-off with the guards and eventual negotiations with the prison administration officials.
Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Neville Brand, Emile Meyer, Frank Faylen, Leo Gordon
Votes: 2,426
36. City of Fear (1959)
Passed | 81 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A vicious killer escapes from San Quentin with a cannister of what he believes to be heroin but is actually a radioactive substance that threatens all Los Angeles.
Director: Irving Lerner | Stars: Vince Edwards, Lyle Talbot, John Archer, Steven Ritch
Votes: 1,630
37. Sudden Fear (1952)
Approved | 110 min | Film-Noir, Thriller
After an ambitious actor insinuates himself into the life of a wealthy middle-aged playwright and marries her, he plots with his mistress to murder her.
Director: David Miller | Stars: Joan Crawford, Jack Palance, Gloria Grahame, Bruce Bennett
Votes: 7,339
38. Brute Force (1947)
Passed | 98 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
At a tough penitentiary, prisoner Joe Collins plans to rebel against Captain Munsey, the power-mad chief guard.
Director: Jules Dassin | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Charles Bickford, Yvonne De Carlo
Votes: 11,536
39. A Bucket of Blood (1959)
Approved | 66 min | Comedy, Crime, Horror
A dimwitted busboy at a beatnik cafe passes off a cat he accidentally killed and covered in plaster as a sculpture, prompting a demand for more art that compels him to commit murders.
Director: Roger Corman | Stars: Dick Miller, Barboura Morris, Antony Carbone, Julian Burton
Votes: 7,893
40. Repulsion (1965)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
A sex-repulsed woman who disapproves of her sister's boyfriend sinks into depression and has horrific visions of rape and violence.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Catherine Deneuve, Ian Hendry, John Fraser, Yvonne Furneaux
Votes: 57,271
41. Pitfall (1948)
Not Rated | 86 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller
Married insurance adjuster John Forbes falls for femme fatale Mona Stevens while her boyfriend is in jail and all suffer serious consequences as a result.
Director: André De Toth | Stars: Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Jane Wyatt, Raymond Burr
Votes: 4,539
42. Shock Corridor (1963)
Approved | 101 min | Drama, Mystery
Bent on winning a Pulitzer Prize, a journalist commits himself to a mental institution to solve a strange and unclear murder.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Peter Breck, Constance Towers, Gene Evans, James Best
Votes: 13,056
Probably not really true "noir" (like any 60s movie, if we're being technical) But close enough
43. New York Confidential (1955)
Approved | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A top syndicate crime boss and his corrupt politicians make multi-million deals and order murders until the vicious pattern finally catches up to them.
Director: Russell Rouse | Stars: Broderick Crawford, Richard Conte, Anne Bancroft, Marilyn Maxwell
Votes: 1,007
44. The Unseen (1945)
Approved | 80 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Horror
A secretive widower hires a governess for his children, a willful boy and impressionable girl. Strange occurrences and the governess's curiosity lead her to unlock the secrets of the mysterious and uninhabited brownstone next door.
Director: Lewis Allen | Stars: Joel McCrea, Gail Russell, Herbert Marshall, Phyllis Brooks
Votes: 611
45. Dementia (1955)
Not Rated | 61 min | Film-Noir, Horror, Mystery
This film, with no dialogue at all, follows a psychotic young woman's nightmarish experiences through one skid-row night.
Directors: John Parker, Bruno VeSota | Stars: Adrienne Barrett, Bruno VeSota, Ben Roseman, Richard Barron
Votes: 2,570
46. Island of Lost Souls (1932)
Passed | 70 min | Film-Noir, Horror, Sci-Fi
A mad doctor conducts ghastly genetic experiments on a remote island in the South Seas, much to the fear and disgust of the shipwrecked sailor who finds himself trapped there.
Director: Erle C. Kenton | Stars: Charles Laughton, Bela Lugosi, Richard Arlen, Leila Hyams
Votes: 10,906
47. The Face Behind the Mask (1941)
Approved | 69 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A disfigured watch-maker with a grudge against society embarks on a life of crime.
Director: Robert Florey | Stars: Peter Lorre, Evelyn Keyes, Don Beddoe, George E. Stone
Votes: 1,876
48. The Amazing Mr. X (1948)
Passed | 78 min | Film-Noir, Horror, Thriller
On the beach one night, Christine Faber, two years a widow, thinks she hears her late husband Paul calling out of the surf; then meets a tall dark man Alexis, who seems to know all about such things.
Director: Bernard Vorhaus | Stars: Turhan Bey, Lynn Bari, Cathy O'Donnell, Richard Carlson
Votes: 2,216
49. Murder in the Blue Room (1944)
61 min | Comedy, Crime, Film-Noir
A party is thrown at a haunted mansion, people start to die, and a man who spent a night in the "blue room" disappears.
Director: Leslie Goodwins | Stars: Anne Gwynne, Donald Cook, John Litel, Grace McDonald
Votes: 395
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