Pre 1936 films

I find it interesting that folks tend to put hard limits of when noir “happened”. According to Wikipedia and an author or two it’s 1940-1959. Period. That kind of makes my head hurt. I suspect the lines are a little less clear cut than that (as this site suggests) which is fine by me.

I do not know the title Rain, will check it out. Thanks

Some disagree that it is a noir or a great film but I think Rain 1932 is both. It is high on my list of underrated films. Photo Noir is a good idea but do you include the early talkie gangster and horror films?

Why include The Lodger (1944), but not Hitchcock’s The Lodger (1927)?

The story of The Lodger was written by Marie Belloc Lowndes, sister of Hilaire Belloc. Fun to pair these at a party with Hilare’s Cautionary Tales, illustrated by Edward Gorey.

Good question. We limited it to after 1936, which many noir critics would already say is too early. : ) But, you’re right, there are lots of brilliant proto-noirs from before this date, especially masterpieces like Lang’s M (1931), Murnau’s romance-noir crossover Sunrise (1927), and the great original Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920). These films have been referenced in some of the articles, and I’m sure will be covered in blog posts down the road, but I hadn’t thought of adding earlier pre-1936 films to the actual directory. But if you’d like to see those included, I could always create a separate proto-noir category.