Heart of Noir is the result of an extensive search and review of every noir and noir-adjacent film from the classic period around the world. From a universe of more than 3,500 potential films, this is the distilled inventory of every great – or at least very good – film noir produced between 1936, the year Fritz Lang’s first American film was released, and 1964, just as New Hollywood was entering its infancy. (This was also the year of noir legend Barbara Stanwyck’s final film.) The midpoint of the noir cycle is the midpoint of the century: 1950. (Read more in The Noir Cycle). From this 28-year period, we’ve filtered out the duds and mediocrities so you can be sure these are the best noirs ever made.
With listings from 30 countries, more than half are American, followed in volume by France, England, and Mexico. Nearly a third were made in a language other than English. If you felt like watching every film in this collection back-to-back without pausing or sleeping, it would take you two full months.
What criteria did we use? There were three.
A film noir must involve a crime. This is a make-or-break criterion; films that don’t involve a crime don’t qualify as noir. Sadly, this requirement disqualifies plenty of films beloved by noir fans, including Fritz Lang’s Clash by Night (1952), John Brahm’s Guest in the House (1944), and Otto Preminger’s Daisy Kenyon (1947). The story may focus on the anticipation or aftermath of the crime as long as the plot is connected to a criminal element, whether a serial killer, a gangster, or a murderous lover. From high society to the underground class, from a simple act of poisoning to a shower of bullets from Tommy guns, the crime represents the breakdown of moral integrity and the corruption of the postwar world.
A film noir must introduce a feeling of alienation, corruption, and instability. The mood is ultimately the psychological foundation of the film in which morality is murky and sanity is stretched. The mood may point to overt menace and danger or a more internalized state of feeling trapped. It’s often but not always made manifest in the expressionist visual aesthetic (see below); alienation in the scorching sunlight sometimes can be even more raw. Borde and Chaumeton said one of noir’s most important qualities is to be “neither moral nor immoral” and this instability is often exaggerated by complicated time shifts, random violence, and dream sequences.
Film noir uses a visual style that emphasizes shadows and light for unusually dramatic effect. Rooted in German Expressionism, the style incorporates low-key lighting and chiaroscuro compositions in which highlights are bright white and shadows are pitch black. These lighting techniques are often further stylized by oblique camera angles, framing elements, and deep focus. The style reached its zenith in the late 1940’s but continued in a variety of intensities and dosages throughout the cycle.
While noir often includes witty dialogue and comic relief, an overall comedic tone kills the noir ethos and disqualifies a film. That’s why most murder mysteries from the late 30’s and early 40’s, when crime and comedy went hand in hand, are excluded.
Ineligible if the plot is focused on soldiers or officers acting in government capacity during wartime, but a noir may be set against a backdrop of war or its aftermath, e.g., The Devil Makes Three (1952).
Government espionage is ineligible unless a private citizen inadvertently stumbles into a spy ring, e.g., Ministry of Fear (1944).
Unlike westerns, their American corollaries, Japanese samurai films emphasize a code of honor and a well-ordered moral universe.
Dreams and hallucinations have an important place in noir, but reality is far more menacing than any speculative world could ever be.
Many noirs emphasize religious faith, but overt supernatural intervention of any kind disqualifies a film. Apologies to fans of the excellent Alias Nick Beal (1949).
Films that rotate through a series of separate stories are ineligible. The singular exception is Carlos Hugo Christensen’s Don’t Ever Open That Door (1952) which adapts two stories by one of noir’s founding fathers, Cornell Woolrich.
Franchises have prevailed in Hollywood since the beginning. In the early days, studios produced serials to capitalize on the popularity of fictional detectives such as 20th Century Fox’s Michael Shayne and Mr. Moto, MGM’s The Thin Man, Columbia’s Boston Blackie, and Universal’s Sherlock Holmes. Each film in the series often featured the same lead actor and director to offer audiences a predictable experience. Even without a primary character, studios sometimes released franchise films in quick succession like Columbia’s Whistler films in the 1940’s or Anglo Amalgamated’s Edgar Wallace films in the early 1960’s. All these films are disqualified here. One-time films based on a literary work involving a known literary detective and to be appreciated as a single work, however, are eligible. Think Murder, My Sweet (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), and Kiss Me Deadly (1955).
Theatrically released, full-length features only.
Theatrically released, full-length features only.
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