Film Noir Movies

Film-Noir-WallpaperWant to know the best Film Noir movies?  How about the worst Film Noir movies?  Curious about Film Noir’s box office grosses or which Film Noir movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Film Noir movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

What is Film Noir?  One definition of film noir is….a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly such that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Film noir in French means black film.  Before researching this page…we pretty much thought a film noir movie was a black and white, dark, crime movie.  Well after researching these movies for the last couple of months we no longer have any idea what a film noir movie really is anymore.

Part of our research was finding and reading lots of film noir books and lots of internet lists that named the best film noir movies.  We found Film Noir Guide by Michael F. Keaney. Encyclopedia of Film Noir by Geoff Mayer and Brian McDonnell, Dark Cinema: American Film Noir in Cultural Perspective by Jon Tuska and Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia by Wheeler Winston Dixon very useful.  Every book we read had a different definition of film noir.  At one point it seemed that every movie ever made was a form of film noir.

So how did we come up with these 263 movies on the following table?  First of all we picked one timeline…..1940-1959.  Any movie labeled a film noir that was not made in those 19 years was excluded from our table.  This rule pretty much destroyed many of the internet film noir lists.  We actually found one internet list that only had 6 movies made before 1970 on their all-time film noir list.  Next we created a excel spreadsheet.  We used 11 different sources (books and internet resources). Once a movie was labeled a film noir movie in 5 different sources…it made our table.

Double Indemnity is the best reviewed film noir movie on our page.
Double Indemnity is the best reviewed film noir movie on our page.

Film Noir Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort Film Noir movies by the stars or director of movie.
  • Sort Film Noir movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Film Noir movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort Film Noir movies how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each Film Noir movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Film Noir movie won.
  • Sort Film Noir movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score

FINAL

And finally:  This is obviously not every single film noir movie ever made.  There are 1000s and 1000s of movies that many people consider film noir.  We made 250 movies as our cut off point.  Hopefully we have included the most popular film noir movies…though I am sure the good folks at the TCM message boards will find another 250 movies that need to be on the list. This was a request from Flora Breen Robison. Hey Flora….this was officially the most difficult requested page ever…but well worth the effort considering how supportive you are of our little old website.

So are you thinking….250 Film Noir movies is nice but I want more.  Then check out this wonderful Film Noir page by the people at TheCinemaCafe.com. Plundering The Genre: Film Noir.

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.

(Visited 33,233 times)

179 thoughts on “Film Noir Movies”

  1. It is indeed a very broad definition of film noir that would include “Serenade” from 1956. That said, I did not see “Desperate” altho it is listed in the pictorial (could be me, lol) but was surprised that “Murder, My Sweet” and “Raw Deal” were both missing. One other that was missing (but it was no surprise) is “Nightfall” from 1957 with Aldo Ray, Anne Bancroft, Brian Keith and James Gregory. A failure at the boxoffice at the time, it undoubtedly would not have even been seen by enough people to garner an audience reaction. Too bad, as it is a bit of a buried treasure. All of tht said, great effort with lots of food for thought.

    Reply

    1. Hey Gord. Film noir has a very broad definition. I think initially I was thinking of just Crime Noir movies…not sure how it got so spread out….but it did….lol. Let’s see…I could not find any box office information on Raw Deal and Desparate. Murder, My Sweet is on the page and sits in 80th place. Nightfall was not even considered. I have added Raw Deal, Desparate and Nightfall to my list of movies to revisit. When I found that picture I saw Desparate and Sniper…and thought I need to include those two movies. Thanks for the visit.

      Reply

  2. Great List! I’ve seen almost everything… Please allow me to point out that the numbers of “Diabolique” are kind of funny… they need some fix…

    Reply

    1. Hey Fred….thanks for the compliment….and I have fixed the number issues on Diabolique. Thanks for the catch and the comment.

      Reply

  3. Interesting list. I think TCM last year ran a number of British films made by Hammer that were film noir from their early days. The company was called Exclusive then, usually featured an American born lead actor and the movies were released through Lippert films (remember them) in the U.S. Lippert released mainly B movies supporting 20th Century Fox releases. Lippert started as Screen Guild and eventually became Regal, all the time releasing with Fox. Exclusive would soon change its name to Hammer and discover Dracula and the rest is history.

    Reply

    1. Hey Dan. Glad you found my Film Noir page. I will have check out the Hammer movies through Exclusive. Very cool information on Hammer. I recently just watched a 4 Hammer movies. Scream of Fear also known as Taste Of Fear was awesome…and would be great on the page…but it was made in 1960. My knowledge on Hammer Films is pretty weak….but I did recently find an excellent book on Hammer that has been so very good reading.

      Reply

  4. Interesting list Bruce. There are many films here that aren’t film noir by any definition of the term, and some of the others are tenuous at best. If you’re going to list movies with noirish aspects the list might never end.

    I watched a season of genuine film noir last year, all from my movie collection, he boasted. Classic titles like Nightmare Alley, Criss Cross, Detour, They Live By Night, Where Danger Lives and Out of the Past.

    Okay lets see how many I’ve seen here… 118 out of 250… that I know for sure, probably more I couldn’t remember all the titles. At least you have a film noir topping the UMR and critics chart, Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity.

    Leave her to Heaven was so successful? More than Spellbound and Gilda? Movies I’ve missed include The Snake Pit, Mildred Pierce, The Letter and All The Kings Men.

    Another fascinating page Bruce but a list of the top 100 best film noir might have been preferable. Winchester 73, The Wild One, My Favorite Brunette, Treasure of the Sierra Madre to name a few shouldn’t be on the list.

    Reply

    1. Hey Steve…..as always thanks for visiting and commenting. The sources I used suggested 100s and 100s of movies that fell under the noir category. Originally I was thinking I was doing a Top 100 Crime Noir movie….but the more I researched the wider the definition expanded. All of these movies had at least 5 sources say they were film noir. At this point I am confused of what is film noir and what is not film noir.

      Tally count…Flora 186…Steve 118 and me at 86…..so combined we take down the mighty Flora….lol. Leave Her To Heaven was a massive hit….of the entire 1940s decade (which was the most popular time for movie goers) it was the 15th biggest hit of the decade.

      As for the ones you do not think belong….I think film noir is like the Supreme Court definition of pornography ….”I know it when I see it”…and different people see things in different light. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on film noir.

      Reply

  5. thank you so much for all the hard work done by everyone involved in the compilation of these amazing movies !!! GD Bless y’all and have a Happy Easter !

    Reply

    1. Thanks Sandy. I was a difficult but fun time putting this together. Hope you and your family have a great Easter weekend too.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.