What is film noir? Sounds like an easy question….but it turns out that is a very complicated question with many different answers from many different people. Here is my strange way I define film noir. The beginning of David Lynch’s modern day film noir classic, Blue Velvet (1986), shows a white picket fence…bright red and yellow roses…school kids happily walking to school…..a man happily watering his lawn while inside his wife is drinking coffee watching television…basically your wholesome Leave It To Beaver home. This was how the most popular movies of the 1930s and 1940s showed life….All sweet and innocent from the Abbott and Costello movies to Bing Crosby’s Father O’Malley movies.
Well just when you think all is right in this Lynch world…..the water hose the man was using gets tangled up….the water pressure starts forcing the water out of the spigot… suddenly the man has a seizure and falls down. Lynch’s camera then dives into the grass and, at the roots, finds a swarm of ravenous black bugs. The savage world of the bugs was right beneath the noses of everybody in this peaceful and serene neighborhood. That is what a film noir movie is to me. They are movies that show unscrupulous people doing unscrupulous things right beneath the surface of the Leave It To Beaver crowd. Movies like Double Indemnity, Gun Crazy and Kiss of Death showed women using sex to manipulate men to get their way and showed men using violence to get their way.
Ok…enough of my thoughts on film noir. Last week I wrote a page that took a statistical look at over 260 film noir movies. Well through some comments and some constructive criticism it was suggested I fine tune my list of film noir movies. In my previous page I used 11 film noir sources. If a movie was mentioned in 5 of those sources it made the page. For this updated page….we found 3 more sources and used the criteria that the movie had to be mentioned in 10 different sources. This knocked my list of film noir movies down to 108. I then whittled that 108 to the following 100 Film Noir movies. There are lots of stats for each movie…including box office grosses, critic and audience reviews, awards and yearly box office rank. Hope you enjoy this page.
Top 100 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 Top 100 Film Noir movies by the stars or director of movie.
- Sort Top 100 Film Noir movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Top 100 Film Noir movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Top 100 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 Top 100 Film Noir movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Film Noir movie won.
- Sort Top 100 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.
| R | Movie (Year) | UMR Co-Star Links | Adj. B.O. Worldwide (mil) | Review | Oscar Nom / Win | UMR Score | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R | Movie (Year) | UMR Co-Star Links | Actual B.O. Domestic (mil) | Adj. B.O. Domestic (mil) | Adj. B.O. Worldwide (mil) | B.O. Rank by Year | Review | Oscar Nom / Win | UMR Score | S |
| 2 | All the King's Men (1949) AA Best Picture Win |
Broderick Crawford & John Ireland |
6.70 | 167.1 | 167.10 | 30 | 86 | 07 / 03 | 99.7 | |
| 1 | Double Indemnity (1944) AA Best Picture Nom |
Barbara Stanwyck & Edward G. Robinson |
8.40 | 282.4 | 282.40 | 21 | 94 | 07 / 00 | 99.7 | |
| 2 | The Snake Pit (1948) AA Best Picture Nom |
Olivia de Havilland | 10.80 | 290.8 | 290.80 | 5 | 84 | 06 / 01 | 99.3 | |
| 6 | A Place in the Sun (1951) AA Best Picture Nom |
Montgomery Clift & Elizabeth Taylor |
10.00 | 215.6 | 425.00 | 10 | 76 | 09 / 06 | 99.2 | |
| 6 | Suspicion (1941) AA Best Picture Nom |
Joan Fontaine & Cary Grant |
5.20 | 198.7 | 312.80 | 26 | 86 | 03 / 01 | 99.2 | |
| 6 | Mildred Pierce (1945) AA Best Picture Nom |
Joan Crawford & Ann Blyth |
9.70 | 306.8 | 500.50 | 16 | 82 | 06 / 01 | 99.1 | |
| 7 | Sunset Blvd. (1950) AA Best Picture Nom |
William Holden & Gloria Swanson |
6.70 | 150.8 | 150.80 | 24 | 90 | 11 / 03 | 99.0 | |
| 9 | The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) AA Best Picture Nom |
Walter Huston & Humphrey Bogart |
6.10 | 163.1 | 290.40 | 45 | 90 | 04 / 03 | 99.0 | |
| 8 | Laura (1944) | Clifton Webb & Gene Tierney |
6.50 | 217.3 | 217.30 | 39 | 86 | 05 / 01 | 98.9 | |
| 10 | The Killers (1946) | Burt Lancaster & Ava Gardner |
6.80 | 208.1 | 208.10 | 52 | 87 | 04 / 00 | 98.9 | |
| 11 | Key Largo (1948) | Humphrey Bogart & Lionel Barrymore |
8.70 | 234.0 | 309.90 | 16 | 88 | 01 / 01 | 98.9 | |
| 12 | The Big Sleep (1946) | Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall |
8.10 | 249.7 | 405.20 | 32 | 89 | 00 / 00 | 98.7 | |
| 13 | The Third Man (1949) | Orson Welles & Joseph Cotten |
7.20 | 181.1 | 181.10 | 24 | 90 | 03 / 01 | 98.6 | |
| 13 | Scarlet Street (1945) | Edward G. Robinson & Joan Bennett |
6.90 | 220.2 | 259.70 | 41 | 87 | 00 / 00 | 98.6 | |
| 13 | To Have and Have Not (1944) | Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall |
11.80 | 396.9 | 571.30 | 8 | 87 | 00 / 00 | 98.6 | |
| 15 | Gilda (1946) | Rita Hayworth & Glenn Ford |
10.30 | 316.3 | 316.30 | 18 | 87 | 00 / 00 | 98.5 | |
| 17 | The Woman in the Window (1944) | Edward G. Robinson & Joan Bennett |
6.50 | 218.4 | 361.30 | 36 | 85 | 01 / 00 | 98.4 | |
| 18 | Leave Her to Heaven (1945) | Gene Tierney & Vincent Price |
14.20 | 449.6 | 449.60 | 3 | 81 | 04 / 01 | 98.4 | |
| 21 | Crossfire (1947) AA Best Picture Nom |
Robert Ryan & Robert Mitchum |
6.80 | 196.9 | 253.90 | 41 | 76 | 05 / 00 | 98.4 | |
| 19 | The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) | Lana Turner & John Garfield |
10.20 | 315.1 | 427.10 | 19 | 85 | 00 / 00 | 98.2 | |
| 21 | The Spiral Staircase (1946) | Ethel Barrymore | 7.40 | 228.9 | 228.90 | 45 | 84 | 01 / 00 | 98.2 | |
| 22 | The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) | Frank Sinatra & Eleanor Parker |
11.70 | 241.6 | 241.60 | 22 | 80 | 03 / 00 | 97.8 | |
| 24 | The Man From Laramie (1955) | James Stewart & Donald Crisp |
9.40 | 195.5 | 195.50 | 31 | 83 | 00 / 00 | 97.8 | |
| 24 | Vertigo (1958) | James Stewart & Kim Novak |
9.10 | 164.3 | 164.30 | 19 | 91 | 02 / 00 | 97.7 | |
| 27 | The Stranger (1946) | Edward G. Robinson & Orson Welles |
6.10 | 187.3 | 187.30 | 59 | 85 | 01 / 00 | 97.7 | |
| 26 | Sorry, Wrong Number (1948) | Barbara Stanwyck & Burt Lancaster |
7.50 | 202.1 | 202.10 | 25 | 80 | 01 / 00 | 97.6 | |
| 27 | The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) | Kirk Douglas & Barbara Stanwyck |
8.90 | 274.7 | 274.70 | 28 | 80 | 01 / 00 | 97.5 | |
| 28 | The Blue Dahlia (1946) | Alan Ladd & Veronica Lake |
7.40 | 228.9 | 228.90 | 47 | 79 | 01 / 00 | 97.3 | |
| 29 | The Maltese Falcon (1941) AA Best Picture Nom |
Humphrey Bogart & Peter Lorre |
3.40 | 132.5 | 232.50 | 68 | 91 | 03 / 00 | 97.1 | |
| 29 | Dark Passage (1947) | Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall |
8.10 | 236.2 | 323.80 | 29 | 78 | 00 / 00 | 97.1 | |
| 32 | I Want to Live! (1958) | Susan Hayward | 9.10 | 164.3 | 164.30 | 18 | 83 | 06 / 01 | 96.9 | |
| 31 | Pursued (1947) | Robert Mitchum & Teresa Wright |
7.80 | 228.4 | 228.40 | 31 | 77 | 00 / 00 | 96.9 | |
| 33 | White Heat (1949) | James Cagney & Virginia Mayo |
6.10 | 152.4 | 242.70 | 36 | 91 | 01 / 00 | 96.7 | |
| 34 | The Naked City (1948) Uncredited Role |
Barry Fitzgerald | 6.30 | 170.2 | 170.20 | 40 | 81 | 03 / 02 | 96.6 | |
| 36 | Johnny Guitar (1954) | Joan Crawford & Ernest Borgnine |
7.10 | 167.4 | 167.40 | 45 | 86 | 00 / 00 | 96.5 | |
| 37 | Brute Force (1947) | Burt Lancaster | 5.90 | 173.2 | 173.20 | 53 | 84 | 00 / 00 | 96.5 | |
| 35 | Christmas Holiday (1944) | Gene Kelly & Deanna Durbin |
6.20 | 210.5 | 210.50 | 48 | 74 | 01 / 00 | 96.3 | |
| 40 | The Letter (1940) AA Best Picture Nom |
Bette Davis & Gale Sondergaard |
3.50 | 133.1 | 211.60 | 42 | 84 | 07 / 00 | 96.2 | |
| 38 | Johnny Eager (1941) | Van Heflin & Lana Turner |
6.40 | 247.9 | 370.80 | 12 | 72 | 01 / 01 | 96.1 | |
| 39 | The Lodger (1944) | Merle Oberon | 6.50 | 217.3 | 217.30 | 43 | 74 | 00 / 00 | 96.1 | |
| 42 | The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) | Kirk Douglas & Lana Turner |
6.60 | 128.9 | 183.60 | 37 | 85 | 06 / 05 | 95.9 | |
| 41 | A Stolen Life (1946) | Bette Davis & Glenn Ford |
8.70 | 268.2 | 398.30 | 29 | 72 | 01 / 00 | 95.8 | |
| 43 | Champion (1949) | Kirk Douglas & Arthur Kennedy |
5.80 | 146.2 | 146.20 | 40 | 83 | 06 / 01 | 95.7 | |
| 44 | Dragonwyck (1946) | Vincent Price & Gene Tierney |
8.10 | 249.7 | 249.70 | 33 | 71 | 00 / 00 | 95.4 | |
| 45 | Conflict (1945) | Humphrey Bogart & Sydney Greenstreet |
6.30 | 199.5 | 321.40 | 48 | 70 | 00 / 00 | 95.2 | |
| 45 | Love Letters (1945) | Jennifer Jones & Joseph Cotten |
8.30 | 264.2 | 264.20 | 31 | 67 | 04 / 00 | 95.2 | |
| 46 | My Favorite Brunette (1947) | Bob Hope & Dorothy Lamour |
8.40 | 244.1 | 244.10 | 26 | 70 | 00 / 00 | 95.1 | |
| 48 | Call Northside 777 (1948) | James Stewart & Thelma Ritter |
7.10 | 191.5 | 191.50 | 32 | 72 | 00 / 00 | 95.1 | |
| 51 | Winchester '73 (1950) | James Stewart & Rock Hudson |
6.40 | 144.4 | 144.40 | 32 | 87 | 00 / 00 | 95.0 | |
| 50 | The Dark Mirror (1946) | Olivia de Havilland | 7.40 | 228.9 | 228.90 | 48 | 68 | 01 / 00 | 94.9 | |
| 50 | Keeper of the Flame (1942) | Katharine Hepburn & Spencer Tracy |
6.30 | 232.6 | 342.20 | 24 | 68 | 00 / 00 | 94.8 | |
| 52 | The Seventh Veil (1945) | James Mason & Herbert Lom |
5.60 | 176.1 | 176.10 | 60 | 74 | 01 / 01 | 94.7 | |
| 51 | Sweet Smell of Success (1957) | Burt Lancaster & Tony Curtis |
6.40 | 123.7 | 123.70 | 36 | 92 | 00 / 00 | 94.6 | |
| 54 | Nobody Lives Forever (1946) | John Garfield & Walter Brennan |
5.70 | 174.3 | 231.40 | 61 | 76 | 00 / 00 | 94.5 | |
| 55 | Detective Story (1951) | Eleanor Parker & Kirk Douglas |
8.00 | 172.5 | 172.50 | 15 | 72 | 04 / 00 | 94.2 | |
| 54 | Cloak and Dagger (1946) | Gary Cooper | 6.80 | 208.1 | 208.10 | 53 | 66 | 00 / 00 | 94.2 | |
| 55 | Shadow of a Doubt (1943) | Joseph Cotten & Teresa Wright |
3.40 | 123.2 | 123.20 | 90 | 90 | 01 / 00 | 94.2 | |
| 56 | The House on 92nd Street (1945) | William Eythe | 6.90 | 220.2 | 220.20 | 38 | 64 | 01 / 01 | 94.1 | |
| 61 | Possessed (1947) | Joan Crawford & Van Heflin |
5.40 | 156.5 | 156.50 | 63 | 78 | 01 / 00 | 93.9 | |
| 58 | Calcutta (1946) | Alan Ladd & Gail Russell |
7.60 | 233.1 | 233.10 | 39 | 65 | 00 / 00 | 93.9 | |
| 61 | Humoresque (1946) | Joan Crawford & John Garfield |
6.20 | 189.9 | 282.90 | 57 | 67 | 01 / 00 | 93.7 | |
| 62 | Road House (1948) | Richard Widmark | 6.30 | 170.6 | 170.60 | 38 | 73 | 00 / 00 | 93.6 | |
| 64 | Boomerang! (1947) | Dana Andrews | 6.10 | 177.2 | 177.20 | 47 | 70 | 01 / 00 | 93.5 | |
| 63 | Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) | Spencer Tracy & Lee Marvin |
5.70 | 118.5 | 226.40 | 56 | 87 | 03 / 00 | 93.4 | |
| 64 | High Sierra (1941) | Humphrey Bogart | 3.40 | 132.0 | 184.90 | 69 | 85 | 00 / 00 | 93.3 | |
| 67 | The Big Clock (1948) | Charles Laughton & Ray Milland |
5.30 | 141.8 | 141.80 | 64 | 81 | 00 / 00 | 93.1 | |
| 66 | Out of the Past (1947) | Kirk Douglas & Robert Mitchum |
4.00 | 117.7 | 166.90 | 87 | 88 | 00 / 00 | 93.1 | |
| 68 | Strangers on a Train (1951) | Ruth Roman | 5.10 | 110.1 | 180.90 | 57 | 90 | 00 / 00 | 93.0 | |
| 71 | The Unsuspected (1947) | Claude Rains & Joan Caulfield |
5.40 | 157.5 | 157.50 | 61 | 75 | 00 / 00 | 93.0 | |
| 71 | Deception (1946) | Bette Davis & Claude Rains |
5.80 | 177.5 | 271.50 | 60 | 69 | 00 / 00 | 92.9 | |
| 71 | The Gunfighter (1950) | Gregory Peck & Karl Malden |
5.60 | 125.1 | 125.10 | 48 | 84 | 01 / 00 | 92.8 | |
| 72 | The Desperate Hours (1955) | Humphrey Bogart & Fredric March |
7.10 | 148.1 | 148.10 | 41 | 78 | 00 / 00 | 92.8 | |
| 73 | A Woman's Face (1941) | Joan Crawford & Melvyn Douglas |
3.50 | 133.8 | 236.80 | 67 | 82 | 00 / 00 | 92.6 | |
| 75 | Kiss of Death (1947) Uncredited Role |
Richard Widmark & Victor Mature |
4.50 | 129.9 | 129.90 | 78 | 81 | 02 / 00 | 92.4 | |
| 75 | The Naked Spur (1953) | James Stewart & Robert Ryan |
6.80 | 122.5 | 122.50 | 38 | 84 | 01 / 00 | 92.4 | |
| 76 | The Wild One (1953) | Marlon Brando & Lee Marvin |
8.60 | 155.2 | 155.20 | 24 | 74 | 00 / 00 | 92.2 | |
| 78 | The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947) | Humphrey Bogart & Barbara Stanwyck |
6.20 | 180.5 | 281.00 | 46 | 66 | 00 / 00 | 92.2 | |
| 76 | Body and Soul (1947) | John Garfield | 3.80 | 110.2 | 110.20 | 91 | 84 | 03 / 01 | 92.1 | |
| 79 | I Wake Up Screaming (1941) | Betty Grable & Victor Mature |
4.00 | 155.2 | 155.20 | 46 | 73 | 00 / 00 | 91.9 | |
| 82 | House of Strangers (1949) | Susan Hayward & Edward G. Robinson |
5.60 | 139.3 | 139.30 | 44 | 77 | 00 / 00 | 91.8 | |
| 81 | Odd Man Out (1947) | James Mason | 3.80 | 110.2 | 110.20 | 90 | 86 | 01 / 00 | 91.8 | |
| 84 | Flesh and Fantasy (1943) | Barbara Stanwyck & Edward G. Robinson |
5.10 | 184.8 | 184.80 | 55 | 63 | 00 / 00 | 91.7 | |
| 83 | They Drive By Night (1940) | Humphrey Bogart & Ann Sheridan |
3.10 | 120.1 | 175.60 | 48 | 83 | 00 / 00 | 91.7 | |
| 85 | Chicago Deadline (1949) | Alan Ladd & Donna Reed |
5.80 | 146.2 | 146.20 | 38 | 75 | 00 / 00 | 91.7 | |
| 84 | Murder, My Sweet (1944) | Dick Powell | 3.70 | 125.0 | 186.40 | 89 | 81 | 00 / 00 | 91.4 | |
| 88 | Flamingo Road (1949) | Joan Crawford & Sydney Greenstreet |
6.30 | 157.6 | 201.70 | 33 | 70 | 00 / 00 | 91.3 | |
| 86 | Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) | Kevin McCarthy | 6.00 | 117.6 | 117.60 | 47 | 82 | 00 / 00 | 91.0 | |
| 88 | A Double Life (1947) | Ronald Colman & Shelley Winters |
4.60 | 133.9 | 133.90 | 77 | 69 | 04 / 02 | 90.4 | |
| 91 | The Paradine Case (1947) | Charles Laughton & Gregory Peck |
5.90 | 173.2 | 173.20 | 54 | 62 | 01 / 00 | 90.4 | |
| 89 | Attack (1956) | Lee Marvin & Jack Palance |
5.70 | 112.0 | 112.00 | 49 | 82 | 00 / 00 | 90.4 | |
| 92 | T-Men (1947) | Dennis O'Keefe & Directed by Anthony Mann |
4.30 | 126.0 | 126.00 | 79 | 76 | 01 / 00 | 90.2 | |
| 90 | The Ox-Bow Incident (1942) AA Best Picture Nom |
Henry Fonda & Anthony Quinn |
2.10 | 79.7 | 79.70 | 122 | 85 | 01 / 00 | 90.2 | |
| 93 | Pickup on South Street (1953) | Thelma Ritter & Richard Widmark |
5.80 | 103.4 | 103.40 | 52 | 83 | 01 / 00 | 90.2 | |
| 94 | The Red House (1947) | Edward G. Robinson | 4.60 | 133.9 | 133.90 | 76 | 74 | 00 / 00 | 90.1 | |
| 93 | City for Conquest (1940) | James Cagney & Anthony Quinn |
3.30 | 127.2 | 197.30 | 45 | 76 | 00 / 00 | 90.1 | |
| 97 | Confidential Agent (1945) | Lauren Bacall & Peter Lorre |
4.50 | 142.2 | 241.10 | 80 | 71 | 00 / 00 | 90.0 | |
| 95 | This Gun For Hire (1942) | Alan Ladd & Veronica Lake |
3.10 | 113.6 | 113.60 | 89 | 80 | 00 / 00 | 89.8 | |
| 100 | Fallen Angel (1945) | Dana Andrews & Alice Faye |
4.20 | 132.1 | 132.10 | 83 | 74 | 00 / 00 | 89.8 | |
| 99 | The Street with No Name (1948) | Richard Widmark | 6.20 | 166.7 | 166.70 | 43 | 63 | 00 / 00 | 89.7 | |
| 100 | In a Lonely Place (1950) | Humphrey Bogart | 3.90 | 88.2 | 88.20 | 82 | 87 | 00 / 00 | 89.4 |
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. 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.
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Great work! Thank you for your efforts on this !
Critic and audience reviews (46%) has the most weight….box office the second (30%) and awards third (24%)…..it is a formula that I tweeked a few times….but in the end it is just a way to put a some movie stats on one line of information. My first film noir page ranked them by critic/audience…and I admit that seemed like a better ranking.
Glad you liked the page…it was fun doing.
This is a great list, and had to have been a nightmare labor of love to research, cross index, and condense from his original 263 movie choices. Bruce Cogerson, my hat off to you and thanks for your dedication. Now try to get us free links to all the ones we can’t yet view….
Hey Philip….Thanks for the awesome words about these two film noir pages….I greatly appreciate them….it makes all the hard work worth it. Your free links gives me an idea….to see which movies could be found on You Tube and include those links….I will have to check that out.
Ha-Ha…..I sorted it by critic rating and its more to my liking. I did not go over the entire list but great job.
Hey Robert….glad you like the rankings better with that sort button.
Interesting list…is box office take the most heavily weighed? as films go list sorta falls off in the mid teens—as to which films are ‘better’
It’s a good list but of course people are going to react to the order of the films they encounter when they first visit the page. It’s nice that one can reorder them, but many of us are still trying to figure out how in the world you came up that order.
I don’t think most folks give much thought to box office or Oscar nominations, for example, when ranking films noir.
Hey Brett. On my first massive list I had the default page as critic/audience rating….which I admit is a better way to sort the page…..just wanted the page to be a little different from the first page. As for box office and Oscar love….that do not go with film noir with regards to the greatness of a movie. But in case somebody was interested I included all the stats I had on a movie. Thanks for the comments….they are greatly appreciated.
Great job, Bruce, and a really useful tool. Love the ranking options. The only improvement I could see would be to include a list of your sources. Academics appreciate that.
I need to add those sources in…..on my first attempt….I listed the sources…I forgot to do that in part 2 of this page. Happy to hear you found the sorting and search useful….it makes that massive table a lot more useful and interesting.