10 Great Underseen Film Noirs
10 Great Underseen Film Noirs
Contents
The Film Noir may be one of the most beloved genres around, but it has a lot of gems that people have never even heard of.
You Are Reading :[thien_display_title]
Coming to prominence in the ’40s, Film Noir is one of the most recognizable (and oft-parodied) genres in the entire history of film. In the wake of the first World War and in the heat of the second, Noir turned the Hollywood crime drama into a stylish canvas on which the era’s nihilism, paranoia, and predatory sexual politics could be expressed.
Though the style of filmmaking fell out of fashion with the dawning of the ’60s, its proven surprisingly popular, with the emergence of post-modern and neo-noir leading up to today. Below, we list ten great and often forgotten films from the golden era of noir.
10 Detour (1945)
New York pianist, Al Roberts (Tom Neal) is devastated when his girlfriend, a chanteuse named Sue Harvey (Claudia Drake), heads to California, and makes a decision to thumb it across the country to join her. When, during a freak accident, a motorist who had picked him up dies, Al takes on the man’s identity. Unfortunately for him, he crosses pass with a vicious femme fatale (Ann Savage) who’s hip to his actual identity.
Edgar G. Ulmer’s relentlessly-paced (running just a little over an hour in length) shoestring thriller has a reputation for being one of the nastiest and relentlessly bleak noir films ever made.
9 Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
After striking up a conversation with glamorous brunette, Ellen Berent (Gene Tierney) on a train ride, popular author Richard Harland (Cornel Wilde) is quickly smitten. Their whirlwind romance leads to a fast marriage, but little does Richard know that Ellen is obsessive and cruel beyond his wildest imaginings.
John M. Stahl is frequently regarded as a crafter of melodrama, and Leave Her to Heaven combines the overheated emotionality of the “women’s picture” with a noirish plot and style for an indelible portrait of a woman who refuses to be tamed.
8 Ride The Pink Horse (1947)
Lucky Gagin (Robert Montgomery) follows a gangster, Frank Hugo (Fred Clark) to a small town in New Mexico, believing that the mob boss may have killed his friend. Though he’s prepared to extort Hugo to keep his silence, the two men are unaware that an FBI agent (Art Smith) is following them as well.
Star Robert Montgomery also directs this crackling, underseen gem from the heyday of the genre, which bears the distinction of featuring a performance by Thomas Gomez, who became the first Hispanic actor to receive an Oscar nomination in Hollywood history.
7 The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
When seaman Michael O’Hara (Orson Welles) joins a yacht crew headed for San Francisco, he’s immediately entranced by Elsa (Rita Hayworth), the wife of Arthur Bannister, its owner. A scheme presents itself that would net Michael a cool $5000 and allow him to run off with Elsa and he takes the bait, falling for a set up in which he’s framed for murder.
Starring his then estranged wife, Hayworth, shorn of her signature red locks, Welles’ stab at noir was initially dismissed, but has grown over time in stature as a worthwhile and masterfully-directed psychological thriller with an unforgettable finale.
6 Criss Cross (1949)
In Robert Siodmak’s follow up to his seminal, The Killers, Burt Lancaster stars as a good-hearted armored car driver who is pulled into a doomed robbery plot by his ex-wife (Yvonne De Carlo).
Though it doesn’t re-invent the wheel, Siodmak’s film is an archetypal noir with style and excitement to spare, anchored by a plum performance by Lancaster.
5 D.O.A. (1950)
An accountant, Frank Bigelow (Edmond O’Brien) has been poisoned, leaving him only 24 hours before he expires. Hell bent on discovering who has given him the fatal dose, he enlists the help of his girl Friday and paramour, Paula (Pamela Britton) to assist him in his hunt.
Though the dialogue doesn’t quite crackle and the acting is all over the map, Rudolph Maté’s film gets a lot of mileage out of its ahead-of-its-time high concept.
4 The Prowler (1951)
When she calls policeman, Webb Garwood (Van Heflin) out to her home to investigate a peeping Tom, Susan Gilvray (Evelyn Keyes) begins an affair with him. Though she’s tormented by guilt and ultimately chooses to cut it off and stay with her husband, John (Sherry Hall) Webb won’t go away so easily, and hatches a plan to murder John.
Co-written by the storied Dalton Trumbo, this creepy and hallucinatory noir is packed with prurient pleasures and pointed social critique.
3 The Hitch-Hiker (1953)
Two men (Edmond O’Brien and Frank Lovejoy) find themselves in a frightening predicament when they pick up a psychopathic hitchhiker (William Talman) who threatens to kill them unless he helps them avoid the law. Knowing that he’ll do away with them as soon as its convenient, the friends do all they can to escape, but this is complicated by the hitchhiker’s eye, which never shuts, even while they sleep.
One of the greatest female directors of all time, The Hitch-Hiker brings Ida Lupino’s feminine hand to the most macho of genres for a taut and lean masterpiece in escalating tension.
2 Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Tough-as-nails private eye Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) becomes embroiled in a mystery when a young woman (Cloris Leachman) he picks up on a darkened road winds up dead. Though the police warn him against investigating, Mike, along with his girlfriend, Velda (Maxine Cooper) uncover a dark mystery surrounding a scientist (Albert Dekker) and a dangerous, glowing box.
Bringing Cold War anxieties to bear on what was then a declining genre, Kiss Me Deadly is an idiosyncratic shocker that introduces sci-fi elements into its seedy noir hellscape.
1 The Crimson Kimono (1959)
When a burlesque performer is murdered, two war buddies turned L.A. detectives (James Shigeta and Glenn Corbett) are called in to investigate, becoming two points in a burgeoning love triangle when they fall for a gorgeous woman (Victoria Shaw) who has a connection to the crime.
Pulp maestro Samuel Fuller invites social consciousness into this satisfying thriller that also boasts a timely anti-racism message.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/film-noir-detective-mysteries-great-underrated-classics/
Reviews -10 RPGs That Are Better Played With Friends
10 Hysterical MCU Logic Memes Only True Fans Will Understand
AHS Red Tide Finale Ursula’s Plan With The Black Pills Explained
10 Family Christmas Movies That Lowkey Spoil The Truth About Santa Claus
10 Hilarious iCarly Memes That Remind Us Of Why We Loved The Show So Much
19 Secrets No One Knew About the Jonas Brothers
15 Funniest Scenes From The Office You Wont Believe Werent Scripted
