Otto Penzler in his book, 101 Greatest Films of Mystery & Suspense (ibooks, NY, 2000):

If any one film could be said to epitomize the term film noir, Out of the Past would be it. The tough hero who is doomed for love of the wrong woman; the treacherous femme fatale who double-crosses every man she meets; the inevitability of the past resurfacing to assure violent death; the night, when everything seems to happen so commonly that daylight seems an intrusion; gangsters; nightclubs; jazz; bright lights; deep shadows; a good woman lost; dialogue that sounds like pulp poetry - all of it and more can be found in Out of the Past. (p.281)

Penzler also quotes what must be one of the great film noir lines, spoken by the hero to the femme-fatale:

“You’re like a leaf that the wind blows from one gutter to another.”

792 posters: hold your mouse over a thumbnail to see the name of the film and click the image to view …

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Released by IMDB on May 26, 2007

Rank Rating Title Votes
1. 8.6 Sunset Blvd. (1950) 27,768
2. 8.5 M (1931) 20,791
3. 8.5 The Third Man (1949) 29,064
4. 8.4 Double Indemnity (1944) 19,108
5. 8.4 The Maltese Falcon (1941) 30,073
6. 8.3 Touch of Evil (1958) 18,111
7. 8.3 Strangers on a Train (1951) 17,667
8. 8.3 Du rififi chez les hommes (1955) 3,584
9. 8.3 The Big Sleep (1946) 16,050
10. 8.3 Notorious (1946) 16,941
11. 8.3 Ace in the Hole (1951) 1,866
12. 8.2 I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) 2,242
13. 8.2 The Killing (1956) 12,064
14. 8.2 Sweet Smell of Success (1957) 4,054
15. 8.2 Out of the Past (1947) 5,024
16. 8.2 Shadow of a Doubt (1943) 10,042
17. 8.1 The Night of the Hunter (1955) 12,629
18. 8.1 White Heat (1949) 5,195
19. 8.0 Nightmare Alley (1947) 983
20. 8.0 Laura (1944) 7,606
21. 8.0 The Set-Up (1949) 1,397
22. 8.0 Key Largo (1948) 8,739
23. 8.0 Night and the City (1950) 1,037
24. 8.0 Body and Soul (1947) 809
25. 7.9 Scarface (1932) 4,434
26. 7.9 The Big Heat (1953) 2,981
27. 7.9 Pickup on South Street (1953) 1,606
28. 7.9 Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) 4,204
29. 7.9 The Killers (1946) 2,670
30. 7.8 Ossessione (1943) 1,065
31. 7.8 The Roaring Twenties (1939) 1,892
32. 7.8 In a Lonely Place (1950) 2,706
33. 7.8 The Asphalt Jungle (1950) 4,481
34. 7.8 The Narrow Margin (1952) 970
35. 7.8 Deadly Is the Female (1950) 1,445
36. 7.8 Scarlet Street (1945) 1,673
37. 7.7 The Woman in the Window (1944) 1,354
38. 7.7 The Lady from Shanghai (1947) 4,073
39. 7.7 This Gun for Hire (1942) 1,042
40. 7.7 The Big Clock (1948) 1,035
41. 7.7 Gilda (1946) 4,896
42. 7.7 Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950) 666
43. 7.7 The Letter (1940) 1,943
44. 7.6 Thieves’ Highway (1949) 527
45. 7.6 Brute Force (1947) 732
46. 7.6 Kiss of Death (1947) 1,031
47. 7.6 Mildred Pierce (1945) 3,916
48. 7.6 Murder, My Sweet (1944) 1,801
49. 7.6 The Naked City (1948) 1,089
50. 7.6 Sudden Fear (1952) 622

A wide-ranging discussion between Chris Fujiwara and Mark Roberts: It Takes a Thief to Catch a Thief : Crime and the American Genre Film

An interesting post from the mardecortesbaja.com blog:

“WWII exposed those hidden things for a generation of Americans and in its wake film noir began a systematic investigation of the shadow world at the fringes (and somehow also at the heart) of American culture. In the process, Mexico took on a new aura. It became a kind of shimmering paradise, the locus of an honesty and innocence that no longer seemed feasible along the mean streets and lost highways of post-WWII America…”

Films discussed include Out of the Past, Gun Crazy, and The Night of the Iguana.

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