Films Noir Reviews
These are my personal, perhaps idiosyncratic, takes on these films. Don’t expect lengthy plot outlines or archane trivia. I focus on each film as the story on the screen, which is all that really matters. The articles are short and I hope to the point. - Tony D’Ambra
Warning: May contain spoilers
36 Quai des Orfèvres (France 2004): Brilliant Neo-Noir
711 Ocean Drive (1950)
Ace In The Hole (1952): The Media Circus
Angel Face (1952): Gothic Noir
The Air I Breathe (2007): Noir Liberation
Armored Car Robbery (1950): Solid B-Noir
The Asphalt Jungle (1950): When The City Sleeps
The Big Combo (1955): Quintessential Noir
The Big Heat (1953): Film Noir As Social Criticism
The Big Heat (1953) Revisited
The Big Sleep (1946): Love’s Vengeance Lost
The Big Steal (1949): “Oh Mexico”
The Blue Dahlia (1946): Fade To Gray
Body and Soul (1947): “Everybody dies”
Boomerang (1947): Not Noir
Brick (2005) - Disappointing
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (Germany 1919)
Cat People (1942): Another sound - the panther - it screams like a woman
Clash By Night (1952): Love… because we’re bored
The Clay Pigeon (1949): Snappy B Thriller
The Crimson Kimono (1959): Little Tokyo Rift
Crime Wave (1954): On The Streets of LA
Criss-Cross (1949)
Crossfire (1947)
Dark City (1998) The Director’s Cut: Zapped by the biochemist
The Dark Corner (1946)
The Dark Knight (2008): Still a comic
Decoy (1946): B- Psuedo-Noir
Destination Murder (1950): The Alter-Ego and the Pianola
Detour (1945): Serious Not
The Devil Thumbs A Ride (1947): A Dark Little Gem
D.O.A (1950)
Double Indemnity (1944): Proto-Noir
Fear in the Night (1947): Wake in fright
The File On Thelma Jordan (1950): You always intend when you have to…
Force of Evil (1948)
Fury (1936): On The Threshold of Noir
Gilda (1946): Lovely Rita…
The Glass Web (1953) “:(”
Gun Crazy (1950): Not so Bonnie and Clyde
The Harder They Fall (1956): For a few lousy bucks
The Hitch-Hiker (1953): Desert Noir
In A Lonely Place (1950): The “Creative” Outsider
In A Lonely Place (1950): A Psychic Prison
In the Valley of Elah (2007): Responsibility and Chaos
Key Largo (1948): Almost Noir
The Killers (1946): Fata Morgana
The Killers (1946) Revisited: Noir As Tragedy
The Killing (1956) - Great But Not Noir
Kiss Me Deadly (1955): Hollywood Dada
Kiss Me Deadly (1955) - Is Mike Hammer Really Such a Bad Guy?
Kiss of Death (1947): More Than Udo
The Lady From Shanghai (1947): “Then the beasts took to eating each other”
The Maltese Falcon (1941): Love in Noir
Michael Clayton (2007): Noir elements
Mildred Pierce (1945): “alligators have the right idea… they eat their young”
Murder, My Sweet (1944): A face like a Sunday school picnic
The Naked Kiss (1964): Pulp Noir
The Narrow Margin (1952): B plus
Night And the City (1950): A Near Perfect Noir
Out Of The Past (1947) - Tourneur’s Mise En Scene
Out Of The Past (1947) - Tourneur’s Mise En Scene Revisited
Panic In the Streets (1950): Neo-Realist Noir
Pickup On South Street (1953)
Rififi (France 1955): America’s Loss France’s Gain
Roadblock (1951)
San Quentin (1946): B-noir filler
Scarlet Street (1946): Unrelenting Noir
Split Second (1953): No cops required
Stranger on The Third Floor (1940): The Noir Dream-Scape
Stray Dog (Japan 1949): Kurosawa 5-star Noir
The Prowler (1951): The Dark Side of the American Dream
The Set-Up (1949)
The Stranger (1946): Jungian Noir
They Live by Night (1948): Great but is it noir?
Thieves’ Highway (1949)
The Third Man (1949): Sublime
This Gun For Hire (1942)
Touch of Evil (1958) - Some Kind of a Movie
Union Station (1950): On Ice in the Train Shed
The Woman in the Window (1944): Over-rated
Woman on the Run (1950): Intelligent B Thriller
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