Want 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 b
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.
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
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.
Love this. I’ve been searching streaming channels for many of these and they’re hard to find. Great work.
Thank you James. Glad you liked the page. It was a lot of work….it was fun to do.
Oh, yeah–Double Indemnity, baby Number one where it needs to be.
Hey Leeson….lots of people have raised questions about why certain movies made this list….but as of yet nobody has questioned Double Indemnity being number one.
I don’t want to rain on your Parade, but you have NO IDEA what “Film Noir” is. An EASY ⅔ of your list only have ONE THING IN COMMON with True Film Noir: They’re in Black & White.
Hey Lou. I admit I am really confused about film noir. Which is why I used so many Film Noir books to make this list. So I guess you are saying that 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 are confused…as I just compiled the movies they listed.
Hi
I love the term film noir. It sounds so cool. I think everyone’s definition of film noir is different. For me it is preferably in black and white, shadowy and characters who are not all what they seem to be. The good guy isn’t really good and the female is usually quite shady.
I’m glad Double Indemnity is number one, but I would have put Out of the Past a close second. Robert Mitchum, with his laid back attitude, was perfect for film noir. One film that stands out is Diabolical. I first seen it as a teenager and I remember the guy who was meant to be dead in the bath ends up rising up in the bath. It scared the life out of me.
Sharon Stone’s remake was woeful. The Big Heat is fantastic, Glenn Ford’s best film. Ace in the Hole is a really dark film, everyone is so bleak. That’s one thing about film noir, there’s not much room for comedy. It’s been a great page and you did a fantastic job. .
Hey Chris. Thanks for stopping by. I agree film noir sounds cool. If I have learned one thing about film noir…it is that everybody has a different definition of what film noir is. I like you thinking of what film noir. I would say my thinking is close to that….though I now realize there are many different sub groups of noir….and you could make a case for any movie to be in a film noir group.
Out of the Past finished 15th according to critics…which is pretty good considering how many movies we researched. Mitchum is on here 11 times…think Bogart has the most ….with 18 movies on the list….they both were great for film noir movies. I have not seen Diabolique or Ace In The Hole….but I want to. The Big Heat is classic….with Lee Marvin creating a great movie character to hate. Thanks for the compliment on the page and for the sharing your thoughts on film noir.
OUT OF The PAST, #15? ASPHALT JUNGLE, #27? Sad face.
Hey Donna….sorry they are not as high as you want. They still did very very well on this page. I listed almost 260 movies…and there might be another 700 out there….but not many of them would do better than either The Asphalt Jungle or Out of the Past. Thanks for the comment.