Classic film noir
by gmard | created - 11 Oct 2013 | updated - 11 May 2014 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. The Letter (1940)
Not Rated | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
The wife of a rubber plantation administrator shoots a man to death and claims it was self-defense, but a letter written in her own hand may prove her undoing.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson, Frieda Inescort
Votes: 14,607
2. Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)
Approved | 64 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An aspiring reporter is the key witness at the murder trial of a young man accused of cutting a café owner's throat and is soon accused of a similar crime himself.
Director: Boris Ingster | Stars: Peter Lorre, John McGuire, Margaret Tallichet, Charles Waldron
Votes: 4,611
3. Among the Living (1941)
Approved | 67 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
A mentally unstable man who has been kept in isolation for years escapes and causes trouble for his identical twin brother.
Director: Stuart Heisler | Stars: Albert Dekker, Susan Hayward, Frances Farmer, Harry Carey
Votes: 829
4. Blues in the Night (1941)
Passed | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Music
"Jigger' Pine forms a band that includes singer Ginger 'Character' Powell, wife of the trumpeter Leo Powell, and Nickie Haroyen and Peppi. All of them dedicate themselves to work as a unit ... See full summary »
Director: Anatole Litvak | Stars: Priscilla Lane, Betty Field, Richard Whorf, Lloyd Nolan
Votes: 1,307
5. High Sierra (1940)
Passed | 100 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
After being released from prison, notorious thief Roy Earle is hired by his old boss to help a group of inexperienced criminals plan and carry out the robbery of a California resort.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart, Alan Curtis, Arthur Kennedy
Votes: 19,244
6. I Wake Up Screaming (1941)
Passed | 82 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Why is Inspector Ed Cornell trying to railroad Frankie Christopher for the murder of model Vicky Lynn?
Director: H. Bruce Humberstone | Stars: Betty Grable, Victor Mature, Carole Landis, Laird Cregar
Votes: 5,383
7. Crossroads (1942)
Passed | 83 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An amnesiac French diplomat is blackmailed for crimes that he committed before he lost his memory.
Director: Jack Conway | Stars: William Powell, Hedy Lamarr, Claire Trevor, Basil Rathbone
Votes: 1,698
8. The Glass Key (1942)
Passed | 85 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A crooked politician finds himself being accused of murder by a gangster from whom he refused help during a re-election campaign.
Director: Stuart Heisler | Stars: Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Brian Donlevy, Bonita Granville
Votes: 7,403
9. Calling Dr. Death (1943)
Approved | 63 min | Film-Noir, Horror, Mystery
A doctor is not sure if he murdered his beautiful but wicked wife, and has his attractive nurse try to find the truth by hypnotizing him.
Director: Reginald Le Borg | Stars: Lon Chaney Jr., Patricia Morison, J. Carrol Naish, David Bruce
Votes: 1,262
10. The Fallen Sparrow (1943)
Passed | 94 min | Film-Noir, Mystery
In 1940, an American former Republican prisoner during the Spanish Civil War, John McKittrick, is determined to find the killer of NYPD Lieutenant Louie Lepetino, who had helped him escape.
Director: Richard Wallace | Stars: John Garfield, Maureen O'Hara, Walter Slezak, Patricia Morison
Votes: 1,990
11. Bluebeard (1944)
Passed | 72 min | Crime, Horror, Thriller
In Paris, an artist hires portrait models, and after he finishes their portraits, he strangles them.
Director: Edgar G. Ulmer | Stars: John Carradine, Jean Parker, Nils Asther, Ludwig Stössel
Votes: 2,135
12. Christmas Holiday (1944)
Not Rated | 93 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A young femme fatale-type woman realizes that the man she married is an incorrigible wastrel.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Deanna Durbin, Gene Kelly, Richard Whorf, Dean Harens
Votes: 1,645
13. Dangerous Passage (1944)
Passed | 60 min | Drama, Film-Noir
Joe Beck leaves Central America so that he can return to Texas and collect a large inheritance, but he picks a dangerous ship on which to travel.
Director: William Berke | Stars: Robert Lowery, Phyllis Brooks, Charles Arnt, Jack La Rue
Votes: 388
14. Dark Waters (1944)
Approved | 90 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
A woman returns to the USA after a German U-boat sank her ship, and finds out that someone wants to kill her for her inheritance.
Director: André De Toth | Stars: Merle Oberon, Franchot Tone, Thomas Mitchell, Fay Bainter
Votes: 1,096
15. Double Indemnity (1944)
Passed | 107 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A Los Angeles insurance representative lets an alluring housewife seduce him into a scheme of insurance fraud and murder that arouses the suspicion of his colleague, an insurance investigator.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Byron Barr
Votes: 167,530 | Gross: $5.72M
16. Experiment Perilous (1944)
Approved | 91 min | Film-Noir, Romance, Thriller
In 1903, a doctor suspects murder in the gothic Bederaux family.
Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Hedy Lamarr, George Brent, Paul Lukas, Albert Dekker
Votes: 2,126
17. Guest in the House (1944)
Approved | 100 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
A young manipulative woman moves in with her fiancé's family and turns a happy household against itself.
Directors: John Brahm, John Cromwell, André De Toth, Lewis Milestone | Stars: Anne Baxter, Ralph Bellamy, Aline MacMahon, Ruth Warrick
Votes: 1,013
18. They Drive by Night (1940)
Approved | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
When one of two truck-driving brothers loses an arm, they both join a transport company where the other is falsely charged as an accessory in the murder of the owner.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: George Raft, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino
Votes: 8,829
19. Rebecca (1940)
Approved | 130 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A self-conscious woman juggles adjusting to her new role as an aristocrat's wife and avoiding being intimidated by his first wife's spectral presence.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson
Votes: 146,827 | Gross: $4.36M
20. Johnny Eager (1941)
Passed | 107 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
The step-daughter of a district attorney falls in love with a gangster on parole who her father originally imprisoned.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Robert Taylor, Lana Turner, Edward Arnold, Van Heflin
Votes: 3,421
21. Ladies in Retirement (1941)
Passed | 91 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
The housekeeper to a retired actress tries at the same time to look after her own two emotionally disturbed sisters, with dramatic results.
Director: Charles Vidor | Stars: Ida Lupino, Louis Hayward, Evelyn Keyes, Elsa Lanchester
Votes: 1,810
22. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Passed | 100 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
San Francisco private detective Sam Spade takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar and their quest for a priceless statuette, with the stakes rising after his partner is murdered.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George, Peter Lorre
Votes: 166,634 | Gross: $2.11M
23. Out of the Fog (1941)
Passed | 85 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A Brooklyn pier racketeer bullies boat-owners into paying protection money but two fed-up fishermen decide to eliminate the gangster themselves rather than complain to the police.
Director: Anatole Litvak | Stars: Ida Lupino, John Garfield, Thomas Mitchell, Eddie Albert
Votes: 2,262
24. Rage in Heaven (1941)
Approved | 85 min | Drama, Thriller
Robert Montgomery and George Sanders team-up to play against type in this probing psychological thriller that features Ingrid Bergman as the object of their obsessions.
Directors: W.S. Van Dyke, Robert B. Sinclair, Richard Thorpe | Stars: Robert Montgomery, Ingrid Bergman, George Sanders, Lucile Watson
Votes: 1,352
25. Suspicion (1941)
Approved | 99 min | Film-Noir, Mystery, Thriller
A shy young heiress marries a charming gentleman, and soon begins to suspect he is planning to murder her.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Cedric Hardwicke, Nigel Bruce
Votes: 42,462 | Gross: $4.50M
26. The Shanghai Gesture (1941)
Approved | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
In Shanghai, dragon lady 'Mother' Gin Sling operates a gambling house for wealthy patrons but she clashes with influential land developer Sir Guy Charteris who wants to put her out of business.
Director: Josef von Sternberg | Stars: Gene Tierney, Walter Huston, Victor Mature, Ona Munson
Votes: 2,966
27. A Woman's Face (1941)
Passed | 106 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
A female blackmailer with a disfiguring facial scar meets a plastic surgeon who offers her the possibility of looking like a normal woman.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Joan Crawford, Melvyn Douglas, Conrad Veidt, Osa Massen
Votes: 3,783
28. Moontide (1942)
Approved | 94 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
In California, Bobo and his mooching pal Tiny are doing odd jobs and getting drunk and they hide a secret about the unsolved murder of sailor Pop Kelly but suicidal waitress Anna, saved by Bobo, unravels the mystery.
Directors: Archie Mayo, Fritz Lang | Stars: Jean Gabin, Ida Lupino, Thomas Mitchell, Claude Rains
Votes: 2,230
29. Street of Chance (1942)
Approved | 74 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
After an accident, a New York man with amnesia finds out the ugly truth about his real identity and past by interacting with people who seem to know him well.
Director: Jack Hively | Stars: Burgess Meredith, Claire Trevor, Louise Platt, Sheldon Leonard
Votes: 744
30. This Gun for Hire (1942)
Passed | 81 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
When assassin Philip Raven shoots a blackmailer and his beautiful female companion dead, he is paid off in marked bills by his treasonous employer who is working with foreign spies.
Director: Frank Tuttle | Stars: Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, Laird Cregar
Votes: 10,626
31. Journey Into Fear (1943)
Approved | 68 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
An American ballistics expert in Turkey finds himself targeted by German agents. Safe passage home by ship is arranged for him, but he soon discovers that his pursuers are also on board.
Directors: Norman Foster, Orson Welles | Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dolores Del Río, Ruth Warrick
Votes: 4,687
32. The Seventh Victim (1943)
Approved | 71 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A woman in search of her missing sister uncovers a Satanic cult in New York's Greenwich Village and finds that they could have something to do with her sibling's random disappearance.
Director: Mark Robson | Stars: Kim Hunter, Tom Conway, Jean Brooks, Isabel Jewell
Votes: 7,578
33. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Passed | 108 min | Film-Noir, Thriller
A teenage girl, overjoyed when her favorite uncle comes to visit the family in their quiet California town, slowly begins to suspect that he is in fact the "Merry Widow" killer sought by the authorities.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten, Macdonald Carey, Henry Travers
Votes: 70,527
34. Whispering Footsteps (1943)
54 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A bank clerk in a small town returns home from a vacation in Indianapolis, and hears a story on the radio about a girl found murdered there. The description of the killer fits him exactly, ... See full summary »
Director: Howard Bretherton | Stars: John Hubbard, Rita Quigley, Joan Blair, Charles Halton
Votes: 214
35. Laura (1944)
Passed | 88 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he is investigating.
Directors: Otto Preminger, Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price
Votes: 51,476 | Gross: $4.36M
36. Lady in the Death House (1944)
Passed | 56 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A young woman is on Death Row for the murder of a man who was blackmailing her family, although she claims she was framed. Her fiance', a doctor who is conducting experiments on reviving ... See full summary »
Director: Steve Sekely | Stars: Jean Parker, Lionel Atwill, Douglas Fowley, Marcia Mae Jones
Votes: 420
37. The Lodger (1944)
Passed | 84 min | Crime, Horror, Mystery
A landlady suspects that her new lodger is Jack the Ripper.
Director: John Brahm | Stars: Laird Cregar, Merle Oberon, George Sanders, Cedric Hardwicke
Votes: 4,105
38. The Mark of the Whistler (1944)
Approved | 62 min | Adventure, Crime, Drama
A drifter claims the money in an old bank account by impersonating someone else with the same name. Soon he finds himself the target of a man who turns out to be the son of the old partner ... See full summary »
Director: William Castle | Stars: Richard Dix, Janis Carter, Porter Hall, Paul Guilfoyle
Votes: 359
39. The Mask of Dimitrios (1944)
Passed | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Mystery writer Cornelius Leyden becomes intrigued after the murdered body of a vicious career criminal washes up in the Bosphorus.
Director: Jean Negulesco | Stars: Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Zachary Scott, Faye Emerson
Votes: 3,963
40. Ministry of Fear (1944)
Passed | 86 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Stephen Neale has just been released from an asylum during World War II in England when he accidentally stumbles onto a deadly Nazi spy plot and tries to stop it.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds, Carl Esmond, Hillary Brooke
Votes: 8,957
41. Murder, My Sweet (1944)
Approved | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
After being hired to find an ex-con's former girlfriend, Philip Marlowe is drawn into a deeply complex web of mystery and deceit.
Director: Edward Dmytryk | Stars: Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley, Otto Kruger
Votes: 14,707
42. Phantom Lady (1944)
Passed | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A devoted secretary risks her life to try to find the elusive woman who may prove her boss didn't murder his selfish wife.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Franchot Tone, Ella Raines, Alan Curtis, Aurora Miranda
Votes: 5,754
43. Strangers in the Night (1944)
Approved | 56 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A lonely, mentally-unbalanced woman invents a fictitious daughter and has the "daughter" write to a Marine stationed in the South Pacific. When the soldier returns to the States, he goes to... See full summary »
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: William Terry, Virginia Grey, Helene Thimig, Edith Barrett
Votes: 813
44. The Suspect (1944)
Passed | 85 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
An unhappily married man begins a flirtation with a younger woman. When his wife threatens to ruin her, he decides to take action.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Charles Laughton, Ella Raines, Dean Harens, Stanley Ridges
Votes: 3,551
45. Voice in the Wind (1944)
Approved | 85 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A concert pianist has lost his memory, the result of his being arrested and tortured by the Germans during the war for playing a banned song. He journeys to the island of Guadelupe to try to regain his memory and his health.
Director: Arthur Ripley | Stars: Francis Lederer, Sigrid Gurie, J. Edward Bromberg, J. Carrol Naish
Votes: 279
46. When Strangers Marry (1944)
Passed | 67 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A naive small-town girl comes to New York City to meet her husband, and discovers that he may be a murderer.
Director: William Castle | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Kim Hunter, Dean Jagger, Neil Hamilton
Votes: 1,376
47. The Whistler (1944)
Passed | 59 min | Film-Noir, Mystery
A depressed man hires an assassin to kill him when he least expects it, but when his life takes an upward turn, he finds he now wishes to live.
Director: William Castle | Stars: Richard Dix, Gloria Stuart, J. Carrol Naish, Alan Dinehart
Votes: 1,121
48. The Woman in the Window (1944)
Passed | 107 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
When a conservative middle aged professor engages in a relationship with a femme fatale, he's plunged into a nightmarish world of blackmail and murder.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Raymond Massey, Edmund Breon
Votes: 17,794
49. Destiny (1944)
Approved | 65 min | Crime, Drama, Fantasy
Bank robbers Cliff Banks and Sam Baker go their separate ways while being chased by the law. Now fleeing alone, Cliff begins to reflect, via flashback, on the various events and unsavory ... See full summary »
Directors: Reginald Le Borg, Julien Duvivier | Stars: Gloria Jean, Alan Curtis, Frank Craven, Grace McDonald
Votes: 200
50. Apology for Murder (1945)
Approved | 67 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
When a reporter helps his girlfriend murder her rich husband, an innocent man gets the blame and faces execution.
Director: Sam Newfield | Stars: Hugh Beaumont, Ann Savage, Russell Hicks, Charles D. Brown
Votes: 447
51. Notorious (1946)
Not Rated | 102 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
The daughter of a convicted German spy is asked by American agents to gather information on a ring of German scientists in South America. How far will she have to go to ingratiate herself with them?
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Louis Calhern
Votes: 107,311 | Gross: $10.46M
52. Spellbound (1945)
Approved | 111 min | Film-Noir, Mystery, Romance
A psychiatrist protects the identity of an amnesia patient accused of murder while attempting to recover his memory.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov, Leo G. Carroll
Votes: 52,264 | Gross: $7.00M
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