Film Noir and Classic Literature
by karljhickey14 | created - 23 Jun 2015 | updated - 10 months ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. The Great Gatsby (1949)
91 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A Jazz Age bootlegger learns the hard way about the wages of sin.
Director: Elliott Nugent | Stars: Alan Ladd, Betty Field, Macdonald Carey, Ruth Hussey
Votes: 890
2. Kvinna i vitt (1949)
87 min | Drama
A ghostly woman warns a Victorian heiress about a count and his cohort who are after her fortune.
Director: Arne Mattsson | Stars: Margareta Fahlén, Georg Løkkeberg, Eva Dahlbeck, Karl-Arne Holmsten
Votes: 42
3. Macbeth (1948)
Passed | 107 min | Drama, History, War
Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis, receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders his king and takes the throne for himself.
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Orson Welles, Jeanette Nolan, Dan O'Herlihy, Roddy McDowall
Votes: 7,795
4. The Heiress (1949)
Not Rated | 115 min | Drama, Romance
A naive young woman falls for a handsome young man her emotionally abusive father suspects is only a fortune hunter.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift, Ralph Richardson, Miriam Hopkins
Votes: 17,339
5. The Lost Moment (1947)
Not Rated | 89 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
A publisher insinuates himself into the mouldering mansion of the centenarian lover of a renowned but long-dead poet to find his lost love letters.
Director: Martin Gabel | Stars: Robert Cummings, Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead, Joan Lorring
Votes: 1,332
Henry James The Aspen Papers
6. The Body Snatcher (1945)
Approved | 78 min | Horror, Thriller
A ruthless doctor and his young prize student find themselves continually harassed by their murderous supplier of illegal cadavers.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Henry Daniell, Edith Atwater
Votes: 10,190
7. Jane Eyre (1943)
Approved | 97 min | Drama, Romance
After a harsh childhood, orphan Jane Eyre is hired by Edward Rochester, the brooding lord of a mysterious manor house, to care for his young daughter.
Director: Robert Stevenson | Stars: Orson Welles, Joan Fontaine, Margaret O'Brien, Peggy Ann Garner
Votes: 9,492 | Gross: $3.82M
8. Crime and Punishment (1935)
Not Rated | 88 min | Crime, Drama
Man is haunted by a murder he's committed.
Director: Josef von Sternberg | Stars: Edward Arnold, Peter Lorre, Marian Marsh, Tala Birell
Votes: 2,234
9. Crime and Punishment (1956)
107 min | Crime, Drama
Modern update of Dostoievski's novel Crime and Punishment.
Director: Georges Lampin | Stars: Jean Gabin, Marina Vlady, Ulla Jacobsson, Bernard Blier
Votes: 343
10. The Ladies of the Bois de Boulogne (1945)
Not Rated | 86 min | Drama, Romance
A society lady engineers a marriage between her lover and a cabaret dancer who is essentially a prostitute.
Director: Robert Bresson | Stars: Paul Bernard, María Casares, Elina Labourdette, Lucienne Bogaert
Votes: 4,832
Jacques the Fatalist by Diderot
11. Dangerous Liaisons (1959)
106 min | Drama, Romance
Juliette Merteuil and Valmont is a sophisticated couple, always looking for fun and excitement. Both have sexual affairs with others and share their experiences with one another. But there ... See full summary »
Director: Roger Vadim | Stars: Jeanne Moreau, Gérard Philipe, Annette Stroyberg, Madeleine Lambert
Votes: 1,527
12. Joe MacBeth (1955)
90 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Shakespeare (more-or-less) in modern gangster setting. Lily MacBeth pushes her husband Joe to rub out the reigning crime boss and become the new "kingpin" himself. Success is short- lived, ... See full summary »
Director: Ken Hughes | Stars: Paul Douglas, Ruth Roman, Bonar Colleano, Grégoire Aslan
Votes: 275
Macbeth
13. All Night Long (1962)
Not Rated | 91 min | Drama, Music
This movie, based on William Shakespeare's Othello, is neatly positioned as a vehicle to showcase some of the best jazz musicians of the period, including Dave Brubeck and Charles Mingus.
Director: Basil Dearden | Stars: Patrick McGoohan, Keith Michell, Betsy Blair, Paul Harris
Votes: 1,526
Othello
14. The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)
Not Rated | 110 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A corrupt young man somehow keeps his youthful beauty, but a special painting gradually reveals his inner ugliness to all.
Director: Albert Lewin | Stars: George Sanders, Hurd Hatfield, Donna Reed, Angela Lansbury
Votes: 14,444
15. La Bête Humaine (1938)
Not Rated | 100 min | Crime, Drama
In this classic adaptation of Emile Zola's novel, a tortured train engineer falls in love with a troubled married woman who has helped her husband commit a murder.
Director: Jean Renoir | Stars: Jean Gabin, Julien Carette, Simone Simon, Fernand Ledoux
Votes: 8,422
16. Human Desire (1954)
Not Rated | 91 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
A Korean War vet returns to his job as a railroad engineer and becomes involved in an affair with a co-worker's wife following a murder on a train where they meet.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Broderick Crawford, Edgar Buchanan
Votes: 6,343
La Bete Humaine
17. Vendetta (1950)
Approved | 83 min | Crime, Drama
The daughter of a slain man pushes her brother toward vengeance in 19th-century Corsica.
Directors: Mel Ferrer, Stuart Heisler, Max Ophüls, Preston Sturges, Paul Weatherwax | Stars: Faith Domergue, George Dolenz, Donald Buka, Joseph Calleia
Votes: 130
Colombe by Prosper Merimee
18. Treasure of Monte Cristo (1949)
Passed | 76 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
This modern tale borrows from an old story in establishing Langan, who works on a ship that docks in San Francisco, as a descendant of the Count of Monte Cristo. Crooked Lawyer Brodie sets ... See full summary »
Director: William Berke | Stars: Glenn Langan, Adele Jergens, Steve Brodie, Bobby Jordan
Votes: 217
Count of Monte Cristo
19. Manon (1949)
Not Rated | 100 min | Crime, Drama
A classic tale about bitter relationships between a frivolous girl and a soldier is adapted for the post-World War II time.
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot | Stars: Serge Reggiani, Michel Auclair, Cécile Aubry, Andrex
Votes: 1,173
Manon Lescaut
20. The Fighter (1952)
Not Rated | 78 min | Drama, Sport
In Mexico, a young boxer uses his winnings to buy guns to avenge his family's murder.
Director: Herbert Kline | Stars: Richard Conte, Vanessa Brown, Lee J. Cobb, Frank Silvera
Votes: 171
The Mexican , by Jack London
21. Sabotage (1936)
Not Rated | 76 min | Crime, Thriller
A Scotland Yard undercover detective is on the trail of a saboteur who is part of a plot to set off a bomb in London. But when the detective's cover is blown, the plot begins to unravel.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Sylvia Sidney, Oscar Homolka, Desmond Tester, John Loder
Votes: 18,731
The Secret Agent
22. 1984 (1956)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
In a totalitarian future society, Winston Smith, whose daily work is re-writing history, tries to rebel by falling in love.
Director: Michael Anderson | Stars: Edmond O'Brien, Michael Redgrave, Jan Sterling, David Kossoff
Votes: 4,175
23. The Adultress (1953)
Not Rated | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A truck driver kills the husband of the woman he loves, and becomes the object of blackmail.
Director: Marcel Carné | Stars: Simone Signoret, Raf Vallone, Jacques Duby, Maria Pia Casilio
Votes: 1,890
24. The Inheritance (1947)
Not Rated | 98 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Following her father's death, a teenage British heiress goes to live with her guardian uncle--who is broke and schemes to murder her for her inheritance.
Director: Charles Frank | Stars: Jean Simmons, Derrick De Marney, Katina Paxinou, Derek Bond
Votes: 826
25. Strange Illusion (1945)
Passed | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Paul dreams that his father's fatal accident actually was murder. When details of his dream repeat themselves in reality he seeks the help of psychiatrist Dr. Vincent, and they attempt to solve the riddle - with dangerous consequences.
Director: Edgar G. Ulmer | Stars: Jimmy Lydon, Sally Eilers, Warren William, Regis Toomey
Votes: 1,132
Hamlet
26. Fear (1946)
Approved | 68 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
In this Americanized retelling of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, a medical student--broke, hungry and desperate for money--murders a loan shark to whom he owes money. After the killing,... See full summary »
Director: Alfred Zeisler | Stars: Peter Cookson, Warren William, Anne Gwynne, Francis Pierlot
Votes: 668
Crime and Punishment
27. An Honourable Murder (1960)
69 min | Drama
Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is played in modern dress with Caesar as the chairman of a board of directors considering a merger with another company. The conspirators are his fellow ... See full summary »
Director: Godfrey Grayson | Stars: Norman Wooland, Margaretta Scott, Lisa Daniely, Douglas Wilmer
Votes: 34
28. The Fabiani Affair (1962)
95 min | Crime, Drama
Two criminal Corsican clans are fighting each other in Paris.
Director: André Versini | Stars: Charles Aznavour, Raymond Pellegrin, Giovanna Ralli, Jean-Louis Trintignant
Votes: 65
29. Carmen di Trastevere (1962)
105 min | Drama
Carmen, wife of a certain Vincenzo detained for theft, chooses Antonio as a friend. When the husband is released from prison, he accepts the relationship in progress and continues to use the woman in his shady businesses.
Director: Carmine Gallone | Stars: Giovanna Ralli, Jacques Charrier, Dante DiPaolo, Fiorenzo Fiorentini
Votes: 63
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