Top 50 Film-Noir Movies and TV Shows
1. The Fallen Sparrow (1943)
PG | 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: 1,840
2. Out of the Past (1947)
G | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A private eye escapes his past to run a gas station in a small town, but his past catches up with him. Now he must return to the big city world of danger, corruption, double crosses, and duplicitous dames.
Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming
Votes: 38,972
3. The Big Sleep (1946)
14A | 114 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a wealthy family. Before the complex case is over, he's seen murder, blackmail and what might be love.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely, Martha Vickers
Votes: 88,028 | Gross: $6.54M
4. To Have and Have Not (1944)
PG | 100 min | Adventure, Comedy, Film-Noir
During World War II, American expatriate Harry Morgan helps transport a French Resistance leader and his beautiful wife to Martinique while romancing a sensuous lounge singer.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Walter Brennan, Dolores Moran
Votes: 36,471
5. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
PG | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir
A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson
Votes: 226,998
6. The Night of the Hunter (1955)
92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A religious fanatic marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real daddy hid the $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery.
Director: Charles Laughton | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, James Gleason
Votes: 92,410 | Gross: $0.65M
7. Niagara (1953)
PG | 92 min | Film-Noir, Thriller
As two couples are visiting Niagara Falls, tensions between one wife and her husband reach the level of murder.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: Marilyn Monroe, Joseph Cotten, Jean Peters, Max Showalter
Votes: 18,733
8. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
PG | 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: 162,333 | Gross: $2.11M
9. Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
PG | 96 min | Drama, Film-Noir
Powerful but unethical Broadway columnist J.J. Hunsecker coerces unscrupulous press agent Sidney Falco into breaking up his sister's romance with a jazz musician.
Director: Alexander Mackendrick | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, Martin Milner
Votes: 33,837
10. Don't Bother to Knock (1952)
PG | 76 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
After being dumped by his girlfriend, an airline pilot pursues a babysitter in his hotel and gradually realizes she's dangerous.
Director: Roy Ward Baker | Stars: Richard Widmark, Marilyn Monroe, Anne Bancroft, Donna Corcoran
Votes: 7,912
11. Notorious (1946)
102 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
The daughter of a convicted Nazi spy is asked by American agents to gather information on a ring of Nazi 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: 103,697 | Gross: $10.46M
12. Rebecca (1940)
130 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
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: 140,872 | Gross: $4.36M
13. The Third Man (1949)
PG | 104 min | Film-Noir, Mystery, Thriller
Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard
Votes: 175,453 | Gross: $0.45M
14. Angel Face (1952)
PG | 91 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Ambulance driver Frank Jessup is ensnared in the schemes of the sensuous but dangerous Diane Tremayne.
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons, Mona Freeman, Herbert Marshall
Votes: 8,482
15. Double Indemnity (1944)
G | 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: 160,908 | Gross: $5.72M
16. Party Girl (1958)
99 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Lawyer Tommy Farrell is a defender of crooks. Vicki Gaye encourages him to go straight, but mob king Rico Angelo insists otherwise.
Director: Nicholas Ray | Stars: Robert Taylor, Cyd Charisse, Lee J. Cobb, John Ireland
Votes: 3,593
17. Somewhere in the Night (1946)
PG | 110 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
George Taylor returns from WWII with amnesia. Back home in Los Angeles, while trying to track down his old identity, he stumbles onto a 3-year old murder case and a hunt for a missing $2 million.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: John Hodiak, Nancy Guild, Lloyd Nolan, Richard Conte
Votes: 3,320
18. Marked Woman (1937)
96 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller
A crusading district attorney persuades a clip joint hostess to testify against her mobster boss after her innocent sister is accidentally murdered during one of his unsavory parties.
Directors: Lloyd Bacon, Michael Curtiz | Stars: Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Lola Lane, Isabel Jewell
Votes: 4,574
19. The Killing (1956)
PG | 84 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Crook Johnny Clay assembles a five-man team to plan and execute a daring racetrack robbery.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards, Jay C. Flippen
Votes: 92,716
20. Touch of Evil (1958)
A | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping and police corruption in a Mexican border town.
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, Janet Leigh, Joseph Calleia
Votes: 106,979 | Gross: $2.24M
21. Sirocco (1951)
PG | 98 min | Action, Drama, Film-Noir
A cynical American expatriate gets involved in smuggling and gun-running for the rebels during the 1925 Syrian insurgency against French occupation.
Director: Curtis Bernhardt | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lee J. Cobb, Märta Torén, Everett Sloane
Votes: 2,448
22. Mildred Pierce (1945)
PG | 111 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A hard-working mother inches towards disaster as she divorces her husband and starts a successful restaurant business to support her spoiled daughter.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden
Votes: 27,387
23. Strangers on a Train (1951)
PG | 101 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A psychopath forces a tennis star to comply with his theory that two strangers can get away with murder.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Farley Granger, Robert Walker, Ruth Roman, Leo G. Carroll
Votes: 136,945 | Gross: $7.63M
24. Key Largo (1948)
100 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A man visits his war buddy's family hotel and finds a gangster running things. As a hurricane approaches, the two end up confronting each other.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore
Votes: 42,575
25. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
PG | 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: 67,780
26. Scarface (1932)
G | 93 min | Action, Crime, Drama
An ambitious and nearly insane violent gangster climbs the ladder of success in the mob, but his weaknesses prove to be his downfall.
Directors: Howard Hawks, Richard Rosson | Stars: Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, Karen Morley, Osgood Perkins
Votes: 29,115
27. Laura (1944)
PG | 88 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he is investigating.
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price
Votes: 49,148 | Gross: $4.36M
28. Gilda (1946)
110 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
A small-time gambler hired to work in a Buenos Aires casino discovers his employer's new wife is his former lover.
Director: Charles Vidor | Stars: Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready, Joseph Calleia
Votes: 33,569
29. Suspicion (1941)
G | 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: 40,321 | Gross: $4.50M
30. Spellbound (1945)
PG | 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: 50,241 | Gross: $7.00M
31. Dead Reckoning (1946)
PG | 100 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A soldier runs away rather than receive the Medal of Honor, so his buddy gets permission to investigate, and love and death soon follow.
Director: John Cromwell | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lizabeth Scott, Morris Carnovsky, Charles Cane
Votes: 8,264
32. Knock on Any Door (1949)
100 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An attorney defends a hoodlum of murder, using the oppressiveness of the slums to appeal to the court.
Director: Nicholas Ray | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, John Derek, George Macready, Allene Roberts
Votes: 3,944
33. The Lost Weekend (1945)
101 min | Drama, Film-Noir
The desperate life of a chronic alcoholic is followed through a four-day drinking bout.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Phillip Terry, Howard Da Silva
Votes: 38,687 | Gross: $9.46M
34. Dial 1119 (1950)
75 min | Film-Noir, Thriller
An escaped psychiatric patient causes havoc.
Director: Gerald Mayer | Stars: Marshall Thompson, Virginia Field, Andrea King, Sam Levene
Votes: 1,450
35. Nora inu (1949)
122 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
During a sweltering summer, a rookie homicide detective tries to track down his stolen Colt pistol.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Awaji, Eiko Miyoshi
Votes: 17,995
36. The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
PG | 112 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A major heist goes off as planned, but then double crosses, bad luck and solid police work cause everything to unravel.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen, James Whitmore
Votes: 28,536
37. In a Lonely Place (1950)
PG | 94 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
A potentially violent screenwriter is a murder suspect until his lovely neighbor clears him. However, she soon starts to have her doubts.
Director: Nicholas Ray | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy, Carl Benton Reid
Votes: 33,161
38. Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
PG | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
A writer falls in love with a young socialite and they're soon married, but her obsessive love for him threatens to be the undoing of them both as well as everyone around them.
Director: John M. Stahl | Stars: Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain, Vincent Price
Votes: 13,993
39. Dark Passage (1947)
PG | 106 min | Film-Noir, Thriller
A man convicted of murdering his wife escapes from prison and works with a woman to try to prove his innocence.
Director: Delmer Daves | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Bruce Bennett, Agnes Moorehead
Votes: 21,024
40. Crime Wave (1953)
R | 73 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Reformed parolee Steve Lacey is caught in the middle when a wounded former cellmate seeks him out for shelter.
Director: André De Toth | Stars: Gene Nelson, Sterling Hayden, Phyllis Kirk, Ted de Corsia
Votes: 4,284
41. The Killers (1946)
PG | 103 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Hit men kill an unresisting victim, and investigator Reardon uncovers his past involvement with beautiful, deadly Kitty Collins.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, Albert Dekker
Votes: 22,631
42. Sudden Fear (1952)
PG | 110 min | Film-Noir, Thriller
After an ambitious actor insinuates himself into the life of a wealthy middle-aged playwright and marries her, he plots with his mistress to murder her.
Director: David Miller | Stars: Joan Crawford, Jack Palance, Gloria Grahame, Bruce Bennett
Votes: 6,819
43. Crossroads (1942)
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: 1,624
44. The Naked City (1948)
14 | 96 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A step-by-step look at a murder investigation on the streets of New York.
Director: Jules Dassin | Stars: Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Duff, Dorothy Hart, Don Taylor
Votes: 14,528
45. Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)
89 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
While on the telephone, an invalid woman overhears what she thinks is a murder plot and attempts to prevent it.
Director: Anatole Litvak | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Burt Lancaster, Ann Richards, Wendell Corey
Votes: 11,855
46. The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Fascinated by gorgeous Mrs. Bannister, seaman Michael O'Hara joins a bizarre yachting cruise, and ends up mired in a complex murder plot.
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Everett Sloane, Glenn Anders
Votes: 31,721 | Gross: $0.01M
47. Between Midnight and Dawn (1950)
89 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Prowl car cops on night duty romance a reluctant young woman who works for the department while in danger from a vengeful racketeer.
Director: Gordon Douglas | Stars: Mark Stevens, Edmond O'Brien, Gale Storm, Donald Buka
Votes: 959
48. The Big Steal (1949)
PG | 71 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Romance
An army lieutenant accused of robbery pursues the real thief on a frantic chase through Mexico aided by the thief's fiancee.
Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, William Bendix, Patric Knowles
Votes: 5,133
49. The Wrong Man (1956)
PG | 105 min | Drama, Film-Noir
In 1953, an innocent man named Christopher Emanuel "Manny" Balestrero is arrested after being mistaken for an armed robber.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Anthony Quayle, Harold J. Stone
Votes: 29,887
50. White Heat (1949)
G | 114 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien, Margaret Wycherly
Votes: 34,302