1961: Blast of Silence

A killer comes to Christmastime New York to do a job. Grainy black and white, a hectic jazz soundtrack, lots of second-person voiceover, rooftops, nightclubs - this one delivers just what you expect from a noir. (7)

1965: Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution

Godard's take on the Lemmy Caution character is a science fiction film in which the agent comes to Alphaville, the place where logic rules. Lemmy meets a woman, and you can guess the rest. Though a lot is made of the fact that Godard didn't build any sets but rather filmed the most modern-looking parts of Paris he could find, but given that the film is set in the mid-1970s (if I interpret the dialogue correctly), this seems fair enough. The film's not a masterpiece by any stretch, but charmingly quaint. Recommended for fans of b/w shadow-/lightplay. (7)

1942: This Gun for Hire

Noirish crime drama about a nightclub singer/magician (Veronica Lake!), a hitman and, in the baddie roles, a bunch of ruthless capitalists. Very crisp. (7)

2004: 36 Quai des Orfèvres (36)

The neo-noir about the policemen Léo Vrinks and Denis Klein, who try to catch a gang of big-time robbers while at the same time competing for the post of Paris Chief of Police, keeps just the right balance between being too simple and being so complicated one can't follow all the twists and developments. Otherwise, no mistakes. (7)

1984: Blood Simple. (Director's Cut)

Though it suffers from the same nondescript cinematography that reduces so many '80s pictures potential quality, the Coen brothers' debut - a sort of noir comedy about the nastiness that ensues when a man finds out his wife has an affair - is a neat enough movie. Like all Coen brothers pictures, though, it is overrated. (6.5)

1997: Insomnia

A cop goes to northern Norway, where the sun never sets, to investigate the murder of a young woman. Not the most untroubled man to begin with, he can't sleep. Slow descent towards madness, morally questionable behaviour. Special mention for the camera work: To call the colouring pale would be an understatement; rather, there seems to be an abundance of light on the screen. Good, off-kilter neo-noir. Or blanche. Well, you get the idea. (7)

1946: Gilda

This noir take on the meange a trois trope, which contains Rita Hayworth's famous one-glove strip, is a very solid piece of work. (7)

1950: In a Lonely Place

The main character is called Dixon Steele, but we never see him perform. He is, in fact, a screenwriter, and has a woman falling in love with him who thinks he's wrongly accused of killing a girl. The ending totally doesn't work, but the film makes up for it with generic 1950s b/w US film charm. (7)

1946: The Killers

Although much was made of the film's being an adaptation of the Hemingway short story of the same name (e.g., the poster), the picture takes the story's plot only as a starting point for a look back on the killee's life, asking why he was shot. In other words, a Rosebud type of story, a format I'm not particularly fond of. Coherently connecting all the usual noir elements, the movie's great strength is the stylish, contrast-rich cinematography. (7)

1956: The Wrong Man

Not only dealing with someone wrongly accused of a crime, but even called The Wrong Man, the 1956 film starring Henry Fonda might sound like the quintessential Hitchcock movie. But it is not; there are no McGuffins, no showdowns in famous places, no breathtaking blondes and there is next to no suspense. Rather, it is a small, nitty-gritty b/w film shot almost entirely in closed spaces and led one blogger to speculate that Hitchcock may have been influenced by Italian neorealism. Also, it is no stretch to read the film an indictment of the workings of the 1950s US criminal justice system. All in all, it is pretty much the antithesis of Hitchcock's previous offering, the Technicolor blockbuster that was The Man Who Knew Too Much, and accordingly tanked at the box office. Though nicely noir in aesthetic terms, the movie suffers a bit from the story's predictability. (7.5)

1950: D.O.A.

A man finds out he's been poisoned and only has a few days left to live and spends them on finding his killers - now isn't that a cool idea for a crime film? Though somewhat hard to follow at times, the movie, shot in stark, grainy black & white and set to a soundtrack the expressiveness of which borders on the camp, moves at a speed befitting its subject matters and doesn't waste any time on cinematic subtleties. Wham, Bam, Bam! (7.5)

(The film is in the public domain. Free & legal download or streaming video at Internet Archives.)

1976: The Killing of a Chinese Bookie

John Casavetes' film about a night club owner with a gambling problem whom a bunch of gangster pressure into - SPOILER ALERT! - killing a Chinese bookie to settle his debt has "independent film" written all over it. The construction of the script is nothing like what they teach you in the screenwriting textbook and the mise en scène uses unconventional frames, handheld camera and nonstandard lighting, making much use of the fact that there are often spotlights around where the scene is set. Indeed the film is visually excellent and a very valid counterargument against the view that if your film is noir you should shoot it in black and white. On the downside, the script is not only unconventional but also not very good, sort of petering out after about three fifths. If you like it sloganesque: Very well directed, somewhat poorly written. (7)

1955: Killer's Kiss

Given that he withdrew his 1953 feature film debut Fear and Desire, this is the first Kubrick movie that can be watched using standard channels and the last one that was missing from my list. The film about a boxer, a dancer and a criminal, small in terms of budget, scope and length, has two foots firmly planted in the noir tradition, achieves a generally rough feel mainly through the extensive use of handheld camera and has some brilliant shots of Manhattan's back alleys. Enjoyed it more than the generally similar but more acclaimed 1956 The Killing. (7) By the way, I recently read somewhere that it was one of Martin Scorcese's great achievements in directing Raging Bull that he filmed the boxing scenes from inside the ring. Whoever thought that was some great innovation apparently hasn't seen Killer's Kiss.

1958: Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Elevator to the Gallows or Lift to the Scaffold)

Now, that's how to open a film: A close-up of a good-looking woman breathing "Je t'aime. Je t'aime" into a receiver. The French, eh?

Louis Malle's first film, set during a weekend in a late-50s Paris that the director deliberately made look modern is a crime gone wrong story. There's Julien Tavernier, the employee of a arms manufacturer who kills his boss, who is also his lover's husband; the lover, Florence Cavala, who is looking for Tavernier after he got stuck in an elevator on his way from the crime scene; and a young couple who steal his car and get into trouble of their own. As was remarked in the Washington Post (according to my DVD cover), the film's most important character may be Paris at night, the stylish photography accompanied by Miles Davies' trumpet. Despite minor weaknesses, this is a very good film (8).

Even better than the film: The trailer.