1944: Double Indemnity - The Definitive Film Noir? 

yeah, Bily Wilder is God. Look at the movies he made. Unbelievable.

norma desmond what no he isnt

@@jorawesummme609 for sure. He was he best ever.

That scene with the car not start is awesome

I’m sure you’ve read the story that this scene wasn’t in the actual script. After filming the original take, Billy Wilder’s own car failed to start when leaving the location. He immediately saw the dramatic potential in this and reshot the entire scene to include it. P.S. just a minor correction: the body wasn’t in the car when the car failed to start. They had already deposited it onto the tracks.

It did appear in mine.

Agree with you, folks might learn something, I know .I did, started right in the beginning and ended with this video, they're incredibibly well researched and deeply intertwined between films, gotta love the connections.

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Sunset Boulevard

Ahmad Rajeb Thank you

and pretty much all of those films (outside of the obvious) are better than Double Indemnity

Touch of evil is 1958

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Close to the top is Out of the Past.

Double Indemnity is # 1" Thats Right Baby"

Criss Cross Aphalt Jungle The Killers Cry Danger Too Late for Tears, aka Killer Bait

@@Nonesovile96 Detour is underrated for sure

I have updated my list with a new order and titles as I have seen and re-watched many more since I initially made this list

My list alson includes Scandal Sheet with Broderick Crawford and John Derek.

Yes. Only Joan Crawford movie I like.

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I'd wouldn't define any of them as time periods as movies of their the time weren't uniformly film noir or French New Wave etc. I'd say German Expressionism and the French New Wave are better defined as movements or scenes as they evolved from a small group of artists in the same location at the same time with a generally shared artistic vision/goal.

@@mintybadgerproductions But you have to admit, they don't make noir anymore, maybe some neo-noir, but not much. 🤔 You make an excellent point though.

Yeah probably it is kind of a certain era of crime film really.

@@maztergamer1016 I paraphrased an American Screenwriter's words.

@@Nonesovile96 Still the words of an American screenwriter, before neo noir's time🙄

I appreciate the Fritz Lang appreciation.

That's a great one!

@filmnobelpreis I'd appreciate if you told me what exactly, did you appreciated about the appreciation. Trust me, I'm not kidding or trying to be funny. I've always appreciated good appreciation when it's appreciated.

@Sparky48236 Thanks man.

Very interesting.

This response goes to the comment above. I tried to get it there three times.

it is. From the beginning to the end, this is a masterpiece. And its not that it tries anything shocking or tries to hide everything or do anything different. Every character follows his own path and the narrative seems so natural, so genuine. Absolutely right. So well written , shot and acted. From the first to the last frame. The only blip was when he shot and well did not express any remorse. But it was the defining moment of the movie. He called her bluff, finally.

The cinematography and performances were on point with Welles elevating his dialog, but the thing that stuck the most out to me about The Third Man was (not really a flaw but) how much of an idiot the protagonist was.

@@zaphero5518 Yes, but the protagonists being idiots is one of the trademarks of Film Noir.

it only gets intressting when Harry Lime ( Welles ) shows up.

There are certainly different tiers of quality for noir films, but “the best” becomes a matter of taste and how you choose to define best. “The Third Man” has a lot of fascinating, effective parts, but in the end I found it unsatisfying. “Touch of Evil” was more terrifying, but also far too ugly for me to like or want to watch again. Quite simply, I think the crime noir I simply enjoy the most is “The Maltese Falcon.”

@@PrinceofArfon how exactly is the third man unsatisfying?

I don't agree. Check out Marilyn Monroe's Rose Loomis in "Niagara".

@@buckgreen6028 Seen it. Great performance. My answer is still Phyllis though. Great performance & ingeniously written a character.

Anything with Barbara is good.

Sitao Pan …..No 'Maltese Falcon' or 'Murder My Sweet' [UK title 'Farewell My Lovely']! Are you serious?!?

Excellent choices. I would include Strangers on a Train at the top of the list.

@@thesoultwins72 In fact, I often change my mind about the order after top three. I prefer Kiss Me Deadly, Nightmare Alley and Big Clock which I didn't list. Besides these films, now I would put Maltese Falcon in. In my opinion, the Big Sleep is more representative in private detective stories but...yes Maltese Falcon is such an important mark of the beginning.

@@sitaopan8862 ........Mmm - some of your selections are NOT truly authentic 'Film Noir'. [they are just excellent 40's & 50's Black and White films]. Film Noir - which originated in 1910-20's Germany - only appeared in the US in the early to mid 1940's during WW2. After experiencing the horrors of war many returning 'veterans' felt American cinema [which was largely based on musicals, comedies and romances at that time] was irrelevant dross. Instead, they demanded more realistic 'entertainment' that portrayed the gritty, seedy world of war-torn America. Of women cheating on their husbands [which frequently happened whilst men were away fighting] of murder, robberies and so on. This was the 'new' America - not the 'fake' world depicted in wholesome, saccharin-sweet American cinema. It is difficult to identify specifically what year 'Film Noir' actually appeared - and which were the first American 'Film Noir' films. Many experts claim that the explosion in 'Pulp Fiction' featuring the likes of James M Cain's 'The Postman Always Rings Twice' [1934], Raymond Chandler's 'The Big Sleep' [1939] and even Dashiell Hammett's 'Red Harvest' [1929] sowed the seeds of the genre when they were subsequently released as films. However, it is now widely accepted that several pivotal films such as 'Maltese Falcon' [1941], 'Double Indemnity' and 'Farewell My Lovely'/'Murder My Sweet' [both 1944], 'Mildred Pierce' [1945] and 'The Big Sleep' [1946] saw the true birth of the genre. If you examine all of these examples they are about the nasty, brutal side of life - of betrayal, murder and crime. And they are also set apart by the stunning way they were 'lit'. 'Film Noir' [as the name suggests - 'Dark Film'] WERE dark and shadow-filled. This was a world-apart from pre-WW2 American films. Of course and as is normal with Hollywood - as soon as these first examples of 'Film Noir' became hugely popular, they spawned countless imitations and copies. Indeed, almost every film released during that era could be claimed to be 'Film Noir'! Some were - some were not, and were just lumped in with genuine examples. This has led to a great deal of confusion as to what actually constitutes 'Film Noir'. But it is definite that films such as Chandlers' 'The Big Sleep', 'Farewell My Lovely'/'Murder My Sweet', 'The Blue Dahlia' and 'Lady in the Lake', Cain's 'The Postmen Always Rings Twice' and 'Double Indemnity' as well as Hammett's 'Maltese Falcon' were absolutely fundamental to not only the introduction, but the establishment of the genre. It is equally certain that Orson Welles' brilliant 'Touch of Evil' [1958] essentially marked the end of Film Noir in American Cinema.

@@thesoultwins72 Thank you for the reply! Basically I agree with that and my understand about film noir is not very different. I don't understand which film I listed is not truly film noir in your mind.

I think it's best to keep in mind that media is not just categorized by history or influence, though those aspects are helpful it's also important to categorize by taste or appeal hence genres. I think it's okay if people just include works from all over time if they appeal to the same tastes, via film noir as a genre and including neo-noir as it were. People can just really like Film Noir movies and want to see more of them regardless of when they came out.

Zaphero I definitely see where you’re going with that, but I think in that case it would be more useful to make a separate list: something like “after noir” so you can work your way through the original noir movement and then have more afterwards. It’s just so often I find film noir lists with Chinatown and Seven and those are great movies but so far removed from the period that I’m looking for when I look for noir

@@FlippytheMasterofPie Wouldn't the best approach be having subbranches or subgenres of Noir then? Like how about the 30s-50s Noirs are called "Classic Noirs" or "Early Noirs", that way you could just specify those to find them and have the ones past that period be called "neo-noirs" as a subbranch. I don't think it's a good idea to specify the old as just "Noir" with all past that period being "Neo-noir" when they appeal to largely the same tastes with shared roots; that can result in elitism from those who hear those designations, not viewing newer entrees as "true Noir".

I'd concur with that and say it's a movement in style too. A style that spilled over from the crime genre to other genres, such as the "Woman's Picture", 'Mildred Pierce', the Western, 'the Ox-Bow Incident' (1943) and 'Pursued' (1947) and even the fantasy genre in the classic Faustian tale 'Alias Nick Beal' (1949).

@@antiserjanus8016 ox bow is nowhere near noir

You think _that_ makes the relationship between the two men _the_ "central theme"? Srly?

Yes, the bleakest of them all, without question.

bleakest of them all? I would nominate Detour. In my review I started with " Just about the most bleak, claustrophobic, downbeat, nightmarish, fatalistic noir ever made. And in the midst of all this is one of the most riveting female performances in American cinema of the 40's." Or perhaps Kiss Me Deadly with almost no sympathetic characters, including Mike Hammer

i always felt that the batman series has a very interesting relationship with the noir genre.

I love The Big Sleep, a unusually upbeat Film Noir.

They robbed you at film school because technically 'The Maltese Falcon' isn't an example of Film Noir.

@@stephencarter7266 how is it not?

@crobeastness It _just_ isn't. Look, you either _get_ Film Noir or you don't (and must rely on other people's opinions on what FN is). I'm smarter than your professors at film school, so just take my word for it, 'The Maltese Falcon' isn't Film Noir, that's all. No offense.

@@stephencarter7266 you actually quite literally knowing nothing of this genre. film noir is typically shot with stark lighting that results in areas of intense darkness and shadows and unbalanced compositions. Thematically, film noir often involves crime, mystery, cynicism, betrayal, and antihero characters, and usually features a femme fatale. The Maltese Falcon is widely regarded as the first film noir. It's not because there are a few that came before it, it's the first famous one that lived on to have a legacy whereas the ones that came before it have been forgotten about. Either way, no rational person on earth who claims to know anything about film noir would even consider regarding The Maltese Falcon not a film noir. You have to literally justify your reasoning. You can't just reply to me in a condescending tone without at least telling me exactly why I'm wrong.

I have always put Mildred Pierce in my noir category. It has the crime, the imperfect characters, the dark sense of foreboding through a lot of it.

No.

Thank you, it's actually really important that kind of thing is factually correct

@@onehundredyearsofcinema Absolutely, because it can undermine your credibility in other subjects.

YES! I have had a bit of a strange few months, but I am picking things up again real soon. There should be a video out before the end of this month.

@@onehundredyearsofcinema Looking forward to it as ever mate !