A blend of smooth jazz music and tobacco smoke fills the air as the silhouette of a trench coat and fedora-clad bystander trudges down a dark city corridor, accompanied only by his shadow. A scene like this can only mean one thing: you are watching a noir film.
While these stylistic elements are common to classics like The Big Sleep or The Maltese Falcon, not all of the genre’s finest entries are so “black and white,” such as “Neo-noir” thrillers like Drive or Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. Those are just a few esteemed favorites on our list of the best film noir movies below.
Chinatown (1974)
A Los Angeles private investigator (Academy Award winner Jack Nicholson) who specializes in cases involving adultery is drawn into a dangerous conspiracy.
Why it is one of the best film noir movies: Had Chinatown been released 30 or 40 years earlier, this clever, Oscar-winning mystery – one of the best thrillers on Netflix currently – would have fit right in with other detective dramas of the time.
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Buy Chinatown on Blu-ray on Amazon.
White Heat (1949)
After narrowly escaping prison, psychopathic mama’s boy (James Cagney) leads his old crew in a dangerous plot to steal from a chemical plant.
Why it is one of the best film noir movies: Cagney gives one of his most iconic and unforgettably vicious performances in White Heat – a chilling crime thriller from director Raoul Walsh.
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Buy White Heat on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Looper (2012)
A mafia hitman (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who specializes in taking out targets who are sent back from the future makes a costly mistake when he discovers his latest assignment is his future self (Bruce Willis).
Why it is one of the best film noir movies: Writer and director Rian Johnson works his genre-bending magic by delivering both a cool, exciting crime thriller and an instant time travel movie classic with Looper.
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Buy Looper on Blu-ray on Amazon.
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
A woman (Lana Turner) falls for a drifter (John Garfield), whom she then enlists to help murder her husband.
Why it is one of the best film noir movies: One of the most beautifully executed examples of the classic “girl meets boy, girl convinces boy to kill her spouse” film noir set-up comes from director Tay Garnett’s The Postman Always Rings Twice – the original adaptation of James M. Cain’s novel.
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Buy The Postman Always Rings Twice on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Devil In A Blue Dress (1995)
A World War II veteran (Academy Award winner Denzel Washington) is hired to find a mayoral candidate’s mistress, only to uncover an even more troubling case in 1940s Los Angeles.
Why it is one of the best film noir movies: One of the most underrated Black characters in detective fiction made his cinematic debut in Devil in a Blue Dress – Carl Franklin’s adaptation of Walter Mosley’s first novel to feature Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins.
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Buy Devil in a Blue Dress on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Double Indemnity (1944)
An insurance executive (Fred MacMurray) is seduced by a beautiful woman (Barbara Stanwyck) into killing her husband to receive his insurance benefits.
Why it is one of the best film noir movies: Directed by the legendary Billy Wilder, the Oscar-nominated Double Indemnity is one of the most definitive noirs of its time for its breakneck suspense, compelling romance, and sharp dialogue from Wilder and co-writer Raymond Chandler’s script, which was adapted from James M. Cain’s novel.
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Buy Double Indemnity on Blu-ray on Amazon.
The Big Sleep (1946)
A boozy, wise-cracking, hard-boiled private eye (Academy Award winner Humphrey Bogart) is hired by a wealthy family to investigate a case that comes to involve blackmail, murder, organized crime, and more.
Why it is one of the best film noir movies: Bogart would become the definitive image of author Raymond Chandler’s famous detective character, Phillip Marlowe, after leading Howard Hawks’ adaptation of The Big Sleep, which Joel and Ethan Coen have cited as an influence for The Big Lebowski, according to IndieWire.
Rent or buy The Big Sleep on Amazon.
Buy The Big Sleep on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
A thief (Academy Award winner Robert Downey Jr.) accidentally walks into an audition for a detective movie and, for research, is paired with a Hollywood P.I. (Val Kilmer) with whom he becomes embroiled in a case involving his childhood crush (Michelle Monaghan).
Why it is one of the best film noir movies: One of the more beloved comedy/mystery thriller hybrids in recent memory is Kiss Kiss Bang Bang – the stunning directorial debut of Shane Black, which he adapted from Brett Halliday’s novel Bodies Are Where You Find Them, and was called Downey Jr’s best film by the actor himself.
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Buy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang on Blu-ray on Amazon.
The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)
A barber (Billy Bob Thornton) hatches a plan to benefit from his wife’s (Frances McDormand) affair with her boss (James Gandolfini), which backfires horribly.
Why it is one of the best film noir movies: One of the best Coen Brothers movies, The Man Who Wasn’t There, has everything, including blackmail, murder, a 1940s-setting, and Oscar-nominated grayscale cinematography by Roger Deakins, but with a few refreshing (and bizarre) surprises that break tradition.
Rent or buy The Man Who Wasn’t There on Amazon.
Buy The Man Who Wasn’t There on Blu-ray on Amazon.
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
A San Francisco private detective (Humphrey Bogart) comes across an assembly of people who are vying to obtain a supposedly priceless artifact.
Why it is one of the best film noir movies: Before he played Phillip Marlowe, Bogart portrayed another iconic movie detective named Samuel Spade in writer and director John Huston’s adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon.
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Buy The Maltese Falcon on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Rope (1948)
Two men (John Dall and Farley Granger) throw a dinner party just to prove they committed the perfect crime.
Why it is one of the best film noir movies: Before he became known for making some of the best horror movies of all time, Alfred Hitchcock proved his noir mastery with Rope – an adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s play that also stars Jimmy Stewart in the lead role and is shot to appear as if filmed in one continuous take.
Rent or buy Rope on Amazon.
Buy Rope on Blu-ray on Amazon.
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
An American doctor (James Stewart) and his wife (Doris Day) take a trip to Paris that is ruined when they witness a murder and only worsened by the kidnapping of their adolescent son (Christopher Olsen).
Why it is one of the best film noir movies: Featuring Day’s memorable performance of “Que Sera Sera,” The Man Who Knew Too Much is further proof that by pairing Stewart with director Alfred Hitchcock is sure to deliver chills.
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Buy The Man Who Knew Too Much on Blu-ray on Amazon.
The Third Man (1949)
An American pulp fiction writer (Joseph Cotten) seeks the truth behind the suspicious death of his friend in Vienna when disparate witness accounts do not add up.
Why it is one of the best film noir movies: The legendary Orson Welles plays the victim at the center of The Third Man – a stirring murder mystery from director Carol Reed, whose visual style was especially influential to the film noir genre.
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Buy The Third Man on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Touch Of Evil (1958)
While investigating a bombing on the U.S./Mexican border, a DEA agent (Charlton Heston) begins to suspect ill of an American police captain, which proves worrisome for him and his wife (Janet Leigh) as more secrets come to light.
Why it is one of the best film noir movies: Orson Welles plays the corrupt cop at the center of Touch of Evil, which he also wrote and directed into a gripping, visually stunning adaptation of Whit Masterson’s novel, Badge of Evil.
Rent or buy Touch of Evil on Amazon.
Buy Touch of Evil on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Strangers On A Train (1951)
A married tennis star (Farley Granger) who would rather be with a U.S. senator’s daughter meets a man (Robert Walker) who offers to kill his spouse if the athlete kills his father.
Why it is one of the best film noir movies: This deadly bargain is the premise of Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal psychological thriller Strangers on a Train – an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel written in part by Raymond Chandler.
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Buy Strangers on a Train on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Brick (2005)
A vengeful loner (Joseph Gordon-Levitt in one of his best Rian Johnson movie roles) infiltrates a teen criminal underworld in order to solve his girlfriend’s death.
Why it is one of the best film noir movies: Writer and director Johnson’s mesmerizing debut, Brick, takes all the same themes, archetypes, and language of an old school detective tale, but reimagines them into a one-a-kind, modern-day high school movie.
Rent or buy Brick on Amazon.
Buy Brick on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Memento (2000)
A former insurance investigator (Guy Pearce) struggles to solve his wife’s death, despite having a condition that makes him unable to remember anything that happened to him just a moment earlier.
Why it is one of the best film noir movies: Writer and director Christopher Nolan crafts an incredibly fascinating and highly suspenseful mystery and one of the best movies of the 2000s with Memento by telling the story backwards, putting us in the protagonist’s headspace.
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Buy Memento on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Sin City (2005)
A disgraced former detective (Bruce Willis), a brutish ex-con (Mickey Rourke), and other hardened characters meet their fates in a dingy, crime-ridden metropolis.
Why it is one of the best film noir movies: Frank Miller’s Sin City already captured the essence of film noir so perfectly that he and Robert Rodriguez opted to, instead of merely adapting the graphic novel series, bring it to life on screen with a strikingly unique aesthetic that makes it one of the best non-superhero comic book movies ever made.
Stream Sin City on Paramount+ with a Showtime add-on.
Rent or buy Sin City on Amazon.
Buy Sin City on Blu-ray on Amazon.
North By Northwest (1959)
A case of mistaken identity leads a New York City advertising executive (Cary Grant) to go on the run from International spies.
Why it is one of the best film noir movies: Even those who have never seen the breathless thrill ride that is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s best movies, North By Northwest, can instantly recognize it from the iconic, heart-stopping scene in which Grant’s character just barely dodges a plane flying right at him.
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Buy North By Northwest on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Drive (2011)
A Hollywood stuntman by day and getaway driver by night (Academy Award nominee Ryan Gosling) puts himself in jeopardy trying to protect the woman of his dreams (Academy Award nominee Carey Mulligan) and her family.
Why it is one of the best film noir movies: The best Neo-noir thrillers challenge the conventions of the originals while honoring and reflecting what made them so powerful to begin with and director Nicolas Winding Refn absolutely nails that intent with one of Ryan Gosling’s best movies, Drive.
Rent or buy Drive on Amazon.
Buy Drive on Blu-ray on Amazon.
Movies do not get much darker than this – hence the name “film noir.” However, darkness never shined as brightly as in these amazing titles.
