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Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish
Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...
crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ''film noir''. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key,
black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...
visual style that has roots in
German Expressionist German Expressionism () consisted of several related creative movements in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin during the 1920s. These developments were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central ...
cinematography Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens to fo ...
. Many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the
hardboiled Hardboiled (or hard-boiled) fiction is a literary genre that shares some of its characters and settings with crime fiction (especially detective fiction and noir fiction). The genre's typical protagonist is a detective who battles the violence ...
school of
crime fiction Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...
that emerged in the United States during the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagion ...
. The term ''film noir'', French for 'black film' (literal) or 'dark film' (closer meaning), was first applied to Hollywood films by French critic
Nino Frank Nino Frank (born 27 June 1904 in Barletta, Italy − Paris, 17 August 1988) was an Italian-born French film critic and writer who was most active in the 1930s and 1940s. Frank is best known for being the first film critic to use the term "film no ...
in 1946, but was unrecognized by most American film industry professionals of that era. Frank is believed to have been inspired by the French literary publishing imprint
Série noire ''Série noire'' is a French publishing imprint, founded in 1945 by Marcel Duhamel. It has released a collection of crime fiction of the hardboiled detective thrillers variety published by Gallimard. Anglo-American literature forms the bulk ...
, founded in 1945. Cinema historians and critics defined the category retrospectively. Before the notion was widely adopted in the 1970s, many of the classic films noir were referred to as "
melodrama A modern melodrama is a dramatic work in which the plot, typically sensationalized and for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or exce ...
s". Whether film noir qualifies as a distinct
genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other f ...
or whether it is more of a filmmaking style is a matter of ongoing debate among scholars. Film noir encompasses a range of plots: the central figure may be a private investigator (''
The Big Sleep ''The Big Sleep'' (1939) is a hardboiled crime novel by American-British writer Raymond Chandler, the first to feature the detective Philip Marlowe. It has been adapted for film twice, in 1946 and again in 1978. The story is set in Los Ange ...
''), a plainclothes police officer (''
The Big Heat ''The Big Heat'' is a 1953 American film noir crime film directed by Fritz Lang starring Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, and Jocelyn Brando about a cop who takes on the crime syndicate that controls his city. William P. McGivern's serial in ''The S ...
''), an aging boxer ('' The Set-Up''), a hapless
grifter A grifter may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Grifters (band), a 1990s American indie rock band * ''The Grifters'' (novel), a 1963 American novel by Jim Thompson * ''The Grifters'' (film), a 1990 American adaptation of the novel * Grifter ( ...
(''
Night and the City ''Night and the City'' is a 1950 film noir directed by Jules Dassin and starring Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney and Googie Withers. It is based on the novel of the same name by Gerald Kersh. Shot on location in London and at Shepperton Studi ...
''), a law-abiding citizen lured into a life of crime (''
Gun Crazy ''Gun Crazy'' (also known as ''Deadly Is the Female'') is a 1950 American crime film noir starring Peggy Cummins and John Dall in a story about the crime-spree of a gun-toting husband and wife. It was directed by Joseph H. Lewis, and produced b ...
''), or simply a victim of circumstance ('' D.O.A.''). Although film noir was originally associated with American productions, the term has been used to describe films from around the world. Many films released from the 1960s onward share attributes with films noir of the classical period, and often treat its conventions self-referentially. Some refer to such latter-day works as
neo-noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating s ...
. The clichés of film noir have inspired parody since the mid-1940s.


Definition

The questions of what defines film noir, and what sort of category it is, provoke continuing debate. "We'd be oversimplifying things in calling film noir
oneiric Oneiric most commonly refers to: * Dreams, during sleep * Oneirology, the science of dreams Oneiric may also refer to: * Oneiric (film theory), dreams as a metaphor for film—or in critiques thereof * ''Oneiric'' (album), 2006, by Boxcutter * ' ...
, strange, erotic, ambivalent, and cruel ..."—this set of attributes constitutes the first of many attempts to define film noir made by French critics Raymond Borde and Étienne Chaumeton in their 1955 book ''Panorama du film noir américain 1941–1953'' (''A Panorama of American Film Noir''), the original and seminal extended treatment of the subject. They emphasize that not every film noir embodies all five attributes in equal measure—one might be more dreamlike; another, particularly brutal. The authors' caveats and repeated efforts at alternative definition have been echoed in subsequent scholarship: in the more than five decades since, there have been innumerable further attempts at definition, yet in the words of cinema historian Mark Bould, film noir remains an "elusive phenomenon ... always just out of reach". Though film noir is often identified with a visual style, unconventional within a Hollywood context, that emphasizes
low-key lighting Low-key lighting is a style of lighting for photography, film or television. It is a necessary element in creating a chiaroscuro effect. Traditional photographic lighting (three-point lighting) uses a key light, a fill light and a back light fo ...
and unbalanced compositions, films commonly identified as noir evidence a variety of visual approaches, including ones that fit comfortably within the Hollywood mainstream. Film noir similarly embraces a variety of genres, from the
gangster film A gangster film or gangster movie is a film belonging to a genre that focuses on gangs and organized crime. It is a subgenre of crime film, that may involve large criminal organizations, or small gangs formed to perform a certain illegal act. Th ...
to the
police procedural The police show, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the protagonist(s), as contrasted with other genres that focus on eithe ...
to the
gothic romance Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of ea ...
to the social problem picture—any example of which from the 1940s and 1950s, now seen as noir's classical era, was likely to be described as a melodrama at the time. While many critics refer to film noir as a genre itself, others argue that it can be no such thing. Foster Hirsch defines a genre as determined by "conventions of narrative structure, characterization, theme, and visual design". Hirsch, as one who has taken the position that film noir is a genre, argues that these elements are present "in abundance". Hirsch notes that there are unifying features of tone, visual style and narrative sufficient to classify noir as a distinct genre. Others argue that film noir is not a genre. Film noir is often associated with an urban setting, but many classic noirs take place in small towns, suburbia, rural areas, or on the open road; setting, therefore, cannot be its genre determinant, as with the
Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...
. Similarly, while the
private eye ''Private Eye'' is a British fortnightly satirical and current affairs news magazine, founded in 1961. It is published in London and has been edited by Ian Hislop since 1986. The publication is widely recognised for its prominent criticism a ...
and the
femme fatale A ''femme fatale'' ( or ; ), sometimes called a maneater or vamp, is a stock character of a mysterious, beautiful, and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, deadly traps. She is an archetype of ...
are
stock character A stock character, also known as a character archetype, is a fictional character in a work of art such as a novel, play, or a film whom audiences recognize from frequent recurrences in a particular literary tradition. There is a wide range of s ...
types conventionally identified with noir, the majority of films noir feature neither; so there is no character basis for genre designation as with the gangster film. Nor does film noir rely on anything as evident as the monstrous or supernatural elements of the
horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, ap ...
, the speculative leaps of the
science fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interste ...
, or the song-and-dance routines of the
musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...
. An analogous case is that of the
screwball comedy Screwball comedy is a subgenre of the romantic comedy genre that became popular during the Great Depression, beginning in the early 1930s and thriving until the early 1940s, that satirizes the traditional love story. It has secondary characteristi ...
, widely accepted by film historians as constituting a "genre": the screwball is defined not by a fundamental attribute, but by a general disposition and a group of elements, some—but rarely and perhaps never all—of which are found in each of the genre's films. Because of the diversity of noir (much greater than that of the screwball comedy), certain scholars in the field, such as film historian Thomas Schatz, treat it as not a genre but a "style".
Alain Silver Alain Silver is a US film producer, director, and screenwriter; music producer; film critic, film historian, DVD commentator, author and editor of books and essays on film topics, especially film noir, the samurai film, and horror films. Filmma ...
, the most widely published American critic specializing in film noir studies, refers to film noir as a "cycle" and a "phenomenon", even as he argues that it has—like certain genres—a consistent set of visual and thematic codes. Screenwriter
Eric R. Williams Eric R. Williams is an American screenwriter, professor, cinematic virtual reality director, and new media storyteller. He is known for developing alternative narrative and documentary techniques that take advantage of digital technologies.Binst ...
labels both film noir and screwball comedy a "pathway" in his screenwriters taxonomy; explaining that a pathway has two parts: 1) the way the audience connects with the protagonist and 2) the trajectory the audience expects the story to follow. Other critics treat film noir as a "mood", characterize it as a "series", or simply address a chosen set of films they regard as belonging to the noir "canon". There is no consensus on the matter.


Background


Cinematic sources

The aesthetics of film noir were influenced by
German Expressionism German Expressionism () consisted of several related creative movements in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin during the 1920s. These developments were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central ...
, an artistic movement of the 1910s and 1920s that involved theater, music, photography, painting, sculpture and architecture, as well as cinema. The opportunities offered by the booming Hollywood film industry and then the threat of
Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Naz ...
sm led to the emigration of many film artists working in Germany who had been involved in the Expressionist movement or studied with its practitioners. '' M'' (1931), shot only a few years before director
Fritz Lang Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 6 ...
's departure from Germany, is among the first crime films of the
sound era A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...
to join a characteristically noirish visual style with a noir-type plot, in which the protagonist is a criminal (as are his most successful pursuers). Directors such as Lang,
Jacques Tourneur Jacques Tourneur (; November 12, 1904 – December 19, 1977) was a French film director known for the classic film noir '' Out of the Past'' and a series of low-budget horror films he made for RKO Studios, including '' Cat People'', ''I Walked ...
,
Robert Siodmak Robert Siodmak (; 8 August 1900 – 10 March 1973) was a German film director who also worked in the United States. He is best remembered as a thriller specialist and for a series of films noirs he made in the 1940s, such as ''The Killers'' (1 ...
and
Michael Curtiz Michael Curtiz ( ; born Manó Kaminer; since 1905 Mihály Kertész; hu, Kertész Mihály; December 24, 1886 April 10, 1962) was a Hungarian-American film director, recognized as one of the most prolific directors in history. He directed cla ...
brought a dramatically shadowed lighting style and a psychologically expressive approach to visual composition (''
mise-en-scène ''Mise-en-scène'' (; en, "placing on stage" or "what is put into the scene") is the stage design and arrangement of actors in scenes for a theatre or film production, both in visual arts through storyboarding, visual theme, and cinematography, a ...
'') with them to Hollywood, where they made some of the most famous classic noirs. By 1931, Curtiz had already been in Hollywood for half a decade, making as many as six films a year. Movies of his such as '' 20,000 Years in Sing Sing'' (1932) and ''
Private Detective 62 ''Private Detective 62'' is a 1933 American pre-Code detective film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring William Powell as a private detective who falls for a woman whom he has been hired to frame in a scandal. Plot In France, United States ...
'' (1933) are among the early Hollywood sound films arguably classifiable as noir—scholar Marc Vernet offers the latter as evidence that dating the initiation of film noir to 1940 or any other year is "arbitrary". Expressionism-orientated filmmakers had free stylistic rein in Universal horror pictures such as ''
Dracula ''Dracula'' is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. As an epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist, but opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking ...
'' (1931), '' The Mummy'' (1932)—the former photographed and the latter directed by the Berlin-trained
Karl Freund Karl W. Freund, A.S.C. (January 16, 1890 – May 3, 1969) was an Austrian cinematographer and film director best known for photographing ''Metropolis'' (1927), ''Dracula'' (1931), and television's ''I Love Lucy'' (1951-1957). Freund was an innov ...
—and '' The Black Cat'' (1934), directed by Austrian émigré
Edgar G. Ulmer Edgar Georg Ulmer (; September 17, 1904 – September 30, 1972) was a Jewish- Moravian, Austrian- American film director who mainly worked on Hollywood B movies and other low-budget productions, eventually earning the epithet 'The King of PR ...
. The Universal horror film that comes closest to noir, in story and sensibility, is ''
The Invisible Man ''The Invisible Man'' is a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells. Originally serialized in ''Pearson's Weekly'' in 1897, it was published as a novel the same year. The Invisible Man to whom the title refers is Griffin, a scientist who has devote ...
'' (1933), directed by Englishman
James Whale James Whale (22 July 1889 – 29 May 1957) was an English film director, theatre director and actor, who spent the greater part of his career in Hollywood. He is best remembered for several horror films: ''Frankenstein'' (1931), '' The Old ...
and photographed by American Arthur Edeson. Edeson later photographed '' The Maltese Falcon'' (1941), widely regarded as the first major film noir of the classic era.
Josef von Sternberg Josef von Sternberg (; born Jonas Sternberg; May 29, 1894 – December 22, 1969) was an Austrian-American filmmaker whose career successfully spanned the transition from the silent to the sound era, during which he worked with most of the major ...
was directing in Hollywood during the same period. Films of his such as '' Shanghai Express'' (1932) and '' The Devil Is a Woman'' (1935), with their hothouse eroticism and baroque visual style anticipated central elements of classic noir. The commercial and critical success of Sternberg's silent ''
Underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...
'' (1927) was largely responsible for spurring a trend of Hollywood gangster films. Successful films in that genre such as '' Little Caesar'' (1931), ''
The Public Enemy ''The Public Enemy'' (''Enemies of the Public'' in the UK) is a 1931 American all-talking pre-Code gangster film produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The film was directed by William A. Wellman and stars James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Edwar ...
'' (1931) and '' Scarface'' (1932) demonstrated that there was an audience for crime dramas with morally reprehensible protagonists. An important, possibly influential, cinematic antecedent to classic noir was 1930s French
poetic realism Poetic realism was a film movement in France of the 1930s. More a tendency than a movement, poetic realism is not strongly unified like Soviet montage or French Impressionism but were individuals who created this lyrical style. Its leading film ...
, with its romantic,
fatalistic Fatalism is a family of related philosophical doctrines that stress the subjugation of all events or actions to fate or destiny, and is commonly associated with the consequent attitude of resignation in the face of future events which are thou ...
attitude and celebration of doomed heroes. The movement's sensibility is mirrored in the
Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
drama ''
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang ''I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang'' is a 1932 American pre-Code crime-drama film directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Paul Muni as a wrongfully convicted man on a chain gang who escapes to Chicago. It was released on November 10, 1932. The ...
'' (1932), a forerunner of noir. Among films not considered noir, perhaps none had a greater effect on the development of the genre than ''
Citizen Kane ''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American drama film produced by, directed by, and starring Orson Welles. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Herman J. Mankiewicz. The picture was Welles' first feature film. ''Citizen Kane'' is frequently cited ...
'' (1941), directed by
Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
. Its visual intricacy and complex,
voiceover Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non-diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations. ...
narrative structure are echoed in dozens of classic films noir.
Italian neorealism Italian neorealism ( it, Neorealismo), also known as the Golden Age, is a national film movement characterized by stories set amongst the poor and the working class. They are filmed on location, frequently with non-professional actors. They pri ...
of the 1940s, with its emphasis on quasi-documentary authenticity, was an acknowledged influence on trends that emerged in American noir. '' The Lost Weekend'' (1945), directed by
Billy Wilder Billy Wilder (; ; born Samuel Wilder; June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an Austrian-American filmmaker. His career in Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Classic Holly ...
, another Vienna-born, Berlin-trained American
auteur An auteur (; , 'author') is an artist with a distinctive approach, usually a film director whose filmmaking control is so unbounded but personal that the director is likened to the "author" of the film, which thus manifests the director's unique ...
, tells the story of an alcoholic in a manner evocative of neorealism. It also exemplifies the problem of classification: one of the first American films to be described as a film noir, it has largely disappeared from considerations of the field. Director
Jules Dassin Julius "Jules" Dassin (December 18, 1911 – March 31, 2008) was an American film and theatre director, producer, writer and actor. A subject of the Hollywood blacklist in the McCarthy era, he subsequently moved to France, and later Greece, whe ...
of ''
The Naked City ''The Naked City'' (aka ''Naked City'') is a 1948 American film noir directed by Jules Dassin, starring Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Duff, Dorothy Hart and Don Taylor. The film, shot almost entirely on location in New York City, depicts the poli ...
'' (1948) pointed to the neorealists as inspiring his use of location photography with non-professional extras. This semidocumentary approach characterized a substantial number of noirs in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Along with neorealism, the style had an American precedent cited by Dassin, in director
Henry Hathaway Henry Hathaway (March 13, 1898 – February 11, 1985) was an American film director and producer. He is best known as a director of Westerns, especially starring Randolph Scott and John Wayne. He directed Gary Cooper in seven films. Backgroun ...
's ''
The House on 92nd Street ''The House on 92nd Street'' is a 1945 black-and-white American spy film directed by Henry Hathaway. The movie, shot mostly in New York City, was released shortly after the end of World War II. ''The House on 92nd Street'' was made with the full c ...
'' (1945), which demonstrated the parallel influence of the cinematic newsreel.


Literary sources

The primary literary influence on film noir was the
hardboiled Hardboiled (or hard-boiled) fiction is a literary genre that shares some of its characters and settings with crime fiction (especially detective fiction and noir fiction). The genre's typical protagonist is a detective who battles the violence ...
school of American
detective A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads the ...
and
crime fiction Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...
, led in its early years by such writers as
Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...
(whose first novel, ''
Red Harvest ''Red Harvest'' (1929) is a novel by Dashiell Hammett. The story is narrated by the Continental Op, a frequent character in Hammett's fiction, much of which is drawn from his own experiences as an operative of the Pinkerton Detective Agency (f ...
'', was published in 1929) and James M. Cain (whose '' The Postman Always Rings Twice'' appeared five years later), and popularized in
pulp magazine Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazine ...
s such as '' Black Mask''. The classic film noirs '' The Maltese Falcon'' (1941) and ''
The Glass Key ''The Glass Key'' is a novel by American writer Dashiell Hammett. First published as a serial in '' Black Mask'' magazine in 1930, it then was collected in 1931 (in London; the American edition followed 3 months later). It tells the story of a ga ...
'' (1942) were based on novels by Hammett; Cain's novels provided the basis for ''
Double Indemnity ''Double Indemnity'' is a 1944 American crime film noir directed by Billy Wilder, co-written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, and produced by Buddy DeSylva and Joseph Sistrom. The screenplay was based on James M. Cain's 1943 novel of the same t ...
'' (1944), ''
Mildred Pierce ''Mildred Pierce'' is a psychological drama by James M. Cain published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1941. A story of “social inequity and opportunity in America" set during the Great Depression, ''Mildred Pierce'' follows the trajectory of a lower ...
'' (1945), '' The Postman Always Rings Twice'' (1946), and '' Slightly Scarlet'' (1956; adapted from ''Love's Lovely Counterfeit''). A decade before the classic era, a story by Hammett was the source for the gangster melodrama '' City Streets'' (1931), directed by
Rouben Mamoulian Rouben Zachary Mamoulian ( ; hy, Ռուբէն Մամուլեան; October 8, 1897 – December 4, 1987) was an American film and theatre director. Early life Mamoulian was born in Tiflis, Russian Empire, to a family of Armenian descent. H ...
and photographed by Lee Garmes, who worked regularly with Sternberg. Released the month before Lang's ''M'', ''City Streets'' has a claim to being the first major film noir; both its style and story had many noir characteristics.
Raymond Chandler Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...
, who debuted as a novelist with ''
The Big Sleep ''The Big Sleep'' (1939) is a hardboiled crime novel by American-British writer Raymond Chandler, the first to feature the detective Philip Marlowe. It has been adapted for film twice, in 1946 and again in 1978. The story is set in Los Ange ...
'' in 1939, soon became the most famous author of the hardboiled school. Not only were Chandler's novels turned into major noirs—''
Murder, My Sweet ''Murder, My Sweet'' (released as ''Farewell, My Lovely'' in the United Kingdom) is a 1944 American film noir, directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Dick Powell, Claire Trevor and Anne Shirley (in her final film before retirement). The fi ...
'' (1944; adapted from ''
Farewell, My Lovely ''Farewell, My Lovely'' is a novel by Raymond Chandler, published in 1940, the second novel he wrote featuring the Los Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe. It was adapted for the screen three times and was also adapted for the stage and radio. ...
''), ''
The Big Sleep ''The Big Sleep'' (1939) is a hardboiled crime novel by American-British writer Raymond Chandler, the first to feature the detective Philip Marlowe. It has been adapted for film twice, in 1946 and again in 1978. The story is set in Los Ange ...
'' (1946), and ''
Lady in the Lake ''Lady in the Lake'' is a 1947 American film noir starring Robert Montgomery, Audrey Totter, Lloyd Nolan, Tom Tully, Leon Ames and Jayne Meadows. An adaptation of the 1943 Raymond Chandler murder mystery ''The Lady in the Lake'', the pictur ...
'' (1947)—he was an important
screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. T ...
in the genre as well, producing the scripts for ''Double Indemnity'', '' The Blue Dahlia'' (1946), and '' Strangers on a Train'' (1951). Where Chandler, like Hammett, centered most of his novels and stories on the character of the private eye, Cain featured less heroic protagonists and focused more on psychological exposition than on crime solving; the Cain approach has come to be identified with a subset of the hardboiled genre dubbed "
noir fiction Noir fiction (or roman noir) is a subgenre of crime fiction. Definition In its modern form, noir has come to denote a marked darkness in theme and subject matter, generally featuring a disturbing mixture of sex and violence and death in som ...
". For much of the 1940s, one of the most prolific and successful authors of this often downbeat brand of suspense tale was
Cornell Woolrich Cornell George Hopley Woolrich ( ; December 4, 1903 – September 25, 1968) was an American novelist and short story writer. He sometimes used the pseudonyms William Irish and George Hopley. His biographer, Francis Nevins Jr., rated Woolrich the ...
(sometimes under the pseudonym George Hopley or William Irish). No writer's published work provided the basis for more films noir of the classic period than Woolrich's: thirteen in all, including '' Black Angel'' (1946), ''
Deadline at Dawn ''Deadline at Dawn'' is a 1946 American film noir, the only film directed by stage director Harold Clurman. It was written by Clifford Odets and based on a novel of the same name by Cornell Woolrich (as William Irish). The RKO Pictures film rele ...
'' (1946), and '' Fear in the Night'' (1947). Another crucial literary source for film noir was
W. R. Burnett William Riley Burnett (November 25, 1899 April 25, 1982) was an American novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for the crime novel ''Little Caesar'', the film adaptation of which is considered the first of the classic American gangster m ...
, whose first novel to be published was ''Little Caesar'', in 1929. It was turned into a hit for
Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
in 1931; the following year, Burnett was hired to write dialogue for ''Scarface'', while ''
The Beast of the City ''The Beast of the City'' is a 1932 American pre-Code gangster film featuring cops as vigilantes and known for its singularly vicious ending. Written by W.R. Burnett, Ben Hecht (uncredited), and John Lee Mahin, and directed by Charles Brabin, t ...
'' (1932) was adapted from one of his stories. At least one important reference work identifies the latter as a film noir despite its early date. Burnett's characteristic narrative approach fell somewhere between that of the quintessential hardboiled writers and their noir fiction compatriots—his protagonists were often heroic in their own way, which happened to be that of the gangster. During the classic era, his work, either as author or screenwriter, was the basis for seven films now widely regarded as films noir, including three of the most famous: '' High Sierra'' (1941), ''
This Gun for Hire ''This Gun for Hire'' is a 1942 American film noir crime film directed by Frank Tuttle and starring Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, Laird Cregar, and Alan Ladd. It is based on the 1936 novel '' A Gun for Sale'' by Graham Greene (published in A ...
'' (1942), and ''
The Asphalt Jungle ''The Asphalt Jungle'' is a 1950 American film noir heist film directed by John Huston. Based on the 1949 novel of the same name by W. R. Burnett, it tells the story of a jewel robbery in a Midwestern city. The film stars Sterling Hayden and Lo ...
'' (1950).


Classic period


Overview

The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the classic period of American film noir. While ''City Streets'' and other pre-WWII crime melodramas such as '' Fury'' (1936) and '' You Only Live Once'' (1937), both directed by Fritz Lang, are categorized as full-fledged noir in Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward's film noir' encyclopedia, other critics tend to describe them as "proto-noir" or in similar terms. The film now most commonly cited as the first "true" film noir is '' Stranger on the Third Floor'' (1940), directed by Latvian-born, Soviet-trained Boris Ingster.See, e.g., Ballinger and Graydon (2007), p. 19; Irwin (2006), p. 210; Lyons (2000), p. 36; Porfirio (1980), p. 269. Hungarian émigré
Peter Lorre Peter Lorre (; born László Löwenstein, ; June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was a Hungarian and American actor, first in Europe and later in the United States. He began his stage career in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before movi ...
—who had starred in Lang's '' M''—was top-billed, although he did not play the primary lead. (He later played secondary roles in several other formative American noirs.) Although modestly budgeted, at the high end of the
B movie A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featu ...
scale, ''Stranger on the Third Floor'' still lost its studio,
RKO RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orph ...
, US$56,000 (), almost a third of its total cost. ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' magazine found Ingster's work: "...too studied and when original, lacks the flare to hold attention. It's a film too arty for average audiences, and too humdrum for others." ''Stranger on the Third Floor'' was not recognized as the beginning of a trend, let alone a new genre, for many decades. Most film noirs of the classic period were similarly low- and modestly-budgeted features without major stars—
B movies A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featur ...
either literally or in spirit. In this production context, writers, directors, cinematographers, and other craftsmen were relatively free from typical big-picture constraints. There was more visual experimentation than in Hollywood filmmaking as a whole: the Expressionism now closely associated with noir and the semi-documentary style that later emerged represent two very different tendencies. Narrative structures sometimes involved convoluted flashbacks uncommon in non-noir commercial productions. In terms of content, enforcement of the
Production Code The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the ...
ensured that no film character could literally get away with murder or be seen sharing a bed with anyone but a spouse; within those bounds, however, many films now identified as noir feature plot elements and dialogue that were very risqué for the time. Thematically, films noir were most exceptional for the relative frequency with which they centered on portrayals of women of questionable virtue—a focus that had become rare in Hollywood films after the mid-1930s and the end of the
pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorshi ...
era. The signal film in this vein was ''
Double Indemnity ''Double Indemnity'' is a 1944 American crime film noir directed by Billy Wilder, co-written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, and produced by Buddy DeSylva and Joseph Sistrom. The screenplay was based on James M. Cain's 1943 novel of the same t ...
'', directed by Billy Wilder; setting the mold was
Barbara Stanwyck Barbara Stanwyck (; born Ruby Catherine Stevens; July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990) was an American actress, model and dancer. A stage, film, and television star, during her 60-year professional career she was known for her strong, realistic sc ...
's unforgettable
femme fatale A ''femme fatale'' ( or ; ), sometimes called a maneater or vamp, is a stock character of a mysterious, beautiful, and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, deadly traps. She is an archetype of ...
, Phyllis Dietrichson—an apparent nod to
Marlene Dietrich Marie Magdalene "Marlene" DietrichBorn as Maria Magdalena, not Marie Magdalene, according to Dietrich's biography by her daughter, Maria Riva ; however Dietrich's biography by Charlotte Chandler cites "Marie Magdalene" as her birth name . (, ; ...
, who had built her extraordinary career playing such characters for Sternberg. An A-level feature, the film's commercial success and seven
Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology), ...
nominations made it probably the most influential of the early noirs. A slew of now-renowned noir "bad girls" followed, such as those played by
Rita Hayworth Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino; October 17, 1918May 14, 1987) was an American actress, dancer and producer. She achieved fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars, appearing in 61 films over 37 years. The press coined th ...
in ''
Gilda ''Gilda'' is a 1946 American film noir directed by Charles Vidor and starring Rita Hayworth in her signature role and Glenn Ford. The film is known for cinematographer Rudolph Maté's lush photography, costume designer Jean Louis's wardrobe for ...
'' (1946),
Lana Turner Lana Turner ( ; born Julia Jean Turner; February 8, 1921June 29, 1995) was an American actress. Over the course of her nearly 50-year career, she achieved fame as both a pin-up model and a film actress, as well as for her highly publicized per ...
in '' The Postman Always Rings Twice'' (1946),
Ava Gardner Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress. She first signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew critics' attention in 1946 with her perform ...
in ''
The Killers The Killers are an American rock band formed in Las Vegas in 2001 by Brandon Flowers (lead vocals, keyboards, bass) and Dave Keuning (lead guitar, backing vocals). After going through a number of short-term bass players and drummers in the ...
'' (1946), and
Jane Greer Jane Greer (born Bettejane Greer; September 9, 1924 – August 24, 2001) was an American film and television actress best known for her role as ''femme fatale'' Kathie Moffat in the 1947 film noir '' Out of the Past''. In 2009, ''The Guardian'' ...
in ''
Out of the Past ''Out of the Past'' (billed in the United Kingdom as ''Build My Gallows High'') is a 1947 film noir directed by Jacques Tourneur and starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, and Kirk Douglas. The film was adapted by Daniel Mainwaring (using the pseu ...
'' (1947). The iconic noir counterpart to the femme fatale, the private eye, came to the fore in films such as '' The Maltese Falcon'' (1941), with
Humphrey Bogart Humphrey DeForest Bogart (; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film Ins ...
as
Sam Spade Sam Spade is a fictional character and the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel '' The Maltese Falcon''. Spade also appeared in four lesser-known short stories by Hammett. ''The Maltese Falcon'', first published as a serial in the pulp ...
, and ''
Murder, My Sweet ''Murder, My Sweet'' (released as ''Farewell, My Lovely'' in the United Kingdom) is a 1944 American film noir, directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Dick Powell, Claire Trevor and Anne Shirley (in her final film before retirement). The fi ...
'' (1944), with
Dick Powell Richard Ewing Powell (November 14, 1904 – January 2, 1963) was an American actor, musician, producer, director, and studio head. Though he came to stardom as a musical comedy performer, he showed versatility, and successfully transformed into ...
as
Philip Marlowe Philip Marlowe () is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler, who was characteristic of the hardboiled crime fiction genre. The hardboiled crime fiction genre originated in the 1920s, notably in ''Black Mask'' magazine, in which Dashiel ...
. The prevalence of the private eye as a lead character declined in film noir of the 1950s, a period during which several critics describe the form as becoming more focused on extreme psychologies and more exaggerated in general. A prime example is ''
Kiss Me Deadly ''Kiss Me Deadly'' is a 1955 American film noir produced and directed by Robert Aldrich, starring Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart, Juano Hernandez, and Wesley Addy. It also features Maxine Cooper and Cloris Leachman appearing in the ...
'' (1955); based on a novel by
Mickey Spillane Frank Morrison Spillane (; March 9, 1918July 17, 2006), better known as Mickey Spillane, was an American crime novelist, whose stories often feature his signature detective character, Mike Hammer. More than 225 million copies of his books have ...
, the best-selling of all the hardboiled authors, here the protagonist is a private eye, Mike Hammer. As described by
Paul Schrader Paul Joseph Schrader (; born July 22, 1946) is an American screenwriter, film director, and film critic. He first received widespread recognition through his screenplay for Martin Scorsese's ''Taxi Driver'' (1976). He later continued his collabo ...
, "
Robert Aldrich Robert Burgess Aldrich (August 9, 1918 – December 5, 1983) was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. His notable credits include '' Vera Cruz'' (1954), ''Kiss Me Deadly'' (1955), ''The Big Knife'' (1955), '' Autumn L ...
's teasing direction carries ''noir'' to its sleaziest and most perversely erotic. Hammer overturns the underworld in search of the 'great whatsit'
hich Ij ( fa, ايج, also Romanized as Īj; also known as Hich and Īch) is a village in Golabar Rural District, in the Central District of Ijrud County, Zanjan Province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also ...
turns out to be—joke of jokes—an exploding atomic bomb." Orson Welles's baroquely styled ''
Touch of Evil ''Touch of Evil'' is a 1958 American film noir written and directed by Orson Welles, who also stars in the film. The screenplay was loosely based on the contemporary Whit Masterson novel '' Badge of Evil'' (1956). The cast included Charlton He ...
'' (1958) is frequently cited as the last noir of the classic period. Some scholars believe film noir never really ended, but continued to transform even as the characteristic noir visual style began to seem dated and changing production conditions led Hollywood in different directions—in this view, post-1950s films in the noir tradition are seen as part of a continuity with classic noir. A majority of critics, however, regard comparable films made outside the classic era to be something other than genuine film noir. They regard true film noir as belonging to a temporally and geographically limited cycle or period, treating subsequent films that evoke the classics as fundamentally different due to general shifts in filmmaking style and latter-day awareness of noir as a historical source for
allusion Allusion is a figure of speech, in which an object or circumstance from unrelated context is referred to covertly or indirectly. It is left to the audience to make the direct connection. Where the connection is directly and explicitly stated (as ...
. These later films are often called
neo-noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating s ...
.


Directors and the business of noir

While the inceptive noir, ''Stranger on the Third Floor'', was a B picture directed by a virtual unknown, many of the films noir still remembered were A-list productions by well-known film makers. Debuting as a director with '' The Maltese Falcon'' (1941),
John Huston John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...
followed with ''
Key Largo Key Largo ( es, Cayo Largo) is an island in the upper Florida Keys archipelago and is the largest section of the keys, at long. It is one of the northernmost of the Florida Keys in Monroe County, and the northernmost of the keys connected b ...
'' (1948) and ''
The Asphalt Jungle ''The Asphalt Jungle'' is a 1950 American film noir heist film directed by John Huston. Based on the 1949 novel of the same name by W. R. Burnett, it tells the story of a jewel robbery in a Midwestern city. The film stars Sterling Hayden and Lo ...
'' (1950). Opinion is divided on the noir status of several
Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...
thrillers from the era; at least four qualify by consensus: ''
Shadow of a Doubt ''Shadow of a Doubt'' is a 1943 American psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten. Written by Thornton Wilder, Sally Benson, and Alma Reville, the film was nominated for an Academ ...
'' (1943), ''
Notorious Notorious means well known for a negative trait, characteristic, or action. It may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Notorious'' (1946 film), a thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock * ''Notorious'' (1992 film), a TV film re ...
'' (1946), '' Strangers on a Train'' (1951) and ''
The Wrong Man ''The Wrong Man'' is a 1956 American docudrama film noir directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Henry Fonda and Vera Miles. The film was drawn from the true story of an innocent man charged with a crime, as described in the book ''The True Sto ...
'' (1956),
Otto Preminger Otto Ludwig Preminger ( , ; 5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian-American theatre and film director, film producer, and actor. He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre. He first gai ...
's success with '' Laura'' (1944) made his name and helped demonstrate noir's adaptability to a high-gloss
20th Century-Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...
presentation. Among Hollywood's most celebrated directors of the era, arguably none worked more often in a noir mode than Preminger; his other noirs include ''
Fallen Angel In the Abrahamic religions, fallen angels are angels who were expelled from heaven. The literal term "fallen angel" never appears in any Abrahamic religious texts, but is used to describe angels cast out of heaven"Mehdi Azaiez, Gabriel Said R ...
'' (1945), ''
Whirlpool A whirlpool is a body of rotating water produced by opposing currents or a current running into an obstacle. Small whirlpools form when a bath or a sink is draining. More powerful ones formed in seas or oceans may be called maelstroms ( ). ''Vo ...
'' (1949), '' Where the Sidewalk Ends'' (1950) (all for Fox) and '' Angel Face'' (1952). A half-decade after ''Double Indemnity'' and ''The Lost Weekend'', Billy Wilder made ''
Sunset Boulevard Sunset Boulevard is a boulevard in the central and western part of Los Angeles, California, that stretches from the Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades east to Figueroa Street in Downtown Los Angeles. It is a major thoroughfare in t ...
'' (1950) and '' Ace in the Hole'' (1951), noirs that were not so much crime dramas as satires on Hollywood and the news media respectively. ''
In a Lonely Place ''In a Lonely Place'' is a 1950 American film noir directed by Nicholas Ray and starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame, produced for Bogart's Santana Productions. The script was written by Andrew P. Solt from Edmund H. North's adaptation o ...
'' (1950) was
Nicholas Ray Nicholas Ray (born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle Jr., August 7, 1911 – June 16, 1979) was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor best known for the 1955 film '' Rebel Without a Cause.'' He is appreciated for many narrative features p ...
's breakthrough; his other noirs include his debut, '' They Live by Night'' (1948) and ''
On Dangerous Ground ''On Dangerous Ground'' is a 1951 film noir-melodrama starring Robert Ryan and Ida Lupino, directed by Nicholas Ray, and produced by John Houseman. The screenplay was written by A. I. Bezzerides based on the 1945 novel ''Mad with Much Heart,'' ...
'' (1952), noted for their unusually sympathetic treatment of characters alienated from the social mainstream. Orson Welles had notorious problems with financing but his three film noirs were well-budgeted: ''
The Lady from Shanghai ''The Lady from Shanghai'' is a 1947 American film noir directed by Orson Welles (uncredited) and starring Welles, his estranged wife Rita Hayworth, and Everett Sloane. It is based on the novel ''If I Die Before I Wake'' by Sherwood King. Altho ...
'' (1947) received top-level, "prestige" backing, while '' The Stranger'' (1946), his most conventional film, and ''
Touch of Evil ''Touch of Evil'' is a 1958 American film noir written and directed by Orson Welles, who also stars in the film. The screenplay was loosely based on the contemporary Whit Masterson novel '' Badge of Evil'' (1956). The cast included Charlton He ...
'' (1958), an unmistakably personal work, were funded at levels lower but still commensurate with headlining releases. Like ''The Stranger'', Fritz Lang's ''
The Woman in the Window The Woman in the Window may refer to: * ''The Woman in the Window'' (1944 film), a film directed by Fritz Lang * ''The Woman in the Window'' (2021 film), a Joe Wright-directed adaptation of the Finn novel * ''The Woman in the Window'' (novel)
'' (1945) was a production of the independent International Pictures. Lang's follow-up, ''
Scarlet Street ''Scarlet Street'' is a 1945 American film noir directed by Fritz Lang. The screenplay concerns two criminals who take advantage of a middle-aged painter in order to steal his artwork. The film is based on the French novel ''La Chienne'' (literal ...
'' (1945), was one of the few classic noirs to be officially censored: filled with erotic innuendo, it was temporarily banned in Milwaukee, Atlanta and New York State. ''Scarlet Street'' was a semi-independent, cosponsored by Universal and Lang's Diana Productions, of which the film's co-star,
Joan Bennett Joan Geraldine Bennett (February 27, 1910 – December 7, 1990) was an American stage, film, and television actress. She came from a show-business family, one of three acting sisters. Beginning her career on the stage, Bennett appeared in more t ...
, was the second biggest shareholder. Lang, Bennett and her husband, the Universal veteran and Diana production head
Walter Wanger Walter Wanger (born Walter Feuchtwanger; July 11, 1894 – November 18, 1968) was an American film producer active from the 1910s, his career concluding with the turbulent production of ''Cleopatra,'' his last film, in 1963. He began at Paramo ...
, made ''
Secret Beyond the Door ''Secret Beyond the Door'' is a 1947 American film noir psychological thriller and a modern updating of the Bluebeard fairytale, directed by Fritz Lang, produced by Lang's Diana Productions, and released by Universal Pictures. The film stars Joan ...
'' (1948) in similar fashion. Before leaving the United States while subject to the
Hollywood blacklist The Hollywood blacklist was an entertainment industry Blacklisting, blacklist, broader than just Hollywood, put in effect in the mid-20th century in the United States during the early years of the Cold War. The blacklist involved the practice of ...
, Jules Dassin made two classic noirs that also straddled the major/independent line: '' Brute Force'' (1947) and the influential documentary-style ''
The Naked City ''The Naked City'' (aka ''Naked City'') is a 1948 American film noir directed by Jules Dassin, starring Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Duff, Dorothy Hart and Don Taylor. The film, shot almost entirely on location in New York City, depicts the poli ...
'' (1948) were developed by producer
Mark Hellinger Mark John Hellinger (March 21, 1903 – December 21, 1947) was an American journalist, theatre columnist and film producer. Biography Early life Hellinger was born into the Orthodox Jewish family of Mildred "Millie" (nee Fitch) and Pol Helli ...
, who had an "inside/outside" contract with Universal similar to Wanger's. Years earlier, working at Warner Bros., Hellinger had produced three films for
Raoul Walsh Raoul Walsh (born Albert Edward Walsh; March 11, 1887December 31, 1980) was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh. He ...
, the proto-noirs '' They Drive by Night'' (1940), ''
Manpower Human resources (HR) is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms include ...
'' (1941) and '' High Sierra'' (1941), now regarded as a seminal work in noir's development. Walsh had no great name during his half-century as a director but his noirs ''
White Heat ''White Heat'' is a 1949 American film noir directed by Raoul Walsh and starring James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien, Margaret Wycherly and Steve Cochran. Written by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, ''White Heat'' is based on a story by Vir ...
'' (1949) and '' The Enforcer'' (1951) had A-list stars and are seen as important examples of the cycle. Other directors associated with top-of-the-bill Hollywood films noir include
Edward Dmytryk Edward Dmytryk (September 4, 1908 – July 1, 1999) was an American film director. He was known for his 1940s noir films and received an Oscar nomination for Best Director for '' Crossfire'' (1947). In 1947, he was named as one of the Hollywoo ...
(''
Murder, My Sweet ''Murder, My Sweet'' (released as ''Farewell, My Lovely'' in the United Kingdom) is a 1944 American film noir, directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Dick Powell, Claire Trevor and Anne Shirley (in her final film before retirement). The fi ...
'' (1944), ''
Crossfire A crossfire (also known as interlocking fire) is a military term for the siting of weapons (often automatic weapons such as assault rifles or sub-machine guns) so that their arcs of fire overlap. This tactic came to prominence in World War I. ...
'' (1947))—the first important noir director to fall prey to the industry blacklist—as well as
Henry Hathaway Henry Hathaway (March 13, 1898 – February 11, 1985) was an American film director and producer. He is best known as a director of Westerns, especially starring Randolph Scott and John Wayne. He directed Gary Cooper in seven films. Backgroun ...
(''
The Dark Corner ''The Dark Corner'' is a 1946 American crime film noir directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Lucille Ball, Clifton Webb, William Bendix and Mark Stevens.. The film was not a commercial success but has since been described as a "Grade A example ...
'' (1946), '' Kiss of Death'' (1947)) and
John Farrow John Villiers Farrow, KGCHS (10 February 190427 January 1963) was an Australian film director, producer, and screenwriter. Spending a considerable amount of his career in the United States, in 1942 he was nominated for the Academy Award for B ...
('' The Big Clock'' (1948), '' Night Has a Thousand Eyes'' (1948)). Most of the Hollywood films considered to be classic noirs fall into the category of the B movie. Some were Bs in the most precise sense, produced to run on the bottom of double bills by a low-budget unit of one of the
major studios Major film studios are production and distribution companies that release a substantial number of films annually and consistently command a significant share of box office revenue in a given market. In the American and international markets, the ...
or by one of the smaller
Poverty Row Poverty Row is a slang term used to refer to Hollywood films produced from the 1920s to the 1950s by small (and mostly short-lived) B movie studios. Although many of them were based on (or near) today's Gower Street in Hollywood, the term did n ...
outfits, from the relatively well-off
Monogram A monogram is a motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters or other graphemes to form one symbol. Monograms are often made by combining the initials of an individual or a company, used as recognizable symbols or logos. A series ...
to shakier ventures such as Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC).
Jacques Tourneur Jacques Tourneur (; November 12, 1904 – December 19, 1977) was a French film director known for the classic film noir '' Out of the Past'' and a series of low-budget horror films he made for RKO Studios, including '' Cat People'', ''I Walked ...
had made over thirty Hollywood Bs (a few now highly regarded, most forgotten) before directing the A-level ''Out of the Past'', described by scholar Robert Ottoson as "the ''ne plus ultra'' of forties film noir". Movies with budgets a step up the ladder, known as "intermediates" by the industry, might be treated as A or B pictures depending on the circumstances. Monogram created Allied Artists in the late 1940s to focus on this sort of production.
Robert Wise Robert Earl Wise (September 10, 1914 – September 14, 2005) was an American film director, producer, and editor. He won the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture for his musical films ''West Side Story'' (1961) and ''The Sound of M ...
('' Born to Kill'' 947 '' The Set-Up''
949 Year 949 ( CMXLIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Arab-Byzantine War: Hamdanid forces under Sayf al-Dawla raid into the theme of L ...
and
Anthony Mann Anthony Mann (born Emil Anton Bundsmann; June 30, 1906 – April 29, 1967) was an American film director and stage actor. Mann initially started as a theatre actor appearing in numerous stage productions. In 1937, he moved to Hollywood where h ...
(''
T-Men ''T-Men'' is a 1947 semidocumentary and police procedural style film noir about United States Treasury agents. The film was directed by Anthony Mann and shot by noted noir cameraman John Alton. The production features Dennis O'Keefe, Mary Meade ...
'' 947and '' Raw Deal''
948 Year 948 ( CMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Arab–Byzantine War: Hamdanid forces under Sayf al-Dawla raid into Asia Mino ...
each made a series of impressive intermediates, many of them noirs, before graduating to steady work on big-budget productions. Mann did some of his most celebrated work with cinematographer
John Alton John Alton (October 5, 1901 – June 2, 1996), born Johann Jacob Altmann, in Sopron, Kingdom of Hungary, was an American cinematographer of Hungarian-German origin. Alton photographed some of the most famous films noir of the classic period and won ...
, a specialist in what James Naremore called "hypnotic moments of light-in-darkness". ''
He Walked by Night ''He Walked by Night'' is a 1948 American police procedural film noir directed by Alfred L. Werker and an uncredited Anthony Mann. The film, shot in semidocumentary tone, was loosely based on newspaper accounts of the real-life actions of Erwin ...
'' (1948), shot by Alton though credited solely to Alfred Werker, directed in large part by Mann, demonstrates their technical mastery and exemplifies the late 1940s trend of "
police procedural The police show, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the protagonist(s), as contrasted with other genres that focus on eithe ...
" crime dramas. It was released, like other Mann-Alton noirs, by the small
Eagle-Lion Eagle-Lion Films was a British-American film production company owned by J. Arthur Rank intended to distribute British productions in the United States. In 1947, it acquired Robert R. Young's PRC Pictures, a small American production company, ...
company; it was the inspiration for the '' Dragnet'' series, which debuted on radio in 1949 and television in 1951. Several directors associated with noir built well-respected oeuvres largely at the B-movie/intermediate level.
Samuel Fuller Samuel Michael Fuller (August 12, 1912 – October 30, 1997) was an American film director, screenwriter, novelist, journalist, and World War II veteran known for directing low-budget genre movies with controversial themes, often made o ...
's brutal, visually energetic films such as ''
Pickup on South Street ''Pickup on South Street'' is a 1953 Cold War spy film noir written and directed by Samuel Fuller, and released by the 20th Century Fox studio. The film stars Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, and Thelma Ritter. It was screened at the Venice Film Fe ...
'' (1953) and '' Underworld U.S.A.'' (1961) earned him a unique reputation; his advocates praise him as "primitive" and "barbarous".
Joseph H. Lewis Joseph H. Lewis (April 6, 1907 – August 30, 2000) was an American B-movie film director whose stylish flourishes came to be appreciated by auteur theory-espousing film critics in the years following his retirement in 1966. In a 30-year direc ...
directed noirs as diverse as ''
Gun Crazy ''Gun Crazy'' (also known as ''Deadly Is the Female'') is a 1950 American crime film noir starring Peggy Cummins and John Dall in a story about the crime-spree of a gun-toting husband and wife. It was directed by Joseph H. Lewis, and produced b ...
'' (1950) and ''
The Big Combo ''The Big Combo'' is a 1955 American film noir crime film directed by Joseph H. Lewis, written by Philip Yordan and photographed by cinematographer John Alton, with music by David Raksin. The film stars Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte and Brian D ...
'' (1955). The former—whose screenplay was written by the blacklisted
Dalton Trumbo James Dalton Trumbo (December 9, 1905 – September 10, 1976) was an American screenwriter who scripted many award-winning films, including ''Roman Holiday'' (1953), ''Exodus'', ''Spartacus'' (both 1960), and ''Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo'' (1944) ...
, disguised by a front—features a bank hold-up sequence shown in an unbroken take of over three minutes that was influential. ''The Big Combo'' was shot by John Alton and took the shadowy noir style to its outer limits. The most distinctive films of
Phil Karlson Phil Karlson (born Philip N. Karlstein; July 2, 1908 – December 12, 1982) was an American film director. Karlson directed '' 99 River Street'', '' Kansas City Confidential'' and ''Hell's Island'', all with actor John Payne, in the early 1950 ...
(''
The Phenix City Story ''The Phenix City Story'' is a 1955 American film noir crime film directed by Phil Karlson for Allied Artists, written by Daniel Mainwaring and Crane Wilbur and starring John McIntire, Richard Kiley, and Kathryn Grant. It had an unusual "triple ...
''
955 Year 955 ( CMLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * August 10 – Battle of Lechfeld: King Otto I ("the Great") defeats the Hungarians (also ...
and ''
The Brothers Rico ''The Brothers Rico'' is a 1957 American crime film noir directed by Phil Karlson and starring Richard Conte, Dianne Foster and Kathryn Grant. Plot Eddie Rico (Richard Conte) is the happily married owner of a prosperous laundry company in Baysh ...
''
957 Year 957 ( CMLVII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * September 6 – Liudolf, the eldest son of King Otto I, dies of a violent fever ne ...
tell stories of vice organized on a monstrous scale. The work of other directors in this tier of the industry, such as Felix E. Feist (''
The Devil Thumbs a Ride ''The Devil Thumbs a Ride'' is a 1947 film noir directed by Felix E. Feist and featuring Lawrence Tierney and Ted North. Plot Steve Morgan (Tierney) is a charming sociopath who has just robbed and killed a cinema cashier. Seeking to escape, he ...
'' 947 '' Tomorrow Is Another Day''
951 Year 951 ( CMLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * King Berengar II of Italy seizes Liguria, with help from the feudal lord Oberto I. He reo ...
, has become obscure.
Edgar G. Ulmer Edgar Georg Ulmer (; September 17, 1904 – September 30, 1972) was a Jewish- Moravian, Austrian- American film director who mainly worked on Hollywood B movies and other low-budget productions, eventually earning the epithet 'The King of PR ...
spent most of his Hollywood career working at B studios and once in a while on projects that achieved intermediate status; for the most part, on unmistakable Bs. In 1945, while at PRC, he directed a noir cult classic, ''
Detour __NOTOC__ A detour or (British English: diversion) is a (normally temporary) route taking traffic around an area of prohibited or reduced access, such as a construction site. Standard operating procedure for many roads departments is to route an ...
''. Ulmer's other noirs include '' Strange Illusion'' (1945), also for PRC; '' Ruthless'' (1948), for Eagle-Lion, which had acquired PRC the previous year and ''
Murder Is My Beat ''Murder Is My Beat'' is a 1955 film noir mystery film directed by Edgar G. Ulmer starring Paul Langton, Barbara Payton and Robert Shayne.. Plot Businessman Frank Deane is found dead with his face and hands burned beyond recognition. Detecti ...
'' (1955), for Allied Artists. A number of low- and modestly-budgeted noirs were made by independent, often actor-owned, companies contracting with larger studios for distribution. Serving as producer, writer, director and top-billed performer,
Hugo Haas Hugo Haas (19 February 1901 – 1 December 1968) was a Czech film actor, director and writer. He appeared in more than 60 films between 1926 and 1962, as well as directing 20 films between 1933 and 1962. Life and career Haas was born in B ...
made films like '' Pickup'' (1951), '' The Other Woman'' (1954) and Jacques Tourneur, '' The Fearmakers (1958)''. It was in this way that accomplished noir actress
Ida Lupino Ida Lupino (4 February 1918Recorded in ''Births Mar 1918'' Camberwell Vol. 1d, p. 1019 (Free BMD). Transcribed as "Lupine" in the official births index – 3 August 1995) was an English-American actress, singer, director, writer, and producer. T ...
established herself as the sole female director in Hollywood during the late 1940s and much of the 1950s. She does not appear in the best-known film she directed, '' The Hitch-Hiker'' (1953), developed by her company, The Filmakers, with support and distribution by RKO. It is one of the seven classic film noirs produced largely outside of the major studios that have been chosen for the United States
National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception i ...
. Of the others, one was a small-studio release: ''Detour''. Four were independent productions distributed by
United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studio ...
, the "studio without a studio": ''Gun Crazy''; ''Kiss Me Deadly''; '' D.O.A.'' (1950), directed by
Rudolph Maté Rudolph Maté (born Rudolf Mayer; 21 January 1898 – 27 October 1964) was a Polish-Hungarian-American cinematographer, film director and film producer who worked as cameraman and cinematographer in Hungary, Austria, Germany, France and the Unite ...
and ''
Sweet Smell of Success ''Sweet Smell of Success'' is a 1957 American film noir drama film directed by Alexander Mackendrick, starring Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, and Martin Milner, and written by Clifford Odets, Ernest Lehman, and Mackendrick from ...
'' (1957), directed by
Alexander Mackendrick Alexander Mackendrick (September 8, 1912 – December 22, 1993) was an American-born director and professor, long based in Scotland. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and later moved to Scotland. He began making television commercials befor ...
. One was an independent distributed by
MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
, the industry leader: ''
Force of Evil ''Force of Evil'' is a 1948 American crime film noir starring John Garfield and directed by Abraham Polonsky. It was adapted by Polonsky and Ira Wolfert from Wolfert's novel ''Tucker's People''. Polonsky had been a screenwriter for the boxin ...
'' (1948), directed by
Abraham Polonsky Abraham Lincoln Polonsky (December 5, 1910 – October 26, 1999) was an American film director, screenwriter, essayist and novelist. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for '' Body and Soul'' but in the early 1950s ...
and starring
John Garfield John Garfield (born Jacob Julius Garfinkle, March 4, 1913 – May 21, 1952) was an American actor who played brooding, rebellious, working-class characters. He grew up in poverty in New York City. In the early 1930s, he became a member of ...
, both of whom were blacklisted in the 1950s. Independent production usually meant restricted circumstances but ''Sweet Smell of Success'', despite the plans of the production team, was clearly not made on the cheap, though like many other cherished A-budget noirs, it might be said to have a B-movie soul. Perhaps no director better displayed that spirit than the German-born
Robert Siodmak Robert Siodmak (; 8 August 1900 – 10 March 1973) was a German film director who also worked in the United States. He is best remembered as a thriller specialist and for a series of films noirs he made in the 1940s, such as ''The Killers'' (1 ...
, who had already made a score of films before his 1940 arrival in Hollywood. Working mostly on A features, he made eight films now regarded as classic-era films noir (a figure matched only by Lang and Mann). In addition to ''The Killers'',
Burt Lancaster Burton Stephen Lancaster (November 2, 1913 – October 20, 1994) was an American actor and producer. Initially known for playing tough guys with a tender heart, he went on to achieve success with more complex and challenging roles over a 45-yea ...
's debut and a Hellinger/Universal co-production, Siodmak's other important contributions to the genre include 1944's ''
Phantom Lady Phantom Lady is a Fictional character, fictional Superhero#Female superheroes and villains, superheroine, one of the first such characters to debut in the 1940s Golden Age of Comic Books. Originally published by Quality Comics, the character was ...
'' (a top-of-the-line B and Woolrich adaptation), the ironically titled '' Christmas Holiday'' (1944), and '' Cry of the City'' (1948). '' Criss Cross'' (1949), with Lancaster again the lead, exemplifies how Siodmak brought the virtues of the B-movie to the A noir. In addition to the relatively looser constraints on character and message at lower budgets, the nature of B production lent itself to the noir style for economic reasons: dim lighting saved on electricity and helped cloak cheap sets (mist and smoke also served the cause); night shooting was often compelled by hurried production schedules; plots with obscure motivations and intriguingly elliptical transitions were sometimes the consequence of hastily written scripts, of which there was not always enough time or money to shoot every scene. In ''Criss Cross'', Siodmak achieved these effects with purpose, wrapping them around
Yvonne De Carlo Margaret Yvonne Middleton (September 1, 1922January 8, 2007), known professionally as Yvonne De Carlo, was a Canadian-American actress, dancer and singer. She became a Hollywood film star in the 1940s and 1950s, made several recordings, and later ...
, playing the most understandable of femme fatales;
Dan Duryea Dan Duryea ( , January 23, 1907 – June 7, 1968) was an American actor in film, stage, and television. Known for portraying a vast range of character roles as a villain, he nonetheless had a long career in a wide variety of leading and seconda ...
, in one of his many charismatic villain roles; and Lancaster as an ordinary laborer turned armed robber, doomed by a romantic obsession.


Outside the United States

Some critics regard classic film noir as a cycle exclusive to the United States; Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward, for example, argue, "With the Western, film noir shares the distinction of being an indigenous American form ... a wholly American film style." However, although the term "film noir" was originally coined to describe Hollywood movies, it was an international phenomenon. Even before the beginning of the generally accepted classic period, there were films made far from Hollywood that can be seen in retrospect as films noir, for example, the French productions '' Pépé le Moko'' (1937), directed by
Julien Duvivier Julien Duvivier (; 8 October 1896 – 29 October 1967) was a French film director and screenwriter. He was prominent in French cinema in the years 1930–1960. Amongst his most original films, chiefly notable are '' La Bandera'', '' Pépé le Moko ...
, and '' Le Jour se lève'' (1939), directed by
Marcel Carné Marcel Albert Carné (; 18 August 1906 – 31 October 1996) was a French film director. A key figure in the poetic realism movement, Carné's best known films include ''Port of Shadows'' (1938), '' Le Jour Se Lève'' (1939), '' The Devil's Envoys ...
. In addition,
Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
experienced a vibrant film noir period from roughly 1946 to 1952, which was around the same time film noir was blossoming in the United States. During the classic period, there were many films produced in Europe, particularly in France, that share elements of style, theme, and sensibility with American films noir and may themselves be included in the genre's canon. In certain cases, the interrelationship with Hollywood noir is obvious: American-born director
Jules Dassin Julius "Jules" Dassin (December 18, 1911 – March 31, 2008) was an American film and theatre director, producer, writer and actor. A subject of the Hollywood blacklist in the McCarthy era, he subsequently moved to France, and later Greece, whe ...
moved to France in the early 1950s as a result of the
Hollywood blacklist The Hollywood blacklist was an entertainment industry Blacklisting, blacklist, broader than just Hollywood, put in effect in the mid-20th century in the United States during the early years of the Cold War. The blacklist involved the practice of ...
, and made one of the most famous French film noirs, ''
Rififi ''Rififi'' (french: Du rififi chez les hommes) is a 1955 French crime film adaptation of Auguste Le Breton's novel of the same name. Directed by American blacklisted filmmaker Jules Dassin, the film stars Jean Servais as the aging gangster To ...
'' (1955). Other well-known French films often classified as noir include ''
Quai des Orfèvres ''Quai des Orfèvres'' (; "Goldsmiths' Quay"; also known as ''Jenny Lamour'') is a 1947 French police procedural drama film based on the book ''Légitime défense'' by Stanislas-Andre Steeman. Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot the film stars ...
'' (1947) and '' Les Diaboliques'' (1955), both directed by
Henri-Georges Clouzot Henri-Georges Clouzot (; 20 November 1907 – 12 January 1977) was a French film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best remembered for his work in the thriller film genre, having directed ''The Wages of Fear'' and '' Les Diaboliques'', ...
. ''
Casque d'Or ''Casque d'Or'' ("Golden Helmet") is a 1952 French historical drama film directed by Jacques Becker. It is a Belle Époque tragedy, the story of an ill-fated love affair between characters played by Simone Signoret and Serge Reggiani. The story wa ...
'' (1952), ''
Touchez pas au grisbi ''Touchez pas au grisbi'' (, French for "Don't touch the loot"), released as ''Honour Among Thieves'' in the United Kingdom and ''Grisbi'' in the United States, is a 1954 French- Italian crime film based on a novel by Albert Simonin. It was dir ...
'' (1954), and '' Le Trou'' (1960) directed by
Jacques Becker Jacques Becker (; 15 September 1906 – 21 February 1960) was a French film director and screenwriter. His films, made during the 1940s and 1950s, encompassed a wide variety of genres, and they were admired by some of the filmmakers who led th ...
; and '' Ascenseur pour l'échafaud'' (1958), directed by
Louis Malle Louis Marie Malle (; 30 October 1932 – 23 November 1995) was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in both French cinema and Hollywood. Described as "eclectic" and "a filmmaker difficult to pin down," Malle's filmo ...
. French director
Jean-Pierre Melville Jean-Pierre Melville (; born Jean-Pierre Grumbach; 20 October 1917 – 2 August 1973) was a French filmmaker and actor. Among his films are '' Le Silence de la mer'' (1949), ''Bob le flambeur'' (1956), '' Le Doulos'' (1962), '' Le Samouraï'' (1 ...
is widely recognized for his tragic, minimalist films noir—''
Bob le flambeur ''Bob le flambeur'' (English translation": "Bob the Gambler" or "Bob the High Roller") is a 1956 French heist gangster film directed by Jean-Pierre Melville and starring Roger Duchesne as Bob. It is often considered both a film noir and a pr ...
'' (1955), from the classic period, was followed by '' Le Doulos'' (1962), '' Le deuxième souffle'' 1966), ''
Le Samouraï ''Le Samouraï'' (; ), is a 1967 neo-noir crime thriller film written and directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. The film follows a professional hitman named Jef Costello who is identified by witnesses and his efforts to provide himself with an alibi ...
'' (1967), and ''
Le Cercle rouge ''Le Cercle Rouge'' (, "The Red Circle") is a 1970 Franco- Italian crime film set mostly in Paris. It was directed by Jean-Pierre Melville and stars Alain Delon, Andre Bourvil, Gian Maria Volonté, François Périer and Yves Montand. It is know ...
'' (1970). In the 1960s, Greek films noir "''The Secret of the Red Mantle''" and "''The Fear''" allowed audience for an anti-ableist reading which challenged stereotypes of disability. . Scholar Andrew Spicer argues that British film noir evidences a greater debt to French poetic realism than to the expressionistic American mode of noir. Examples of British noir from the classic period include '' Brighton Rock'' (1947), directed by
John Boulting John Edward Boulting (21 December 1913 – 17 June 1985) and Roy Alfred Clarence Boulting (21 December 1913 – 5 November 2001), known collectively as the Boulting brothers, were English filmmakers and identical twins who became known for thei ...
; ''
They Made Me a Fugitive ''They Made Me a Fugitive'' (released in the United States as ''I Became a Criminal'') is a 1947 British film noir set in postwar England.'' Variety'' film review; 2 July 1947, page 13.''Harrison's Reports'' film review (14 February 1948), page 2 ...
'' (1947), directed by
Alberto Cavalcanti Alberto de Almeida Cavalcanti (February 6, 1897 – August 23, 1982) was a Brazilian-born film director and producer. He was often credited under the single name "Cavalcanti". Early life Cavalcanti was born in Rio de Janeiro, the son of a ...
; '' The Small Back Room'' (1948), directed by
Michael Powell Michael Latham Powell (30 September 1905 – 19 February 1990) was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company The Archers, they together wrote, produced and directed a serie ...
and
Emeric Pressburger Emeric Pressburger (born Imre József Pressburger; 5 December 19025 February 1988) was a Hungarian-British screenwriter, film director, and producer. He is best known for his series of film collaborations with Michael Powell, in a collabora ...
; '' The October Man'' (1950), directed by
Roy Ward Baker Roy Ward Baker (born Roy Horace Baker; 19 December 1916 – 5 October 2010) was an English film director. His best known film is '' A Night to Remember'' (1958) which won a Golden Globe for Best English-Language Foreign Film in 1959. His later ...
; and '' Cast a Dark Shadow'' (1955), directed by
Lewis Gilbert Lewis Gilbert (6 March 1920 – 23 February 2018) was an English film director, producer and screenwriter who directed more than 40 films during six decades; among them such varied titles as '' Reach for the Sky'' (1956), ''Sink the Bismarck!' ...
.
Terence Fisher Terence Fisher (23 February 1904 – 18 June 1980) was a British film director best known for his work for Hammer Films. He was the first to bring gothic horror alive in full colour, and the sexual overtones and explicit horror in his films, w ...
directed several low-budget thrillers in a noir mode for
Hammer Film Productions Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve class ...
, including ''
The Last Page ''The Last Page'', released in the United States as ''Man Bait'', is a 1952 British film noir produced by Hammer Film Productions starring George Brent, Marguerite Chapman and Diana Dors. The film is notable for being the first Hammer film dir ...
'' (a.k.a. ''Man Bait''; 1952), '' Stolen Face'' (1952), and ''
Murder by Proxy ''Murder by Proxy'' is a 1954 British film noir crime drama film directed by Terence Fisher and starring Dane Clark, Belinda Lee and Betty Ann Davies. The screenplay concerns a man who is offered money to marry a woman. It was produced by ...
'' (a.k.a. ''Blackout''; 1954). Before leaving for France, Jules Dassin had been obliged by political pressure to shoot his last English-language film of the classic noir period in Great Britain: ''
Night and the City ''Night and the City'' is a 1950 film noir directed by Jules Dassin and starring Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney and Googie Withers. It is based on the novel of the same name by Gerald Kersh. Shot on location in London and at Shepperton Studi ...
'' (1950). Though it was conceived in the United States and was not only directed by an American but also stars two American actors—
Richard Widmark Richard Weedt Widmark (December 26, 1914March 24, 2008) was an American film, stage, and television actor and producer. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his debut film, '' Kiss of Death'' (1947) ...
and
Gene Tierney Gene Eliza Tierney (November 19, 1920 – November 6, 1991) was an American film and stage actress. Acclaimed for her great beauty, she became established as a leading lady. Tierney was best known for her portrayal of the title character in the ...
—it is technically a UK production, financed by
20th Century-Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...
's British subsidiary. The most famous of classic British noirs is director
Carol Reed Sir Carol Reed (30 December 1906 – 25 April 1976) was an English film director and producer, best known for ''Odd Man Out'' (1947), '' The Fallen Idol'' (1948), ''The Third Man'' (1949), and ''Oliver!'' (1968), for which he was awarded the A ...
's ''
The Third Man ''The Third Man'' is a 1949 British film noir directed by Carol Reed, written by Graham Greene and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, and Trevor Howard. Set in postwar Vienna, the film centres on American Holly Martins (Cotte ...
'' (1949), from a screenplay by
Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...
. Set in Vienna immediately after World War II, it also stars two American actors,
Joseph Cotten Joseph Cheshire Cotten Jr. (May 15, 1905 – February 6, 1994) was an American film, stage, radio and television actor. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original stage productions of '' The Philadelphia Story'' and ''Sab ...
and
Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
, who had appeared together in ''Citizen Kane''. Elsewhere, Italian director
Luchino Visconti Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo (; 2 November 1906 – 17 March 1976) was an Italian filmmaker, stage director, and screenwriter. A major figure of Italian art and culture in the mid-20th century, Visconti was one of the fat ...
adapted Cain's ''The Postman Always Rings Twice'' as ''
Ossessione ''Ossessione'' (, English: ''Obsession'') is a 1943 Italian film based on the 1934 novel '' The Postman Always Rings Twice'' by James M. Cain. Luchino Visconti’s first feature film, it is considered by many to be the first Italian neorealist ...
'' (1943), regarded both as one of the great noirs and a seminal film in the development of neorealism. (This was not even the first screen version of Cain's novel, having been preceded by the French ''
Le Dernier Tournant ''The Last Turning'' (French: ''Le Dernier tournant'') is a 1939 French drama film directed by Pierre Chenal, written by Charles Spaak and Henri Torrès, based on the 1934 novel '' The Postman Always Rings Twice'' by James M. Cain. Cast *Fernan ...
'' in 1939.) In Japan, the celebrated
Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed List of works by Akira Kurosawa, thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the History of film, hi ...
directed several films recognizable as films noir, including ''
Drunken Angel is a 1948 Japanese ''yakuza'' film directed by Akira Kurosawa. It is notable for being the first of sixteen film collaborations between director Kurosawa and actor Toshiro Mifune. Plot Sanada (Takashi Shimura) is an alcoholic doctor (the titu ...
'' (1948), '' Stray Dog'' (1949), '' The Bad Sleep Well'' (1960), and '' High and Low'' (1963). Spanish author Mercedes Formica's novel '' La ciudad perdida'' (The Lost City) was adapted into film in 1960. Among the first major
neo-noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating s ...
films—the term often applied to films that consciously refer back to the classic noir tradition—was the French '' Tirez sur le pianiste'' (1960), directed by
François Truffaut François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. After a career of more tha ...
from a novel by one of the gloomiest of American noir fiction writers,
David Goodis David Loeb Goodis (March 2, 1917 – January 7, 1967) was an American writer of crime fiction noted for his output of short stories and novels in the noir fiction genre. Born in Philadelphia, Goodis alternately resided there and in New York Cit ...
. Noir crime films and melodramas have been produced in many countries in the post-classic area. Some of these are quintessentially self-aware neo-noirs—for example, '' Il Conformista'' (1969; Italy), '' Der Amerikanische Freund'' (1977; Germany), '' The Element of Crime'' (1984; Denmark), and '' El Aura'' (2005; Argentina). Others simply share narrative elements and a version of the hardboiled sensibility associated with classic noir, such as ''
Castle of Sand is a 1974 Japanese police procedural film directed by Yoshitarō Nomura, based on the novel '' Suna no Utsuwa'' by Seicho Matsumoto. Plot Yoshitaro Nomura's 1974 film of Seicho Matsumoto's immensely popular detective story tells the tale of two ...
'' (1974; Japan), ''
Insomnia Insomnia, also known as sleeplessness, is a sleep disorder in which people have trouble sleeping. They may have difficulty falling asleep, or staying asleep as long as desired. Insomnia is typically followed by daytime sleepiness, low energy, ...
'' (1997; Norway), ''
Croupier A croupier or dealer is someone appointed at a gambling table to assist in the conduct of the game, especially in the distribution of bets and payouts. Croupiers are typically employed by casinos. Origin of the word Originally a "croupier" meant ...
'' (1998; UK), and ''
Blind Shaft ''Blind Shaft'' () is a 2003 film about a pair of brutal con artists operating in the illegal coal mines of present-day northern China. The film was written and directed by Li Yang (李杨), and is based on Chinese writer Liu Qingbang's short ...
'' (2003; China).


Neo-noir and echoes of the classic mode

The neo-noir film genre developed mid-way into the Cold War. This cinematological trend reflected much of the cynicism and the possibility of nuclear annihilation of the era. This new genre introduced innovations that were not available to earlier noir films. The violence was also more potent.


1960s and 1970s

While it is hard to draw a line between some of the noir films of the early 1960s such as '' Blast of Silence'' (1961) and '' Cape Fear'' (1962) and the noirs of the late 1950s, new trends emerged in the post-classic era. ''
The Manchurian Candidate ''The Manchurian Candidate'' is a novel by Richard Condon, first published in 1959. It is a political thriller about the son of a prominent U.S. political family who is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for a Communist conspiracy. T ...
'' (1962), directed by
John Frankenheimer John Michael Frankenheimer (February 19, 1930 – July 6, 2002) was an American film and television director known for social dramas and action/suspense films. Among his credits were '' Birdman of Alcatraz'' (1962), ''The Manchurian Candidate'' ( ...
, '' Shock Corridor'' (1963), directed by
Samuel Fuller Samuel Michael Fuller (August 12, 1912 – October 30, 1997) was an American film director, screenwriter, novelist, journalist, and World War II veteran known for directing low-budget genre movies with controversial themes, often made o ...
, and '' Brainstorm'' (1965), directed by experienced noir character actor
William Conrad William Conrad (born John William Cann Jr., September 27, 1920 – February 11, 1994) was an American actor, producer, and director whose entertainment career spanned five decades in radio, film, and television, peaking in popularity when he s ...
, all treat the theme of mental dispossession within stylistic and tonal frameworks derived from classic film noir. ''The Manchurian Candidate'' examined the situation of American prisoners of war (POWs) during the
Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{{ ...
. Incidents that occurred during the war as well as those post-war functioned as an inspiration for a "Cold War Noir" subgenre. The television series '' The Fugitive'' (1963–67) brought classic noir themes and mood to the small screen for an extended run.Ursini (1995), pp. 284–86; Ballinger and Graydon (2007), p. 278. In a different vein, films began to appear that self-consciously acknowledged the conventions of classic film noir as historical
archetypes The concept of an archetype (; ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that o ...
to be revived, rejected, or reimagined. These efforts typify what came to be known as neo-noir. Though several late classic noirs, ''Kiss Me Deadly'' in particular, were deeply self-knowing and post-traditional in conception, none tipped its hand so evidently as to be remarked on by American critics at the time. The first major film to overtly work this angle was French director
Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as Fran� ...
's '' À bout de souffle'' (''Breathless''; 1960), which pays its literal respects to Bogart and his crime films while brandishing a bold new style for a new day. In the United States,
Arthur Penn Arthur Hiller Penn (September 27, 1922 – September 28, 2010) was an American director and producer of film, television and theater. Closely associated with the American New Wave, Penn directed critically acclaimed films throughout the 1 ...
(1965's ''
Mickey One ''Mickey One'' is a 1965 American neo noir crime film starring Warren Beatty and directed by Arthur Penn from a script by Alan Surgal. Plot After incurring the wrath of the Mafia, a stand-up comic (Warren Beatty) flees Detroit for Chicago, tak ...
'', drawing inspiration from Truffaut's '' Tirez sur le pianiste'' and other
French New Wave French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconocla ...
films),
John Boorman Sir John Boorman (; born 18 January 1933) is a British film director, best known for feature films such as ''Point Blank'' (1967), '' Hell in the Pacific'' (1968), ''Deliverance'' (1972), '' Zardoz'' (1974), '' Exorcist II: The Heretic'' (1977 ...
(1967's ''
Point Blank Point-blank range is any distance over which a certain firearm can hit a target without the need to compensate for bullet drop, and can be adjusted over a wide range of distances by sighting in the firearm. If the bullet leaves the barrel paral ...
'', similarly caught up, though in the '' Nouvelle vague'''s deeper waters), and
Alan J. Pakula Alan Jay Pakula (; April 7, 1928 – November 19, 1998) was an American film director, writer and producer. He was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Picture for ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' (1962), Best Director for ''All the President's Me ...
(1971's ''
Klute ''Klute'' is a 1971 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed and produced by Alan J. Pakula, written by Andy and Dave Lewis, and starring Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi, and Roy Scheider. The film follows a high-priced ca ...
'') directed films that knowingly related themselves to the original films noir, inviting audiences in on the game. A manifest affiliation with noir traditions—which, by its nature, allows different sorts of commentary on them to be inferred—can also provide the basis for explicit critiques of those traditions. In 1973, director
Robert Altman Robert Bernard Altman ( ; February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was a five-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director and is considered an enduring figure from the New ...
flipped off noir piety with '' The Long Goodbye''. Based on the novel by Raymond Chandler, it features one of Bogart's most famous characters, but in
iconoclastic Iconoclasm (from Greek: grc, εἰκών, lit=figure, icon, translit=eikṓn, label=none + grc, κλάω, lit=to break, translit=kláō, label=none)From grc, εἰκών + κλάω, lit=image-breaking. ''Iconoclasm'' may also be conside ...
fashion: Philip Marlowe, the prototypical hardboiled detective, is replayed as a hapless misfit, almost laughably out of touch with contemporary
mores Mores (, sometimes ; , plural form of singular , meaning "manner, custom, usage, or habit") are social norms that are widely observed within a particular society or culture. Mores determine what is considered morally acceptable or unacceptable ...
and morality. Where Altman's subversion of the film noir mythos was so irreverent as to outrage some contemporary critics, around the same time
Woody Allen Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...
was paying affectionate, at points idolatrous homage to the classic mode with '' Play It Again, Sam'' (1972). The "
blaxploitation Blaxploitation is an ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s. The term, a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation", was coined in August 1972 by Junius Griffin, the president ...
" film ''Shaft (1971 film), Shaft'' (1971), wherein Richard Roundtree plays the titular African-American private eye, John Shaft, takes conventions from classic noir. The most acclaimed of the neo-noirs of the era was director Roman Polanski's 1974 ''Chinatown (1974 film), Chinatown''. Written by Robert Towne, it is set in 1930s Los Angeles, an accustomed noir locale nudged back some few years in a way that makes the pivotal loss of innocence in the story even crueler. Where Polanski and Towne raised noir to a black apogee by turning rearward, director Martin Scorsese and screenwriter
Paul Schrader Paul Joseph Schrader (; born July 22, 1946) is an American screenwriter, film director, and film critic. He first received widespread recognition through his screenplay for Martin Scorsese's ''Taxi Driver'' (1976). He later continued his collabo ...
brought the noir attitude crashing into the present day with ''Taxi Driver'' (1976), a crackling, bloody-minded gloss on bicentennial America. In 1978, Walter Hill (filmmaker), Walter Hill wrote and directed ''The Driver'', a chase film as might have been imagined by Jean-Pierre Melville in an especially abstract mood. Hill was already a central figure in 1970s noir of a more straightforward manner, having written the script for director Sam Peckinpah's ''The Getaway (1972 film), The Getaway'' (1972), adapting a novel by pulp master Jim Thompson (writer), Jim Thompson, as well as for two tough private eye films: an original screenplay for ''Hickey & Boggs'' (1972) and an adaptation of a novel by Ross Macdonald, the leading literary descendant of Hammett and Chandler, for ''The Drowning Pool (film), The Drowning Pool'' (1975). Some of the strongest 1970s noirs, in fact, were unwinking remakes of the classics, "neo" mostly by default: the heartbreaking ''Thieves Like Us (film), Thieves Like Us'' (1974), directed by Altman from the same source as Ray's ''They Live by Night'', and ''Farewell, My Lovely (1975 film), Farewell, My Lovely'' (1975), the Chandler tale made classically as ''Murder, My Sweet'', remade here with Robert Mitchum in his last notable noir role. Detective series, prevalent on American television during the period, updated the hardboiled tradition in different ways, but the show conjuring the most noir tone was a horror crossover touched with shaggy, ''Long Goodbye''-style humor: ''Kolchak: The Night Stalker'' (1974–75), featuring a Chicago newspaper reporter investigating strange, usually supernatural occurrences.


1980s and 1990s

The turn of the decade brought Scorsese's black-and-white ''Raging Bull'' (1980, cowritten by Schrader). An acknowledged masterpiecein 2007 the American Film Institute ranked it as the greatest American film of the 1980s and the fourth greatest of all timeit tells the story of a boxer's moral self-destruction that recalls in both theme and visual ambiance noir dramas such as ''Body and Soul (1947 film), Body and Soul'' (1947) and ''Champion (1949 film), Champion'' (1949). From 1981, ''Body Heat'', written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan, invokes a different set of classic noir elements, this time in a humid, erotically charged Florida setting. Its success confirmed the commercial viability of neo-noir at a time when the major Hollywood studios were becoming increasingly risk averse. The mainstreaming of neo-noir is evident in such films as ''Black Widow (1987 film), Black Widow'' (1987), ''Shattered (1991 film), Shattered'' (1991), and ''Final Analysis'' (1992). Few neo-noirs have made more money or more wittily updated the tradition of the noir double entendre than ''Basic Instinct'' (1992), directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Joe Eszterhas. The film also demonstrates how neo-noir's polychrome palette can reproduce many of the expressionistic effects of classic black-and-white noir. Like ''Chinatown'', its more complex predecessor, Curtis Hanson's Oscar-winning ''L.A. Confidential (film), L.A. Confidential'' (1997), based on the James Ellroy novel, demonstrates the opposite tendency—the deliberately retro film noir; its tale of corrupt cops and femmes fatale is seemingly lifted straight from a film of 1953, the year in which it is set. Director David Fincher followed the immensely successful neo-noir ''Seven (1995 film), Seven'' (1995) with a film that developed into a cult favorite after its original, disappointing release: ''Fight Club'' (1999), a ''sui generis'' mix of noir aesthetic, perverse comedy, speculative content, and satiric intent. Working generally with much smaller budgets, brothers Joel and Ethan Coen have created one of the most extensive oeuvres influenced by classic noir, with films such as ''Blood Simple'' (1984) and ''Fargo (1996 film), Fargo'' (1996), the latter considered by some a supreme work in the neo-noir mode. The Coens cross noir with other generic traditions in the gangster drama ''Miller's Crossing'' (1990)—loosely based on the Dashiell Hammett novels ''Red Harvest'' and ''The Glass Key''—and the comedy ''The Big Lebowski'' (1998), a tribute to Chandler and an homage to Altman's version of ''The Long Goodbye''. The characteristic work of David Lynch combines film noir tropes with scenarios driven by disturbed characters such as the sociopathic criminal played by Dennis Hopper in ''Blue Velvet (film), Blue Velvet'' (1986) and the delusionary protagonist of ''Lost Highway (film), Lost Highway'' (1997). The ''Twin Peaks'' cycle, both the Twin Peaks, TV series (1990–91) and a film, ''Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, Fire Walk with Me'' (1992), puts a detective plot through a succession of bizarre spasms. David Cronenberg also mixes surrealism and noir in ''Naked Lunch (film), Naked Lunch'' (1991), inspired by William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch, novel. Perhaps no American neo-noirs better reflect the classic noir B movie spirit than those of director-writer Quentin Tarantino. Neo-noirs of his such as ''Reservoir Dogs'' (1992) and ''Pulp Fiction'' (1994) display a relentlessly self-reflexive, sometimes tongue-in-cheek sensibility, similar to the work of the New Wave directors and the Coens. Other films from the era readily identifiable as neo-noir (some retro, some more au courant) include director John Dahl's ''Kill Me Again'' (1989), ''Red Rock West'' (1992), and ''The Last Seduction'' (1993); four adaptations of novels by Jim Thompson—''The Kill-Off'' (1989), ''After Dark, My Sweet'' (1990), ''The Grifters (film), The Grifters'' (1990), and the remake of ''The Getaway (1994 film), The Getaway'' (1994); and many more, including adaptations of the work of other major noir fiction writers: ''The Hot Spot'' (1990), from ''Hell Hath No Fury'', by Charles Williams (U.S. author), Charles Williams; ''Miami Blues'' (1990), from the novel by Charles Willeford; and ''Out of Sight (1998 film), Out of Sight'' (1998), from the novel by Elmore Leonard. Several films by director-writer David Mamet involve noir elements: ''House of Games'' (1987), ''Homicide (1991 film), Homicide'' (1991), ''The Spanish Prisoner'' (1997), and ''Heist (2001 film), Heist'' (2001). On television, ''Moonlighting (TV series), Moonlighting'' (1985–89) paid homage to classic noir while demonstrating an unusual appreciation of the sense of humor often found in the original cycle.Ballinger and Graydon (2007), p. 279. Between 1983 and 1989,
Mickey Spillane Frank Morrison Spillane (; March 9, 1918July 17, 2006), better known as Mickey Spillane, was an American crime novelist, whose stories often feature his signature detective character, Mike Hammer. More than 225 million copies of his books have ...
's hardboiled private eye Mike Hammer was played with wry gusto by Stacy Keach in a Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer (1984 TV series), series and several stand-alone television films (an unsuccessful revival followed in 1997–98). The British miniseries ''The Singing Detective'' (1986), written by Dennis Potter, tells the story of a mystery writer named Philip Marlow; widely considered one of the finest neo-noirs in any medium, some critics rank it among the greatest television productions of all time.


Neon noir

Among big-budget auteurs, Michael Mann (film director), Michael Mann has worked frequently in a neo-noir mode, with such films as ''Thief (film), Thief'' (1981) and ''Heat (1995 film), Heat'' (1995) and the TV series ''Miami Vice'' (1984–89) and ''Crime Story (U.S. TV series), Crime Story'' (1986–88). Mann's output exemplifies a primary strain of neo-noir, or as it is affectionately called, "neon noir", in which classic themes and tropes are revisited in a contemporary setting with an up-to-date visual style and Rock music, rock- or Hip hop music, hip hop-based musical soundtrack. Neo-noir film borrows from and reflects many of the characteristics of the film noir: the presence of crime and violence, complex characters and plot-lines, mystery, and moral ambivalence, all of which come into play in the neon-noir sub-genre. But more than just exhibiting the superficial traits of the genre, neon-noir emphasizes the socio-critique of film noir, recalling the specific socio-cultural dimensions of the interwar years when noirs first became prominent; a time of global existential crisis, depression and the mass movement of the rural population to cities. Long shots or montages of cityscapes, often portrayed as dark and menacing, are suggestive of what Dueck referred to as a ‘bleak societal perspective’, providing a critique on global capitalism and consumerism. Other characteristics include the use of highly stylized lighting techniques such chiaroscuro, and neon signs and brightly lit buildings that provide a sense of Social alienation, alienation and entrapment. Accentuating the use of artificial and neon lighting in the films-noir of the '40s and '50s, neon-noir films accentuate this aesthetic with electrifying color and manipulated light in order to highlight their socio-cultural critiques and their references to contemporary and pop culture. In doing so, neon-noir films present the themes of urban decay, consumerist decadence and capitalism, existentialism, sexuality, and issues of race and violence in the contemporary culture, not only in America, but the globalized world at large. Neon-noirs seek to bring the contemporary noir, somewhat diluted under the umbrella of neo-noir, back to the exploration of culture: class, race, gender, patriarchy, and capitalism. Neon-noirs present an existential exploration of society in a hyper-technological and globalized world. Illustrating society as decadent and consumerist, and identity as confused and anxious, neon-noirs reposition the contemporary noir in the setting of urban decay, often featuring scenes set in underground city haunts: brothels, nightclubs, casinos, strip bars, pawnshops, laundromats. Neon-noirs were popularized in the '70s and '80s by films such as ''Taxi Driver'' (1976), ''Blade Runner'' (1982), and films from David Lynch, such as ''Blue Velvet (film), Blue Velvet'' (1986) and later, ''Lost Highway (film), Lost Highway'' (1997). Other titles from this era included Brian De Palma's ''Blow Out'' (1981) and the Coen Brothers' debut ''Blood Simple'' (1984). More currently, films such as Harmony Korine’s highly provocative ''Spring Breakers'' (2012), and Danny Boyle’s ''Trance (2013 film), Trance'' (2013) have been especially noted for their neon-infused rendering of film noir; while ''Trance'' was celebrated for ‘shak(ing) the ingredients (of the noir) like colored sand in a jar’, ''Spring Breakers'' notoriously produced
slew of criticism
referring to its ‘fever-dream’ aesthetic and ‘neon-caked explosion of excess’ (Kohn). Another neon-noir endowed with th

aesthetic is
The Persian Connection
', expressly linked to Lynchian aesthetics as a neon-drenched contemporary noir. Neon-noir can be seen as a response to the over-use of the term neo-noir. While the term neo-noir functions to bring noir into the contemporary landscape, it has often been criticized for its dilution of the noir genre. Author Robert Arnett commented on its "amorphous" reach: "any film featuring a detective or crime qualifies". The neon-noir, more specifically, seeks to revive noir sensibilities in a more targeted manner of reference, focalizing socio-cultural commentary and a hyper-stylized aesthetic.


2000s and 2010s

The Coen brothers make reference to the noir tradition again with ''The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film), The Man Who Wasn't There'' (2001); a black-and-white crime melodrama set in 1949; it features a scene apparently staged to mirror one from ''Out of the Past''. Lynch's ''Mulholland Drive (film), Mulholland Drive'' (2001) continued in his characteristic vein, making the classic noir setting of Los Angeles the venue for a noir-inflected psychological jigsaw puzzle. British-born director Christopher Nolan's black-and-white debut, ''Following'' (1998), was an overt homage to classic noir. During the new century's first decade, he was one of the leading Hollywood directors of neo-noir with the acclaimed ''Memento (film), Memento'' (2000) and the remake of ''Insomnia (2002 film), Insomnia'' (2002). Director Sean Penn's ''The Pledge (film), The Pledge'' (2001), though adapted from a very self-reflexive novel by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, plays noir comparatively straight, to devastating effect. Screenwriter David Ayer updated the classic noir bad-cop tale, typified by ''Shield for Murder'' (1954) and ''Rogue Cop'' (1954), with his scripts for ''Training Day'' (2001) and, adapting a story by James Ellroy, ''Dark Blue (film), Dark Blue'' (2002); he later wrote and directed the even darker ''Harsh Times'' (2006). Michael Mann's ''Collateral (film), Collateral'' (2004) features a performance by Tom Cruise as an assassin in the lineage of ''Le Samouraï''. The torments of ''The Machinist'' (2004), directed by Brad Anderson (director), Brad Anderson, evoke both ''Fight Club'' and ''Memento''. In 2005, Shane Black directed ''Kiss Kiss Bang Bang'', basing his screenplay in part on a crime novel by Brett Halliday, who published his first stories back in the 1920s. The film plays with an awareness not only of classic noir but also of neo-noir reflexivity itself. With ultra-violent films such as ''Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance'' (2002) and ''Thirst (2009 film), Thirst'' (2009), Park Chan-wook of South Korea has been the most prominent director outside of the United States to work regularly in a noir mode in the new millennium. The most commercially successful neo-noir of this period has been ''Sin City (film), Sin City'' (2005), directed by Robert Rodriguez in extravagantly stylized black and white with splashes of color. The film is based on Sin City, a series of comic books created by Frank Miller (credited as the film's codirector), which are in turn openly indebted to the works of Spillane and other pulp magazine, pulp mystery authors. Similarly, graphic novels provide the basis for ''Road to Perdition'' (2002), directed by Sam Mendes, and ''A History of Violence (film), A History of Violence'' (2005), directed by David Cronenberg; the latter was voted best film of the year in the annual ''Village Voice'' poll. Writer-director Rian Johnson's ''Brick (film), Brick'' (2005), featuring present-day high schoolers speaking a version of 1930s hardboiled argot, won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the Sundance Film Festival. The television series ''Veronica Mars'' (2004–07) and the movie ''Veronica Mars'' (2014) also brought a youth-oriented twist to film noir. Examples of this sort of generic crossover have been dubbed "teen noir". Neo-noir films released in the 2010s include Kim Jee-woon’s ''I Saw the Devil'' (2010), Fred Cavaye’s ''Point Blank (2010 film), Point Blank'' (2010), Na Hong-jin’s ''The Yellow Sea (film), The Yellow Sea'' (2010), Nicolas Winding Refn’s ''Drive (2011 film), Drive'' (2011), Claire Denis' ''Bastards (2013 film), Bastards'' (2013) and Dan Gilroy's ''Nightcrawler (film), Nightcrawler'' (2014).


2020s

The Science Channel broadcast the 2021 science documentary series ''Killers of the Cosmos'' in a format it describes as "space noir." In the series, actor Aidan Gillen in animated form serves as the host of the series while portraying a private investigator who takes on "cases" in which he "hunts down" lethal threats to humanity posed by the cosmos. The animated sequences combine the characteristics of film noir with those of a pulp fiction graphic novel set in the mid-20th century, and they link conventional live-action documentary segments in which experts describe the potentially deadly phenomena.


Science fiction noir

In the post-classic era, a significant trend in noir crossovers has involved science fiction. In Jean-Luc Godard's ''Alphaville (film), Alphaville'' (1965), Lemmy Caution is the name of the old-school private eye in the city of tomorrow. ''The Groundstar Conspiracy'' (1972) centers on another implacable investigator and an amnesiac named Welles. ''Soylent Green'' (1973), the first major American example, portrays a dystopian, near-future world via a noir detection plot; starring Charlton Heston (the lead in ''Touch of Evil''), it also features classic noir standbys Joseph Cotten, Edward G. Robinson, and Whit Bissell. The film was directed by Richard Fleischer, who two decades before had directed several strong B noirs, including ''Armored Car Robbery'' (1950) and ''The Narrow Margin'' (1952). The cynical and stylish perspective of classic film noir had a formative effect on the cyberpunk genre of science fiction that emerged in the early 1980s; the film most directly influential on cyberpunk was ''Blade Runner'' (1982), directed by Ridley Scott, which pays evocative homage to the classic noir mode (Scott subsequently directed the poignant 1987 noir crime melodrama ''Someone to Watch Over Me (film), Someone to Watch Over Me''). Scholar Jamaluddin Bin Aziz has observed how "the shadow of
Philip Marlowe Philip Marlowe () is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler, who was characteristic of the hardboiled crime fiction genre. The hardboiled crime fiction genre originated in the 1920s, notably in ''Black Mask'' magazine, in which Dashiel ...
lingers on" in such other "future noir" films as ''12 Monkeys (film), 12 Monkeys'' (1995), ''Dark City (1998 film), Dark City'' (1998) and ''Minority Report (film), Minority Report'' (2002). Fincher's feature debut was ''Alien 3'' (1992), which evoked the classic noir jail film '' Brute Force''. David Cronenberg's ''Crash (1996 film), Crash'' (1996), an adaptation of Crash (1973 novel), the speculative novel by J. G. Ballard, has been described as a "film noir in bruise tones". The hero is the target of investigation in ''Gattaca'' (1997), which fuses film noir motifs with a scenario indebted to ''Brave New World''. ''The Thirteenth Floor'' (1999), like ''Blade Runner'', is an explicit homage to classic noir, in this case involving speculations about virtual reality. Science fiction, noir, and anime are brought together in the Japanese films of 90s ''Ghost in the Shell (1995 film), Ghost in the Shell'' (1995) and ''Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence'' (2004), both directed by Mamoru Oshii. ''The Animatrix'' (2003), based on and set within the world of ''The Matrix (franchise), The Matrix'' film trilogy, contains an anime short film in classic noir style titled "A Detective Story". Anime television series with science fiction noir themes include ''Noir (anime), Noir'' (2001)Dargis (2004); Ballinger and Graydon (2007), p. 234. and ''Cowboy Bebop'' (1998). The 2015 film ''Ex Machina (film), Ex Machina'' puts an understated film noir spin on the Frankenstein mythos, with the sentient android (robot), android Ava as a potential ''femme fatale'', her creator Nathan embodying the abusive husband or father trope, and her would-be rescuer Caleb as a "clueless drifter" enthralled by Ava.


Parodies

Film noir has been parodied many times in many manners. In 1945, Danny Kaye starred in what appears to be the first intentional film noir parody, ''Wonder Man (film), Wonder Man''.Silver and Ward (1992), p. 332. That same year, Deanna Durbin was the singing lead in the comedic noir ''Lady on a Train'', which makes fun of Woolrich-brand wistful miserablism. Bob Hope inaugurated the private-eye noir parody with ''My Favorite Brunette'' (1947), playing a baby-photographer who is mistaken for an ironfisted detective. In 1947 as well, The Bowery Boys appeared in ''Hard Boiled Mahoney'', which had a similar mistaken-identity plot; they spoofed the genre once more in ''Private Eyes (1953 film), Private Eyes'' (1953). Two RKO productions starring Robert Mitchum take film noir over the border into self-parody: ''The Big Steal'' (1949), directed by Don Siegel, and ''His Kind of Woman'' (1951). The "Girl Hunt" ballet in Vincente Minnelli's ''The Band Wagon'' (1953) is a ten-minute distillation of—and play on—noir in dance. ''The Cheap Detective'' (1978), starring Peter Falk, is a broad spoof of several films, including the Bogart classics ''The Maltese Falcon'' and ''Casablanca (film), Casablanca''. Carl Reiner's black-and-white ''Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid'' (1982) appropriates clips of classic noirs for a farcical Pastiche#Hodge-podge, pastiche, while his ''Fatal Instinct'' (1993) sends up noir classic (''Double Indemnity'') and neo-noir (''Basic Instinct''). Robert Zemeckis's ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' (1988) develops a noir plot set in 1940s L.A. around a host of cartoon characters. Noir parodies come in darker tones as well. ''Murder by Contract'' (1958), directed by Irving Lerner, is a deadpan joke on noir, with a denouement as bleak as any of the films it kids. An ultra-low-budget Columbia Pictures production, it may qualify as the first intentional example of what is now called a neo-noir film; it was likely a source of inspiration for both Melville's ''Le Samouraï'' and Scorsese's ''Taxi Driver''. Belying its parodic strain, '' The Long Goodbye''s final act is seriously grave. ''Taxi Driver'' caustically deconstruction, deconstructs the "dark" crime film, taking it to an absurd extreme and then offering a conclusion that manages to mock every possible anticipated ending—triumphant, tragic, artfully ambivalent—while being each, all at once. Flirting with splatter film, splatter status even more brazenly, the Coens' ''Blood Simple'' is both an exacting Genre parodies, pastiche and a gross exaggeration of classic noir. Adapted by director Robinson Devor from a novel by Charles Willeford, ''The Woman Chaser'' (1999) sends up not just the noir mode but the entire Hollywood filmmaking process, with each shot seemingly staged as the visual equivalent of an acerbic Marlowe wisecrack. In other media, the television series ''Sledge Hammer!'' (1986–88) lampoons noir, along with such topics as capital punishment, gun fetishism, and Harry Callahan (character), Dirty Harry. ''Sesame Street'' (1969–curr.) occasionally casts Kermit the Frog as a private eye; the sketches refer to some of the typical motifs of noir films, in particular the voiceover. Garrison Keillor's radio program ''A Prairie Home Companion'' features the recurring character Guy Noir, a hardboiled detective whose adventures always wander into farce (Guy also appears in the A Prairie Home Companion (film), Altman-directed film based on Keillor's show). Firesign Theatre's Nick Danger has trodden the same not-so-mean streets, both on radio and in comedy albums. Cartoons such as ''Garfield's Babes and Bullets'' (1989) and comic strip characters such as Calvin's alter egos (Calvin and Hobbes)#Tracer Bullet, Tracer Bullet of ''Calvin and Hobbes'' have parodied both film noir and the kindred hardboiled tradition—one of the sources from which film noir sprang and which it now overshadows.


Identifying characteristics

In their original 1955 canon of film noir, Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton identified twenty-two Hollywood films released between 1941 and 1952 as core examples; they listed another fifty-nine American films from the period as significantly related to the field of noir. A half-century later, film historians and critics had come to agree on a canon of approximately three hundred films from 1940 to 1958. There remain, however, many differences of opinion over whether other films of the era, among them a number of well-known ones, qualify as films noir or not. For instance, ''The Night of the Hunter (film), The Night of the Hunter'' (1955), starring Robert Mitchum in an acclaimed performance, is treated as a film noir by some critics, but not by others. Some critics include ''Suspicion (1941 film), Suspicion'' (1941), directed by Alfred Hitchcock, in their catalogues of noir; others ignore it. Concerning films made either before or after the classic period, or outside of the United States at any time, consensus is even rarer. To support their categorization of certain films as noirs and their rejection of others, many critics refer to a set of elements they see as marking examples of the mode. The question of what constitutes the set of noir's identifying characteristics is a fundamental source of controversy. For instance, critics tend to define the model film noir as having a tragic or bleak conclusion, but many acknowledged classics of the genre have clearly happy endings (e.g., ''Stranger on the Third Floor,'' ''The Big Sleep'', ''Dark Passage'', and ''The Dark Corner''), while the tone of many other noir denouements is ambivalent. Some critics perceive classic noir's hallmark as a distinctive visual style. Others, observing that there is actually considerable stylistic variety among noirs, instead emphasize plot and character type. Still others focus on mood and attitude. No survey of classic noir's identifying characteristics can therefore be considered definitive. In the 1990s and 2000s, critics have increasingly turned their attention to that diverse field of films called neo-noir; once again, there is even less consensus about the defining attributes of such films made outside the classic period.


Visual style

The
low-key lighting Low-key lighting is a style of lighting for photography, film or television. It is a necessary element in creating a chiaroscuro effect. Traditional photographic lighting (three-point lighting) uses a key light, a fill light and a back light fo ...
schemes of many classic films noir are associated with stark light/dark contrast (vision), contrasts and dramatic shadow patterning—a style known as chiaroscuro (a term adopted from Renaissance painting). The shadows of Venetian blinds or banister rods, cast upon an actor, a wall, or an entire set, are an iconic visual in noir and had already become a cliché well before the neo-noir era. Characters' faces may be partially or wholly obscured by darkness—a relative rarity in conventional Hollywood filmmaking. While black-and-white cinematography is considered by many to be one of the essential attributes of classic noir, the color films ''Leave Her to Heaven'' (1945) and ''Niagara (1953 film), Niagara'' (1953) are routinely included in noir filmographies, while '' Slightly Scarlet'' (1956), ''Party Girl (1958 film), Party Girl'' (1958), and ''Vertigo (film), Vertigo'' (1958) are classified as noir by varying numbers of critics. Film noir is also known for its use of low-angle shot, low-angle, wide-angle lens, wide-angle, and Dutch angle, skewed, or Dutch angle shots. Other devices of disorientation relatively common in film noir include shots of people reflected in one or more mirrors, shots through curved or frosted glass or other distorting objects (such as during the strangulation scene in ''Strangers on a Train''), and special effects sequences of a sometimes bizarre nature. Night-for-night shooting, as opposed to the Hollywood norm of day-for-night, was often employed. From the mid-1940s forward, location shooting became increasingly frequent in noir. In an analysis of the visual approach of ''Kiss Me Deadly'', a late and self-consciously stylized example of classic noir, critic Alain Silver describes how cinematographic choices emphasize the story's themes and mood. In one scene, the characters, seen through a "confusion of angular shapes", thus appear "caught in a tangible vortex or enclosed in a trap." Silver makes a case for how "side light is used ... to reflect character ambivalence", while shots of characters in which they are lit from below "conform to a convention of visual expression which associates shadows cast upward of the face with the unnatural and ominous".


Structure and narrational devices

Films noir tend to have unusually convoluted story lines, frequently involving Flashback (literary technique), flashbacks and other editing techniques that disrupt and sometimes obscure the narrative sequence. Framing the entire primary narrative as a flashback is also a standard device. Voiceover narration, sometimes used as a structuring device, came to be seen as a noir hallmark; while classic noir is generally associated with first-person narration (i.e., by the protagonist), Stephen Neale notes that third-person narration is common among noirs of the semidocumentary style. Neo-noirs as varied as ''The Element of Crime'' (surrealist), ''After Dark, My Sweet'' (retro), and ''Kiss Kiss Bang Bang'' (meta) have employed the flashback/voiceover combination. Bold experiments in cinematic storytelling were sometimes attempted during the classic era: ''Lady in the Lake'', for example, is shot entirely from the Point of view shot, point of view of protagonist Philip Marlowe; the face of star (and director) Robert Montgomery (actor), Robert Montgomery is seen only in mirrors. ''The Chase (1946 film), The Chase'' (1946) takes Oneiric (film theory), oneirism and fatalism as the basis for its fantastical narrative system, redolent of certain horror stories, but with little precedent in the context of a putatively realistic genre. In their different ways, both ''Sunset Boulevard'' and ''D.O.A.'' are tales told by dead men. Latter-day noir has been in the forefront of structural experimentation in popular cinema, as exemplified by such films as ''Pulp Fiction'', ''Fight Club'', and ''Memento''.


Plots, characters, and settings

Crime, usually murder, is an element of almost all films noir; in addition to standard-issue greed, jealousy is frequently the criminal motivation. A crime investigation—by a private eye, a police detective (sometimes acting alone), or a concerned amateur—is the most prevalent, but far from dominant, basic plot. In other common plots the protagonists are implicated in heist film, heists or confidence trick, con games, or in murderous conspiracies often involving adulterous affairs. False suspicions and accusations of crime are frequent plot elements, as are betrayals and double-crosses. According to J. David Slocum, "protagonists assume the literal identities of dead men in nearly fifteen percent of all noir." Amnesia is fairly epidemic—"noir's version of the common cold", in the words of film historian Lee Server. Films noir tend to revolve around heroes who are more flawed and morally questionable than the norm, often fall guys of one sort or another. The characteristic protagonists of noir are described by many critics as "Social alienation, alienated"; in the words of Silver and Ward, "filled with existentialism, existential bitterness". Certain archetypal characters appear in many film noirs—hardboiled detectives, femme fatales, corrupt policemen, jealous husbands, intrepid claims adjusters, and down-and-out writers. Among characters of every stripe, cigarette smoking is rampant. From historical commentators to neo-noir pictures to pop culture ephemera, the private eye and the femme fatale have been adopted as the quintessential film noir figures, though they do not appear in most films now regarded as classic noir. Of the twenty-six National Film Registry noirs, in only four does the star play a private eye: ''The Maltese Falcon'', ''The Big Sleep'', ''Out of the Past'', and ''Kiss Me Deadly''. Just four others readily qualify as detective stories: ''Laura'', ''The Killers'', ''The Naked City'', and ''Touch of Evil''. There is usually an element of drug or alcohol use, particularly as part of the detective's method to solving the crime, as an example the character of Mike Hammer in the 1955 film ''
Kiss Me Deadly ''Kiss Me Deadly'' is a 1955 American film noir produced and directed by Robert Aldrich, starring Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart, Juano Hernandez, and Wesley Addy. It also features Maxine Cooper and Cloris Leachman appearing in the ...
'' who walks into a bar saying "Give me a double bourbon, and leave the bottle". Chaumeton and Borde have argued that film noir grew out of the "literature of drugs and alcohol". Film noir is often associated with an urban setting, and a few cities—Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Chicago, in particular—are the location of many of the classic films. In the eyes of many critics, the city is presented in noir as a "labyrinth" or "maze". Bars, lounges, nightclubs, and gambling dens are frequently the scene of action. The climaxes of a substantial number of film noirs take place in visually complex, often industrial settings, such as refineries, factories, trainyards, power plants—most famously the explosive conclusion of ''White Heat'', set at a chemical plant. In the popular (and, frequently enough, critical) imagination, in noir it is always night and it always raining. A substantial trend within latter-day noir—dubbed "film soleil" by critic D. K. Holm—heads in precisely the opposite direction, with tales of deception, seduction, and corruption exploiting bright, sun-baked settings, stereotypically the desert or open water, to searing effect. Significant predecessors from the classic and early post-classic eras include ''The Lady from Shanghai''; the Robert Ryan vehicle ''Inferno (1953 film), Inferno'' (1953); the French adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's ''The Talented Mr. Ripley'', ''Plein Soleil, Plein soleil'' (''Purple Noon'' in the United States, more accurately rendered elsewhere as ''Blazing Sun'' or ''Full Sun''; 1960); and director Don Siegel's version of ''The Killers (1964 film), The Killers'' (1964). The tendency was at its peak during the late 1980s and 1990s, with films such as ''Dead Calm (film), Dead Calm'' (1989), ''After Dark, My Sweet'' (1990), ''The Hot Spot'' (1990), ''Delusion (1991 film), Delusion'' (1991), ''Red Rock West'' (1993) and the television series ''Miami Vice''.


Worldview, morality, and tone

Film noir is often described as essentially pessimistic. The noir stories that are regarded as most characteristic tell of people trapped in unwanted situations (which, in general, they did not cause but are responsible for exacerbating), striving against random, uncaring fate, and are frequently doomed. The films are seen as depicting a world that is inherently corrupt. Classic film noir has been associated by many critics with the American social landscape of the era—in particular, with a sense of heightened anxiety and alienation that is said to have followed World War II. In author Nicholas Christopher's opinion, "it is as if the war, and the social eruptions in its aftermath, unleashed demons that had been bottled up in the national psyche." Films noir, especially those of the 1950s and the height of the Red Scare, are often said to reflect cultural paranoia; ''
Kiss Me Deadly ''Kiss Me Deadly'' is a 1955 American film noir produced and directed by Robert Aldrich, starring Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart, Juano Hernandez, and Wesley Addy. It also features Maxine Cooper and Cloris Leachman appearing in the ...
'' is the noir most frequently marshaled as evidence for this claim. Film noir is often said to be defined by "moral ambiguity", yet the Motion Picture Production Code, Production Code obliged almost all classic noirs to see that steadfast virtue was ultimately rewarded and vice, in the absence of shame and redemption, severely punished (however dramatically incredible the final rendering of mandatory justice might be). A substantial number of latter-day noirs flout such conventions: vice emerges triumphant in films as varied as the grim ''Chinatown'' and the ribald ''Hot Spot''. The tone of film noir is generally regarded as downbeat; some critics experience it as darker still—"overwhelmingly black", according to Robert Ottoson. Influential critic (and filmmaker) Paul Schrader wrote in a seminal 1972 essay that "''film noir'' is defined by tone", a tone he seems to perceive as "hopeless". In describing the adaptation of ''Double Indemnity,'' noir analyst Foster Hirsch describes the "requisite hopeless tone" achieved by the filmmakers, which appears to characterize his view of noir as a whole. On the other hand, definitive film noirs such as ''The Big Sleep'', ''The Lady from Shanghai'', ''Scarlet Street'' and ''Double Indemnity'' itself are famed for their hardboiled repartee, often imbued with sexual innuendo and self-reflexive humor.


Music

The music of film noir was typically orchestral, per the Hollywood norm, but often with added dissonance. Many of the prime composers, like the directors and cameramen, were European émigrés, e.g., Max Steiner (''The Big Sleep'', ''Mildred Pierce''), Miklós Rózsa (''Double Indemnity'', ''The Killers'', ''Criss Cross''), and Franz Waxman (''Fury'', ''Dark City'', ''Night and the City''). ''Double Indemnity'' is a seminal score, initially disliked by Paramount's music director for its harshness but strongly endorsed by director Billy Wilder and studio chief Buddy DeSylva. There is a widespread popular impression that "sleazy" jazz saxophone and pizzicato bass constitute the sound of noir, but those characteristics arose much later, as in the late-1950s music of Henry Mancini for ''Touch of Evil'' and television's ''Peter Gunn''.


See also

* Film gris-a term coined by experimental filmmaker Thom Andersen * Scandinavian noir * List of film noir titles * List of neo-noir titles *
B movie A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featu ...
* Modernist film * Postmodern film * Minimalist film * Maximalist film


Notes

  1. The plural forms of ''film noir'' in English include ''films noirs'' (English plurals#French compounds, derived from the French), ''films noir'', and ''film noirs''. Merriam-Webster, which acknowledges all three styles as acceptable, favors ''film noirs'', while the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' lists only ''films noirs''.
  2. ''His Kind of Woman'' was originally directed by John Farrow, then largely reshot under Richard Fleischer after studio owner Howard Hughes demanded rewrites. Only Farrow was credited.Server (2002), pp. 182–98, 209–16; Downs (2002), p. 171; Ottoson (1981), pp. 82–83.
  3. In ''Academic Dictionary of Arts'' (2005), Rakesh Chopra notes that the high-contrast film lighting schemes commonly referred to as "chiaroscuro" are more specifically representative of tenebrism, whose first great exponent was the Italian painter Caravaggio (p. 73). See also Ballinger and Graydon (2007), p. 16.


Citations


Sources

* Ackbar Abbas, Abbas, M. Ackbar (1997). ''Hong Kong: Culture and the Politics of Disappearance''. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. * Appel, Alfred (1974). ''Nabokov's Dark Cinema''. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. * Aziz, Jamaluddin Bin (2005). "Future Noir", chap. in "Transgressing Women: Investigating Space and the Body in Contemporary Noir Thrillers". Ph.D. dissertation, Department of English and Creative Writing, Lancaster University (chapter availabl
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. * Ballinger, Alexander, and Danny Graydon (2007). ''The Rough Guide to Film Noir''. London: Rough Guides. * Bernstein, Matthew (1995). "A Tale of Three Cities: The Banning of ''Scarlet Street''", ''Cinema Journal'' 35, no. 1. * Biesen, Sheri Chinen (2005). ''Blackout: World War II and the Origins of Film Noir''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. * Borde, Raymond, and Etienne Chaumeton (2002 [1955]). ''A Panorama of American Film Noir, 1941–1953'', trans. Paul Hammond. San Francisco: City Lights Books. * Bould, Mark (2005). ''Film Noir: From Berlin to Sin City''. London and New York: Wallflower. * Butler, David (2002). ''Jazz Noir: Listening to Music from'' Phantom Lady ''to'' The Last Seduction. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood. * Cameron, Ian, ed. (1993). ''The Book of Film Noir''. New York: Continuum. * Christopher, Nicholas (1998 [1997]). ''Somewhere in the Night: Film Noir and the American City'', 1st paperback ed. New York: Owl/Henry Holt. * Clarens, Carlos (1980). ''Crime Movies: An Illustrated History''. New York: W.W. Norton. * Conard, Mark T. (2007). ''The Philosophy of Neo-Noir''. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. * Copjec, Joan, ed. (1993). ''Shades of Noir''. London and New York: Verso. * Creeber, Glen (2007). ''The Singing Detective''. London: BFI Publishing. * Ken Dancyger, Dancyger, Ken, and Jeff Rush (2002). ''Alternative Scriptwriting: Successfully Breaking the Rules'', 3d ed. Boston and Oxford: Focal Press. * Dargis, Manohla (2004). "Philosophizing Sex Dolls amid Film Noir Intrigue", ''The New York Times'', September 17 (availabl
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. * Davis, Blair (2004). "Horror Meets Noir: The Evolution of Cinematic Style, 1931–1958", in ''Horror Film: Creating and Marketing Fear'', ed. Steffen Hantke. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. * Downs, Jacqueline (2002). "Richard Fleischer", in ''Contemporary North American Film Directors: A Wallflower Critical Guide'', 2d ed., ed. Yoram Allon, Del Cullen, and Hannah Patterson. London and New York: Wallflower. * Raymond Durgnat, Durgnat, Raymond (1970). "Paint It Black: The Family Tree of the ''Film Noir''", ''Cinema'' 6/7 (collected in Gorman et al., ''The Big Book of Noir'', and Silver and Ursini, ''Film Noir Reader [1]''). * Erickson, Glenn (2004). "Fate Seeks the Loser: Edgar G. Ulmer's ''Detour''", in Silver and Ursini, ''Film Noir Reader 4'', pp. 25–31. * Gorman, Ed, Lee Server, and Martin H. Greenberg, eds. (1998). ''The Big Book of Noir''. New York: Carroll & Graf. * Greene, Naomi (1999). ''Landscapes of Loss: The National Past in Postwar French Cinema''. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. * Greenspun, Roger (1973). "Mike Hodges's 'Pulp' Opens; A Private Eye Parody Is Parody of Itself", ''The New York Times'', February 9 (availabl
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. * Hanson, Helen (2008). ''Hollywood Heroines: Women in Film Noir and the Female Gothic Film''. London and New York: I.B. Tauris. * Hayde, Michael J. (2001). ''My Name's Friday: The Unauthorized But True Story of Dragnet and the Films of Jack Webb''. Nashville, Tenn.: Cumberland House. * Foster Hirsch, Hirsch, Foster (1999). ''Detours and Lost Highways: A Map of Neo-Noir''. Pompton Plains, N.J.: Limelight. * Hirsch, Foster (2001 [1981]). ''The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir''. New York: Da Capo. * Holden, Stephen (1999). "Hard-Boiled as a Two-Day-Old Egg at a Two-Bit Diner", ''The New York Times'', October 8 (availabl
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. * D. K. Holm, Holm, D. K. (2005). ''Film Soleil''. Harpenden, UK: Pocket Essentials. * Hunter, Stephen (1982). "''Blade Runner''", in his ''Violent Screen: A Critic's 13 Years on the Front Lines of Movie Mayhem'' (1995), pp. 196–99. Baltimore: Bancroft. * Irwin, John T. (2006). ''Unless the Threat of Death is Behind Them: Hard-Boiled Fiction and Film Noir''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. * James, Nick (2002). "Back to the Brats", in ''Contemporary North American Film Directors'', 2d ed., ed. Yoram Allon, Del Cullen, and Hannah Patterson, pp. xvi–xx. London: Wallflower. * Jones, Kristin M. (2009). "Dark Cynicism, British Style", ''Wall Street Journal'', August 18 (availabl
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. * Kennedy, Harlan (1982). "Twenty-First Century Nervous Breakdown", ''Film Comment'', July/August. * Kirgo, Julie (1980). "''Farewell, My Lovely'' (1975)", in Silver and Ward, ''Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference'', pp. 101–2. * Kolker, Robert (2000). ''A Cinema of Loneliness'', 3d ed. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. * Krutnik, Frank, Steve Neale, and Brian Neve (2008). ''"Un-American" Hollywood: Politics and Film in the Blacklist Era''. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press. * Lynch, David, and Chris Rodley (2005). ''Lynch on Lynch'', rev. ed. New York and London: Faber and Faber. * Lyons, Arthur (2000). ''Death on the Cheap: The Lost B Movies of Film Noir''. New York: Da Capo. * Carl Macek, Macek, Carl (1980). "''City Streets'' (1931)", in Silver and Ward, ''Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference'', pp. 59–60. * Macek, Carl, and Alain Silver (1980). "''House on 92nd Street'' (1945)", in Silver and Ward, ''Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference'', pp. 134–35. * Mackendrick, Alexander (2006). ''On Film-making: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director''. New York: Macmillan. * Marshman, Donald (1947). "Mister 'See'-Odd-Mack'", ''Life'', August 25. * Martin, Richard (1997). ''Mean Streets and Raging Bulls: The Legacy of Film Noir in Contemporary American Cinema''. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press. * Maslin, Janet (1996). "Deadly Plot by a Milquetoast Villain", ''The New York Times'', March 8 (availabl
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. * McGilligan, Patrick (1997). ''Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast''. New York and London: Faber and Faber. * Eddie Muller, Muller, Eddie (1998). ''Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir''. New York: St. Martin's. * Naremore, James (2008). ''More Than Night: Film Noir in Its Contexts'', 2d ed. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press. * Neale, Steve (2000). ''Genre and Hollywood''. London and New York: Routledge. * Ottoson, Robert (1981). ''A Reference Guide to the American Film Noir: 1940–1958''. Metuchen, N.J., and London: Scarecrow Press. * Palmer, R. Barton (2004). "The Sociological Turn of Adaptation Studies: The Example of ''Film Noir''", in ''A Companion To Literature And Film'', ed. Robert Stam and Alessandra Raengo, pp. 258–77. Maiden, Mass., Oxford, and Carlton, Australia: Blackwell. * Place, Janey, and Lowell Peterson (1974). "Some Visual Motifs of ''Film Noir''", ''Film Comment'' 10, no. 1 (collected in Silver and Ursini, ''Film Noir Reader [1]''). * Porfirio, Robert (1980). "''Stranger on the Third Floor'' (1940)", in Silver and Ward, ''Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference'', p. 269. * Ray, Robert B. (1985). ''A Certain Tendency of the Hollywood Cinema, 1930–1980''. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. * Richardson, Carl (1992). ''Autopsy: An Element of Realism in Film Noir''. Metuchen, N.J., and London: Scarecrow Press. * Sanders, Steven M. (2006). "Film Noir and the Meaning of Life", in ''The Philosophy of Film Noir'', ed. Mark T. Conard, pp. 91–106. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. * Sarris, Andrew (1996 [1968]). ''The American Cinema: Directors and Directions, 1929–1968''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Da Capo. * Schatz, Thomas (1981). ''Hollywood Genres: Formulas, Filmmaking, and the Studio System''. New York: Random House. * Schatz, Thomas (1998 [1996]). ''The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era'', new ed. London: Faber and Faber. * Paul Schrader, Schrader, Paul (1972). "Notes on Film Noir", ''Film Comment'' 8, no. 1 (collected in Silver and Ursini, ''Film Noir Reader [1]''). * Server, Lee (2002). ''Robert Mitchum: "Baby I Don't Care"''. New York: Macmillan. * Server, Lee (2006). ''Ava Gardner: "Love Is Nothing"''. New York: Macmillan. * Silver, Alain (1996 [1975]). "''Kiss Me Deadly'': Evidence of a Style", rev. versions in Silver and Ursini, ''Film Noir Reader [1]'', pp. 209–35 and ''Film Noir Compendium'' (newest with remastered frame captures, 2016), pp. 302–325. * Silver, Alain (1996). "Introduction", in Silver and Ursini, ''Film Noir Reader [1]'', pp. 3–15, rev. ver. in Silver and Ursini, ''Film Noir Compendium'' (2016), pp. 10–25. * Silver, Alain, and James Ursini (and Robert Porfirio—vol. 3), eds. (2004 [1996–2004]). ''Film Noir Reader'', vols. 1–4. Pompton Plains, N.J.: Limelight. * Silver, Alain, and Elizabeth Ward (1992). ''Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style'', 3d ed. Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press. (See also: Silver, Ursini, Ward, and Porfirio [2010]. ''Film Noir: The Encyclopedia'', 4th rev., exp. ed. Overlook. ) * Slocum, J. David (2001). ''Violence and American Cinema''. London and New York: Routledge. * Spicer, Andrew (2007). ''European Film Noir''. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. * Telotte, J. P. (1989). ''Voices in the Dark: The Narrative Patterns of Film Noir''. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press. * Thomson, David (1998). ''A Biographical Dictionary of Film'', 3rd ed. New York: Knopf. * Turan, Kenneth (2008). "UCLA's Pre-Code Series", ''Los Angeles Times'', January 27 (availabl
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. * Tuska, Jon (1984). ''Dark Cinema: American Film Noir in Cultural Perspective''. Westport, Conn., and London: Greenwood. * Tyree, J. M., and Ben Walters (2007). ''The Big Lebowski''. London: BFI Publishing. * Ursini, James (1995). "Angst at Sixty Fields per Second", in Silver and Ursini, ''Film Noir Reader [1]'', pp. 275–87. * "''Variety'' staff" (anon.) (1940). "''Stranger on the Third Floor''" [review], ''Variety'' (excerpte
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. * "''Variety'' staff" (anon.) (1955). "''Kiss Me Deadly''" [review], ''Variety'' (excerpte
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. * Vernet, Marc (1993). "''Film Noir'' on the Edge of Doom", in Copjec, ''Shades of Noir'', pp. 1–31. * Wager, Jans B. (2005). ''Dames in the Driver's Seat: Rereading Film Noir''. Austin: University of Texas Press. * Walker, Michael (1992). "Robert Siodmak", in Cameron, ''The Book of Film Noir'', pp. 110–51. * White, Dennis L. (1980). "''Beast of the City'' (1932)", in Silver and Ward, ''Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference'', pp. 16–17. * Widdicombe, Toby (2001). ''A Reader's Guide to Raymond Chandler''. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood. * Williams, Linda Ruth (2005). ''The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema''. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.


Suggested reading

* Auerbach, Jonathan (2011). ''Film Noir and American Citizenship.'' Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press. * Chopra-Gant, Mike (2005). ''Hollywood Genres and Postwar America: Masculinity, Family and Nation in Popular Movies and Film Noir''. London: IB Tauris. * Cochran, David (2000). ''America Noir: Underground Writers and Filmmakers of the Postwar Era''. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. * Dickos, Andrew (2002). ''Street with No Name: A History of the Classic American Film Noir''. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. * Dimendberg, Edward (2004). ''Film Noir and the Spaces of Modernity''. Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London: Harvard University Press. * Dixon, Wheeler Winston (2009). ''Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia''. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press. * Grossman, Julie (2009). ''Rethinking the Femme Fatale in Film Noir: Ready for Her Close-Up''. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. * Hannsberry, Karen Burroughs (1998). ''Femme Noir: Bad Girls of Film''. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. * Hannsberry, Karen Burroughs (2003). ''Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir''. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. * Hare, William (2003). ''Early Film Noir: Greed, Lust, and Murder Hollywood Style''. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. * Hogan, David J. (2013). ''Film Noir FAQ''. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard. * Kaplan, E. Ann, ed. (1998). ''Women in Film Noir'', new ed. London: British Film Institute. * Keaney, Michael F. (2003). ''Film Noir Guide: 745 Films of the Classic Era, 1940–1959''. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. * Mason, Fran (2002). ''American Gangster Cinema: From'' Little Caesar ''to'' Pulp Fiction. Houndmills, UK: Palgrave. * Mayer, Geoff, and Brian McDonnell (2007). ''Encyclopedia of Film Noir''. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood. * McArthur, Colin (1972). ''Underworld U.S.A.'' New York: Viking. * Naremore, James (2019). ''Film Noir: A Very Short Introduction''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. *Osteen, Mark. ''Nightmare Alley: Film Noir and the American Dream'' (Johns Hopkins University Press; 2013) 336 pages; interprets film noir as a genre that challenges the American mythology of upward mobility and self-reinvention. * Palmer, R. Barton (1994). ''Hollywood's Dark Cinema: The American Film Noir''. New York: Twayne. * Palmer, R. Barton, ed. (1996). ''Perspectives on Film Noir''. New York: G.K. Hall. * Pappas, Charles (2005). ''It's a Bitter Little World: The Smartest, Toughest, Nastiest Quotes from Film Noir''. Iola, Wisc.: Writer's Digest Books. * Rabinowitz, Paula (2002). ''Black & White & Noir: America's Pulp Modernism''. New York: Columbia University Press. * Schatz, Thomas (1997). ''Boom and Bust: American Cinema in the 1940s''. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press. * Selby, Spencer (1984). ''Dark City: The Film Noir''. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. * Shadoian, Jack (2003). ''Dreams and Dead Ends: The American Gangster Film'', 2d ed. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. * Silver, Alain, and James Ursini (1999). ''The Noir Style''. Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press. * Silver, Alain, and James Ursini (2016). ''Film Noir Compendium''. Milwaukee, WI: Applause. * Spicer, Andrew (2002). ''Film Noir''. Harlow, UK: Pearson Education. * Starman, Ray (2006). ''TV Noir: the 20th Century''. Troy, N.Y.: The Troy Bookmakers Press.


Suggested listening

* ''Murder is My Beat: Classic Film Noir Themes and Scenes'' (1997, Rhino Movie Music) - 18-track audio CD * ''Maltese Falcons, Third Men & Touches of Evil-The Sound of Film Noir 1941-1950'' (2019, Jasmine Records [UK]) - 42-track audio CD * ''Film Noir: Six Classic Soundtracks'' (2016, Real Gone Jazz [UK]) - 57 tracks on 4 audio CDs


External links

*
Film Noir: A Bibliography of Materials
an

holdings of the UC Berkeley Library
Film Noir: An Introduction
essay with links to discussions of ten important noirs; part of ''Images: A Journal of Film and Popular Culture''
Film Noir Studies
writings by John Blaser, with film noir glossary, timeline, and noir-related media

unrevised online version of essay by
Alain Silver Alain Silver is a US film producer, director, and screenwriter; music producer; film critic, film historian, DVD commentator, author and editor of books and essays on film topics, especially film noir, the samurai film, and horror films. Filmma ...
in three parts
(2)
an


A Guide to Film Noir Genre
ten deadeye bullet points from Roger Ebert
An Introduction to Neo-Noir
essay by Lee Horsley
''The Noir Thriller'': Introduction
excerpt from 2001 book by Lee Horsley

an

essay by
Alain Silver Alain Silver is a US film producer, director, and screenwriter; music producer; film critic, film historian, DVD commentator, author and editor of books and essays on film topics, especially film noir, the samurai film, and horror films. Filmma ...
and Linda Brookover
Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival
co-sponsored by the Palm Springs, California, Palm Springs]
Cultural CenterNoir and Neonoir , The Criterion CollectionNotebook Primer: Film NoirCollection: "Film Noir, Visuality and Themes"
from the University of Michigan Museum of Art {{DEFAULTSORT:Film Noir Film noir, Film and video terminology Film genres History of film 1930s in film 1940s in film 1950s in film 1940s neologisms