Film noir watchlist
by BogartsGhost | created - 07 Nov 2021 | updated - 3 months ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Pitfall (1948)
Not Rated | 86 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller
Married insurance adjuster John Forbes falls for femme fatale Mona Stevens while her boyfriend is in jail and all suffer serious consequences as a result.
Director: André De Toth | Stars: Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Jane Wyatt, Raymond Burr
Votes: 4,543
2. Moonrise (1948)
Passed | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Danny is despised by his schoolmates because his father was accused of killing another man and sentenced to death.
Director: Frank Borzage | Stars: Dane Clark, Gail Russell, Ethel Barrymore, Allyn Joslyn
Votes: 2,970
3. Force of Evil (1948)
Passed | 79 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An unethical lawyer who wants to help his older brother becomes a partner with a client in the numbers racket.
Director: Abraham Polonsky | Stars: John Garfield, Thomas Gomez, Beatrice Pearson, Marie Windsor
Votes: 7,670
4. Act of Violence (1948)
Passed | 82 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
An embittered, vengeful POW stalks his former commanding officer who betrayed his men's planned escape attempt from a Nazi prison camp.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh, Mary Astor
Votes: 5,714
5. Caught (1949)
Approved | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An ambitious young LA department store model gets her wish of marrying a millionaire but she eventually discovers that rich life isn't always a happy one.
Director: Max Ophüls | Stars: James Mason, Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Ryan, Frank Ferguson
Votes: 4,355
6. Impact (1949)
Passed | 111 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A unfaithful wife plots with her lover to kill her husband, but the lover is accidentally killed instead. The husband stays in hiding and lets his wife be charged with conspiracy.
Director: Arthur Lubin | Stars: Brian Donlevy, Ella Raines, Charles Coburn, Helen Walker
Votes: 4,721
7. The Set-Up (1949)
Approved | 73 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Sport
Expecting the usual loss, a boxing manager takes bribes from a betting gangster without telling his fighter.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Robert Ryan, Audrey Totter, George Tobias, Alan Baxter
Votes: 10,086
8. Champion (1949)
Passed | 99 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Sport
Boxer Midge Kelly rises to fame...mainly by stepping on other people.
Director: Mark Robson | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Arthur Kennedy, Marilyn Maxwell, Paul Stewart
Votes: 4,758
9. Flamingo Road (1949)
Approved | 94 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
A corrupt small town sheriff manipulates local candidates to the state legislature but he eventually comes into conflict with a visiting carnival dancer.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Joan Crawford, Zachary Scott, Sydney Greenstreet, David Brian
Votes: 3,624 | Gross: $2.26M
10. The Window (1949)
Approved | 73 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
To avoid the heat of a sweltering summer night a 9-year-old Manhattan boy decides to sleep on the fire escape and witnesses a murder, but no one will believe him.
Director: Ted Tetzlaff | Stars: Bobby Driscoll, Barbara Hale, Arthur Kennedy, Paul Stewart
Votes: 4,857
11. Beyond the Forest (1949)
Approved | 97 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
Resentful of her small-town life, a married woman schemes to run off with a rich businessman.
Director: King Vidor | Stars: Bette Davis, Joseph Cotten, David Brian, Ruth Roman
Votes: 2,772
12. Border Incident (1949)
Passed | 94 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Mexican and American federal agents tackle a vicious gang exploiting illegal farm workers in southern California.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy, Howard Da Silva, James Mitchell
Votes: 2,737
13. Whirlpool (1950)
Approved | 98 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A woman suffering from kleptomania is hypnotized in an attempt to cure her. Soon afterwards, she's found at the scene of a murder with no memory of how she got there, and seemingly no way to prove her innocence.
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: Gene Tierney, Richard Conte, José Ferrer, Charles Bickford
Votes: 4,798
14. The Reckless Moment (1949)
Not Rated | 82 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
After discovering the dead body of her teenage daughter's lover, a housewife takes desperate measures to protect her family from scandal.
Director: Max Ophüls | Stars: James Mason, Joan Bennett, Geraldine Brooks, Henry O'Neill
Votes: 5,657
15. The File on Thelma Jordon (1949)
Passed | 100 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Assistant district attorney Cleve Marshall falls for the mysterious Thelma Jordon when she seeks help solving robberies of her aunt's estate.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Wendell Corey, Paul Kelly, Joan Tetzel
Votes: 3,182
16. The Damned Don't Cry (1950)
Approved | 103 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A New York socialite climbs the ladder of success man by man until a life among rich gangsters gives her what she thought she always wanted.
Director: Vincent Sherman | Stars: Joan Crawford, David Brian, Steve Cochran, Kent Smith
Votes: 3,558 | Gross: $1.54M
17. The Underworld Story (1950)
Passed | 91 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
The story of the fight of a small-town newspaper to free an innocent girl of a murder charge, with the publisher of a metropolitan city newspaper heading, by forced circumstances, the opposing forces.
Director: Cy Endfield | Stars: Dan Duryea, Herbert Marshall, Gale Storm, Howard Da Silva
Votes: 1,330
18. The Prowler (1951)
Approved | 92 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
After Susan Gilvray reports a prowler outside her house police officer Webb Garwood investigates and sparks fly. If only her husband wasn't in the way.
Director: Joseph Losey | Stars: Van Heflin, Evelyn Keyes, John Maxwell, Katherine Warren
Votes: 4,095
19. Street of Chance (1942)
Approved | 74 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
After an accident, a New York man with amnesia finds out the ugly truth about his real identity and past by interacting with people who seem to know him well.
Director: Jack Hively | Stars: Burgess Meredith, Claire Trevor, Louise Platt, Sheldon Leonard
Votes: 743
20. Shadowed (1946)
Approved | 70 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Fred J. Johnson (Lloyd Corrigan) scores a hole-in-one but his next drive, using the lucky, initialed golf ball, soars out of bounds and lands near a spot where some counterfeiters are ... See full summary »
Director: John Sturges | Stars: Anita Louise, Lloyd Corrigan, Michael Duane, Mark Roberts
Votes: 280
21. Kansas City Confidential (1952)
Not Rated | 99 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An ex-con trying to go straight is framed for a million dollar armored car robbery and must go to Mexico in order to unmask the real culprits.
Director: Phil Karlson | Stars: John Payne, Coleen Gray, Preston Foster, Neville Brand
Votes: 8,141
22. The Big Combo (1955)
Not Rated | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A police lieutenant is ordered to stop investigating deadly crime boss Mr. Brown because he hasn't been able to get any hard evidence against him. He goes after Brown's girlfriend, who despises him, for information instead.
Director: Joseph H. Lewis | Stars: Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte, Jean Wallace, Brian Donlevy
Votes: 8,626
23. The Cat and the Canary (1939)
Approved | 72 min | Comedy, Horror, Mystery
When an eccentric family meets in their uncle's remote, decaying mansion on the tenth anniversary of his death for the reading of his will, murder and madness follow.
Director: Elliott Nugent | Stars: Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard, John Beal, Douglass Montgomery
Votes: 3,769
24. The Web (1947)
Approved | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An attorney acting as a body guard, apparently kills a man in defense of his employer's life, and later believes the victim was set up to be murdered.
Director: Michael Gordon | Stars: Ella Raines, Edmond O'Brien, William Bendix, Vincent Price
Votes: 1,474
25. Night Must Fall (1937)
Passed | 116 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
When a rich but cantankerous dowager on an isolated estate hires an engaging handyman, her niece/companion becomes suspicious of his motives.
Director: Richard Thorpe | Stars: Robert Montgomery, Rosalind Russell, May Whitty, Alan Marshal
Votes: 2,954
26. The House on 92nd Street (1945)
Approved | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Bill Dietrich becomes a double agent for the F.B.I. in a German spy ring.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: William Eythe, Lloyd Nolan, Signe Hasso, Gene Lockhart
Votes: 3,295
27. White Tie and Tails (1946)
Passed | 81 min | Comedy
A wealthy family goes on vacation, leaving their butler in charge of their house. The butler meets a beautiful woman, and soon gets himself in all sorts of trouble.
Director: Charles Barton | Stars: Dan Duryea, Ella Raines, William Bendix, Frank Jenks
Votes: 99
28. Confidential Agent (1945)
Passed | 118 min | Drama, Thriller
In 1937, agents from the opposing sides of the Spanish Civil War travel to the neutral UK to secure coal contracts and to undermine each other's efforts.
Director: Herman Shumlin | Stars: Charles Boyer, Lauren Bacall, Katina Paxinou, Peter Lorre
Votes: 1,369
29. Too Late for Tears (1949)
Not Rated | 99 min | Crime, Film-Noir
Through a fluke circumstance, a ruthless woman stumbles across a suitcase filled with $60,000, and is determined to hold onto it even if it means murder.
Director: Byron Haskin | Stars: Lizabeth Scott, Don DeFore, Dan Duryea, Arthur Kennedy
Votes: 5,695
30. Nocturne (1946)
Approved | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
In 1940s Los Angeles, when womanizing composer Keith Vincent is found dead, the inquest concludes it was a suicide but police detective Joe Warne isn't so sure.
Director: Edwin L. Marin | Stars: George Raft, Lynn Bari, Virginia Huston, Joseph Pevney
Votes: 1,666
31. The Devil Thumbs a Ride (1947)
Approved | 62 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Law-abiding Jimmy Ferguson soon regrets giving a ride to killer Steve Morgan.
Director: Felix E. Feist | Stars: Lawrence Tierney, Ted North, Nan Leslie, Betty Lawford
Votes: 1,030
32. Cornered (1945)
Approved | 102 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
Canadian flyer Laurence Gerard finds that his wife has been murdered by a French collaborator. His quest for justice leads him to Switzerland and Argentina.
Director: Edward Dmytryk | Stars: Dick Powell, Walter Slezak, Micheline Cheirel, Nina Vale
Votes: 2,463
33. Mystery Street (1950)
Passed | 93 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A small-town policeman is assisted by a Harvard professor after the discovery of a human skeleton on a Massachusetts beach.
Director: John Sturges | Stars: Ricardo Montalban, Sally Forrest, Bruce Bennett, Elsa Lanchester
Votes: 3,453
34. Somewhere in the Night (1946)
Passed | 110 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
George Taylor returns from WWII with amnesia. Back home in Los Angeles, while trying to track down his old identity, he stumbles onto a 3-year old murder case and a hunt for a missing $2 million.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: John Hodiak, Nancy Guild, Lloyd Nolan, Richard Conte
Votes: 3,523
35. Call Northside 777 (1948)
Approved | 112 min | Drama, Film-Noir
Chicago reporter P.J. McNeal re-opens a decade-old murder case.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: James Stewart, Richard Conte, Lee J. Cobb, Helen Walker
Votes: 10,241
36. Conflict (1945)
Passed | 86 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
An engineer trapped in an unhappy marriage murders his wife in the hope of marrying her younger sister.
Director: Curtis Bernhardt | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Alexis Smith, Sydney Greenstreet, Rose Hobart
Votes: 4,610
37. Boomerang! (1947)
Passed | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
The true story of a prosecutor's fight to prove the innocence of a man accused of a notorious murder.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Dana Andrews, Jane Wyatt, Lee J. Cobb, Cara Williams
Votes: 5,059
38. Dragnet (1954)
Approved | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Two homicide detectives investigate the brutal shotgun murder of a crime syndicate member.
Director: Jack Webb | Stars: Jack Webb, Ben Alexander, Richard Boone, Ann Robinson
Votes: 1,134
39. The Narrow Margin (1952)
Approved | 71 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A woman planning to testify against the mob must be protected against potential assassins on the train trip from Chicago to Los Angeles.
Directors: Richard Fleischer, William Cameron Menzies | Stars: Charles McGraw, Marie Windsor, Jacqueline White, Gordon Gebert
Votes: 8,658
40. The Suspect (1944)
Passed | 85 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
An unhappily married man begins a flirtation with a younger woman. When his wife threatens to ruin her, he decides to take action.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Charles Laughton, Ella Raines, Dean Harens, Stanley Ridges
Votes: 3,548
41. The Red House (1947)
Approved | 100 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
An old man and his sister are concealing a terrible secret from their adopted teen daughter, concerning a hidden abandoned farmhouse, located deep in the woods.
Director: Delmer Daves | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Lon McCallister, Judith Anderson, Rory Calhoun
Votes: 4,950
42. The Gay Falcon (1941)
Passed | 67 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
The Falcon investigates jewel thieves who are working with hard up socialites to defraud insurance companies. First of the Falcon series.
Director: Irving Reis | Stars: George Sanders, Wendy Barrie, Allen Jenkins, Nina Vale
Votes: 1,229
43. T-Men (1947)
Approved | 92 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller
Two US Treasury agents hunt a successful counterfeiting ring.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Dennis O'Keefe, Wallace Ford, Alfred Ryder, Mary Meade
Votes: 3,909
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