1. Sweet Smell of Success (1957) - A script as hard as a diamond and as black as coal combines with gloriously vibrant cinematography and slick, smooth direction to create an underrated noir masterpiece. The film shows the glitz and the grime of the high life and the lowlifes that occupy it. Acidic dialogue is spewed throughout by infected characters to make a movie that's impossibly witty and yet utterly devastating - A true masterpiece that I fear will always remain underrated.
2. The Night of the Hunter (1955) - An equally electric combination of noir and horror, the very ideal of 'Good vs. Evil' is personified in this brilliantly eerie film. Featuring a chilling lead performance from Robert Mitchum as a corrupt religious reverend who woos an unsuspecting widow to collect a hidden fortune is intensified to form a gripping thriller film, following the reverend unflinchingly as he commits the means he feels are necessary to justify the end.
3. In a Lonely Place (1950) - A film that manages to overcome the traditional darkness of noir to capture the darkness of the human soul. A tortured love story represented through the perfectly pitched tragic hero, embodied by Humphrey Bogart, that shows an honest, yet ruthless, depiction of true love. He was born when she first kissed him, and he will live as long as she loves him; the story that unfolds tempts how long that may be.
4. Double Indemnity (1944) - One of the most vital and arresting film noirs, it's written incisively, adapted by noir legend Raymond Chandler from a novel by noir legend James M. Cain, and filmed under Billy Wilder's magnificent direction, making use of the sharp edged, shadowy tone of the plot, spurred on by it's brutally poised dialogue, and it's ideals about human nature, and more importantly, human loneliness.
5. Elevator to the Gallows (1957) - A thriller film with a plot packed so tightly that it grips you from the opening moments. A riveting, atmospheric tale, wryly wrought and cryptically subtle, it's utterly absorbing as the story is overtaken by the art of coincidences to become something else entirely, and what could have been quite clichéd is transformed into a very memorable night - Walking around Paris at night-time to a Miles Davis soundtrack remains one of the most inspired moments in film history.
6. Strangers on a Train (1951) - Another thriller film that's perfectly plotted, with the build-up throughout the entire movie being chock-full of suspense. It's a typical Hitchcock film in many ways, and yet it seems to transcend much of his work in its execution, making it my favourite film of his. The art of film is perfectly used to display the art of murder that the film revolves around, and it pays off in the end, in many ways.
7. The Third Man (1949) - The film dictates that we should 'leave death to the professionals', and Carol Reed and his ensemble cast are definitely professionals. It is simply sublime, with an aesthetic that conveys atmosphere like nothing else and a plot that's rightfully acclaimed and backed up by a brilliantly penned screenplay. A dastardly glee emanates from every frame of this film, and the catharsis to the evil-building suspense makes it deservedly gleeful.
8. Stray Dog (1949) - A film that centres around one major plot point - A policeman loses his gun, and desperately tries to get it back. The use of violence extends beyond the typical noir features; it isn't simply gratuitous, it actually hurts. Whilst everyone else loves Kurosawa's samurai films, it's his noirs that I enjoy most, and of those noirs, Stray Dog is the one that excels.
9. Force of Evil (1948) - A dynamic crime drama led by its poetic prose, this ultimately doomed tale garners tangible suspense throughout its running time; ideas that have since become well-worn, weathered and hackneyed are presented with a vibrant freshness that succeeds in portraying the bleak despair of melodrama and the pathos of hopeful lives gone awry.
10. The Big Sleep (1946) - The most serpentine of all the noir films, and quite possibly the perfect introduction to the genre. The film exists to portray the process of criminal investigation under the famed Philip Marlowe, and doesn't deal so much with the results of the mystery - purportedly, during filming neither the director or screenwriter knew who the killer was, and upon contacting the novel's author, were told he didn't have a clue either. However, despite the convoluted yet lovable plot, the film is an incredible exercise in both noir and mystery, and one of my favourites.
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