Day Six of Noirvember: Noir of the Year(s)
Today’s Noirvember post looks at my favorite noirs through the years. My original plan was to pick one favorite for each year of the classic noir era. And it was fun at first – until I got to 1944, and I realized that this little exercise wouldn’t be as easy as I’d envisioned. It was so hard to decide, in fact, that for many of the years, I decided on one favorite and several Honorable Mentions. And surprisingly, despite the hype about 1947 being the greatest year for noir, I found that 1950 was the year that was practically overflowing with first-rate features.
So here are my picks for Noir of the Year, from 1940 through 1959. What are some of yours?
1940
The Letter
The Maltese Falcon: I appreciate it more for its parts than the whole, but it’s such a classic, I had to make it my number one for the year.
1941
The Maltese Falcon
Honorable mention: Johnny Eager
1942
The Glass Key
1943
Shadow of a Doubt
1944
Double Indemnity (of course).
Honorable mentions: Laura and Murder My Sweet
1945
Mildred Pierce
Honorable mentions: Detour, The Great Flamarion, Leave Her to Heaven, and Scarlet Street
The Postman Always Rings Twice: One of the first noirs I ever saw, and always a sentimental favorite.
1946
The Postman Always Rings Twice
Honorable mentions: Decoy, Gilda, The Locket, and The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
1947
Out of the Past.
Honorable mentions: Born to Kill, Desperate, Nora Prentiss, and They Won’t Believe Me
1948
They Live By Night.
Honorable mentions: Cry of the City, Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, and Pitfall
Criss Cross: For my money, a near-perfect noir.
1949
Criss Cross
Honorable mentions: House of Strangers, The Set-Up, Tension, Too Late for Tears, and White Heat
1950
Gun Crazy
Honorable mentions: Armored Car Robbery, Asphalt Jungle, The Damned Don’t Cry, Night and the City, Quicksand, Shakedown, Sunset Boulevard
1951
Strangers on a Train
Honorable mentions: Ace in the Hole, Cry Danger, Detective Story, and The Prowler
Sudden Fear: One of several Joan Crawford noirs that I love.
1952
Sudden Fear
Honorable mentions: The Narrow Margin and Clash By Night.
1953
The Big Heat
Honorable mention: Pick-Up on South Street and Wicked Woman
1954
Shield for Murder
Honorable mentions: Drive a Crooked Road and Private Hell 36
1955
The Big Combo. Honorable mention: New York Confidential
1956
The Killing
Sweet Smell of Success: It’s a cookie full of arsenic.
1957
The Sweet Smell of Success
Honorable mention: Plunder Road
1958
Touch of Evil
1959
Odds Against Tomorrow
Join me tomorrow for Day Seven of Noirvember!
shadowsandsatin 
Ooh, Shakedown. Will we ever see a decent copy for home viewing? One of the last remaining excellent noirs that deserves a lot more love.
Nice list.
Omigosh, wouldn’t that be awesome! It’s such a good movie, and you’re the first person I’ve ever encountered who’s seen it!
Howard Duff is great in it. I actually have a lobby card of the film on my wall.
It’s my favorite Howard Duff performance. And it has one of my favorite all-time noir endings. (If it weren’t for the spoiler factor, I’d love to do a post about great last scenes in noir!) And how cool that you have a lobby card from the movie!
Great selection. Got me thinking again of how we define Noir – I don’t see GILDA or Clash By Night, or The Letter as Noir.
I’d add a few to your Honorable mentions – PHANTOM LADY (1944),
THE DARK CORNER and NOCTURNE (1946):
JOHNNY O’CLOCK, LADY IN THE LAKE , DARK PASSAGE (1947):
ROAD HOUSE , KEY LARGO, CALL NORTHSIDE 777 (1948):
I’d give the statuette to WOMAN ON THE RUN in 1950, with honorary mentions to DARK CITY, PANIC IN THE STREETS and IN A LONELY PLACE.
1951: THE ENFORCER, THE RACKET
1952: LOAN SHARK, MACAO, ON DANGEROUS GROUND,NARROW MARGIN
1953: HITCH-HIKER, 99 RIVER STREET, CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS
Winner for 1955: KISS ME DEADLY.
I love so many of your picks, Vienna, especially films like Nocturne and The Enforcer that don’t get a lot of attention.
In the dead of the night I will go through those years choosing one, no HMs. As I an anticipating insomnia, I thank you for the challenge. I must say reading your choices just reminded me how many wonderful movies are out there.
Can’t wait to see what you come up with, Paddy!
I’m back. No surprises really with these titles. But they have their place.
1940, Stranger on the Third Floor
1941, Blues in the Night
1942, Moontide
1943, Shadow of a Doubt
1944, Murder, My Sweet
1945, Mildred Pierce
1946, Black Angel
1947, Born to Kill
1948, Cry of the City
1949, The Set-Up
1950, The Breaking Point
1951, On Dangerous Ground
1952, The Narrow Margin
1953, The Big Heat
1954, Black Tuesday
1955, The Big Combo
1956, The Killing
1957, Sweet Smell of Success
1958, Touch of Evil
1959, Odds Against Tomorrow
Not until I see these movies lined up in a row does it strike me that I’ve written about 10 of them on my blog.
Love these! And so cool that you included Moontide and Black Angel, which are so rarely talked about — not to mention two that I’ve never seen: Blues in the Night and Black Tuesday. Since they made your list, I am now determined to check them out!
Those post war noirs were goodies !!!!!!!!!!!
They were! SO many good ones! I wonder what that means…
🙂 I bet the dark experience of the war-time years is the culprit. 🙂
Great choices. Here is my list.
1940 Stranger On The Third Floor
1941 The Maltese Falcon
1942 This Gun For Hire
1943 The Fallen Sparrow
1944 A tie between Murder My Sweet and Double Indemnity
1945 Cornered
1946 The Dark Corner
1947 T-Men
1948 A tie between The Naked City and Key Largo
1949 The Reckless Moment
1950 Gun Crazy
1951 Roadblock
1952 The Narrow Margin
1953 A tie between The Big Heat and Pickup On South Street
1954 Private Hell 36
1955 Kiss Me Deadly
1956 While The City Sleeps
1957 Time Without Pity
Really great choices, Maddy! There’s two on your list that I’ve never seen — The Fallen Sparrow and Time Without Pity. I’ll have to put them on my growing list of must-sees!
Cheers. Hope you get to see those two.
They were! SO many good ones! I wonder what that means…