Best of Film Noir by Jacqueline Fitzgerald
The Best of Film Noir
{by Jacqueline Fitzgerald of Film Noir Blonde}
{by Jacqueline Fitzgerald of Film Noir Blonde}
When did you realize you wanted to review movies?
My mom and dad instilled in me a love of movies. When I grew up, I became a journalist. I worked at the Chicago Tribune for 13 years before heading to Los Angeles. My friend and fellow critic, Michael Wilmington, encouraged me to start my site and contributes to it. Running the site combines my two great loves, writing and the movies.
All-time favorite movie:
“Double Indemnity.” It never gets old.
Movie you quote a lot:
“Body Heat.” Specifically, Kathleen Turner’s line to William Hurt: “You’re not too smart, are you? I like that in a man.”
Movie character that reminds you of yourself:
It’s more that I aspire to be like her: Marie “Slim” Browning (Lauren Bacall) in “To Have and Have Not.” Bacall is the ideal blend of intelligence, independence and confidence. She’s also sexy, feminine and funny, and she had Humphrey Bogart eating out of her hand. Oh, and whistling, of course.
Movie you wish you could un-see:
The sci-fi horror movie “Trog” (1970) starring a 60something Joan Crawford. I much prefer her in “Mildred Pierce” (1945). I’m really into ankle straps, not to mention melodrama, so watching Joan in her heyday restores me.
You can find Film Noir Blonde all over the web including facebook, twitter, and pinterest.*photo source: Halstan Williams.
Learn why Jacqueline curated the Best Film Noir films: I’ve long been in love with film noir – sumptuous, cynical tales of life’s darker side, a cinematic
phenomenon that started in 1940s Hollywood and was greatly influenced by German
Expressionism and French Poetic Realism. Whether you see it as a genre, a style, an aesthetic or
a mood, it’s clear that film noir continues to resonate and reinvent itself.
I’ve selected seminal classics and neo-noirs, many of which feature strong women. What’s more
fun than watching a femme fatale call the shots? As Mae West said, “When I’m good, I’m very
good. But when I’m bad, I’m better.”
View As: grid 
list 
list 
- The Asphalt Jungle DVD
- "The Asphalt Jungle" (1950) is a gritty drama featuring an older, retired criminal who had spent many years in prison who decides to forsake his rehabilitation and try one last time. He tries to reunite his gang of bandits to undertake a jewel heist. A series of mishaps and back-stabbing… [ read more ]
- $19.98
- The Big Sleep DVD
- Iconic on-screen pair Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall star in the heart thumping noir thriller "The Big Sleep" (1946). Based on Raymond Chandler's debut novel and directed by Howard Hawks, "The Big Sleep" follows Bogart as a private investigator hired by dying millionaire to protect his… [ read more ]
- $19.98
- Blood Simple: Director's Cut DVD
- "Blood Simple (Director's Cut)" (1985) marked the triumphant debut of celebrated filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen. This gruesomely witty film noir deals with a Texas bar owner named Marty, who hires a detective to follow his cheating wife and then kill her and her lover. The detective instead… [ read more ]
- $14.98
- Blue Velvet: Special Edition DVD
- David Lynch is at his creepy best with this erotic murder mystery! Kyle McLachlan stars as a happy, small-town guy on the straight-and-narrow until he discovers a human ear in the middle of a field. His investigation into the origin of the ear leads him into a strange world populated by a… [ read more ]
- $14.98
- Body Heat Blu-ray
- What was really lost in Pompeii? This engaging documentary delves into the tragic story of the lost city of Pompeii. Destroyed by a volcano in 79 A.D., this once prosperous Italian town lay buried under lava and ash until it was discovered in the 1700s. Now modern archaeologists are… [ read more ]
- $14.98
- Chinatown Blu-ray
- Landmark movie in the film noir tradition, Roman Polanski's Chinatown stands as a true screen classic. Jack Nicholson is private eye Jake Gittes, living off the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-war Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite (Faye Dunaway) to investigate her… [ read more ]
- $26.98
- Diabolique: The Criterion Collection DVD
- Before Psycho, Peeping Tom, and Repulsion, there was Diabolique. This thriller from Henri.Georges Clouzot (Le corbeau, The Wages of Fear), which shocked audiences in Europe and the U.S., is the story of two women - the fragile wife and the willful mistress of a sadistic school headmaster -… [ read more ]
- $29.95
- Double Idemnity (DVD + Digital Copy)
- Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck star in the gripping film noir classic, Double Indemnity, directed by Academy Award winner Billy Wilder. A calculating wife (Stanwyck) encourages her wealthy husband to sign a double indemnity policy proposed by smitten insurance agent Walter Neff… [ read more ]
- $14.98
- The Film Noir Classics Collection: Volume 1 DVD
- 5 Timeless Suspense Thrillers The Asphalt Jungle Director John Huston explores a feverish plot for the big score and how it unravels. With Sterling Hayden and the emergent Marilyn Monroe. Gun Crazy A searing forerunner to Bonnie and Clyde: Peggy Cummins and John Dall are dead-bang g [ read more ]
- $49.98
- The Killers - Double-Disc Set: The Criterion Collection DVD
- Two Radically Different Films Inspired By One Classic Story Ernest Hemingway's gripping short story The Killers has fascinated readers and filmmakers for generations. Its first screen incarnation came in 1946, when director Robert Siodmak unleashed The Killers, helping to define the film… [ read more ]
- $39.95
- The Killing: The Criterion Collection DVD
- Stanley Kubrick's account of an ambitious racetrack robbery is one of Hollywood's tautest, twistiest noirs. Aided by a radically time-shuffling narrative, razor-sharp dialogue from pulp novelist Jim Thompson, and a phenomenal cast of character actors, including Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray,… [ read more ]
- $29.95
- Kiss Me Deadly: The Criterion Collection DVD
- In this atomic adaptation of Mickey Spillane's novel, directed by Robert Aldrich, the good manners of the 1950s are blown to smithereens. Ralph Meeker stars as snarling private dick Mike Hammer, whose decision one dark, lonely night to pick up a hitchhiking woman sends him down some… [ read more ]
- $29.95
- Laura (Repackage) DVD
- Film noir, a classic film style of the '40s and '50s, is noted for its dark themes, stark camera angles and high-contrast lighting. Comprising many of Hollywood's finest films, film noir tells realistic stories about crime, mystery, femme fatales and moral conflict. A definitive film noir… [ read more ]
- $14.98
- L.A. Confidential DVD
- Director Curtis Hanson ably captures the shadows and sunshine of 1950s Los Angeles in this adaptation of James Ellroy's novel by the same name. Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger and James Cromwell all turn in great performances in this brutally violent, complicated cop… [ read more ]
- $19.98
- Mildred Pierce DVD
- The kind of woman most men want - but shouldn't have! What Veda wants, her mother-Mildred Pierce-provides. Even if Mildred must end her middle-class marriage, climb atop the male-dominated business world and marry a wealthy man she doesn't love. "I'll do anything," Mildred says in… [ read more ]
- $19.98
- Nightmare Alley DVD
- "Nightmare Alley" (1947) is a gritty film noir revolving around deception and greed. Tyrone Power stars as an ambitious con artist who takes over a phony mentalist's gig after his death. Building on his fraudulent act, he convinces wealthy people he can communicate with the dead. Joan… [ read more ]
- $14.98
- The Postman Always Rings Twice DVD
- John Garfield and Lana Turner give the performances of a lifetime in "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1946), a classic example of studio system film noir. Two lovers rub out a jealous husband, but betray each other in the courtroom, in this suspenseful and seductive adaptation of James M.… [ read more ]
- $19.98
- Pulp Fiction Blu-ray
- Quentin Tarantino's seminal study of bloodshed, crime and morbid violence is a filmmaking tour de force. Delving into the darker side of Los Angeles, John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson play philosophical hitmen, Bruce Willis is a crooked boxer, and Uma Thurman is the wife of a powerful… [ read more ]
- $19.99
- Rififi: The Criterion Collection DVD
- In this 1955 French drama, based on the novel by Auguste le Breton, a trio of gangsters join forces to commit a seemingly impossible theft. So beloved is this film that the dramatic heist scene has been mimicked by real-life criminals around the world. Starring Jean Servais, Carl Möhner,… [ read more ]
- $29.95
- Scarlet Street DVD
- Robinson portrays a middle-aged clothing store cashier whose life is tragically changed when he becomes involved with Kitty (Joan Bennett), a predatory manipulating woman. He is a quiet and mild-mannered man, but his wife is a total shrew and so his chance meeting with Kitty leaves him easy… [ read more ]
- $9.99
- Strangers On A Train DVD
- One of genre master Alfred Hitchcock's most popular and suspenseful thrillers, "Strangers on a Train" (1951) features Farley Granger as an unhappily married tennis player whose love for another woman gets him mixed up in Robert Walker's creepy, murderous plots. Based on Patricia Highsmith's… [ read more ]
- $14.98
- Sudden Fear DVD
- Joan Crawford plays wealthy playwright Myra Hudson, the toast of the town thanks to her successful string of Broadway hits. That's when actor Lester Blaine comes into her life. He sweeps her off her feet and they get married right away. But there is trouble in paradise when Myra discovers… [ read more ]
- $29.99
- Touch Of Evil: 50th Anniversary Edition DVD
- The Ultimate Film Noir Experience Experience director Orson Welles' masterpiece Touch of Evil like never before in an all-new 50th Anniversary Edition DVD! Starring Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh and Orson Welles himself, this exceptional film noir portrait of corruption and morally… [ read more ]
- $26.98
- Criss Cross DVD
- "Burt Lancaster stars as an armored car driver whose fatal attraction to his ex-wife draws him into the criminal underworld in the film noir ""Criss Cross"" (1949). To cover up his affair with Yvonne DeCarlo, Lancaster proposes a heist to her hoodlum husband, then finds himself forced to… [ read more ]
- $14.98
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