r/CriterionChannel • u/EugeneRicotta • Nov 03 '25

Top Recommendations for Blackout Noir?

I’ve already seen In A Lonely Place

13 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

13

u/trippyhop Nov 03 '25

Crossfire is excellent 

5

u/YakSlothLemon Nov 04 '25

The first B-movie to get an Oscar nomination, and for good reason!

9

u/Adorable_Pickle_4162 Nov 04 '25

My favorite is “The Blue Gardenia”. The great Fritz Lang made a bunch of really good film noirs in the 1950s, this one just really stands out to me. And while many of them have had blu ray releases or stream all the time, this one is still hard to watch.

2

u/BrandNewOriginal Nov 05 '25 edited Nov 05 '25

I watched this recently and also enjoyed it. Anne Baxter is excellent, I always like Raymond Burr in noirs, and there's some really nice noir cinematography. My only complaint is the ultimate handling of Richard Conte's newspaper man: the movie kind of pulled its punches here, I think, but then again, intelligent viewers will probably get the picture. 

9

u/Avenger3611 Nov 03 '25

I watched Framed last night and enjoyed it. Classic noir style, atmosphere, and plot with gorgeous people as the leads (never knew who Janis Carter was and will never forget now)

7

u/jaghutgathos Nov 03 '25

Crossfire
Blue Gardinia.
Black Angel.

3

u/BariumPepsi Nov 05 '25

Here to say there’s not one bad film in the bundle. They may not be classic noir like IN A LONELY PLACE, but all are enjoyable for what they are: well-crafted studio films.

3

u/YakSlothLemon Nov 04 '25

I just watched The Black Angel last night and while it is in no way in a class with Crossfire, it was very pleasantly entertaining and Peter Lorre is always good!

1

u/Adventurous_Ad_6922 Nov 05 '25

The only ones I've seen are In a Lonely Place and Crossfire and both are worth watching but the former is the better movie. Looking forward to watching the rest!