The Silver Screen Oasis

Welcome to the beginning of our latest contest. Please submit your list of your top 15 Noir films by end of day Friday, May 9th.

The rules will remain the same from previous contests. You can choose to list your choices in order or leave them unnumbered. Remember though, if you list them in order a film receiving a #1 vote carries more weight than a film carrying a #11 vote when we go to tabulate the seedings. If you choose not to number your choices they will all be assigned a value of a #7 pick.

After all the submissions have been counted we will cut the field down to the top 32 choices to begin our head to head competitions (the 31 film will play the #32 film, the #2 films will play the #31 film, etc...). The match-ups continue until only one film is left standing. We will crown it the Oasis Noir of the Year, 2008.

Only you can define what films you feel qualify as Noir. If, in your mind it is a Noir, than by all means, include it on your list.

We have many members on this board that have an intense knowledge of the Noir genre and I'm hoping they'll share their opinions on some of the films that not everybody may be too familiar with. Your submissions can be made on this thread starting now, and you have the option to go back and alter you list right up to the last minute on May 9th.

We encourage all of you newer members that have not participated in these contests before to get involved, it's all for fun, and it can be very educational. We have previously run contests for the best overall film ever (To Kill a Mockingbird) and we have done the Bestavorite Western (The Searchers).

Voice your choice! Cast you votes for your top 15 Noirs now!

Here are my fifteen favorite noir films.
1. OUT OF THE PAST (1947; Jacques Tourneur)
2. KISS ME DEADLY (1955; Robert Aldrich)
3. DETOUR (1945; Edgar G. Ulmer)
4. BLACK ANGEL (1946; Roy William Neill)
5. STRANGER ON THE THIRD FLOOR (1940; Boris Ingster)
6. ON DANGEROUS GROUND (1951; Nicholas Ray)
7. TOUCH OF EVIL (1958; Orson Welles)
8. THE BIG HEAT (1953; Fritz Lang)
9. PICK UP ON SOUTH STREET (1953; Samuel Fuller)
10. TRY AND GET ME (1950; Cyril Endfield)
11. NIGHTMARE ALLEY (1947; Edmund Goulding)
12. THIEVES’ HIGHWAY (1948; Jules Dassin)
13. DECOY (1946; Jack Bernhardt)
14. THE BIG COMBO (1955; Joseph H. Lewis)
15. THE KILLING (1956; Stanley Kubrick)
I wish the list could have been extended to 20 or 25 so I could have included the likes of IN A LONELY PLACE, GUN CRAZY, THEY LIVE BY NIGHT, SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS, FORCE OF EVIL, BRUTE FORCE, CRISS CROSS, and on and on and on...

Thanks for getting us started, Dewey.

If it makes you feel any better at least Brute Force will make my list. Feel free to campaign for your other choices.

1. Nightmare Alley
2. Brute Force
3. Criss Cross
4. I Wake Up Screaming
5. The Killers (Siodmak )
6. Out of the Past
7. The Big Sleep ( Hawks )
8. Fallen Angel
9. The Women in the Window
10. Double Indemnity ( Wilder )
11. Detective Story
12. Murder, My Sweet
13. The Naked City
14. The Mask of Dimitirios
15. Thieves Highway
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Ken,
Nice list! Good choices throughout.

The match-ups continue until only one film is left standing.

In a noir competition, how can there be a winner be left standing? Let's go for losers lying facedown in the refuse of this wretched world.

1. GUN CRAZY (Joseph H. Lewis, 1949)
2. TOUCH OF EVIL (Orson Welles, 1958)
3. BLAST OF SILENCE (Allen Baron, 1961)
4. THE KILLING (Stanley Kubrick, 1956)
5. HE WALKED BY NIGHT (Alfred Werker/Anthony Mann (unc.), 1948)
6. DOUBLE INDEMNITY (Billy Wilder, 1944)
7. DETOUR (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1946)
8. PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET (Samuel Fuller, 1953)
9. NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (Charles Laughton, 1955)
10. OUT OF THE PAST (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)
11. RAW DEAL (Anthony Mann, 1948)
12. CRIME WAVE (Andre De Toth, 1954)
13. BIG COMBO (Joseph H. Lewis, 1955)
14. DIAL 1119 (Gerald Mayer, 1950)
15. THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE (Peter Yates, 1973)

I throw myself on the mercy of the noir gods, Fate, Dewey, and Ark (not necessarily in that order) for shortchanging De Toth, Fuller, Mann, Tourneur, and Wilder, and failing to list FORCE OF EVIL, THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE, KISS ME DEADLY, D.O.A., SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS, BLACK ANGEL, THE RECKLESS MOMENT and THE WORLD'S GREATEST SINNER, and passing over all the great films of Clouzot, Dassin, Huston, Lang, Preminger, Ray, and Siodmak. Eh, what's the difference?

cinemalover wrote:Ken,
Nice list! Good choices throughout.

Thank You cinelover I' m sorry that I couldn't include Ace in the Hole,The Sweet Smell of Success,Phantom Lady,The Stranger on the Third Floor,The Gunfighter(DVD out on May 15 )White Heat and Pursued !

Well, here are mine, though I imagine in another ten minutes I'll be kicking myself for leaving off this title or that one.

1. Double Indemnity (1944)
2. Touch of Evil (1958)
3. Gun Crazy [a.k.a. Deadly is the Female] (1949)
4. Laura (1944)
5. Night and the City (1950)
6. Out of the Past (1947)
7. Pickup on South Street (1953)
8. The Big Sleep (1946)
9. Nightmare Alley (1947)
10. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
11. On Dangerous Ground (1952)
12. The Killing (1956)
13. Mildred Pierce (1945)
14. The Third Man (1949)
15. Scarlet Street (1945)

[Edit: I went ahead and added Sunset. I just couldn't live with leaving it off.]

And I have no idea how I'd narrow the list to 15 if I considered neo-noir as well. It wracked my brain enough trying to limit myself to only 15 classics.

-Stephen

I don't consider myself qualified to say which are the best, only those I like the most.

1. Laura
2. On Dangerous Ground
3. The Maltese Falcon
4. Out of the Past
5. Clash by Night
6. Force of Evil
7. The Blue Dahlia
8. This Gun for Hire
9. Johnny O'Clock
10.Murder My Sweet
11.Dark Passage
12. Ride the Pink Horse
13. His Kind of Woman
14. Impact*
15. Woman on the Beach

*Edited to substitute CROSSFIRE with IMPACT

Stephen,
Thanks for joining us. If you do get that urge to add one that you forgot you can edit your list and make any changes right up to the last minute on Friday, May 9th. Many people have done that in the past, especially when they see a film on someone else's list that may jog their memory.

MissG,
That's why we call 'em the Bestavorite, they can be what you think of as the "Best" in the genre, or they can be your personal Favorites!

Thanks.

cinemalover wrote:Stephen,
Thanks for joining us. If you do get that urge to add one that you forgot you can edit your list and make any changes right up to the last minute on Friday, May 9th. Many people have done that in the past, especially when they see a film on someone else's list that may jog their memory.

MissG,
That's why we call 'em the Bestavorite, they can be what you think of as the "Best" in the genre, or they can be your personal Favorites!

Thanks.

And I'm going to make a change right now, because Stephen's posting reminded me about Murder My Sweet. How could I have forgotten it, and Johnny O'Clock. Time to get out my red pencil!

For what it's worth, I would like to have added The Reckless Moment, This Gun for Hire, The Lady from Shanghai, and In a Lonely Place.

And I'm still trying to figure out if I should edit my list to add Sunset Boulevard, which meets the definition of noir but which - for whatever reason - I never think of as such.

-Stephen

ARSENIC AND OLD LACE 1944
THE ASPHALT JUNGLE 1950
DAUGHTER OF THE MIND 1969
DAY OF THE JACKAL 1973
THE GAZEBO 1959
THE HAUNTING 1963
HIS GIRL FRIDAY 1940
THE LADY KILLERS 1955
A SHOT IN THE DARK 1964
THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123 1974
THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE 1948
THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY 1955
THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW 1944
THE WRONG BOX 1966
YOUR PAST IS SHOWING 1957

........... MEL

Thanks Mel.
Day of the Jackel, very intriquing choice!

Thank YOU, Chris. I love these games, .... mel