So over the last few years, I've been exploring those old, classic films that I was told I was supposed to see, but never gotten around to, largely through laserdisc collecting. I've found it really rewarding, and people liked my list of 1940s films, so I figured I'd give you another decade's worth of films that I think are worth watching.

Edit: So after I started this, I realized I was missing a film that should have been on this list. So fuck it, it's a top 11 now.

Did you know noir can cover relationship dramas? Barbara Stanwyck plays a woman who moved out east to make a better life for herself, but after a years long affair with a politician ended with the man's death, she's left with no money and returns back to her fishing town in California. A fisherman there is crazy for her, and he's a nice guy, but she's not sure she loves him. And he has this friend who's an asshole, but might be a way out. A moody film about lonely people who don't know what they want, and a complex female protagonist back when that was a rarity.

Vincent Price plays the spoiled son of a newspaper mogul who just inherited the business, but he has no interest in actually running it. There's a serial killer on the loose, and and Price's character decides that whoever unmasks the killer will get to be the new manager for the paper. It's noir, so of course this leads to everyone making the kinds of terrible, selfish, dangerous decisions you'd hope for in a great drama.

A nihilistic hardboiled detective noir that in some ways is a commentary on that detective archetype and an update for more modern anxieties. It's a great looking, influential film that's often brought up as one of the best examples of it's genre. The awkward thing about trying to talk about it is that it's one of those films that works best if you know little going in. It fucking goes places. I wouldn't recommend this as a first noir, but if you've seen one or two other old detective films, jump right in. Trust me, you'll have a time you won't forget.

When people bring up this movie, I feel like they tell you two things:

1. It was a big inspiration for Star Wars.
2. It's not one of Akira Kurosawa's better, more meaningful works.

And sadly, I have to say that they're right about point two. What we have is only a great action/adventure film by one of the best directors who ever lived starring one of Japan's greatest actors. I'm so sorry for wasting your time.

Seriously though, this film is a blast, and this would make a good break between the heavier films I've been recommending. It's probably also the most accessible thing Akira Kurosawa ever made, so it's not a bad starting point if you've ever been curious if he lives up to the hype.

Humphry Bogart is a washed up, alcoholic screenwriter with temper problem. A woman who visited was murdered, and he's the prime suspect, only saved from arrest by the alibi provided by his neighbor, played by Gloria Grahame. The two begin dating, but the police still suspect Bogart's character, and she starts to wonder if they just might be right.

This is often regarded as Bogart's greatest performance, and now that I've finally seen it, I'd agree. Grahame also does a hell of a job. The film's a bit of a slow burn, but it's a good one. A tale of romance, loneliness, abuse, and the dark side of Hollywood.

Stanley Kubrick's studio debut isn't quite as inventive and showy as you'd expect from his later films (or his previous independent film Killer's Kiss), but it's a pretty much perfectly executed heist film. Probably the last real masterpiece of classic noir.

You know a film is going to be interesting when it's narrated by a corpse. William Holden plays a hack screenwriter who's found dead in a pool at the beginning of the film and spends the rest of the film telling you how that happened, including how he became the gigalo to a washed up, mentally unstable silent film star. Norma Desmond is utterly iconic in that role. It's an odd film that's a bit hard to classify, but usually people just say it's a "black comedy noir," and I can't think of a better way to describe it.

I've gotten a good response to that top 10 1940s films I wrote the other day, so I'll probably make lists for the 1950s and 1960s soon. But in the meantime, I thought it might be a good idea to make a thread where I can just put my thoughts on other old films that are worth watching. Some of these are classics that barely stayed out of my top ten, some are flawed but still pretty good, and at least one I want to talk about is an engaging mess. I'll be posting about four films today, but I'll probably revisit this thread as I watch more films and make more top 10s.

If your idea of a noir detective film involves a lot of old school witty, quippy dialogue dialogue from a clever detective, films like this are where that comes from. The script, partially written by William Faulkner, is a solid one, even if the plotting is kind of iffy. This is a very "fridge logic" film. Like it's well directed and paced, so it takes you from scene to scene in such a way that it feels like it flows at the time, but the day after I first watched this, I realized I couldn't tell you much about what the overall plot was. But if you're willing to put up with that for some great dialogue, great performances, and a generally iconic film? I recommend giving it a watch.

I got this only knowing that it was a noir directed by Orson Welles, and when I watched it with a couple of friends, we kept coming back to one question: "What the fuck is this movie?" Orson Welles does his best attempt at sounding Irish as he sails a boat full of rich weirdos who talk and act like they came out of a hazy dream rather than real people. One of those guys repeatedly tries to get Orson to murder him. Welles was clearly going for something here, but as with most of his post-Kane films, the studio butchered it, doing heavy reshoots and cutting out big chunks, and whatever Welles' intentions were is lost, at least to me. But what's left is fucking bonkers. I was utterly captivated by this strange thing, trying to figure out both what it was doing and where it was going. It's not a good movie, and it's not really a bad movie night movie, but it's a strange, fascinating film that I'm glad I watched.