17 Film Noir Movies - The Tyranny of Neighbors: Small-Town Noir
by milam_ogden | created - 25 May 2015 | updated - 25 May 2015 | PublicThis film noir movies are mentioned in Chapter 4 of Imogen Sara Smith's excellent film noir book. It is entitled IN LONELY PLACES: Film Noir Beyond the City.
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1. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Passed | 108 min | Film-Noir, Thriller
A teenage girl, overjoyed when her favorite uncle comes to visit the family in their quiet California town, slowly begins to suspect that he is in fact the "Merry Widow" killer sought by the authorities.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten, Macdonald Carey, Henry Travers
Votes: 70,451
2. The Wrong Man (1956)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama, Film-Noir
In 1953, an innocent man named Christopher Emanuel "Manny" Balestrero is arrested after being mistaken for an armed robber.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Anthony Quayle, Harold J. Stone
Votes: 31,333
3. The Stranger (1946)
Passed | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An investigator from the War Crimes Commission travels to Connecticut to find an infamous Nazi.
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Orson Welles, Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young, Philip Merivale
Votes: 28,689
4. The Desperate Hours (1955)
Approved | 112 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Three escaped convicts move in on and terrorize a suburban household.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Fredric March, Arthur Kennedy, Martha Scott
Votes: 10,865
5. The Sound of Fury (1950)
Approved | 91 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A man who is down on his luck falls in with a criminal.
Director: Cy Endfield | Stars: Frank Lovejoy, Kathleen Ryan, Richard Carlson, Lloyd Bridges
Votes: 1,898
6. Storm Warning (1950)
Approved | 93 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Marsha Mitchell, a traveling dress model, stops in a southern town to see her sister who has married a Ku Klux Klansman. Marsha witnesses the KKK commit a murder and helps District Attorney Burt Rainey bring the criminals to justice.
Director: Stuart Heisler | Stars: Ginger Rogers, Ronald Reagan, Doris Day, Steve Cochran
Votes: 2,654
7. The Well (1951)
Approved | 86 min | Drama, Thriller
A small, racially-mixed American town succumbs to violence and utter mayhem after a white man suspected of kidnapping a missing black girl is released by the white authority.
Directors: Leo C. Popkin, Russell Rouse | Stars: Gwendolyn Laster, Richard Rober, Maidie Norman, George Hamilton
Votes: 882
8. The Lawless (1950)
Not Rated | 83 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A newspaper editor in a small agricultural town finds himself going against the people in the town when he gets involved in the plight of the area's fruit pickers, who are mostly Mexican.
Director: Joseph Losey | Stars: Macdonald Carey, Gail Russell, Johnny Sands, Lee Patrick
Votes: 737
9. The Phenix City Story (1955)
Passed | 100 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A crime-busting lawyer and his initially reluctant attorney father take on the forces that run gambling and prostitution in their small Southern town.
Director: Phil Karlson | Stars: John McIntire, Richard Kiley, Kathryn Grant, Edward Andrews
Votes: 3,254
10. The Captive City (1952)
Approved | 91 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A small town newspaperman's investigation into a local bookie operation turns up a web of organized crime.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: John Forsythe, Joan Camden, Harold J. Kennedy, Marjorie Crossland
Votes: 1,259
11. Flamingo Road (1949)
Approved | 94 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
A corrupt small town sheriff manipulates local candidates to the state legislature but he eventually comes into conflict with a visiting carnival dancer.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Joan Crawford, Zachary Scott, Sydney Greenstreet, David Brian
Votes: 3,617 | Gross: $2.26M
12. The Tattered Dress (1957)
Approved | 93 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
After top lawyer James Blane gets an acquittal for a man who killed another man for sexually roughing up his trophy wife, the murderous town sheriff frames him for bribing a juror in the case.
Director: Jack Arnold | Stars: Jeff Chandler, Jeanne Crain, Jack Carson, Gail Russell
Votes: 657
13. Violent Saturday (1955)
Not Rated | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Three hoodlums carefully case a small town while planning to rob the bank on the upcoming Saturday. On Saturday, things turn violent and deadly.
Director: Richard Fleischer | Stars: Victor Mature, Richard Egan, Stephen McNally, Virginia Leith
Votes: 2,863
14. Woman in Hiding (1950)
Passed | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
After her father is killed in an accident, mill heiress Deborah Chandler marries the plant manager, Selden Clark, but his motives are suspicious.
Director: Michael Gordon | Stars: Ida Lupino, Stephen McNally, Howard Duff, Peggy Dow
Votes: 1,484
15. The Naked Kiss (1964)
Approved | 90 min | Crime, Drama
A former prostitute relocates to a buttoned-down suburb, determined to fit in with mainstream society. But perverse secrets simmer beneath the wholesome surface.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Constance Towers, Anthony Eisley, Michael Dante, Virginia Grey
Votes: 8,740
16. Moonrise (1948)
Passed | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Danny is despised by his schoolmates because his father was accused of killing another man and sentenced to death.
Director: Frank Borzage | Stars: Dane Clark, Gail Russell, Ethel Barrymore, Allyn Joslyn
Votes: 2,962
17. The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)
Unrated | 116 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
A man is reunited with his childhood friend and her husband who believes he knows the truth about the death of her rich aunt years earlier.
Director: Lewis Milestone | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott, Kirk Douglas
Votes: 11,075
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