British noir classics
by ronwood1987 | created - 13 Jan 2023 | updated - 13 Jan 2023 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. I Became a Criminal (1947)
Approved | 78 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
After WW2, former RAF airman Clem Morgan joins a gang of black-market smugglers-thieves but when a robbery goes wrong, Clem is caught , framed for a policeman's murder, and is sent to prison where he plots his escape and revenge.
Director: Alberto Cavalcanti | Stars: Sally Gray, Trevor Howard, Griffith Jones, Rene Ray
Votes: 1,918
2. It Always Rains on Sunday (1947)
92 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
An escaped convict tries to hide out at his former lover's house, but she has since married and is reluctant to help him.
Director: Robert Hamer | Stars: Googie Withers, Jack Warner, John McCallum, Edward Chapman
Votes: 2,380 | Gross: $0.01M
3. Brighton Rock (1948)
Not Rated | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
In Brighton in 1935, small-time gang leader Pinkie Brown murders a journalist and later desperately tries to cover his tracks but runs into trouble with the police, a few witnesses, and a rival gang.
Director: John Boulting | Stars: Richard Attenborough, Hermione Baddeley, William Hartnell, Harcourt Williams
Votes: 6,824 | Gross: $0.22M
4. The October Man (1947)
Not Rated | 95 min | Crime, Mystery
When the murder of a young woman happens, her next-door neighbor is under suspicion due to his previous stay in a mental hospital.
Director: Roy Ward Baker | Stars: John Mills, Joan Greenwood, Edward Chapman, Kay Walsh
Votes: 1,500
5. Odd Man Out (1947)
Approved | 116 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A wounded Irish nationalist leader attempts to evade police following a failed robbery in Belfast.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: James Mason, Robert Newton, Cyril Cusack, F.J. McCormick
Votes: 11,423
6. Hour of Glory (1949)
Approved | 106 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
As the Germans drop explosive booby-traps on Britain in 1943, the embittered expert who'll have to disarm them fights a private battle with alcohol.
Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: David Farrar, Jack Hawkins, Michael Gough, Henry Caine
Votes: 3,105
7. The Hidden Room (1949)
Approved | 96 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller
Clive Riordan plans a devilish revenge against his wife's lover.
Director: Edward Dmytryk | Stars: Robert Newton, Sally Gray, Phil Brown, Naunton Wayne
Votes: 2,675
8. The Third Man (1949)
Approved | 93 min | Film-Noir, Mystery, Thriller
Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard
Votes: 181,868 | Gross: $0.45M
9. Night and the City (1950)
Not Rated | 96 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
A small-time grifter and nightclub tout takes advantage of some fortuitous circumstances and tries to become a big-time player as a wrestling promoter.
Director: Jules Dassin | Stars: Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney, Googie Withers, Hugh Marlowe
Votes: 15,283 | Gross: $3.60M
10. Pool of London (1951)
Approved | 85 min | Crime, Drama
When their ship docks the crew disembark as usual to pick up their lives in postwar London. For one of them his petty smuggling turns more serious when he finds himself caught up with a robbery in the City.
Director: Basil Dearden | Stars: Bonar Colleano, Susan Shaw, Renée Asherson, Earl Cameron
Votes: 1,183
11. The Long Memory (1953)
Approved | 96 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Released from prison after twelve years, a wrongfully convicted British man seeks revenge on the witnesses who lied at his trial.
Director: Robert Hamer | Stars: John Mills, John McCallum, Elizabeth Sellars, Eva Bergh
Votes: 1,286
12. The Man Between (1953)
Not Rated | 100 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
In post-WW2 Berlin, when travel to the East was still possible, the sister of a British officer from West Berlin is abducted by Communist agents and taken into the Soviet sector where her eventual rescue is arranged by a German smuggler.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: James Mason, Claire Bloom, Hildegard Knef, Geoffrey Toone
Votes: 2,526
13. Cast a Dark Shadow (1955)
Approved | 82 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller
Edward "Teddy" Bare is a delusional psychotic with a lust for wealth, older women and murder. Having committed what he thinks is the perfect murder of his elderly wife; Teddy sets his sights on new targets when her fortune goes elsewhere.
Director: Lewis Gilbert | Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Margaret Lockwood, Kay Walsh, Kathleen Harrison
Votes: 3,123
14. The Third Key (1956)
Not Rated | 96 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The sleuths of Scotland Yard try to solve a series of burglaries.
Director: Charles Frend | Stars: Jack Hawkins, John Stratton, Dorothy Alison, Michael Brooke
Votes: 1,376
15. Hell Drivers (1957)
Approved | 91 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A rookie trucker tries to expose his boss' rackets.
Director: Cy Endfield | Stars: Stanley Baker, Herbert Lom, Peggy Cummins, Patrick McGoohan
Votes: 4,054
16. Chase a Crooked Shadow (1958)
Approved | 87 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
At Kimberley Prescott's villa, a stranger shows up and claims he is her brother who supposedly died the previous year in a car accident.
Director: Michael Anderson | Stars: Richard Todd, Anne Baxter, Herbert Lom, Alexander Knox
Votes: 1,465
17. Hell Is a City (1960)
93 min | Crime, Thriller
In Britain, a Manchester police inspector becomes obsessed with capturing a criminal who escapes from prison.
Director: Val Guest | Stars: Stanley Baker, John Crawford, Donald Pleasence, Maxine Audley
Votes: 1,385
18. Never Let Go (1960)
Not Rated | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A cosmetic salesman sets out to prove to himself and his wife that he is not a failure.
Director: John Guillermin | Stars: Richard Todd, Peter Sellers, Elizabeth Sellars, Adam Faith
Votes: 1,693
19. The Concrete Jungle (1960)
TV-14 | 86 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
In the UK, after pulling a racetrack robbery, repeat offender Johnny Bannion hides the loot in a farmer's field but the police and the local mob come looking for Johnny and the money.
Director: Joseph Losey | Stars: Stanley Baker, Sam Wanamaker, Grégoire Aslan, Margit Saad
Votes: 1,764
20. I Promised to Pay (1961)
94 min | Crime, Drama
A gang plans to steal a factory's wages, but an armored van foils them. They rob anyway, killing the driver. His vengeful wife and encroaching police make the gang betray each other.
Director: Sidney Hayers | Stars: Michael Craig, Françoise Prévost, Billie Whitelaw, William Lucas
Votes: 894
21. All Night Long (1962)
Not Rated | 91 min | Drama, Music
This movie, based on William Shakespeare's Othello, is neatly positioned as a vehicle to showcase some of the best jazz musicians of the period, including Dave Brubeck and Charles Mingus.
Director: Basil Dearden | Stars: Patrick McGoohan, Keith Michell, Betsy Blair, Paul Harris
Votes: 1,528
22. Green for Danger (1946)
Not Rated | 91 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
After the nurse who declares that a recent surgical death was a murder also dies, an enigmatic Scotland Yard inspector arrives to investigate.
Director: Sidney Gilliat | Stars: Alastair Sim, Sally Gray, Trevor Howard, Leo Genn
Votes: 5,619
23. The Fallen Idol (1948)
Approved | 95 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
A butler working in a foreign embassy in London falls under suspicion when his wife accidentally falls to her death, the only witness being an impressionable young boy.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Ralph Richardson, Michèle Morgan, Sonia Dresdel, Bobby Henrey
Votes: 9,670 | Gross: $0.34M
24. Tiger Bay (1959)
Not Rated | 105 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A twelve-year-old tomboy witnesses the murder of a woman by her Polish merchant marine boyfriend, but bonds with him and thwarts the police in their investigation.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: Hayley Mills, Horst Buchholz, John Mills, Yvonne Mitchell
Votes: 3,164
25. Yield to the Night (1956)
Not Rated | 99 min | Crime, Drama
Woman abused by men meets a man she thinks loves her. He cheats, she kills his mistress. Based on Ruth Ellis, last woman executed in Britain. Less than
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: Diana Dors, Yvonne Mitchell, Michael Craig, Marie Ney
Votes: 1,482
26. Footsteps in the Fog (1955)
Approved | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
In early-1900s England, a maid tries to blackmail her master into romancing her when she discovers that he murdered his wife.
Director: Arthur Lubin | Stars: Stewart Granger, Jean Simmons, Bill Travers, Belinda Lee
Votes: 2,205
27. Seven Days to Noon (1950)
Not Rated | 94 min | Drama, Thriller
When a scientist threatens to detonate a powerful bomb in the heart of London, Scotland Yard has just seven days to find him before it is too late.
Directors: John Boulting, Roy Boulting | Stars: Barry Jones, André Morell, Olive Sloane, Sheila Manahan
Votes: 2,191
28. So Long at the Fair (1950)
Approved | 86 min | Drama, Mystery
Vicky Barton visits Paris with her brother Johnny, only to discover the following morning he has gone missing and the hotel staff have no recollection of his presence.
Directors: Antony Darnborough, Terence Fisher | Stars: Jean Simmons, Dirk Bogarde, David Tomlinson, Honor Blackman
Votes: 2,336
29. The Stranger in Between (1952)
Approved | 84 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A violent fugitive and a mistreated small boy team up to flee from authority.
Director: Charles Crichton | Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Jon Whiteley, Elizabeth Sellars, Kay Walsh
Votes: 1,421
30. Victim (1961)
Not Rated | 100 min | Drama
A closeted lawyer risks his career to bring a blackmailer to justice.
Director: Basil Dearden | Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Sylvia Syms, Dennis Price, Anthony Nicholls
Votes: 7,206
31. Sapphire (1959)
Not Rated | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The murder of a young woman in London exposes deep racial tensions and prejudices inherent in the area.
Director: Basil Dearden | Stars: Nigel Patrick, Yvonne Mitchell, Michael Craig, Paul Massie
Votes: 2,308
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