Top 10 podle autorů Rough Guide to Film Noir

Následující žebříček deseti nejlepších noirů sestavili Alexander Ballinger a Danny Graydon pro knížečku The Rough Guide to Film Noir.

1. Chinatown (1974)

It might be a Technicolor neo-noir and have arrived a few decades later, but Robert Towne's magnificent screenplay and Roman Polanski's tight direction propel noir to the top of its game.

2. Criss Cross (1948)

Siodmak's finest film stars Burt Lancaster as a weak-willed protagonist in thrall to his past, Yvonne De Carlo as a money-grubbing femme fatale and Dan Dureya as the reptilian hoodlum caught in between them.

3. Double Indemnity (1944)

Thanks to the combined talents of Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder, James M. Cain's tale of a dilligent insurance salesman derailed by Barbara Stanwyck's seductive femme fatale reaches the level of classical tragedy.

4. Touch of Evil (1958)

Orson Welles both stars in and directs the tragic tale of lawless policeman Hank Quinlan as he manipulates Charlton Heston's Hispanic official in a shady border town. A tour de force that belies its B-movie status.

5. Out of the Past (1947)

Robert Mitchum's world-weary gumshoe Jeff Bailey lacks the cultural resonance of a Sam Spade or a Philip Marlowe, but he gives both a run for their money when he's rehired to track down dog-eyed Jane Greer.

6. L.A. Confidential (1997)

Three mismatched LAPD officers join forces to investigate a spate of gruesome massacres. Based on James Ellroy's seemingly unadaptable novel, Curtis Hanson's masterpiece is the standout neo-noir of the 1990s.

7. The Big Combo (1955)

A police lieutenant's obsessive pursuit of a charismatic crime lord clouds his judgement in this darkest of noirs, courtesy of cinematographer John Alton and the king of the Bs, Joseph H. Lewis.

8. Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

Marvel at how Robert Aldrich turns Mickey Spillane's fascistic pulp into Cold War allegory, or simply revel as private eye Mike Hammer slugs his way round a gleaming Los Angeles in a naive search for the "great whatsit".

9. The Maltese Falcon (1941)

In Huston's dazzling adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's novel, Bogart's unrivalled Sam Spade is up against noir's first femme fatale and a gallery of grotesques - all desperately questing for a priceless antique statuette.

10. The Big Sleep (1946)

Howard Hawks's dazzling riff on Chandler's novel is anything but soporific as Bogie and Bacall blister the screen in a convoluted plot that even its sozzled originator couldn't fathom.

BALLINGER, Alexander, GRAYDON, Danny. The Rough Guide to Film Noir. London: Rough Guides Ltd., 2007. s. 56.