What started as my entry for the 'Showdown: Sin City' contest (featuring the "best, most stylish, noir and neo-noir" films) has now become an exhaustive and ongoing ranked list of my favorite noirs. Film Noir (especially the classical era of the 1940's and 1950's) is one of my favorite genres (or styles, depending on how you look at it), and there are quite a few that fit into the surrounding categories (neo-noir, noir precursors, foreign noirs, etc.) that I really enjoy as well. This list is going to cover a broad definition of "noir," though feel free to comment if you see anything here that is clearly not noir. I am always up for a good conversation about film, and I'd specifically love to have a better feel for what people either do or don't consider to be noir.

When it boils down to it, though, what constitutes a Film Noir is not perfectly defined. I've seen some say it has to be American-produced, black and white, and made from 1940-1959; but I've seen others say neo-noir (and the other categories I mentioned above) should all ultimately be lumped together with those classic noirs due to their similar themes and styles. I built this list from a handful of different "best of" noir lists I have found, but my categories are mostly coming from the most exhaustive list I have found, Film Noir: They Shot Dark Pictures, Didn’t They?, which is based on the master noir list from the They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? website.

That list has nearly 1,000 noirs listed, and it breaks them down into several different categories (quintessential, often cited, neo-noir, noir precursors, foreign-produced, less cited, etc.). I have borrowed those categories and then ranked mine within each category. Below you can see the breakdown for how many films fall into which categories, as well as my prioritization for each group. The categories that feature the most traditional Film Noir titles are ordered first, so the "Quintessential Noirs" come first while the "Even Less Cited Noirs" are at the end of the list. But within each tier everything is ranked from my favorite to my least favorite, starting with 5/5's and going down to 4/5's.

Here is the breakdown for the categories, which is also available in the Notes section:

#1-145: Quintessential Noirs
#146-178: Often Cited Noirs
#179-197: Noir Precursors
#198-231: Neo-Noir Films
#232-262: Less Cited Noirs
#263-290: Foreign-Produced Noirs
#291-339: Even Less Cited Noirs
#340-397: Possible Neo-Noir Additions - Unsorted