Join the Noirvember project, streaming noir picks from Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock to hidden gems and modern neo-noirs.
Distributors and local theaters are once again getting in on the action, from Criterion Channel’s November noir programming to Noirvember slates in repertory theaters around the country. But most of us are likely to celebrate Noirvember at home. Check out our 2023 and 2024 guides to the best classic noir, neo-noir, and lesser-known noir gems to stream this November, and if you’ve already watched all of those, here’s a new batch of Noirvember streaming recommendations.
The classics
Let’s start with a few seminal noirs, the basics you’ll want to hit to understand the genre and its conventions.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Where to watch: Available to rent or buy on Amazon, Apple, and other digital platforms
A modern version of this movie might pack the plot with “But wait, is he a murderer… or isn’t he?” twists and red herrings. But Hitch plays his noir classic straight: When charismatic Uncle Charlie (Citizen Kane’s Joseph Cotten) comes to visit his namesake Charlotte (Teresa Wright) and her family in California, evidence rapidly piles up suggesting that he’s a serial killer. The question is what young Charlie can do about it without ending up on his hit list — and without overplaying her suspicions before she’s absolutely positive. As usual, Hitchcock lets the audience know more than the characters, to enhance the tension and make it clear how much danger his vulnerable protagonist is in. And sharp performances from Wright and Cotten keep this cat-and-mouse game taut and creepy. —Tasha Robinson
Director: Orson Welles
Where to watch: Available to rent or buy on Amazon, Apple, and other digital platforms
More than a decade after making Citizen Kane, Orson Welles further secured his status as one of the greatest filmmakers ever by putting his stamp on the noir genre with Touch of Evil. Its plot and focus on racism and police corruption feel just as resonant today as they were in 1958, though the decision to cast Charlton Heston as Mexican special prosecutor Miguel Vargas hasn’t aged as well. Vargas is investigating an explosion on the U.S.-Mexico border, which puts him at odds with bigoted police captain Hank Quinlan (Welles), who has a history of planting evidence to get the results he wants. It’s a struggle of good versus evil where no one comes out unscathed.
The performances are excellent, with Heston offering his classic leading-man charm, Welles laying it on thick, and Janet Leigh playing Vargas’ tormented fiancée Susan — showing off the scream that became iconic when she starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho two years later. The camerawork is phenomenal, from the extended opening shot following Vargas and Susan crossing the border to the innovative way Wells filmed Heston driving. Touch of Evil’s mix of craft and sleaze embodies everything that makes film noir such a rich genre. —Samantha Nelson
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Where to watch: Streaming on Tubi and Prime Video, or available to rent or buy on Amazon, Apple, and other digital platforms
Before his 1960s work made him a bigger name, Stanley Kubrick made a punchy, wildly entertaining heist-driven noir about five guys conspiring to knock over a horse-racing track. Sterling Hayden plays ringleader Johnny Clay, who recruits a couple of racetrack employees (Elisha Cook, Jr. and Joe Sawyer), a crooked cop (Ted DeCorsia), and a money guy (Jay C. Flippen) to steal $2 million, in a scheme featuring a variety of unusual moving parts, including the assassination of a horse and the use of a pugnacious wrestler to start a brawling diversion.
Adapting Lionel White’s novel Clean Break, Kubrick collaborated with crime writer Jim Thompson, who handled the hard-boiled dialogue. Though the heist goes wrong, as they tend to do, the screenplay is particularly attuned to the human frailties that weaken a clever plan. The filmmakers find little notes of pulpy poignancy throughout, like one criminal’s sad husk of a marriage, or the sharpshooter who resorts to faking racism in order to brush off a friendly parking attendant. Kubrick went on to bigger and more ambitious projects — he never made a movie this short again. But minute for minute, The Killing remains one of his best films. It’s a thrill to see him apply his formal control to pulpy, unfussy material. —Jesse Hassenger
Next steps
Where to go after the basics? This is where noir fans’ mileage is going to vary most, based on which aspects of noir they like most. The mysteries? The fraught relationships? The twisty stories and unexpected reveals? Just the overall mood? Here are a few we’d recommend regardless of which subgenre you’re most into.
Director: Robert Siodmak
Where to watch: Available to rent or buy on Amazon, Apple, and other digital platforms
Director Robert Siodmak was an unsung master of noir variations, and he’s operating at his peak power with Phantom Lady, the rare 1940s noir with a female protagonist. It starts with a killer hook: Scott (Alan Curtis) has a fight with his wife, then spends the evening out with a mysterious woman, only to return home and find his wife murdered. Accused of the crime, he attempts to track down the mystery woman as his alibi for the time of death, only to find no trace of her. Worse, no one else they encountered later in the evening has any recollection of her existing, either.
Scott’s intrepid (and, yes, lovesick) secretary Carol, nicknamed Kansas (Ella Raines), becomes determined to investigate further and clear his name. Siodmak directs these sequences, like one where Kansas follows (and menaces) a potential witness through the streets and into a subway station, with such shadowy, expressive moodiness that the fogginess of the eventual solution doesn’t much matter; that’s almost part of the dreamlike atmosphere.
