Name your favorite underrated noir movie?
Suzanne Lummis:
Night and the City (1950) is only a bit underrated by film noir enthusiasts, who grudgingly say it's Good; but I think it’s better than Good. It was shot in London because director Jules Dassin was blacklisted, so the whole production got kicked out of town. (Studio head Darryl Zanuck continued to support Dassin and the production.) Richard Widmark, probably my favorite noir actor, plays a grifter always looking for a new angle, and now he’s aspiring to take over London’s underground wrestling world. The movie features so many delights, including some fine performances and, at the end, a stunningly shot footrace through the outskirts of the city.
David Lehman:
While my hat’s off to Jules Dassin (Naked City is my own favorite of his films) and Richard Widmark (Pickup on South Street) — and while I’m sorely tempted by D.O.A. in which Edmund O’Brien is in the perfect noir predicament of having to solve his own murder (“why me?”), not to mention Jacques Tourneur's Out of the Past — I vote for John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle. It’s not exactly underrated, but I’ve interpreted the question as an opportunity to talk about a second favorite. The cast is fantastic, up and down, with special kudos to
— Sterling Hayden as Dix, the “hooligan” and “big hick,” brawny, trustworthy, an honest crook, no genius, but his instincts serve him well;
— Sam Jaffe as the brains of the operation, Doc Riedenschneider, about whom Dix says “that squarehead . . . has plenty of guts”;
— the suave Louis Calhern as Emmerich, who, says Dix, “even double-crossed himself”;
— Jean Hagen as Doll, sweet, sincere, and smitten with as Dix – she’s even more underrated than Fred MacMurray, and as versatile: compare her work here to that in Singin’ in the Rain),
— scene-stealing Marilyn Monroe as Angela, Emmerich’s backstreet girl; she calls him Uncle Lon (and tells off a cop, “Haven’t you bothered me enough, you big banana-head?”)
On a recent TCM viewing, I noted that “Soup” is slang for explosive; that, as in so many great noir movies, even the crooks wear jacket and tie, and the getaway car is beautiful; and that the plot – the caper and its deadly aftermath illustrate two essential noir precepts. Emmerich: “Crime is only a left-handed form of human endeavor.” Doc: “What can you do against blind accident?”
See the first in our series — about Double Indemnity — by clicking here.