1,000 Noir Films (J)

Introduction
The 1,000 Noir Films: A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - Y - Z
View by:
Title / Director / Year / Country
More Noir(ish) Films / 50 Key Noir Directors / Updates / Links
Jackie Brown
Jackie Brown Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1997, USA, 151m, Col, Drama-Crime-Comedy
Screenplay Quentin Tarantino (based on the novel Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard) Producer Lawrence Bender Photography Guillermo Navarro Editor Sally Menke Music Joseph Julian Gonzalez Cast Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Bridget Fonda, Michael Keaton, Robert De Niro, Michael Bowen, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Tommy 'Tiny' Lister Jr., Hattie Winston.
"If Tarantino's strengths are dialogue and plotting, his gift is casting. Pam Grier, the goddess of 1970s tough-girl pictures, here finds just the right note for Jackie Brown; she's tired and desperate… A lot of crime films play like they were written by crossword puzzle fans who fill in the easy words and then call the hot line for the solution. (The solution is always: Abandon the characters and end with a chase and a shootout.) Tarantino leaves the hardest questions for last, hides his moves, conceals his strategies in plain view, and gives his characters dialogue that is alive, authentic and spontaneous. You savor every moment of Jackie Brown. Those who say it is too long have developed cinematic attention deficit disorder. I wanted these characters to live, talk, deceive and scheme for hours and hours." - Roger Ebert (Roger Ebert.com)
Jagged Edge
Jagged Edge Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1985, USA, 108m, Col, Thriller-Mystery-Courtroom Drama
Screenplay Joe Eszterhas Producer Martin Ransonhoff Photography Matthew F. Leonetti Editors Conrad Buff, Sean Barton Music John Barry Cast Jeff Bridges, Glenn Close, Maria Mayenzet, Peter Coyote, Robert Loggia, John Dehner, Karen Austin, Guy Boyd, Marshall Colt, Louis Giambalvo.
"This shows that a contemporary whodunit can still rivet sophisticated modern audiences without retreating into horror or camp. Marquand and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas achieve this coup by ringing brilliant changes on ancient material: Close plays a woman defence lawyer who becomes involved with client Bridges, fighting to prove he's innocent of murdering his wife. The trial scenes are scripted and played with electrifying skill, as every turn and twist is amplified through Close's emotions. But it is much more than a courtroom picture. These days it is almost unheard of for a movie to keep you guessing until the last frame, but this one does, partly because Marquand plays it so beautifully straight." - David Pirie (Time Out)
Jail Bait
Jail Bait
1954, USA, 71m, BW, Crime-Drama-Thriller
Screenplay Alex Gordon, Edward D. Wood Jr. Producer Edward D. Wood Jr. Photography William C. Thompson Editor Charles Clement Music Hoyt Curtin Cast Lyle Talbot, Dolores Fuller, Herbert Rawlinson, Steve Reeves, Clancy Malone, Timothy Farrell, Tedi Thurman, Bud Osborne, Mona McKinnon, Don Nagel.
"This minor noir has many of the Wood trademarks – rigid actors who seem more like mannequins than people; a pumped-up but misleading ad campaign (“DANGER! These girls are hot!”); a bizarre score in the form of relentless Spanish classical guitar music; stock Wood players like Dolores Fuller, Timothy Farrell, Mona McKinnon, and Lyle Talbot; and of course hokey dialogue… Released by Howco (a low-budget company slightly more respectable than Wood’s usual), the film is less interesting than his other work in part because it’s simply too straightforward and coherent. There’s none of that rushed, ragged feel of Plan 9 or Glen or Glenda, where the narrative is skewered with strange, seemingly unrelated interludes that make these works compulsively watchable as we await the next surprise." - Gary Morris (Bright Lights Film Journal)
Jealousy
Jealousy
1945, USA, 71m, BW, Mystery-Crime-Drama
Screenplay Arnold Lipp, Gustav Machatý (based on a story by Dalton Trumbo) Producer Gustav Machatý Photography Henry Sharp Editor John F. Link Music Hanns Eisler Cast John Loder, Jane Randolph, Karen Morley, Nils Asther, Hugo Haas, Holmes Herbert, Michael Mark, Mauritz Hugo, Peggy Leon, Mary Arden.
"A bit 'artier' than most Republic melodramas, Jealousy was directed by Gustav Machaty, the Czech expatriate famous for the 1933 exercise in erotica Extase. Nils Asther plays failed novelist Peter Urban, who is married to gorgeous Janet Urban (Jane Randolph). While trying to replenish the family coffers by working as a cab driver, Janet meets and befriends handsome physician David Brent (John Loder). Shortly afterward, a murder occurs, which is made to look like a suicide. Without tipping off too much of the plot, it's worth noting that Brent's associate is the bewitching Dr. Monica Anderson (Karen Morley) , and that such mysterious types as Hugo Haas and Mauritz Hugo are also in the picture. Jealousy was based on a story by Dalton Trumbo." - Hal Erickson (Allmovie)
Jennifer
Jennifer
1953, USA, 73m, BW, Crime-Mystery-Thriller
Screenplay Harold Buchman, Maurice Rapf (based on the short story by Virginia Myers) Producer Berman Swarttz Photography James Wong Howe Editor Everett Douglas Music Ernest Gold Cast Ida Lupino, Howard Duff, Robert Nichols, Mary Shipp, Ned Glass, Kitty McHugh, Russ Conway, Lorna Thayer, Matt Dennis, John Brown.
"Jennifer is a really neat little psychological thriller that does a great deal with a very limited cast and, one suspects, an equally limited budget. It was apparently the last movie to be released under the Monogram moniker, the company hereafter becoming known as Allied Artists… Of course, it’s difficult to go wrong when Ida Lupino leads the cast, and the fact that she’s playing opposite then-husband Howard Duff adds an interesting little screen frisson to their scenes together: despite Agnes’s (Lupino) initial timidity, there’s from the outset a definite chemistry between the two characters… Adding to the effective tension of Jennifer is the evocative cinematography of James Wong Howe, who shows great mastery of shadows and angles in depicting the various areas of what becomes in his hands a creepy old house." - John Grant (Noirish)
Jeopardy
Jeopardy
1953, USA, 69m, BW, Drama-Crime-Thriller
Screenplay Mel Dinelli (from a story by Maurice Zimm) Producer Sol Baer Fielding Photography Victor Milner Editor Newell P. Kimlin Music Dimitri Tiomkin Cast Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan, Ralph Meeker, Lee Aaker, Bud Wolfe, Saul Gorss, Bob Castro, Paul Fierro, Juan Torena, Felipe Turich.
"Everyone has their favorite family vacation horror story but this one takes the prize. In Jeopardy, Barry Sullivan and Barbara Stanwyck play a married couple traveling with their small son (Lee Aaker) along the Mexican coast... A taut, seventy-minute exercise in suspense, Jeopardy is a perfect example of why John Sturges was considered a master craftsman by Hollywood studio executives. Though modestly budgeted, Sturges elicited excellent performances from his three stars and transformed Jeopardy from a routine thriller into a surprise box-office hit for MGM. It was no easy task considering the original source material was a radio play, A Question of Time by Maurice Zimm. Screenwriter Mel Dinelli had to expand the material to three times its original length to make it a feature." - Jeff Stafford (Turner Classic Movies)
Jigsaw
Jigsaw
1949, USA, 72m, BW, Crime-Drama
Screenplay Fletcher Markle, Vincent McConnor (based on a story by John Roeburt) Producer Edward J. Danziger, Harry Lee Danziger Photography Don Malkames Editor Robert Matthews Music Robert W. Stringer Cast Franchot Tone, Jean Wallace, Myron McCormick, Marc Lawrence, Winifred Lenihan, Doe Avedon, Hedley Rainnie, Walter Vaughn, George Breen, Robert Gist.
"Jigsaw is a rollicking thriller so camp you forgive the preposterous plot and thank the heavens for bringing it your way. A weirder movie you could not imagine. Franchot Tone is a NY special prosecutor pursuing a murky underground hate group with tentacles in the highest echelons of the city’s elite government and business circles… This b-picture was made by a bunch of journeymen, who through the quirky finger of fate came together to pack into 77 minutes an entertainment set in a Manhattan so darkly baroque, it seems almost self-consciously noir. From the opening panoramic shots of an isolated city street to the seamless and exciting climax in a darkened art gallery at night, impenetrable shadows haunt the streetscape of a city almost subterranean in its ambience." - Tony D'Ambra (FilmsNoir.net)
Johnny Angel
Johnny Angel
1945, USA, 79m, BW, Mystery-Drama-Crime
Screenplay Steve Fisher (adapted by Frank Gruber from the novel Mr. Angel Comes Aboard by Charles G. Booth) Producer William L. Pereira Photography Harry Wild Editor Les Millbrook Music Leigh Harline Cast George Raft, Claire Trevor, Signe Hasso, Lowell Gilmore, Hoagy Carmichael, Marvin Miller, Margaret Wycherly, J. Farrell MacDonald, Mack Gray, Jason Robards Sr..
"A ghost ship emerges out of the fog: bullet-holes, overturned chairs and broken photographs point to a perturbed past. The world of Johnny Angel is very noir indeed. Raft plays Captain ~Johnny Angel, who's out to avenge the murder of his father, but gets only bland sympathy from the babyish Gusty (Miller), his father's boss. Trevor, as Gusty's scheming wife, is playing a shady game of her own, while French girl Paulette (Hasso) is hunted by an unknown killer and trusts no one. They all inhabit a closed world, where even pastoral idylls reek of claustrophobia and obsession. The men struggle against the towering shadows of their fathers, the women are dangerously enigmatic, and the docks of New Orleans glisten under the diffuse light of a single street-lamp… There are no black diamonds, but Johnny Angel glitters like one." - Ruth Baumgarten (Time Out)
Johnny Eager
Johnny Eager
1941, USA, 107m, BW, Crime-Melodrama
Screenplay James Edward Grant, John Lee Mahin (from an unpublished story by James Edward Grant) Producer John W. Considine Jr. Photography Harold Rosson Editor Albert Akst Music Bronislau Kaper Cast Robert Taylor, Lana Turner, Edward Arnold, Van Heflin, Robert Sterling, Patricia Dane, Glenda Farrell, Henry O'Neill, Barry Nelson, Charles Dingle.
"The John Lee Mahin/James Edward Grant script for this gangster movie proposes an intriguingly sleazy scenario about a cold-blooded hoodlum (Taylor), his homosexual whipping-boy (Heflin), and the masochistic society girl (Turner) who can't wait to sample his wares ('I think he'd beat a woman if she made him angry'). Given the full-gloss-and-redemption MGM treatment, it emerges as the sudsiest of soaps… LeRoy handles the grand operatics with a certain style and excellent camerawork from Harold Rosson; but nothing can salvage a film which suggests that its hero went to the bad because he never owned a dog as a boy." - Tom Milne (Time Out)
Johnny Guitar
Johnny Guitar Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
WESTERN NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1954, USA, 110m, Col, Psychological Western-Drama
Screenplay Philip Yordan (based on the novel by Roy Chanslor) Producer Nicholas Ray Photography Harry Stradling Editor Richard L. Van Enger Music Victor Young Cast Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge, Scott Brady, Ward Bond, John Carradine, Ernest Borgnine, Ben Cooper, Royal Dano, Frank Ferguson.
"Nicholas Ray’s great sur-western, in which, as François Truffaut put it, the cowboys circle and die like ballerinas. For all its violence, this is a surpassingly tender, sensitive film, Ray’s gentlest statement of his outsider theme. Joan Crawford, with a mature, reflective quality she never recaptured, is the owner of a small-town saloon; Sterling Hayden is the enigmatic gunfighter who comes to her aid when the townspeople turn on her. Filmed in the short-lived (but well-preserved) Trucolor process, its hues are pastel and boldly deployed, and the use of space is equally daring and expressive." - Dave Kehr (Chicago Reader)
Johnny Handsome
Johnny Handsome
NEO-NOIR / COLOUR NOIR
1989, USA, 94m, Col, Crime-Action-Drama-
Screenplay Ken Friedman (based on the novel The Three Worlds of Johnny Handsome by John Godey) Producer Charles Roven Photography Matthew F. Leonetti Editors Carmel Davies, Donn Aron, Freeman A. Davies Music Ry Cooder Cast Mickey Rourke, Ellen Barkin, Elizabeth McGovern, Morgan Freeman, Forest Whitaker, Lance Henriksen, Scott Wilson, Blake Clark, Yvonne Bryceland, Jim Burk.
"Mickey Rourke plays a disfigured convict who gets a new face from plastic surgeon Forest Whitaker so he can settle down in New Orleans and get even with Ellen Barkin and Lance Henriksen, who were responsible for his going to prison. Walter Hill directed this 1989 feature from a pulpy script by Ken Friedman (based on John Godey's novel The Three Worlds of Johnny Handsome), and its nasty, predictable plot and unpleasant characters aren't made any more bearable by Hill's customary smoke, sweat, funk, and neon. Practically everyone registers as a silly central-casting gargoyle; even the talented Barkin is twisted out of shape by her grotesque character, and while Elizabeth McGovern fares somewhat better, the only standouts are Morgan Freeman and the imperturbable Whitaker." - Jonathan Rosenbaum (Chicago Reader)
Johnny O'Clock
Johnny O'Clock
1947, USA, 95m, BW, Crime-Drama-Thriller
Screenplay Robert Rossen (from an unpublished story by Milton Holmes) Producer Edward G. Nealis Photography Burnett Guffey Editor Warren Low Music George Duning Cast Dick Powell, Evelyn Keyes, Lee J. Cobb, Ellen Drew, Nina Foch, Thomas Gomez, John Kellogg, Jim Bannon, Mabel Paige, Phil Brown.
"Rossen composed a spry, noirish murder mystery spun around a corrupt network of assorted characters whose connections to one another only gradually come into focus. The enigmatic man with the interesting name eludes definition – a casino boss who never gambles – and delicately dances around an ornate array of broken female companions and business partners – many of whom are likewise linked to each other by unsteady emotional and economic dependency. Cordially spurning attachment or purpose, O’Clock is finally jolted into existential action by the persistence of a clever detective and the murder victim’s beguiling sister." - Harvard Film Archive
Johnny Stool Pigeon
Johnny Stool Pigeon
1949, USA, 76m, BW, Crime-Drama-Police Detective Film
Screenplay Robert L. Richards (from a story by Henry Jordan) Producer Aaron Rosenberg Photography Maury Gertsman Editor Ted J. Kent Music Milton Schwarzwald Cast Howard Duff, Shelley Winters, Dan Duryea, Tony Curtis, John McIntire, Gar Moore, Leif Erickson, Barry Kelley, Hugh Reilly, Wally Maher.
"Federal agents risking mortal danger to infiltrate criminal syndicates supply one of the basic templates for film noir… Johnny Stool Pigeon is a creditable if not especially memorable effort, thanks mostly to a cast headed by Dan Duryea, Howard Duff, Shelley Winters and even a young Tony Curtis… The reliable Duryea relies on the sneering and cynical persona perfected working for Fritz Lang, and Winters adds a dash of femme fatale. It all adds up to a fairly routine but efficient 75 minutes of noir." - Bill MacVicar (Film Noir: The Encyclopedia)
Le Jour se lève
Le Jour se lève Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
Daybreak (English title)
NOIR-PRECURSOR / FRENCH NOIR
1939, France, 93m, BW, Thriller-Crime-Romantic Drama
Screenplay Jacques Prévert (from a story by Jacques Viot) Producer Jean-Pierre Frogerais Photography André Bac, Albert Viguier, Philippe Agostini Editor René Le Hénaff Music Maurice Jaubert Cast Jean Gabin, Arletty, Jules Berry, Mady Berry, René Génin, Arthur Devère, René Bergeron, Bernard Blier, Jacqueline Laurent, Gabrielle Fontan.
"Le Jour Se Lève typically gets shoehorned, along with a handful of other collaborations between director Marcel Carné and screenwriter Jacques Prévert, into a filmic historical movement known by the oxymoronic catchall 'poetic realism.' But, in many ways, it's more productive to view this relentlessly dour and disillusioned masterwork as a feel-bad forerunner of film noir… Like Carné's earlier Port of Shadows, Le Jour Se Lève establishes a versatile visual palette that exerted a significant influence over classical noir. Head cinematographer Philippe Agostini employs expressive low-key lighting at key moments and, in one notable instance, swathes Gabin's face in darkness save for a bright band across his eyes. Such stark, high-contrast lighting schemes provide the perfect objective correlative for the film's blunt existential musings." - Budd Wilkins (Slant Magazine)
Journey Into Fear
Journey Into Fear
1943, USA, 68m, BW, Spy-Drama-Thriller
Screenplay Joseph Cotten, Orson Welles, Richard Collins, Ben Hecht (from the novel by Eric Ambler) Producer Orson Welles Photography Karl Struss Editor Mark Robson Music Roy Webb Cast Joseph Cotten, Dolores Del Rio, Orson Welles, Ruth Warrick, Agnes Moorehead, Jack Durant, Everett Sloane, Eustace Wyatt, Frank Readick, Jack Moss.
"'Designed' rather than directed by Welles, though you wouldn't care to bet on it as things get under way with the camera craning up to a sleazy window in Istanbul and peering in - as a tinny gramophone with a stuck needle maddeningly grinds out the same phrase - for its first glimpse of the slug-like babyfaced killer played (brilliantly) by Jack Moss. Thereafter, with Cotten on the run from Gestapo agents and Welles having fun in the first of his monster roles as the Turkish chief of secret police (he directed all his own scenes), the tone veers through nightmare chases, bizarre encounters, and deflating jokes. Eminently watchable, but it does tail away." - Tom Milne (Time Out)
Julie
Julie
1956, USA, 99m, BW, Thriller-Mystery-Action
Screenplay Andrew L. Stone Producer Martin Melcher Photography Fred Jackman Jr. Editor Virginia L. Stone Music Leith Stevens Cast Doris Day, Louis Jourdan, Barry Sullivan, Frank Lovejoy, Jack Kelly, Ann Robinson, Barney Phillips, Jack Kruschen, John Gallaudet, Carleton Young.
"Improbable crime thriller about a woman-in-peril, that is too uneven to be effective; the banal dialogue is the final killer. Director-writer Andrew L. Stone's overwrought thriller seemed more unintentionally funny than scary, as the suspense never hits on all cylinders. There are those who might find this bad film even more entertaining than if it were a good film; that is, if they don't take it seriously… Doris Day, to her credit, gives it her best shot and tries to take it seriously even when the melodrama moves way past the point of just being ridiculous. Later disaster movies stole some of those airplane landing scenes." - Dennis Schwartz (Movie Reviews)
Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT) Recommended Viewing (by TSPDT)
Introduction
The 1,000 Noir Films: A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - Y - Z
View by:
Title / Director / Year / Country
More Noir(ish) Films / 50 Key Noir Directors / Updates / Links