Film Noir Favorites You Can Watch for Free on YouTube with NO Ads
Whether you are relatively new to the “film noir” family, or consider yourself somewhat of an afficionado, you no doubt have a few favorites which may include top-ranked titles such as “Laura” starring Gene Tierney, or Hitchcock classics like “Strangers on a Train”. You may be familiar with some of the genre regulars, like Richard Conte and Ida Lupino. And, unless you already have a complete DVD collection in your home, you no doubt have spent some time trying to find selections online to satisfy your film noir appetite.
Luckily for you, we’ve put together an amazing list of our own film noir favorites that you can actually watch completely for free on YouTube, without any ads and without subscription fees. Also, because not all YouTube uploads are created equal, we’ve weeded out any with poor video quality or sound quality. You won’t necessarily find the big box office hits or Oscar winners here – and the list does include some “B” movies – but you can’t go wrong with any of these.
Rest assured, this isn’t just another tired ol’ recycled list of movies – we have personally watched each and every one of these from the links provided. And, if you find one you love so much you just have to have a DVD (or BluRay) copy of, we’ve provided a link to Amazon where you can purchase the DVD, if available. (And yes, we do earn a small commission on any Amazon purchases.)
So, grab some popcorn and a comfy chair, and settle in for some movie-watching fun!
Black Angel (1946)
If you’re familiar at all with classic film noir, then you’re familiar with Dan Duryea, and this is just one of several films on our list featuring this prolific actor. Breaking from his more typical villainous roles, in this film he plays an alcoholic musician who finds himself helping a woman clear her husband of murder. The victim? Dan Duryea’s character’s wife. The film gets a solid 6.9 on IMDB.com, so definitely worth a watch.
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Vicki (1953)
This 1953 film is actually a remake of the 1941 film noir, “I Wake Up Screaming” starring Betty Grable. This later version stars Jeanne Crain and Jean Peters as two sisters, one of whom is plucked from obscurity to become a New York glamor-girl and then ends up dead, along with Richard Boone as the homicide detective trying to pin her murder on the guy who was promoting her, played by Elliot Reid. Future Hollywood VIP Aaron Spelling also makes his acting debut in this film, at the age of 30.
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The Scarlet Hour (1956)
Ruggedly handsome Tom Tryon stars in this 1956 film noir as a man who’s been having an affair with his boss’s wife. During one of their secret rendezvous on a local lovers’ lane, they overhear some men planning a jewelry heist, and the wife – played by Carol Ohmart – comes up with a plan to rob the robbers. Marsh (Tom Tryon) reluctantly goes along. The film also features character actor James Gregory as the husband.
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The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950)
Shot on location in San Francisco, this film noir from 1950 stars Lee J. Cobb as a homicide detective who helps his girlfriend (Jane Wyatt) hide the body of the husband she just killed. Things get complicated, though, when he’s assigned the case his younger brother – new to the homicide division – is assigned to assist him. We give it two thumbs up – for location, and for Lee J. Cobb!
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No Man’s Woman (1955)
When the police have five suspects with motive for your murder, you might want to stop and think about your life choices – if you weren’t dead, that is. That’s exactly the case in “No Man’s Woman”, starring Marie Windsor as the gold-digging art studio owner who’s wronged her employee, her husband, her lover, her prospective lover, and her prospective lover’s wife. Windsor is spectacular as the vicious, manipulative conniving femme fatale – it’s worth watching for her performance alone.
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Shockproof (1949)
In this 1949 film noir, Cornel Wilde stars as a parole officer alongside Patricia Knight as his parolee who just spent five years in prison for killing a man. Having become quite taken with his beautiful blonde charge, he goes out of his way to try to help her go straight, which isn’t easy when her criminal boyfriend keeps showing up. Wilde especially is great in this one, and an interesting side note is that Wilde and Knight were actually husband and wife during filming, but divorced a few years later.
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Abandoned (1949)
Gale Storm is the sister of an unwed mother who turns up dead in this 1949 film noir, and she enlists the help of a newspaperman (Dennis O’Keefe) to find out who killed her. It looks like suicide, but they don’t believe it, and embark on an investigation of their own after the police tells them they need more to go on to begin one. They uncover a black-market baby ring at the center of it all, and convince the police to help set up a sting operation. Raymond Burr also stars as a shady private detective involved with the baby ring.
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Undertow (1949)
Also from 1949, “Undertow” has Scott Brady playing a paroled convict framed for murder and hiding from police with a woman he barely knows as he tries to clear his name. A former mob member with the Chicago syndicate, Brady’s character is accused of murdering his fiance’s uncle. Peggy Dow plays the woman trying to help him, and a young Rock Hudson makes an appearance as a detective in his first credited film role.
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Whirlpool (1950)
You really can’t go wrong with either Gene Tierney or Richard Conte, and in this film noir from 1950 you get them both! Ms. Tierney plays a kleptomaniac who falls prey to a devious hypnotist after he helps her out of a tight spot at the store where she’d been caught shoplifting. Soon after, she wakes up at the scene of a murder with no idea who she got there, and must enlist the help of her psychoanalyst husband (Richard Conte) to prove her innocence.
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The House on Telegraph Hill (1951)
This film centers around Victoria Kowelska, played by Valentina Cortese, a concentration camp survivor who assumes the identity of her deceased friend to gain passage to America. After moving into a luxurious mansion on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco with her friend’s young son and his guardian, Victoria finds herself entangled in a dangerous game of secrets and betrayal. With its atmospheric cinematography, intricate plot twists, and compelling performances, “The House on Telegraph Hill” keeps the audience on the edge of their seats, making it a must-watch for fans of classic suspense movies.
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Scandal Sheet (1952)
Sometimes the past just won’t stay in the past, as is the case with the editor of a New York exploitation newspaper in this film noir from 1952. When his wife shows up decades after he abandoned her and threatens to expose his misdeeds, he reacts angrily and accidentally kills her, then finds himself trying to cover up the crime. After the body is found, he assigns his protégé the story and has to watch as the new reporter does too good of a job digging up the truth.
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Sleep, My Love (1948)
Claudette Colbert is fantastic as the wealthy New Yorker who wakes up on a train bound for Boston and has no recollection of boarding it. Her husband, played by Don Ameche, has reported her missing, and seems relieved to find that she is okay. He convinces his wife to see a psychiatrist, but is he really trying to help her, or is something more sinister going on? The film is directed by Douglas Sirk, and produced in part by screen legend Mary Pickford. One of our favorites of the genre!
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Pushover (1954)
The story follows police detective Paul Sheridan, played by Fred MacMurray, who is part of a team of cops assigned to recover $200,000 stolen during a bank heist. He falls under the spell of the seductive Lona McLane, the girlfriend of one of the bank robbers, played by Kim Novak in her first credited role. She convinces him to kill her boyfriend so they can run away together, and things get really complicated as they put their plans into motion.
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The Prowler (1951)
Things aren’t always black and white when it comes to the good guys and the bad guys, and sometimes the good guys aren’t so good after all. Van Heflin plays a cop responding to a peeping Tom call, and falls for the frightened wife. They become involved with each other, but when she breaks things off he hatches a plan to take out her husband and cash in on a life insurance policy.
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Too Late For Tears (1949)
Dan Duryea returns in this 1949 film noir, alongside Lizabeth Scott as a woman who will do anything to hang onto a suitcase filled with $60,000 in stolen money that she happened to stumble upon. Duryea plays Danny Fuller, a sleazy character who claims the money is his. The film was a box office bomb at the time of its release, but has since developed a cult following and is a solid 7.3 on IMDB.com, as well as 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.
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When the Clock Strikes (1961)
Take an out-of-the-way lodge on a stormy night, add a pending execution at the nearby penitentiary, throw in a cast of questionable characters and $160,000 in stolen bank money, and you’re bound to stick around to find out where this all is going. Who can be trusted, and who’s shown up just to find the money? This enjoyable little plot-driven film makes the case that even “B” movies have their place in American cinema.
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The Scarf (1951)
In this 1951 film noir, John Ireland stars as the insane asylum escapee who’s not so insane after all – but he does suffer from amnesia, and is on a mission to discover whether he really did murder his girlfriend. A turkey farmer who believes in his innocence hides him from the authorities, and a singing waitress (Mercedes McCambridge) may have a clue to help him as well.
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Escape from San Quentin (1957)
This late-fifties film noir centers around two inmates at a San Quentin work farm, one of whom convinces the other, a former Air Force pilot (played by singer Johnny Desmond), to steal a plane and fly them out of the country. He sweetens the deal by offering his prospective partner a share of the $120,000 of stolen loot from a bank robbery. An enjoyable film to watch, with lots of action an suspense.
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I Was a Shoplifter (1950)
Scott Brady is back as an undercover cop trying to bust a ring of shoplifters who’ve been hitting department stores around the Los Angeles area, and Mona Freeman stars as a librarian-turned-petty-shoplifter who gets sucked into a gang of shoplifters with the promise that they’ll retrieve a confession she signed with a store detective played by Rock Hudson. Tony Curtis also stars as gang-member Pepe who shows her how to steal like a professional thief.
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Highway Dragnet (1954)
Prolific actor Richard Conte returns in this mid-1950’s film noir as an ex-Marine accused of murder. With the only person who can confirm his alibi inaccessible, he’s forced to flee and ends up on the run with two women, a photographer and her model. The manhunt stretches from the Nevada desert and into southern California and the Salton Sea, with Conte’s character fighting to stay one step ahead of the police.
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The Woman in the Window (1944)
Directed by the “Master of Darkness” himself – Fritz Lang – this 1944 film noir stars Edward G. Robinson as a married college professor who meets a beautiful woman (played by Joan Bennett) on the street and who happens to be the subject of an oil painting he’d previously seen in the store window where they meet. She invites him out for drinks, then convinces him to come home with her, where her boyfriend shows up and fights with the professor, forcing the professor to kill him in self defense. Cover-up, investigation, blackmail, shootouts, and a suicide attempt all follow, in true noir fashion.
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The Turning Point (1952)
An all-star cast lead this 1952 film noir, including William Holden, Edmond O’Brien, Alexis Smith, and Ed Begley. Like most film noir, it was filmed in L.A., but actually takes place in a large Midwestern town, where Edmond O’Brien’s character, John Conroy, is a prosecutor trying to bring down organized crime. Holden plays the cynical investigative reporter who believes that Conroy’s cop father is actually involved with the mob.
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Private Hell 36 (1954)
Film buffs will appreciate the inclusion of this 1954 film noir on our list as it includes such familiar faces as Ida Lupino, Steve Cochran, and Howard Duff. The latter two are police detectives in L.A. investigating a drugstore theft, where a boatload of marked bills from an earlier bank robbery in New York turn up. They manage to track down the rest of the money during their investigation, but unfortunately one of them can’t seem to let go, and wants to keep part of it for himself.
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Larceny (1948)
A whole host of shady characters show up in this 1948 noir, played by film favorites such as John Payne, Dan Duryea, and Shelley Winters. Posing as an army buddy of a young widow’s war-hero husband, Payne sets about trying to swindle her out of a large sum of money for a phony memorial. His boss, Silky, played by Dan Duryea, is pulling the strings, though, and his affair with the boss’s girl (Shelley Winters) complicates matters for this con man who may be having second thoughts about the company he keeps and his current assignment.
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The Big Operator (1959)
Wildly popular as teenager Andy Hardy in the 30’s and 40’s, Mickey Rooney shows up in a big way for a completely different kind of role in 1959’s “The Big Operator”, playing Little Joe Braun, the corrupt union boss who’ll stop at nothing to quiet a witness set to testify against him in a Senate committee hearing. Steve Cochran is the union worker who finds himself having to protect himself and his family against Little Joe and his thugs. Both are wonderful in their roles, and the result is a film that’s definitely worth a watch, even if it did bomb at the box office.
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Dangerous Crossing (1953)
One of our favorites of the list, this 1953 film noir features the beautiful Jeanne Crain as a recently married heiress embarking on a cruise with her husband. The problem is, the husband disappears soon after boarding the ship, and everybody insists she came alone. Michael Rennie, who plays the ship’s doctor, isn’t sure what to believe, but wants badly to help her. When nobody is around to act as a witness, she receives odd phone calls from her husband with cryptic warnings. It’s a head-scratching mystery to unravel, and the top-notch cast makes it enjoyable to do so.
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