on 12/10/2021, 6:29 pm
Lots of very good to great noirs on Bartlett's list, but the question wafts in the air like trapped cigar smoke as to whether some of these are "underrated." If we had about 6-8 more regulars here we could probably quantify just how wacky the "underrated" monicker is for many of these films, but I'll use the old Top 25 poll (which due to its provenance in 2005 reminds us just how well-known most of these films really are) to give us some perspective on this:
BORN TO KILL (22)
WOMAN ON THE RUN (84)
HE WALKED BY NIGHT (45)
THE PROWLER (110)
THE NARROW MARGIN (18)
THE BREAKING POINT (73)
THE SET-UP (19)
SHIELD FOR MURDER (52)
ACT OF VIOLENCE (42)
RAW DEAL (16)
ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW (57)
ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS (N/A)
FORCE OF EVIL (60)
CRISS CROSS (2)
NIGHT AND THE CITY (14)
Of course our list, compiled by die-hards of long standing, is going to produce a lot of titles that clearly don't seem underrated. First, let's lump together the films that are clearly not underrated by us:
CRISS CROSS (2)
NIGHT AND THE CITY (14)
RAW DEAL (16)
THE NARROW MARGIN (18)
THE SET-UP (19)
BORN TO KILL (22)
Here is the six-pack in our "noir top 25." I personally think several of these films are overrated, but let's not get sidetracked into that discussion here. The film that's probably the most underrated in this bunch is BORN TO KILL, and that could be because it's so much more perverse than the others on the list.
Let's go to the next tier:
ACT OF VIOLENCE (42)
HE WALKED BY NIGHT (45)
SHIELD FOR MURDER (52)
ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW (57)
FORCE OF EVIL (60)
THE BREAKING POINT (73)
FORCE OF EVIL and THE BREAKING POINT were underrated by us, IMO. The latter didn't surface in a big-screenable copy until Eddie showed it at NC4 in 2006, after this poll was conducted. It scored at 73rd because one voter put it in the Top 5 and another voter gave it an honorable mention. I think it would easily jump into the Top 40 if a new poll were conducted. ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW is probably close to Top 40 as well.
We may have SHIELD FOR MURDER a bit high, but Bartlett makes a good case for it, and it's definitely among the hardest-edged of all the "bad cop" noirs. HE WALKED BY NIGHT is probably also too high on our original list.
Finally, the last three films on Bartlett's list:
WOMAN ON THE RUN (84)
THE PROWLER (110)
ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS (N/A)
The first two are both championed by Eddie, but THE PROWLER seems to slip through the cracks a bit more due to its queasy edge. WOMAN ON THE RUN is clearly the lesser film, but it has glib dialogue and a comfort food thriller ending, so it's become the better-known film in the past decade.
ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS is the film that folks who really don't know much about French film noir put on a list like this. The film is woefully overrated in America, probably less so in France; it's still annoying to know that Jeanne Moreau appears in 20 or so French noirs (including half a dozen that are more accomplished) before her "breakout" in ELEVATOR, including LES LOUVES and LES DOS AU MUR made in France during the very same year. ELEVATOR isn't horrible or anything, it's just not anywhere close to the "earth-shattering" experience that many claim for it: Maurice Ronet is in a far more intriguing and tricky situation in CETTE NUIT-LA than what happens to him here. And I'd rather listen to Miles Davis' score on its own, thank you!
Let's hear what others have to say on this...
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