27 Movies from the Dark Side: Ebert's Essentials

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Ebert's Essential Guide to 27 Movies from the Dark Side

I know something about Film Noir, but there is no way I will ever know as much as Roger Ebert did. He watched movies and knew the backstories of those movies. In this book, he offers his expertise in recommending twenty-seven movies he considers to be the class of the genre.

Ebert's recommendations run the gamut of stylistic French film noir to American pulp noir. A film afficianado could not do better than following his recommendations and watch these movies. Some of his recommendations are obvious: Double Indemnity, The Big Sleep, Chinatown, The Maltese Falcon, and L.A. Confidential. Some are obscure or forgotten gems, such as Out of the Past, Strangers on a Train, Notorious, In a Lonely Place, that Ebert does a great service of reminding us existed. And, then, there are movies I would never have heard about, such as Bob Le Flambeur, Touchez Pas au Grisbi, Pale Flower, and Ace in the Hole (with Kirk Douglas.) I'm not sure I would agree with some of his recommendations; I thought Elliott Gould's The Long Goodbye was too saturated with '70s sensibilities to make a good film noir, but that was before I read Ebert's review and learned some of the backstory, including the fact that the film was written by science fiction legend, Leigh Brackett.

In sum, if you like films, want to know more about films, or are looking for some films to watch, this is a good resource.