Last Updated on 4 March 2024
I searched the Internet for lists of the best film noir movies of all time. Criteria included the movies being ranked, not just listed, and generally created by groups, whether teams or committees or based on general public voting (like Ranker.com).
I was able to find 29 lists. I took the 29 lists and added all their content into a spreadsheet, noting the rank of every film. I ended up averaging the rankings each film got (there were 245 that were on at least 2 lists) and dividing that average by a factor of the number of lists that movie was on. The lowest score meant a high ranking average on many lists. The complete spreadsheet is attached at the bottom.
The movies that were on the most lists (out of 29) were:
- Double Indemnity (1944) – 28 lists
- Touch of Evil (1958) – 27 lists
- The Maltese Falcon (1941) – 25 lists
- The Big Sleep (1946) – 25 lists
- In a Lonely Place (1950) – 25 lists
- The Third Man (1949) – 24 lists
- Out of the Past (1947) – 24 lists
- The Big Heat (1953) – 24 lists
- The Killing (1956) – 23 lists
- Sunset Blvd. (1950) – 22 lists
- Kiss Me Deadly (1955) – 22 lists
Here are links to the lists I used along with dates the lists were created:
- Ranker – 1 Mar 2024
- IMDb – 29 Feb 2024
- Screen Rant – 7 Feb 2024
- The Collector – 9 Dec 2023
- Filmmaking Lifestyle – 8 Nov 2023
- Paste Magazine – 3 Nov 2023
- Rotten Tomatoes – 3 Nov 2023
- The Manual – 5 Oct 2023
- Creepy Catalog – 18 Jul 2023
- MovieWeb – 10 Jul 2023
- Flickside – 29 Jun 2023
- Letterboxd – 30 Mar 2023
- SlashFilm – 16 Mar 2023
- Tilt – 8 Nov 2022
- Looper – 7 Sep 2022
- The Independent – 17 Jun 2022
- HubPages – 4 Feb 2022
- Murder & Mayhem – 24 Jun 2021
- Cultured Vultures – 21 Jun 2021
- WTOP – 1 Jul 2020
- StudioBinder – 28 Nov 2019
- Slant Magazine – 12 Apr 2019
- Ultimate Movie Rankings – 13 Oct 2017
- Taste of Cinema – 18 Jun 2015
- The Guardian – 29 Nov 2013
- DigitalDreamDoor (Classic) – 28 Nov 2012
- DigitalDreamDoor (Modern) – 28 Nov 2012
- Flickchart – no date
- ilianFilm – no date