Can you think of an older hard-boiled detective thriller film made in the 1940s-60s and a more recent one?

Question

I am just wanting to compare how the hard boiled detective thriller has changed over the years, so 2 that you could compare well would be ideal? Not Maltese Falcon or The Big Sleep. Thanks

Answer 1

You could try Charlie Chan's The Red Dragon or The Jade Mask, Citizen Kane, D.O.A.,The Lady from Shanghai, Rebeca,Sherlock Holmes and the Scarlet Claw,Spellbound,Black Widow compared to Silence of the Lambs, The Da Vinci Code, Kiss the Girls, The Bone Collector, Rush Hour movies, or the Inside Man.

Answer 2

Old-time film noir:
Detour~This one is considered to be one of the best film noir works though there's no detective.
This Gun for Hire
Kiss Me Deadly~This is one of the most brutal, with Ralph Meeker as Mike Hammer.
Laura
Double Indemnity

New Wave
Three Way (2004)
Brick
Body Heat~compares to "Double Indemnity" or "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (original)
Heat
L.A. Confidential
The Usual Suspects
Chinatown~I suppose this is considered a modern-era salute to film noir.

I wouldn't know which to compare actually. Perhaps this will give you some ideas though. You could compare the differences between the two versions of "The Postman Always Rings Twice" because they are quite different: Lana Turner/John Garfield vs. Kathleen Turner/Jack Nicholson.

Here's a Wikipedia site about film noir, giving lists year by year and even suggesting other genre-divisions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_film_noir
Film noir stretches into science fiction ("Dark City" and "Blade Runner"), comedy ("Unfaithfully Yours" and "Arsenic & Old Lace"), and Westerns ("Blood on the Moon" and :"The Furies").

Answer 3

Look at two based on Chandler's novels - Farewell My Lovely from the 1940s, and The Long Goodbye from the 1970s.

Answer 4

http://www.imdb.com/Sections/Genres/Film-Noir/average-vote
here's a bunch
for newer ones try
Brick
Lucky Number Slevin
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
The Good German
Blood Simple
Le Samourai
Romeo is Bleeding

Answer 5

Look at RKO and Warner Bros studios output around those dates. Look them up on the net. See also George Raft, Robert Mitcham, Edward G Robinson.