Although I haven't actually seen it, they say Raging Bull is a B&W classic.

I'd give an honorable mention to the martial arts film Kuro Obi ("Black Belt"). Most of the movie is in color, but for the climactic final fight they fade to black-and-white, then back to color again. It gave the scene a whole new dimension.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Too many excellent choices, but off the top of my head, anything by the master himself, John Alton. Take a look at a little B-picture called He Walked by Night. Gorgeous.

http://www.waitsel.com/moviearticles/Film_Noir.html

Well, how about that? I recently got a couple of collections of Film Noir and thought that title seemed familiar. I just checked and found it is in there. I'll cue it up someday soon.

Make sure you have a good copy of the film. At some point in the past, He Walked by Night must have fallen into the public domain, because there are DVDs out there that were made from a horrendously bad copy of this film.


Just gorgeous





Here's a composite of six screen caps I put together from my DVD copy of Fox's I Wake Up Screaming, a 1941 proto-noir, photographed by Edward Cronjager.

Chiaroscuro lighting, ceiling'd sets- this a beautifully photographed film.



Again, far too many good choices to name.

Amazon Prime has He Walked by Night included for no extra charge. I need to watch this film again.

Harakiri from director Masaki Kobayashi in 1962 is another beauty.



Note the "Dutch" angle of the camera (a corruption of "Deutsch") and the foreground clutter. These visual devices were used frequently in film noir, athough this film doesn't fit into that category.

To Kill a Mockingbird

"They drive by Night" - Bogart `1940.

"Scarface" - 1932.

Rumble Fish
Raging Bull
Clerks - Not particularly stunning B&W but I like the movie.
The Last Picture Show

Those already mentioned and “the last picture show”

All of the above, but I will added "Schindler's List".

Welles' Citizen Kane and The Magnificant Ambersons, photographed by Gregg Toland and Stanley Cortez, respectively, are great looking films.

Woody Allen's Manhattan is great eye candy, photographed by Gordon Willis, who got his nickname "The Prince of Darkness" after his work on The Godfather.

Nicholas Musuraca is my favorite cinematographer from the classical period. His work on Jacques Tourneur's Out of the Past is representative of his talent.





And, again- anything by John Alton.

He Walked by Night is on TCM right now

Oh, and how could I forget Gabriel Figueroa's sumptuous work in John Ford's The Fugitive?

I have to go early, where cameras found new ways to see things and changed film's direction. How about the opposite of dark and moody?

Chaplin
Keaton
Lloyd

Roger Deakins' excellent work in the Coen brothers' The Man Who Wasn't There





To be clear, this film was shot in color, then it was printed in B&W. It was less expensive to do it that way, due to the cost of B&W motion picture film stock at that time.

Those are some stunning images you've posted, para. I've seen some of them, and will hunt up others. Thanks for expanding the topic.

John Ford's "Rio Grande"; the scene with J. Wayne standing along side the river at twilight is stunning.

A couple of early films from the very talented and very versatile Robert Wise, both of them films noir.

From 1949, The Set-Up starring Robert Ryan. This is a boxing film shown in real time- that is to say that the film is one hour and and some odd minutes long, and all action on-screen takes place over the course of that hour and some odd minutes. Another example of a film shown in real time is High Noon.
Cinematographer Milton Krasner makes unattractive places and unattractive people look their best. The print of this film that TCM broadcasts is real eye candy.

From 1948, Blood on the Moon starring Robert Mitchum, and photographed by the very talented Nicholas Musuraca. You'll never see a Western with more dark shadows and poorly-lit rooms, and all that inky black on the screen is beautiful. I use this film to demonstrate to people that film noir is a style, not a genre. Blood on the Moon is without any doubt whatsover a Western, but it is film noir, ten ways from Sunday.

The genre is Western. The style is film noir.

Both of these films are worth your time. I like Blood on the Moon especially.

Yeah, Young Frankenstein, Dr. Strangelove, and Sunset Boulevard.

I would also add the original CAPE FEAR.

I think a case can be made for "Night of the Hunter."