If you only watch one film noir

Sunset Blvd. opens the door with wit, glamour, and a wonderfully sharp sense of danger; it is noir at its most inviting. The Third Man follows by loosening the ground beneath you, trading bright surfaces for crooked streets and unease. Detour strips the form down further, leaving little between the viewer and its sour, trapped momentum. The Set-Up closes the trail on a smaller, more human scale, where tension gathers through patience rather than spectacle. Moving in this order takes you from the recognisable pleasures of noir into its leaner, harsher corners, one shadow at a time.