Film Institutions Reserch

When noir first came to light over 70 years ago, there were five large film production companies that made the vast majority if not all feature length films to hit cinema screens. This time was considered to be Hollywood's 'golden age' when sound was introduced to moving images to make the first non silent feature length films. During this time (late 1920s to late 1950s/60s) thousands of films were produced from these five companies. One of these companies, that was known for it's ventures into the realm of film noir was RKO Pictures. Due to the low budget nature of film noirs the company released many noir films as B movies, including 'Stranger on the Third Floor' (1940) which has been widely regarded as the film responsible for initiating noir's classic period. After this they went on to make many noir films such as 'Out of the Past' (1947) which is now seen as one of the greatest of all noir films. RKO was the only of the five major companies that has not continued on to this day.
Ident for RKO Pictures


However, noir films are still going strong today, or rather elements left imprinted on the film industry from their golden era still hold strong in modern films. These modern or 'neo' noirs vary very much in budget and intended audience, thus making it very hard to generalise modern noirs to a single type of production company. Large projects such as 'Batman: the Dark Knight' (2008) and 'Casino Royale' (2006) have obvious noir influences but are very high budget and a very broad intended audience, which contrasts greatly from the low budget B movies of old. These films were produced by Warner Bros. and MGM which are two of the five major companies from Hollywood's golden age. This shows how alot of films have taken the elements of film noir that worked well and integrated them into their modern productions.


This image of Batman on a rooftop shows the noir like nature of the film. Half of his face is in darkness, which may resemble his internal conflict and the city behind him is dark, with the only light coming from buildings, street lights and cars. It is a very typical noir style image which is often seen in films of this type.