Foreign film noir flourished in the aftermath of World War II, as filmmakers across Europe, Japan, and elsewhere embraced the shadowy aesthetics and fatalistic themes that had taken hold in Hollywood. Often darker, more fatalistic, and even more psychologically intense than their American counterparts, these films depicted societies scarred by war, political oppression, and existential despair. Foreign noir added new textures — whether it was the crumbling streets of Paris, the alleys of Tokyo, or the bombed ruins of Berlin — all steeped in cynicism, betrayal, and doomed romance.

25 Foreign Film Noir Films (1940–1960):

Rififi (1955, Pathé Consortium Cinéma – France)

Legendary for its 30-minute silent heist scene, this grim French noir captures the futility of criminal loyalty.

Les Diaboliques (1955, Cinédis – France)

A tense and twisted tale of murder and psychological terror between two women and their abusive husband.

The Third Man (1949, London Films – UK)

Postwar Vienna’s crumbling ruins set the stage for betrayal and moral decay in this iconic British noir.

Pépé le Moko (1937, Paris Film – France) (a pre-noir classic essential to noir’s DNA)

A gangster trapped in the Casbah faces inevitable doom, longing for love and freedom he can never have.

Ossessione (1943, Lux Film – Italy)

Luchino Visconti’s raw adaptation of The Postman Always Rings Twice helped lay the groundwork for Italian neorealism and noir.

Quai des Orfèvres (1947, Majestic Films – France)

A seedy backstage murder investigation exposes jealousy, ambition, and deception in postwar Paris.

Casque d’Or (1952, Pathé Consortium Cinéma – France)

A doomed love affair between an ex-convict and a gangster’s moll turns violent in Belle Époque France.

Night and the City (1950, Twentieth Century-Fox (UK production)

A hustler’s desperate schemes unravel in the foggy underworld of postwar London.

The Wages of Fear (1953, CEI Incom – France/Italy)

Men driven by desperation accept a suicide mission hauling nitroglycerin through treacherous terrain.

La Bête Humaine (1938, Paris Film – France) (a direct precursor to noir)

Jean Renoir’s bleak tale of murder, madness, and fatal passion aboard the railways.

Stray Dog (1949, Toho – Japan)

Akira Kurosawa’s sweaty, postwar Tokyo detective drama blends noir aesthetics with deep humanism.

High and Low (1963, Toho – Japan) (A quintessential noir kidnapping story)

A businessman faces moral collapse during a botched ransom plot.

They Made Me a Fugitive (1947, Warner Bros. First National – UK)

A British ex-RAF pilot gets framed and goes on the run in bombed-out London’s criminal underworld.

It Always Rains on Sunday (1947, Ealing Studios – UK)

A housewife’s dull existence is upended when her fugitive lover reappears, setting off a chain of lies and desperation.

Odd Man Out (1947, Two Cities Films – UK)

An IRA man wounded and on the run through a cold, indifferent city in one of the most poetic noirs ever made.

The Glass Cage (1955, Éclair-Journal – France)

A chilling murder mystery centering around a postwar cabaret owner with a dark past.

La Vérité sur Bébé Donge (1952, Pathé Consortium Cinéma – France)

A tale of marriage turned to bitterness and betrayal, culminating in a poison attempt and a slow, fatal unraveling.

Obsession (1949, British Lion Films – UK)

A brooding psychiatrist plans the perfect murder of his wife’s lover, but guilt and paranoia erode his precision.

Between Eleven and Midnight (1949, Union Générale Cinématographique – France)

A Paris detective assumes the identity of a murdered man to expose a criminal underworld plot.

The Long Memory (1953, Independent Artists – UK)

A man wrongly imprisoned for a murder he didn’t commit returns seeking revenge but is haunted by his own guilt.

Rashomon (1950, Daiei Film – Japan)

A brutal crime is retold from multiple unreliable perspectives, exposing the subjective nature of truth and justice.

Une Si Jolie Petite Plage (1949, Les Films Corona – France)

A young man, weighed down by guilt and despair, returns to a dreary seaside village where his past sins catch up to him.

The Sleeping Tiger (1954, Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors – UK)

A psychiatrist’s experiment on a violent criminal blurs the lines between patient, captor, and conspirator in a deadly power struggle.

Cast a Dark Shadow (1955, Angel Productions – UK)

A charming sociopath marries wealthy older women and plots their deaths for inheritance, only to encounter a match in his latest bride.

Sous le Ciel de Paris (1951, Films Corona – France)

A sprawling day in Paris weaves together petty crime, dreams, and death beneath a deceptively sunny sky.