The Big Heat: The 15 Sweatiest Film noirs (and Neo-noirs)

With the mercury continuing to soar in many sections of the country I thought I would curate a Top 15 “hot” noirs festival. Hot-as in sweaty, steamy, dripping, sticky, sudoriferous crime thrillers (get your mind out of the gutter). If you’re like me (and isn’t everyone?) there’s nothing more satisfying than gathering up an armload of DVDs and spending a hot weekend ensconced in my dark, cool media room (actually, I don’t have a “media room” nor any A/C in my apartmentbut I can always dream). Enjoy! Ace in the Hole – Billy Wilder’s 1951 film is one of the bleakest noirs ever made: Charles Tatum: What’s that big story to get me outta here? [] I’m stuck here, fans. Stuck for good. Unless you, Miss Deverich, instead of writing household hints about how to remove chili stains from blue jeans, get yourself involved in a trunk murder. How about it, Miss Deverich? I could do wonders with your dismembered body. Miss Deverich: Oh, Mr. Tatum. Really! Charles Tatum: Or you, Mr. Wendell-if you’d only toss that cigar out the window. Real farall the way to Los Alamos. And BOOM! (He chuckles) Now there would be a story. Tatum (played to the hilt by Kirk Douglas) is a cynical big city newspaper reporter who drifts into a sun-baked New Mexico burg after burning one too many bridges with his former employers at a New York City daily. Determined to weasel his way back to the top (by any means necessary,