"A quintessential film noir by a master of the genre. In style and theme, it resembles a later favorite of mine, Sweet Smell of Success."

"The first one I’m going to go with is a Robert Mitchum film called Out of the Past. Classic noir. You’ve got to see it. It’s cool as s—."

"Film noir at its most delicious and perverse. It’s iconic for Rita Hayworth’s striptease, but that’s its least dirty part, a tease for everything else that is sneaking in under the Production Code’s radar."

"Blade Runner, of course. A sci-fi film noir executed so well; I mean, it’s a flawlessly executed movie and it’s a beautiful story. And it’s Harrison Ford at his very finest — he should have won two Oscars for that."

"I also love — another Robert Mitchum movie — Out of the Past, which I think is kind of neck and neck with another fantastic film noir, Double Indemnity. Double Indemnity is amazing; Out of the Past is another one, but I think it ranks up there."

"Richard Widmark’s finest moment. Jules Dassin’s too. Following the ten-cent dreams of a five-cent loser to become a wrestling promoter in the seedy London underworld, Widmark and Dassin locate the authentic heart of noir: working-class tragedy played out for Shakespearean stakes."

"I love the noir universe. There’s a certain freedom that Samuel Fuller has. He creates those unsympathetic characters that you still care so much about. He also does a great job at creating peripheral characters that only have two or three scenes, but are still so rich."