Jeff,
Re your question below:
"Are there any films from in the classic period that were
shot in color? I can't think of any."
I can't think of any either. In fact, particularly during
that classic period, the available color technology had the
effect of making the films so well-lighted that the
atmospherics were completely changed and crime films, despite
having similar themes, plots, and characters to those films
generally regarded as noir, just couldn't quite get that noir
feel.
A good example is HOUSE OF BAMBOO, a wide-screen Technicolor
epic about an undercover cop infiltrating a criminal
organization. It's a scene-for-scene, sometimes
line-for-line, remake of an earlier film, THE STREET WITH NO
NAME, which was filmed in B&W, and is unquestionably a
film noir.
Another is the 1954 feature-length version of DRAGNET.
Though the TV series at that time had the same kind of
noir-ish, B&W photographic effects, has been described as
"film noir in miniature," the film, though as shadowy as
color cinematography could get at that time, just can't quite
get the same dark and sinister atmosphere.
By nothing more than the simple use of color, exactly the
same story becomes non-noir because of the loss of the
atmospheric qualities possible in B&W.
BTW, other post-TOUCH OF EVIL noir candidates that might be
considered: UNDERWORLD U.S.A. (1960), HELL IS A CITY (1960),
EXPERIMENT IN TERROR (1962), THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE
COLD (1964), and IN COLD BLOOD
(1967).
JIM DOHERTY
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