Hubby's b-day is approaching, and lately he's gone on a film noir kick. I'd like to get him some film noir dvd's, but how do you tell the good from the bad? They all look kinda cheesy (at least on the outside) to me. Any words of wisdom about what to get and where to get it?

He's also a big Peter Sellers as the Pink Panther fan, so I was thinking about getting him the boxed set, but man...that thing's expensive no matter where I look! Any advice on that one either?

My sincerest thanks for your time and input!

Lots of info, titles and discussion here:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=260301

Which noirs does he already already own? That would help...

I'm a big noir head and my collection is linked in my sig. If you have any questions on any of the discs that I currently own, shoot.

Here are the top 10 film noir movies on IMDB:
Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Double Indemnity (1944)
M (1931)
The Third Man (1949)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Touch of Evil (1958)
Strangers on a Train (1951)
The Big Sleep (1946)
Notorious (1946)
White Heat (1949)

I know Sunset Blvd, M, The Third Man, Strangers on a Train (2 disc), and Notorious (now OOP) are really nice DVD releases.

All of those except for Double Indemnity have good DVD releases. The Maltese Falcon and the Big Sleep are possibly going to get rereleased in special editions at some point, but I wouldn't want to be without either of those flicks until then.

The best answer to the original question though is to get the WB Film Noir Collection Vol. 1 that contains "Gun Crazy", "The Asphalt Jungle", "The Set-Up", "Murder My Sweet", and "Out of the Past". You can't do much better than that.

Agree. If he doesn't have the Warner's Box #1, look no further. It is excellent.

Just wanted to thank you guys for the input! I showed the responses (minus my initial post, of course) to hubby, and he was simply in awe of the depth and breadth of knowledge on film noir that's posted here and elsewhere on dvdtalk.... you guys ROCK!!! Thanks again!!