By the OP's standard certain very well kown noirs aren't noirs. Noir is a stylistic category that encompasses drama, romance, thriller, action and of course the hardboiled detective stories which predominate.
'Johnnny Belinda' has noir qualities, bt it's about a deaf mute girl who is raped.
Mildred Pierce is the mostly domestic story about a pie shop owner (!) and her awful daughter.
Clash by Night with Barbara Stanwyck is a drama in which, the prodigal daughter returns home in shame at the START of the movie.
'The Damned don't Cry' is a crime dram in which the prodigal daughter becomes a gun moll, then returns home in shame at the END of the movie.
'In a Lonely Place' is about a guy's social problems (Bogart) caused by his anger.
The defintion is easy enough to find:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_noir
Though noir is often associated with an urban setting, for example, many classic noirs take place mainly in small towns, suburbia, rural areas, or on the open road, so setting can not be its genre determinant, as with the Western. Similarly, while the private eye and the femme fatale are character types conventionally identified with noir, the majority of film noirs feature neither, so there is no character basis for genre designation as with the gangster film. Nor does it rely on anything as evident as the monstrous or supernatural elements of the horror film, the speculative leaps of the science fiction film, or the song-and-dance routines of the musical.
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