Mildred Pierce (1945)

Directed by Michael Curtiz

Often categorized under noir and while it's true that it has a noir frame story, the main narrative itself is not particularly noir.  This is really one of those grand rise and fall epics in a style once typical of golden-age hollywood.  Joan Crawford is just brilliant here.  This movie remade her career at a time when she was thought of as "over the hill".

They really don't make movies like this anymore.  It is just a giant and a classic in my opinion that seems to get unjustly overlooked these days.

Leave Her to Heaven (1945)

Directed by John M. Stahl

Even though it's in color, it has a foreboding tone so is often classified as noir.  Full of melodramatics, it's a rather tedious domestic drama.  It's not your dark shadows and gritty toughguys, sort of noir.  A typically lifeless performance by Cornel Wilde.  The color cinematography certainly looks great.