The Dark Side of Hollywood

The Maltese Falcon (John Huston 1941) is one of the most popular noir films ever made and is a prime example of the genre.

Film noir, literally translated as ‘black film’, was a title given to a group of films that emerged from Hollywood in the post-World War II era. It is one of the most innovative products to ever come out of Hollywood. Once the war ended, American films began flooding back onto European screens and French film critics noticed certain patterns within the films. They named the genre for the dark moods, the use of low-key lighting that creates strong shadows and the frequent scenes at night that recur in noir films.

Film noir is known for “the archetypal characters: the hard-boiled detective, the dangerously alluring femme fatale, and the well-heeled villain surrounded by gun-toting thugs, […] the visual style – canted camera angles, deep-focus shots, high-contrast lighting – and [the] ultimately subversive message” (Lise Hordnes “The Origins of Film Noir”). These films are easily classified based on the conventional characters, plots and stylistic devices used by directors in the post-war era.

A Post-War Genre

Before the war Hollywood produced ‘classical films’ that valued order, rationality, and symmetry. These narratives did their best to reflect American ideals and dreams and always ended with a happily ever after. Starting in the war period of the 1940’s and continuing on into the 1950’s, America was adjusting to a new political and social reality. As the war continued to rage through Europe and destroy the lives of millions, the innocence of America was lost and their original virtuous consciousness changed to one that embraced distrust, alienation, despair and insignificance. Films began to depict urban narratives that revolved around crime, corruption, cruelty and seduction. These plots exposed America’s anxieties caused by human atrocities committed in war that introduced questions of identity and purpose. These ideas motivate the familiar themes of existentialism and fatalism in post-war narratives.

Existentialism is the emphasis on the existence of a conscious person making their own decisions (Crowell “Existentialism”). During the post-war era the characters in film noir would make a series of morally questionable choices that lead to severe consequences and produce feelings of alienation, loneliness, isolation, and meaninglessness.

Fatalism is the notion that everything is predetermined and society is therefore irredeemable (Rice “Fatalism”). In film noir this is a very common belief as the protagonist usually participates in the crimes, perishes because of it and believes that it was all meant to be. In other words, destiny is what made them choose the wrong fate and lead to their downfall.

Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz 1945) shows the identity crisis faced by the United States as the war ended and soldiers came home to find women had taken over their role in society and were unwilling to return to their classic roles.

 Main Influences

1. German Expressionism cinematography
2. French Poetic Realism realistic topics
3. American Gangster Film narrative foundation
4. Hard-boiled Novel themes and characters

Written by Literature

The Great Depression struck the USA causing novelists to write about characters that were characterized by their passion, lust, greed and jealous nature. From this ‘hard-boiled crime fiction’ developed a new form of gritty detective stories about graphic sex, violence and crimes in urban settings. Dashiell Hammett is said to have invented this style after working as a detective himself and forming genre conventions that were similar to classical detective narratives, but varied in many ways.

In his introduction to Dashiell Hammett’s book The Continental Op, Steven Marcus describes the typical plot of Hammett’s detective stories:

 “The Op is called in or sent out on a case. Something has been stolen, someone is missing, some dire circumstance is impending, someone has been murdered – it doesn’t matter. The Op interviews the person or persons most immediately accessible. They may be innocent or guilty – it doesn’t matter; it is an indifferent circumstance. Guilty or innocent, they provide the Op with an account of what they know, of what they assert really happened. The Op begins to investigate; he compares these accounts with others that he gathers; he snoops about; he does research; he shadows people, arranges confrontations between those who want to avoid one another, and so on. What he soon discovers is that the ‘reality’ that anyone involved will swear to is in fact itself a construction, a fabrication, a fiction, a faked and alternate reality – and that it has been gotten together before he ever arrived on the scene. And the Op’s work therefore is to deconstruct, decompose, deplot and defictionalize that ‘reality’ and to construct or reconstruct out of it a true fiction, i.e. an account of what ‘really’ happened (xix).”

This is much different from the formal conventions of classical detective stories. Hammett’s detective finds many clues based on coincidence and relies on witnesses accounts that he must correct in order to find an answer to the crime. However, a classical detective sets out to solve a crime with insufficient and vague clues, and he, himself, must unravel and organize this information to solve the mystery with a clear and conclusive explanation (Marcus xx).

Hammett’s characters display vulnerability and showed obvious weakness which his readers could relate to. His novels and the ones that followed reflected the fatalistic views during the Depression. These were a result of American citizens realizing that they could not control their economic and socio-political circumstances and therefore they became victims of it.

The conventional hard-boiled detective in novels is an independent, tough, urban figure who remains separate from standard law enforcement and faces violent situations and possible corruption in order to complete his investigation. He questions the true meaning of justice and explores the idea of guilt and morality which many citizens were coping with at the time. While the protagonist isn’t able to restore perfect peace, he does manage to survive and, to a certain degree, he resolves the crime.

These fiction novels gained significant popularity because they exposed widespread anxieties of the post-war era and the suspense created as the crime comes to a resolution was entertaining for audiences to read. The film industry took advantage of the popularity of these narratives and adapted them into screenplays in order to guarantee returns on their investments. Dashiell Hammet, James M. Cain, and Raymond Chandler are among the most prominent authors (who even became screenwriters) of the time who transferred the themes from their novels to films and reached an even wider audience. Their novels helped to introduce new realism and moral ambiguity into films which had previously been focused on wholesome values.

The adaptations of novels modified the typical crime film genre. In the pre-war era, crime and gangster films revolved around social redemption and restoring justice, but noir films typically end in the complete annihilation of conventional morality and anxieties remain unresolved. This is a direct result of the characters created by the hard-boiled fiction writers of the 20’s and 30’s. The term ‘hero’ was analyzed and when translated into film noir these men become officially known as ‘anti-heroes’ and women change from the supportive, passive woman to what becomes the archetype of the ‘femme fatale’.

The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks 1946) was written by Raymond Chandler, a successor of Dashiell Hammett and represents the genre as it grows from Hammett’s works.

Anti-Heroes

The protagonist in both hard-boiled fiction and film noir is always a male living as an outsider of society, either because of their personal choice and their past or their job as a detective or another figure who lives on the fringes of society. They embody the alienation felt by the nation that changed their identity from a formerly healthy America to an America without purpose. He is considered an ‘every-man’ whose weaknesses and past cause him to repeat mistakes and his pursuit of the femme fatale leaves him destroyed, deprived or imprisoned. He is separate from the law and in many cases participates in crimes and morally ambiguous activities, which gives him the title of ‘anti-hero’.

Men during this time period returned from war to find women challenging the stereotypical gender roles resulting in men needing a new function in a society without a stable hierarchy. Anti-heroes in film noir directly confront and eventually resist the femme fatale to assert their dominance, but in the process he almost always perishes.

This scene from Pushover (Richard Quine 1954) shows the ‘hero’ attempting to suppress the women but ultimately succumbing to her control.

Femme Fatales

This archetype is characterized as mysterious, double-crossing, predatory, manipulative, dominating and seductive. Femme fatales are the largest threat to the men of film noir and, therefore, to society as a whole. They consistently reject family values and jeopardize the preservation of humanity because they challenge the institution of marriage through affairs and they reject reproduction in favour of wanton eroticism. Her sexuality is used to control men and is ultimately entwined with death and punishment as the protagonist succumbs to his desires and is penalized for it.

Women in film noir mirror the fear felt when the men returned home from war and found women in the jobs they had vacated. With women in the workplace, men’s dominance was challenged along with the assumed social hierarchy of pre-war times. Femme fatales symbolize this anxiety. While she is a regressive view of women and an attempted suppression of their independence, she is also an example of an empowered woman who is not passive and submissive but instead fights for herself. She can be seen as a very minor step forward in progress to gender equality.

This scene from Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder 1944) shows a woman who has manipulated a man into murdering her husband and helping her steal money, but when the protagonist confronts her, she shoots him. He ultimately overpowers her but he leaves with fatal wounds and a guilty conscience.

Form and Formality Mirror American Themes

The Iconography distinguishes the genre and creates an urban, pessimistic atmosphere

• Strong Shadows
• Blinds
• Cigarettes
• Smoke
• Guns
• Urban Settings
• Single light source (i.e. streetlamps)
• Streets with Fresh Rain
• Seductive Women
• Fedoras
• Cloaks

The Formal Qualities produce gloomy tones and attempt to disorient audiences and make them feel uncomfortable

• Colour was available but films were made in black and white
• Low-angle perspectives
• Low-key lighting
• Flashbacks used to re-tell the crime
• Voice-overs narrate the crime (when the beginning of the film is the end of the story)

The Narrative Qualities build suspense and unease in audiences but leave them unsettled because the war highlighted the ruthless, unhealthy and sadistic sides of humanity and created moral ambiguity

• Complex narrative
• Severed storyline
• Dark tones and moods

D.O.A. (Rudolph Mate 1950) exemplifies the complicated plot, voice-over narration, iconography and typical lighting of film noir. 

IMDB Film Noir Example List

• The Maltese Falcon (John Huston 1941)
• Sunset Blvd (Billy Wilder 1950)
• Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock 1951)
• Dark Passage (Delmer Daves 1947)
• Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder 1944)
• The Third Man (Carol Reed 1949)
• Mildred Peirce (Michael Curtiz 1945)
• The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks 1946)
• Pushover (Richard Quine 1954)
• D.O.A. (Rudolph Mate 1950)

Works Consulted

Crowell, Steven. “Existentialism.” Stanford University Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University, 23 Aug. 2004. Web. 21 Mar. 2014. <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/existentialism/>.

“Film Noir Genre.” IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2014. <http://www.imdb.com/>.

“Film Noir Studies.” Film Noir Studies. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. <http://www.filmnoirstudies.com/>.

Marcus, Steven. Introduction. The Continental Op. By Dashiell Hammett. 1923. 2nd ed. New York: Black Lizard Vintage Books, 1974. vii-xxix. Print.

Hordnes, Lise. “The Origins Of Film Noir.” Does Film Noir Mirror The Culture Of Contemporary America?. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2014. <http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/essays/general/does-film-noir-mirror-the-culture/the-origins-of-film-noir.php>.

Rice, Hugh. “Fatalism.” Stanford University Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University, 18 Dec. 2002. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/fatalism/>.