William Marling,Ph.D. Professor of English, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA
More Film Noir
Classic Writers
Ross Macdonald (Kenneth Millar)
Development of Hard-Boiled Narrative
Early Female Authors of Hard-Boiled Writing
Chester Himes and Early Afro-American Detectives
Major Works
Red Harvest (1927) by Dashiell Hammett
The Maltese Falcon (1929) by Dashiell Hammett
The Glass Key (1931) by Dashiell Hammett
The Big Sleep (1939) by Raymond Chandler
Farewell, My Lovely (1940) by Raymond Chandler
The Long Goodbye (1953) by Raymond Chandler
The Galton Case (1959) by Ross Macdonald
The Underground Man (1971) by Ross Macdonald
Cotton Comes to Harlem (1965) by Chester Himes
Characteristics of the Genre
Imagery in Hard-Boiled Detective Fiction
Film Noir
Reactions against Early Crime Movies
More Film Noir (brief takes on The Glass Key (1942), Murder, My Sweet (1944), Farewell, My Lovely (1975), The Big Sleep (1946), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946, 1981), The Lady in the Lake (1947), The Lady From Shanghai (1949), Criss Cross (1949), D.O.A. ((1950), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Kiss Me Deadly (1955), Touch of Evil (1958), Chinatown (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), Body Heat (1981), and The Ususual Suspects (1995).
Film links arranged in chronological order: The Glass Key, Murder My Sweet, The Big Sleep, The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Lady in the Lake, The Lady from Shangha, Criss Cross, D. O. A., The Asphalt Jungle, Sunset Boulevard, Suspicion, Notorious, Vertigo, Kiss Me Deadly, Touch of Evil, Chinatown, Farewell My Lovely, Taxi Driver, Body Heat, The Usual Suspects.
The Glass Key (Dir. Stuart Heisler, 1942) follows Hammett's novel closely, except for Beaumont's trip to the newspaper publisher's house and some minor motifs. Clarens ranks it among the "seminal films noirs" and Silver/Ward place it on their selective list. 15 There had been a 1935 version starring George Raft, but the 1942 version teamed Alan Ladd with Veronica Lake, "catapaulting them to stardom. They would become noir's most famous team over the next several years." 16 Lake doesn't captivate modern viewers, though, and those who have not read the novel need to pay close attention to the plot, but William Bendix as the thug Jeff and the genuinely somber photography are worthwhile.
Murder, My Sweet (Dir. Edward Dmytryk, 1944) was the first of two attempts to film Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely. It starred Dick Powell as Marlowe and Claire Trevor as Velma. Powell had made his name in Busby Berkeley's musicals, so screenwriter John Paxton gave him a flashback structure that allowed extensive voice-over narration imitating Chandler's style. As a result Powell is more convincing to modern audiences than he was to those of the 1940s. But he "lacks Spade's self conscience and mastery of others," writes Palmer, so the movie becomes "an imitation of The Maltese Falcon."17 The plot is even more confusing than the novel's, which it generally follows. Stylistic touches, such as the opening shots of the police interrogating the blind-folded Marlowe and the montage of swirling, surreal vistas that he experiences on being mugged, create a threatened, almost powerless Marlowe, whose "disavowal of male power" is made complete by his romantic coupling with Anne Riordan at the movie's end. 18 Not how Chandler wrote it, but a central movie in film noir, which stresses powerlessness.
The Big Sleep (Dir. Howard Hawks, 1946) falls just short of being film noir, according to Bruce Crowther, "despite such powerful and decidedly noir scenes as that in which the villainous Lash Canino …forces the hapless Harry Jones… to drink poison." 19 The movie was scripted by William Faulkner and Leigh Brackett, and starred the forty-five year old Bogart and his new love, twenty-year-old Lauren Bacall, who played Vivian Sternwood. The scenes between them have been praised by numerous critics as the definition of "screen chemistry," but they also note that Bogart simply plays himself. He reduces Marlowe's "essential wryness" to the "jokey cynicism … used in his portrayal of Sam Spade," writes Crowther. 20 A remake (Dir. Michael Winner, 1978), starring Robert Mitcheum and Sarah Miles, attempted to capitalize on Mitchum's success in the 1975 version of Farewell (see above), but is set in England and not considered noir by most critics.
The Postman Always Rings Twice was filmed twice (Dir. Tay Garnett, 1946) (Dir. Bob Raphelson, 1981). Both versions stick fairly close to the plot of Cain's novel. The original is more notable for the palpable attraction between Frank (John Garfield) and Cora (Lana Turner) and its then daring sexuality than for its visual style. Most scenes are brightly lit and many are exteriors, but carefully crafted shadows unite and divide Garfield and Turner in the car-accident and mutual betrayal scenes. The remark was scripted by playwright David Mamet and starred Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lang. "Notable mainly for its more explicit sexuality and typically intense performance by Nicholson," writes Michael L. Stephens. 21
The Lady in the Lake (Dir. Robert Montgomery, 1947) is based on Raymond Chandler's novel, with Marlowe played by the director, and not very convincingly. Better is Jayne Meadows as femme fatale Mildred Haveland. The movie is famous for being filmed through a "first person" point of view camera that shows only what Marlowe sees – but the technique is only partially successful.
The Lady from Shanghai (Dir. Orson Welles, 1948) tells how Michael O'Hara (Welles) rescues beautiful Elsa (Rita Hayworth) from muggers and is rewarded with a place on her husband's yacht crew. But when the husband's associate is murdered, O'Hara is arrested: the husband's lawyer seems to want him convicted, so he escapes to Chinatown. Elsa tracks him down there, and her oriental associates drug him. In a famous final sequence Welles used funhouse mirrors to reflect Elsa and other characters' illusions. She dies, but O'Hara, who lives, is not necessarily the better for it.
Criss Cross (Dir. Robert Siodmak, 1949) expands on Double Indemnity's Los Angeles setting, using bus stations and public spaces to contrast with claustrophobic interiors. Steve (Burt Lancaster) tells his story in flashbacks: he returned to L.A. and fell in with his ex-wife Anna (Yvonne DeCarlo), whose betrayal of a gang endangers his life. Thinking he's cooperating with them, Steve is double-crossed by the gang and shot, but wakes up in the hospital with the public thinking he's the hero. Anxious to get the woman and the money, he steps into a triple cross, for Anna knew of the gang's plans. But detective Dundee knows even more and shoots them dead. "One of the genre's neglected classics," this movie is notable for its complex plot and camerawork, which suggests Steve's reverie, confusion and hallucinations. 22
D.O.A. ( Dir. Rudolph Mate, 1950) is one of the darker movies, even though neutrally lit. Accountant Frank Bigelow (Edmund O'Brien) becomes a detective to find out who poisoned him and why. When he leaves his small town practice and girlfriend Paula (Pamela Britton) in Banning for a weekend in San Francisco, all he can think of is sex, but after he's slipped an "iridium"-laced drink in a jazz bar, doctors tell him he has only days to live. It turns out that he notarized a bill of sale that could prove a suicide was actually murder, and the murderer wants him killed. He's been murdered, but he's not yet dead, a condition French existentialists found fascinating. Fraught with sexual innuendo, the first part of the movie has few noir traits, but after Bigelow shoots it out in an abandoned factory (one of the first such scenes), the movie employs night scenes, dramatic light-and-dark contrasts, quicker cutting, and hysteric characters. Though burdened with the romantic plot of his love for secretary Paula, the movie shows the innocent Bigelow threatening to throw Mrs. Philips off a balcony, emptying his gun into Halliday, and finally dying. "An unusually cynical film noir," states Michael L. Stevens, who attributes "the inspiration [to] a 1931 German movie directed by Robert Siodmak and scripted by Billy Wilder." 22
The Asphalt Jungle (Dir. John Huston, 1950) is based on W.R. Burnett's novel. On release from prison, half-bright hood Dix Handley (Sterling Hayden) is hired as "muscle" on a complex jewel robbery planned by German refugee Doc Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe). The heist breaks down when their safe-cracker is fatally wounded and their greasy bankroller/lawyer betrays them. The wounded Dix flees with his girlfriend Doll (Jean Hagen) to the Kentucky of his youth, dying in a pasture of thoroughbreds he has dreamed about. The movie is known for its acting: Jaffe as the sex-obsessed German who is arrested because he can't tear himself away from the spectacle of a young girl dancing in a roadhouse; Marilyn Monroe in one of her first movie appearances as the sexual plaything of the corrupt lawyer/bankroller; and Jean Hagan as Dix's girlfriend Doll. But the cinematography is notable. Shot mostly on sets, the movie is low-lit and features night scenes until Dix's flight, then returns to night for the powerful scene of Doc's defeat by his obsession.
Sunset Boulevard (Dir. Billy Wilder, 1950) is told in flashback by a desperate screenwriter, Joe Gillis (William Holden), as he lies dead in a swimming pool. He took the job of writing a comeback movie for silent screen star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) in her decaying mansion, with her decaying butler/ex-husband (Erich Von Stroheim). Becoming a kept man, he can't pursue the young woman of his dreams (Desmond fakes suicide to stop him). When he finally musters the courage to leave, she shoots him. As police arrive, she descends the staircase regally, imitating her favorite scene in Salome. Besides Von Stroheim, the movie features cameos by silent movie greats Buster Keaton and Cecil B. DeMille. "A scathing attack against Hollywood told in one of the most tragic, cynical of all American films," writes Michael L. Stephens. 23 This film continues to grow in critical stature, often playing in revival, and is regarded as a noir masterpiece despite its lack of a detective or investigative trappings.
Suspicion (Alfred Hitchcock, 1941) tells how a wallflower named Lina (Joan Fontaine) escapes her parents by marrying playboy Johnny (Cary Grant), whose criminal past she disregards. As evidence mounts that he killed her friend, she comes to suspect that he will kill her too. Her paranoia, a feature of the Gothic novel, became a staple of a certain kind of “women’s noir” and, in Hitchcock’s original ending, was correct: Johnny was a murderer.
Notorious (1946) is spy-noir. FBI agent Devlin (Cary Grant) approaches international playgirl Alicia Huberman, daughter of an imprisoned Nazi agent, for help in traping South American Nazis. She agrees and reluctantly marries the hunted Sebastian, while Devlin pines for her. The pair discover uranium in Sebastian’s wine cellar, but Sebastian begins to poison her when he discovers her perfidity. Devlin rescues her, and Sebastian is left to face angry fellow Nazis. This film is famous for Hitchcock’s style: complex choreography in scenes and richly detailed settings in which characters and objects are placed and moved significantly.
Vertigo (1958) transcends genres - it is one of film’s great masterpieces. Based on the French noir novel D’Entre les Morts by Boileau/Narcejac, but set in San Francisco, the story follows Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart) after he retires from the police due to acrophobia (fear of heights). He is hired by an old college friend to tail his wife Madelaine (Kim Novak) who believes she is possessed by the spirit of her great grandmother, who committed suicide, and Maddy tries to drown herself. Scottie falls in love and takes her to San Juan Batista, which she had a vision about. She climbs a tower (his vertigo prevents him from following) and seems to leap to her death. He has a nervous breakdown, then meets Judy Barton (Kim Novak again) who resembles Madelaine and whom he transforms into his lost love in Pygmalion fashion. Sensing that all is not right, he takes her back to the tower, where she accidentally falls off. Shot in color, with a powerful score by Bernard Herrman, the film demonstrates by its visual effects, narrative parallels and repetitions how the obsessions of the characters doom them.
Kiss Me Deadly (Dir. Robert Aldrich, 1955) was a scandalous movie made from a notorious novel by an infamous writer. The dark alleys of Mickey Spillane's New York become the freeways of L.A., and this Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) is as concerned about clothes, buxom women, and fast cars as a gigolo. Hammer and his secretary Velda (Maxine Cooper) manufacture evidence for divorce cases by sexually compromising the sued parties. The labyrinthine plot begins with Hammer picking up Christina (Cloris Leachman), whose disappearance from a mental hospital and subsequent death by torture (with a pliers) involves him in car crashes, kidnapping, beatings and a search for the "great whatzit," which has been stolen from Los Alamos Laboratory and whose discovery presages the atomic destruction of the world. "The style of the film is extravagant," writes Stephens, "characterized by high angles, hand held shots, and sweeping camera movements." Palmer writes that "Aldrich's adaptation actually deepens the cynicism and pathology evident in the original." 24
Touch of Evil (Dir. Orson Welles, 1958) is the last major movie of the director whose 1941 Citizen Kane pioneered many techniques of film noir. Welles stars as corrupt cop Hank Quinlan, who with Mike Vargas (Charlton Festoon) investigates a murder on the Mexican border. Quinlan frames a young Mexican he thinks is responsible, but Vargas suspects something. Quinlan kidnaps Mrs. Vargas (Janet Leigh) to frame her and shut up her husband. But Quinlan dies in a shootout, falling into a river of garbage in one of noir's most delectable scenes. Ironically, the young Mexican was guilty. The double-cross plot was by now old stuff, but the extremely noir photography recalls the genre's roots in German Expressionism – the combination of the two is visually stunning. The critical estimate of this film continues to rise.
Chinatown (Dir. Roman Polanski, 1974) is a deliberate attempt to make a modern film noir – and the most successful. Small-time detective J. J. Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is hired by femme fatale Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) to see if her husband is cheating on her. It appears so, but Gittes has been duped in a plot to discredit Mr. Mulwray, the water commissioner in parched L.A. County, so that water can be stolen and piped to a reservoir in the San Fernando Valley. Beyond this plot there's another, involving incest, which causes Evelyn to shoot her father (played by director John Huston) before being shot herself, while Gittes watches helplessly. Tightly plotted and finely acted, the movie was shot in an over-exposed color style that suggests black-and-white (with none of the expected dark tones). The political sub-text recalls Chandler's and Macdonald's socially critical novels, as well as Citizen Kane by Orson Welles. Possibly the best of modern films noirs.
Farewell, My Lovely, the remake: (Dir. Dick Richards, 1975) stars Robert Mitchum (Marlowe), Charlotte Ramping (Mrs. Grayle) and Sylvia Miles (Mrs. Florian). A young Sylvester Stallone has a minor role. Although the minor characters are not as well played as in the original, the fifty-eight year old Mitchum is superb as a world-weary Marlowe; indeed he is the only actor to speak Chandler's repartee and have it sound natural. Miles as the alcoholic Mrs. Florian is also excellent, and the movie is shot in dark but detailed depth. Though not much written about, many critics and viewers find this one of the best film versions of any Chandler novel.
Taxi Driver (Dir. Martin Scorsese, 1976) is the story of ex-marine taxi-driver Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) who cruises a degenerate New York City. When he meets a nice girl, political worker Betsy (Cybil Sheppard), he invites her to a porno movie. She walks out, and he's depressed. He buys guns and begins to exercise fanatically, then meets twelve-year-old prostitute Iris (Jodie Foster), whose innocence and betrayal by her pimp outrage him. His intensity increasing to fanaticism, Bickle decides to shoot Betsy's candidate to purify the world. When security guards thwart him, he shoots Iris's pimp. Wounded in this shootout, he is treated like a hero by the press and by Iris's parents. The movie ends with Bickle again picking up Betsy, but his interest has waned. The movie is famous for De Niro's performance and dialogue, but its use of night photography, neon signs, windows, and mirrors deliberately evoke classic noir techniques and symbols. The cast also featured sharp performances by Albert Brooks, Peter Boyle, Harvey Keitel, and a cameo appearance by director Scorsese as a taxi passenger. Scripted by Paul Schrader, a scholar of the genre. Despite its iconic status, the film does not reverberate as it once did.
Body Heat (Dir. Lawrence Kasdan, 1981) is the best of several attempts in the 1980s to make noir movies. As in Blue Velvet (1986) and The Grifters (1991), the protagonist is a likable small-town character whose life is in neutral until he meets a dangerous woman who leads him to crime. Ned Racine (William Hurt) meets Matty Walker (Kathleen Turner) at a concert and falls into lust so powerful that she can convince him to murder her husband for insurance money, then double-cross him and disappear into the South Pacific while he languishes in prison. Inspired by Cain's Double Indemnity, the movie pushed the limit of sexual explicitness in its day and featured an astonishingly sociopathic amorality.
The Usual Suspects (Dir. Bryan Singer, 1995) is the story of five master thieves who, thrown together in a police line-up, plan a jewel heist that brings in $50 million and ousts dozens of corrupt New York City policemen. True to ensemble formula, the gang members have distinct specialties and personalities that conflict; however, the story is told from the point of view of crippled Roger "Verbal" Kint (Kevin Spacey). In his telling, former cop-gone-bad Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne) emerges as a sympathetic audience focus: he has a girlfriend lawyer Edie (Suzy Amis), who is trying to help him open a restaurant. He agrees to the jewel heist only when Customs agents destroy his business prospects. With the heist complete, the gang goes to Los Angeles, where they sell the jewels and, because their fence throws it to them, take another job. This one they bungle, losing some of the team and putting themselves in debt to mysterious crime lord Keyser Soze, who metes out the penalty of seizing $91 million in cocaine from a ship in San Pedro harbor. But there are no drugs and everyone except Kint dies in a violent conflagration. He tells the story to Customs agent David Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) who thinks he's breaking Kint down. No one has seen Soze except a dying witness, and Kujan thinks he might be a fiction, so he lets Kint go. Then the sketch based on the witness's description is faxed to him, and Kujan watches the shape-changing Soze (Kint) step into a waiting car and disappear. Beyond a fragmented (and Agatha Christy-ish) plot that audiences must assemble, the movie is notable for its ensemble acting. It also resembles Christie's work (The Murder of Roger Ackroyd) in having a narrator (Verbal) who does not reveal to the audience his authorship of the crime. There is no femme fatale, but the movie has genuine noir credentials, for the characters are helpless to avoid the cascade of crimes that they know will end in death. Many scenes are shot in heavy shadow and some allude to earlier noir classics.
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15 Clarens, 160; Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward, Eds. Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style (Woodstock, NY.: The Overlook Press, 1993) 367. 16 Stephens, 160. 17 R. Barton Palmer, Hollywood's Dark Cinema: The American Film Noir (New York: Twayne, 1994), 73. 18 Palmer, 81. 19 Crowther, 33-34. 20 Crowther, 33. 21 Stephens, Michael. Film Noir, A Comprehensive, Illustrated Reference to Movies, Terms and Persons. (Jefferson, NC.: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1995), 96. 7. 22. Stephens, 92, 124. 23 Stephens, 343. 24 Stephens, 210; Palmer, 97.