Noirs, Neo-Noirs, and Near-Noirs: The Best Films NoirJan 17 '06 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line These films all deliver the goods in terms of flawless expressionistic cinematography, flawed characters on the highway to hell, and no happy endings. Welcome to film noir!
Film noir is a type or genre of film that emphasizes the down side of human existence. The style of films around WWII and for a short time thereafter emphasized the problems of modern society like alienation; where nobody matters much, money is everything, the decay and encroachment of urbanization, and general dissatisfaction with the status quo. Although the term became familiar to Americans much later, film noir began to be used by French movie critics c.1946 to describe the distinctly American “films of the night” or “black” films made by directors such as John Huston, Fritz Lang, Anthony Mann, Billy Wilder, and many others. The term was a logical extension of the serie noir or “black literature” used by the French to describe the downbeat crime novels of writers like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler where nobody was innocent and everybody had something to hide. Usually at their heart the novels had a jaded private eye with an amoral attitude and a client who was not telling the truth, the whole truth. Another important character was the femme fatale, a dangerous woman who is seductive and commonly plays the Delilah to the protagonist’s Samson. To go along with the generally pessimistic attitude reflected in the subject matter, expressionistic camera and lighting techniques, emphasizing contrast of light and shadows (chiaroscuro) as part of the frame composition were adopted as part of the “language” of film noir. Again John Huston and Fritz Lang led the way. Arguably, this technique was a part of the 1930s gangster movies as typified by Howard Hawks’ Scarface, however the emphasis on lighting reached its zenith during the 1940s. Weird camera angles, sometimes indicating the subjective perceptions of the protagonist, also are a characteristic of film noir. Purists insist that only in black and white can a film be truly film noir. I’m not that fussy - I even think some westerns are pretty noirish - but I think a few color films qualify. The one characteristic to keep in mind is that film noir emphasizes the destruction of the characters, not their redemption. With that definition in mind, a film with an upbeat, happy ending cannot be film noir, in my opinion. Vicente Minnelli’s masterful The Bad and the Beautiful misses on that criterion alone. Well, sue me - I like it anyway! All that being said, here are my favorite films noir: The Maltese Falcon (1941) is credited as the first film noir, from the Dashiell Hammett novel, as filtered through the fertile imaginations of John Huston and Humphrey Bogart. This movie must have pride of place; it started the avalanche and made a household word of both director and actor on their first big assignment. Bogart plays hardboiled detective Sam Spade working for a woman who is not who she says she is - multiple times. A stellar supporting cast, including Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre - both staples of the genre - and Mary Astor, as the femme fatale. Must see for all film noir fans! Double Indemnity (1944) - this is the best one, overall; director Billy Wilder’s masterwork, and you will never think of Fred MacMurray (yes, THAT Fred MacMurray) as the bumbling, likeable father figure again. Barbara Stanwyck set the standard for femmes fatale, which has never been topped, with her take on the seductive and totally evil Phyllis Dietrichson. With no less than Edward G. Robinson as suspicious claims investigator Barton Keyes, who sets MacMurray‘s and the viewer's nerves jangling before the final, fatal encounter. Solid gold! The Big Sleep (1946) In this film, Howard Hawks collaborated with Humphrey Bogart, whose performance confirmed him as the king of film noir and also making leading lady Lauren Bacall into a star. Boasting probably the most convoluted plot ever to grace a film noir, this film also had some of the most quotable dialog bantered back and forth between Bogart and Bacall, much of it sexually oriented, but fashioned into double entendres to pass the censors. In addition, The Big Sleep probed questions such as homosexuality, nymphomania, drug use and other hot topics in the veiled references. Pretty racy for 1946. The next three films are little known gems churned out by poverty row studios with Anthony Mann, credited or uncredited, at the helm: He Walked by Night (1947) A great police procedural that gave supporting cast member Jack Webb the idea for “Dragnet,” this underappreciated gem starred Richard Basehart as one of the finest screen villains ever portrayed. His performance can be characterized as nothing less than bravura and the exciting chase through the sewers of LA prefigured that of Carol Reed’s The Third Man the following year. Brilliant black and white cinematography by John Alton, complete with unusual camera angles reflecting the skewed vision of master director Anthony Mann (uncredited) under the auspices of Alfred Werker. Should be seen by all noir fans. Raw Deal (1948) Another Anthony Mann B-movie masterpiece, we have Dennis O’Keefe, a “B” player along the lines of James Cagney, starring with two leading ladies Claire Trevor and Marsha Hunt. As counterpoint to O’Keefe we have the dastardly Raymond Burr, who has a flame fetish. Again the combination of Mann’s vision and John Alton’s camera and lighting make an unbeatable combination. Every frame is perfect, each one is meaningful. There is a backlit shot of a fully clothed young woman that is more suggestive than full frontal nudity, that’s how effective it is. The editing goes right along with the cinematography. The scenes are perfect; not too little, and never too much. More working filmmakers should look at this style to see that less can truly be more. T-Men (1947) Another Anthony Mann - John Alton collaboration that tells the story of the “Shanghai Paper Case,” a true story. A pair of treasury agents (T-Men) go undercover to crack the counterfeiting ring that extends from Detroit to LA. Tragedy ensues. Strong geometric compositions, inky shadows, and harshly lit features characterize the superb cinematography of this “B” movie. Asphalt Jungle (1950) Everybody has a vice, and this film proves it. John Huston, again, helmed this masterpiece with help from a superior cast headed by Sterling Hayden, Sam Jaffe, Louis Calhern, and lovely Marilyn Monroe. Even though she’s on only about 5 minutes, you can see her star power leap off the screen. A “perfect” heist goes horribly wrong in this unnamed Midwestern city. How everybody reacts makes the story, and a helluva long time before Quentin Tarantino thought of doing it. I did like Reservoir Dogs, though! The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond Bud Boetticher directed B-movie star Ray Danton in one of the finest gangster portrayals ever laid down on celluloid. The script shows Legs Diamond as an amoral thug who destroyed everybody close to him in his overweening quest for power. The supporting cast reads like a Who’s Who of outstanding character actors. Top notch black and white cinematography by the master Lucien Ballard. The catchy jazz score by a bevy of composers ties up the package into a remarkably apt representation of what a gangster film should be. The Third Man Carol Reed, trained by the great Alexander Korda, directed Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten in this tale of a black marketeer in post war Vienna, selling dangerously adulterated penicillin for obscene prices. Trevor Howard and the sultry and stimulating “Valli” add tension to the tightly woven plot. The central European zither music - odd to American ears - perfectly mimics the dark and light passages of the inspired cinematography. In short, an un-freaking-believable film. Touch of Evil I was wrong about the movie when I reviewed the 1987 mishmash released by Universal, but you won’t be if you get the 1997 restored version. That version, which I’ve subsequently seen, brings back the genius of Orson Welles’ original vision that was so badly butchered by the studio to make it more “marketable.” Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, Marlene Dietrich, and Janet Leigh head a cast that tells the twisted story of a police captain who plants evidence to get convictions and how he is finally exposed. Another one of the best! - and Orson, like Marlene says, “better lay off the candy bars.” I see I’ve covered my ten favorite films and have another ten or more still on the list! Any of these films I’ve mentioned will create indelible memories, should you care to see them. They are all a part of my video collection. Well, guess I’ll break it off here, for now. Guess that means I’ll have to write Part 2. Stay tuned. Thanks for reading!  |
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