Essay series on noir

My thoughts at the ACTON Institute

As readers of PoMoCon know, I’ve recently gone lecturing at Hillsdale—on film noir. I’ve given the matter quite a lot of thought, largely because there were quite a number of people there, students, faculty, & civilians, who were very interested, ranging from the doe-eyed to the seasoned professors of screenwriting. So I thought I’d right about my typical subject—the problem of manliness in film noir, for my friends at Acton.

First, The Maltese falcon (1941), which pioneered on screen the detective as existentialist hero, adapting the eponymous Dashiell Hammett novel. This was quite a hit & John Huston, before that moment a writer, instantly became one of the impressive directors in Hollywood, even getting his first Oscar nomination for the screenplay—rare to have such a debut, a Best Picture nominee… The movie made careers, too: Bogart became a star, but also character actors like Peter Lorre & Sydney Greenstreet showed their abilities & went on to success (Greenstreet was nominated for an Oscar, too).

Then, The Killers (1946), directed by German immigrant Robert Siodmak, from the Hemingway short story of a doomed prizefighter—this was such a hit that it made Burt Lancaster a star on his debut, it did as much for Ava Gardner, & polished the reputation of Edmond O’Brien, who acted in quite a number of noirs. It got four Oscar nominations, too, including the writer & the director. This time, the all-American detective chasing after justice & the ugly truth both is not the star—instead, the Romantic boxer is, & the story brings to America some of the decadence of German literature & expressionist cinema.

Out of the past (1947) was directed by Jacques Tourneur, a French immigrant who made his career in Hollywood, & who also introduced the European literature of decadence & irrationalism into America. Also, a big hit, it made Robert Mitchum a star & helped Kirk Douglas’s career as well. The story is based on an American novel adapted to the screen by the novelist himself & deals with the all-American theme of the conflict between city & country, sophisticated rottenness & rustic simplicity. In this case, the man at the center of the story manages to be detective, victim, & criminal all in one film—again, the existentialism of noir…

Finally, Laura (1944), also directed by a Jewish immigrant from Germany, Otto Preminger, it, too, served to introduce into America continental ideas of decadence—the conflict between intelligence & beauty, between rationalism & life: Thomas Mann onscreen, if you will… It was a big hit, it won an Oscar for cinematography, because it’s just that beautiful, it made Gene Tierney & Dana Andrews stars, it earned the successful Broadway actor Clifton Webb his first Oscar nomination, did as much for Preminger, & it gave Sinatra a remarkable hit, the title song, with lyrics by Johnny Mercer, which became a jazz standard. The star detective & damsel in distress are all-American in this case, not quite as witty or romantic as in the other movies, & the danger they face is remarkable testimony to the ability of Hollywood artists to show the tragic tendency in love of beauty…