Classic Noir- Paula Bordera

“A term that denotes types of classes of literature.” According to M.H. Abrams, this is the definition of a genre. A genre serves as a categorical tool to classify books, novels, and even plays. Each genre “must remain pure” and stick to certain “rules.” in other words, there shouldn’t be any “mixing of tragedy and comedy” and each genre should stick to a certain “subject matter, structure, style, and emotional effect.” (M.H. Abrams).  

Ever since the beginning of the semester, we have been reading and watching movies that all seem to belong to one common genre: Noir. Some critics do not like to call Noir a genre for various reasons. First of all, the term Noir wasn’t intentionally made and it only emerged after this type of literature was created and authors and critics named it Noir for discussion purposes (Naremore). The fact that “the frequency of the term itself came after the fact” (Naremore), makes critics believe that Noir isn’t an actual theme, but is instead a temporary nickname for that type of literature. Furthermore, people may argue that the typical themes and characters of “noir” films and novels do not apply to every book and movie we have seen and read.

However, I would like to argue that even though the term Noir was used after the genre emerged and there was a lack of intention in its discovery and not all typical noir elements apply to every book and movie we have been exposed to, I have noticed particular similarities in the films and books that help define Noir as a genre, which follows M.H. Abrams’s definition that every genre has to have certain rules, or characteristics, to define it.

Crime Involvement

The protagonist in noir film and novels is always either the victim, the suspect, or the perpetrator. He does not have to be a detective. Sure, Sam Spade in the book The Maltese Falcon is a detective. But for instance, Frank Chambers from the book The Postman Always Rings Twice isn’t a detective. In fact, he doesn’t even have a job. He is a drifter and spends his life going from one place to another. It isn’t until he starts working at the diner for the Greek that he actually has a stable job.  At first glance, it seems impossible that such a powerful, imposing character like Sam Spade would be similar to poor, weak Frank Chambers. However, Sam Spade was a suspect for the murder of his partner, Miles Archer, just due to the fact Spade was having an affair with Archer’s wife. Likewise, Frank Chambers was a suspect (and the perpetrator) for the murder of the Greek. We can also take a look at other characters such as Walter Neff, an insurance salesman, from the film Double Indemnity to examine how the protagonist in such (Noir) novels and films behave similarly. While Neff isn’t a suspect for insurance fraud, the crime committed in the film, he is one of the perpetrators. Similarly, in the film Sunset Boulevard, screenwriter Joe Gillis gets shot at the end of the movie, making him the victim. Even though all of the characters mentioned did not have the same role in each film or novel, they were all involved in some sort of crime.

Protagonists

As well as involvement in a crime, another characteristic the protagonists of Noir films and novels share is self-destructive characteristics. They all put themselves in dangerous situations and risk their lives, get involved with manipulative women, and are very paranoid. From the beginning of the novel, Sam Spade has been prone to getting himself in dangerous situations. He was followed by a young boy, who had guns in both of his pockets and could’ve easily killed him. He also got involved with Gutman, the fat, wealthy antagonist who would stop at nothing to get the statue of the Maltese Falcon. Gutman is open about his criminality and upfront about his desire to have the Maltese Falcon, which is why he is a danger to Spade and anyone who gets involved with him. Sam Spade is also very self-destructive in the sense that while it seems like Sam Spade is witty, cool, calm, and collected, and knows what to do at all times, he is actually cold hearted and machine-like. He uses a cold, demanding tone of voice with both women and the men he encounters, such as when he orders Brigit to strip in front of him in the bathroom. He does this because he doesn’t trust her and is paranoid that she will have a gun and kill him or one of the other men. This is due to the fact that he does not trust anyone and is afraid someone will betray him or do anything to hurt him. It seems as if the woman he gets involved with, Brigid O’Shaughnessy, is the culprit of all the danger Spade is put in. She continuously lies and tries to get Spade to do whatever she wants, which only increases Spade’s paranoia and risk of being in danger. Like Spade, Walter Neff from the film Double Indemnity also gets himself in trouble by helping Phyllis kill her husband with the hopes of being with her after her husband is dead. Phyllis uses her charm to demoralize Neff and control him, and from the beginning of the film we can see that Neff is doomed. When he fails to escape and realizes the consequences of what he has done, Neff chooses to commit suicide as an alternate escape. Letting himself fall for the femme fatale was a weakness that led Neff to self-destruction, as he was under her spell the whole time. Finally, in the film Sunset Boulevard, Joe Gillis believes that he can manipulate wealthy, ex-actress Norma Desmond. When Norma falls in love with Gillis, he thinks he can get anything from her, such as the fame and money he needs and has always wanted. However, he later finds out that she is mentally unstable and when he refuses to stay with her, she shoots him in the back. Gillis’s self-destructive greed got him in a dangerous situation that he otherwise wouldn’t have been in if he hadn’t been greedy and trying to steal money from Norma.

Corrupted Criminal Justice System

A typical characteristic of Noir films and novels is that the legal system is corrupt. What I mean by this is that the police department, lawyers, or other systems such as businesses and corporations do not abide by the rules and are not really trying to find justice. Instead, they are just trying to get their job done and bring a good reputation to the business. For instance, in the book The Maltese Falcon, the district attorney and the lieutenant, and the other cops are very selfish, self-important, inefficient, and condescending. Dundy is an arrogant cop who likes to push people around to get what he wants. He tries to incriminate Spade on several occasions, constantly threatening him. Just like Dundy, the district attorney has too much power and it has gotten to his head, as he does nothing and Spade was the one who had to give him all the information he needed to find Archer’s killer. All the police figures in the novel are portrayed as manipulative and power-hungry as well as people who seem more interested in being powerful and imposing their authority on others than in actually finding out the truth. That is why Spade says he can manipulate evidence and change the story to incriminate just about anyone, either the young boy or Cairo. Spade knows the police just want someone to arrest and hang, so they will take just about anyone and believe or make up any story to make them seem guilty. Another novel where the legal system is evidently corrupted is in The Postman Always Rings Twice. In this novel, Frank Chambers and Cora decide to murder Cora’s husband. They fake a car accident in order to get away with it, but the prosecutor suspects that they faked the accident and tries to incriminate them. The prosecutor has the perfect case against them and it seems as if he is going to get them hung. However, Cora and Frank’s lawyer manipulates the insurance companies that were involved with the car accident and gets them to back off the case, which destroys the prosecutor’s case against them. As a result, Cora’s sentence is suspended and is set free. The audience later finds out that Cora and Frank’s lawyer, Katz, and the prosecutor have had an ongoing rivalry and had a bet to see who would win the case, and that the only reason Katz went through so much trouble to win and defended his clients was just to beat his enemy. He didn’t care whether his clients were murderers or not or about bringing justice to the dead husband, he just wanted an ego boost and take pride in winning the case. This shows how corrupt the law system was back then and is highly criticized in both novels.

Femme Fatale

One of the most common characteristics in the Noir genre is the presence of the femme fatale. The femme fatale is the main lead female character who is a danger to herself and/or others. She gets in the way of the protagonist doing his job and is manipulative and uses her charm and seductive looks to get what she wants. Cora in the The Postman Always Rings Twice easily gets what she wants, a dead husband and his diner, which she has always wanted, after she convinces Frank to help her kill her husband. Frank is so infatuated by her looks and feels such a strong, deathly attraction towards her that he cannot resist. Cora is a danger to both Frank and her husband, since she killed her husband and definitely thought about killing Frank after she opened up the diner and was successful. In the same way, in Double Indemnity, Phyllis, the femme fatale, seduces Walter Neff into helping her kill her husband with the promise that they would be together after the murder. This not only makes her dangerous, but also manipulative. While both Norma in Sunset Boulevard and Brigid in The Maltese Falcon aren’t able to seduce the protagonists, Norma is mentally ill and cuts her wrists, which means she is a danger to herself. She also kills Joe, which makes her dangerous to others. In The Maltese Falcon, Brigid is a danger to the other characters because all the men she has seduced, except for Spade, ended up dead.

These are resemblances that the movies we have watched and the books we have read all contain. Even if the term noir was unintentionally created, all of the movies and books obviously followed a precedent such as another film or book in order to make a noir. They may not have known how to categorize or what to call the movies or books they created, but they definitely had in mind how they wanted their works to turn out and the standards that they had to follow in order to make those movies/books. That is why writers and movie directors stuck to a similar plot and elements, just as we can see in The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, and The Maltese Falcon.