The Melting Pot That is Noir

Throughout the semester thus far the underlying question that we have been striving to answer is ‘what is noir?’. Is noir a genre, a critical category, or just a mood created by visual style? One thing that is for certain is that noir is a French term that means “black night” (Ebert). Although it is difficult to pinpoint exactly what noir is, there are certain essential attributes that all noir novels and films contain. In class, we brainstormed some generic qualities of noir, and in the classical era I would say black and white photography is a must; it helps to set up another critical element, which is a mood of impending doom. The low-key lighting, various shadows, and harsh angles portray this in a way that color would lack to achieve. Violence, of all sorts, usually resulting in at least one murder, are also key indicators that a film or novel is noir. There is always a murder that is either trying to be solved from the get-go, or occurs at the end of the storyline, and in that case, it is usually the death of the protagonist, who is a witty, tough guy type. The underlying themes typically consist of betrayal, corruption, and critique of the American Dream, which in short is the idea that all citizens have an equal opportunity to achieve success. One last thing that cannot be forgotten is the presence of and fixation on cigarettes. Can a film or novel even be classified as noir without the existence of cigarettes? In my opinion, no.

In the novels read up until this point, starting with Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, we can see some of these essential qualities of noir. The plotline of this novel centers around the most basic noir plotline, which is a detective trying to solve a crime, with the presence of a femme fatale; Naremore sums up the detective plotline perfectly with the quote that “she is fatal to even herself” (Naremore 20). Hammett’s protagonist Samuel Spade, a hard-edged, witty, macho man is approached by Brigid O’Shaughnessy, a seductive, manipulative femme fatale. Throughout the novel he attempts to help her find the prized object of the Maltese Falcon, all the while she is either feeding him false information, withholding information, or towards the end, entrapping him. This novel end in Samuel Spade leaving the situation scotch free and the rest of the charcters, including Brigid, being handed over to the police. Differing from the first novel, James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice tells the story of traveler named Frank Chambers who stops at roadside sandwich joint and finds himself staying there to work for the Greek owner, and simultaneously falls for his unhappy wife, Cora. They plotted to murder the Greek twice, succeeding the second time. This resulted in trust issues within their relationship that were ultimately resolved by the end of the novel when they went to the beach after they were wed. The novel ends with Cora being killed in a car crash and Frank being left to hang for it, leaving the looming question of whether he intentionally did or not. Resembling the first novel, Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep has a confusing plot centering around private detective Philip Marlowe, who is trying to solve a blackmailing problem for General Sternwood involving his daughter Carmen. Marlowe exposes the blackmailers and further pursues the troubling disappearance of Carmen’s sister Vivian’s husband Rusty. After some snooping, fights, and deaths, Marlowe pays a visit to the General’s home, where he runs into Carmen who fires five shots at him. Marlowe remained unscathed because the gun was not loaded, and it was discovered that Carmen killed Rusty because he denied her sexual advances as did Marlowe.

            All of these novels are different in their plotlines, but they all possess key characteristics that classify them as noir. A common character in noir novels and films is the hard-boiled detective who is masochistic, somewhat curious, witty, calm, cool, and collected (Naremore 20). Although not all of these novels implement a detective figure, all of the main characters embody this description. Spade is described as looking “pleasantly like a blond Satan”, which tells the reader that he will be a hard-edged but sly character (Hammett 1). Frank is also a blunt, callous character who says what he thinks and does what he wants when he wants. An example of his bluntness is at the beginning of the novel when he asks Cora about why she is married to the Greek despite the fact that he knows it’s a sensitive subject for her (Cain 7). Philip Marlowe is a guy who knows how to play the game and play it well, and that can be conveyed through this quote, “I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn’t care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be (Chandler 3).” All of these characters are different but have similar core personality traits.

            Additionally, these novels are linked by the essential attributes of noir. For starters, all of these novels include violence and death. In The Maltese Falcon the novel begins with the death of Spade’s partner Archer, and the investigation leads to another death. The violence ensues due to the fact that every time Spade and one of his employers’ henchman Wilmer always throw punches when they cross paths. In The Postman Always Rings Twice, the murder of the Greek is violent during both attempts. In the first attempt, The Greek is hit in the head with a homemade blackjack, and during the second attempt he is hit in the head with a bottle. And then then in the end Cora dies a tragic death in a car accident. The Big Sleep also employs violence during Marlowe’s fight with Canino, and his almost assassination by Carmen.

            These novels also share the common themes of betrayal and corruption. Spade is betrayed various time by Brigid, including when she joins the other perpetrators to set him up to take the blame for the murders at the end of the novel, but he also does some betraying; at the end he sells Brigid out, not allowing himself to “play the sap” for her because of his feelings. Hand in hand with betrayal is the theme of corruption, which comes into play when it is discovered that Brigid is the reason for the death of Archer and Thursby, her previous protector. Frank and Cora’s relationship is built off of corruption and betrayal, since after the murder of her husband when they go through the court system and Frank is tricked into admitting that Cora planned the murder. After that their relationship is rocky because neither of them trust the other, and they continuously threaten to go to the authorities with proof that it is the fault of the other. In The Big Sleep corruption occurs because of the blackmail scandal.

            In addition to novels, cinema is a staple of noir. Two of the films watched, The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep, we also read the novels for, and although there are some variations in the story it is the same for the most part. One of the other films we watched, Out of the Past, has a similar plotline in which Jeff Bailey, another classic tough guy detective, was hired by a man to find his previous girlfriend who stole money from him. Jeff succeeded in finding the girl, Kathie, and they fell in love and ran away together. After realizing that Kathie was a manipulative liar he disassociated himself with her, until the day when the man who originally hired him called him up to meet with him. Kathie implemented the themes of corruption and betrayal in this film when she betrayed Jeff by returning back to her original lover to help him frame Jeff for a murder. She was corrupt in the way that she manipulated her lover’s henchmen to do her dirty work, mostly being attempts on Jeff’s life. Violence ensues in this film as in the others in many ways. Kathie is responsible for many deaths; she murders Jeff and his previous partner, and is responsible for the death of her husband’s henchman since she sent him out to kill Jeff, which is when he fell off of a cliff and died.

            Another film that we watched was Double Indemnity, which involves the attempt at the prefect crime in which Walter Neff, a carefree tough guy, and Phyllis conspire to murder her husband, get the insurance money, and run away together. To no surprise it doesn’t work out that way. In the end, Phyllis tries to shoot Neff and fails, which results in him shooting her and then confessing his actions to the police. Corruption comes in the form of crime and greed, which spurns Phyllis’ motives for attempting Neff’s murder. By doing this she also betrays him, while he is simultaneously betraying the insurance company for which he works by trying to get away with this crime in the first place.

            All of these novels and films also critique the conventional American Dream. In all of these films and novels the goal is to get rich quick, not to achieve success through hard work, which is the core of the American Dream. The fact that there are so many movies and novels that employ this way of thinking imply that Americans have always had doubts about the actual success of the American Dream and view it in a pessimistic manner (Cawelti).

            By comparing these novels and films I am showcasing the fact that they all have key themes in common, or resemblances. In Wittgenstein’s definition of genre, he mentions the concept of family resemblance, the idea that there are no essential defining features of genres, but just a set of resemblances. In other words, not all of the films and novels in the genre of noir need to implement a specific set of features to include them in the genre; noir can still be a genre even if all of the works don’t share specific features but just share resemblances (Abrams).

               Barton Palmer argues that film noir is a category created by the critics. He claims that when looking at any one of these works on its own it cannot be coined as noir, but I disagree (Irwin 208). Although there is not a set of characteristics that wholly define noir, there are many commonalities between noir works that tie them together. Also, in regard to Wittgenstein’s definition of genre, there doesn’t have to be a set of defining attributes that constitutes noir because of his idea of family resemblance. With this in mind, we can note that the novels and films we have so far engaged with are tied together with a few common aspects. Because of their common threads, we can argue that noir is a genre as defined by Wittgenstein.

Works Cited

Ebert, Roger. "A Guide to Film Noir Genre." (1995): n. pag. Web.

Irwin, James. "Hard-Boiled Fiction and Film Noir." Unless the Threat of Death Is Behind Them. N.p.: Johns Hopkins UP, 2008. N. pag. Print.

Naremore, James. More Than Night. University of California Press, 2008.

Abrams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Woodsworth Press, 2012.

Cawelti, John G. “The Gunfighter and the Hard-Boiled Dick: Some Ruminations on American Fantasies of Heroism.” Mystery, Violence, and Popular Culture. University of Wisconsin Press, 2004.