Two other films with the theme of a serial killer preying on woman come to mind.
One was Without Warning also in 1952. The other is While The City Sleeps. Without Warning is a very good B-movie with hints of terror and great location shots of the Chavez Ravine area five years prior to the Dodgers . The less said about While The City Sleeps the better other than it has a boat-load of talent from the 1940s and never was there a better example of the sum being much less than the equal parts.
Roger Ebert called film noir: “The most American film genre, because no society could have created a world so filled with doom, fate, fear and betrayal, unless it were essentially naive and optimistic." It has many of the same elements of another great American gift to the cinematic world; the Western. In the 40s, much of American was wide open to exploration and migration. When I traveled cross country decades ago I was impressed that I could freely go from one state to another without being stopped at a border to show identification. Compare that to Europe.
The vastness of America buoyed by freedom of movement is a common theme in film noir. The two work hand in glove if a person wants to start anew, strive for the American dream. and it's great if one wants to hide from one's past. Obvious films are, Detour, Out of The Past, Tomorrow Is Another Day and Impact. one's goals is evident in all Westerns and some noirs. No movie exemplifies the journey for the American dream, or as Thomas Jefferson wrote, the pursuit of happiness than Detour. Sue, then Al, leave New York City to travel to California. Vera is hitch-hikingto California after starting out in Shreveport. Charles Haskell, the driver who a-hum, a-hum is accidentally killed, personifies the American spirit. He left home at fifteen, traveled around the country, made some money, lost some money, and ever optimistic is trying to get some cash to start again. His father, by the way, is a self-made millionaire.
But noir can't have as a central protagonist a self-sacrificing, idealistic and honorable fugitive from the law.
i I don’t think it’s (Night of The Hunter) noir in style. Goodness and innocence are treated with too much buoyancy and hope; any viewer can see, even during the most terrifying moments, that hope will never be lost in this expressive universe. The audience knows all the way through that the light will vanquish the darkness. In noir, we have no such assurance.
From an article: “An oppressive atmosphere of menace, pessimism, anxiety, suspicion that anything can go wrong, dingy realism, futility, fatalism, defeat and entrapment were stylized characteristics of film noir. The protagonists in film noir were normally driven by their past or by human weakness to repeat former mistakes.”
i I don’t think it’s (Night of The Hunter) noir in style. Goodness and innocence are treated with too much buoyancy and hope; any viewer can see, even during the most terrifying moments, that hope will never be lost in this expressive universe. The audience knows all the way through that the light will vanquish the darkness. In noir, we have no such assurance.
From an article: “An oppressive atmosphere of menace, pessimism, anxiety, suspicion that anything can go wrong, dingy realism, futility, fatalism, defeat and entrapment were stylized characteristics of film noir. The protagonists in film noir were normally driven by their past or by human weakness to repeat former mistakes.”
From Carolita Johnson regarding the question does a noir need a murder.
think all stories begin with a hole, or something that’s gone missing and death is just one form of that hole. A betrayal and theft will do. But it can’t be a noir without the style and the photography/esthetic. Also, it can’t just be a lot of action: there has to be some kind of transgression where we practically hear the Greek chorus saying, no, don’t do it, you’re going too far! But the protagonist makes the bad decision that dooms him anyway. I think we need a sense of doom in a noir
think all stories begin with a hole, or something that’s gone missing and death is just one form of that hole. A betrayal and theft will do. But it can’t be a noir without the style and the photography/esthetic. Also, it can’t just be a lot of action: there has to be some kind of transgression where we practically hear the Greek chorus saying, no, don’t do it, you’re going too far! But the protagonist makes the bad decision that dooms him anyway. I think we need a sense of doom in a noir
Peter Harpdon Part of it..I've seen TBClock a few times and each time I like it less and further from noir. There’s a perevading theme of light heartedness that is definitely not noir..check out other eccentric old ladies as Esther Howard, Thelma Ritter and Josephine Hutchinson, their roles were pivotal. IMO, scale back a whole lot of Elsa Lanchester’s role. The ending is happy/sappy. No harm done to Milland’s marriage and doesn’t Elsa find her long lost husband?
Laura lacks, what someone said as no one from the other side of the tracks..Laura herself can be said to a shady character, she's no way as sweet as she makes herself out to be, she uses men, and IMO, she's going to jettison D.Andrews as well...but in a nutshell, the lack of shady characters...the emphaisis on high society morals and customs are antithetical to a noir. I cannot see the gold-digging foppis Vincent Price as a noir heavy, nor see his sugar mamma (Judith Anderson) as femme fatale in waiting.
Both Gilda and G.Ford are 'from other..the tracks.''' And in true noir tradition kudos for them in trying to separate themselves from their past. But noirs should have a localized crime, something rather mundane ie. heist, adultery, robberies, breaking out of prison. Gilda has some sort of international intrgue involving aluminum? Shady characters, along with a strong case of parochialism..see Criss Cross and its Bunker Hill, Cry of The City with the Italian-American community, They Live By Night with rural S.West. America. In a little bit off topic…think of your favorite neo-noirs..mine are Chinatown, Red Rock West, The Final Seduction, Malice, To Live And Die in L.A. at first look they seem to encompass the points in my post.
I've raised the point on many many posts that a thematic indicator for me to "Pure Noir" is always the element of irony meted out by Fate to any plans by persons who try and beat the rigged house of The Cosmos
Laura lacks, what someone said as no one from the other side of the tracks..Laura herself can be said to a shady character, she's no way as sweet as she makes herself out to be, she uses men, and IMO, she's going to jettison D.Andrews as well...but in a nutshell, the lack of shady characters...the emphaisis on high society morals and customs are antithetical to a noir. I cannot see the gold-digging foppis Vincent Price as a noir heavy, nor see his sugar mamma (Judith Anderson) as femme fatale in waiting.
Both Gilda and G.Ford are 'from other..the tracks.''' And in true noir tradition kudos for them in trying to separate themselves from their past. But noirs should have a localized crime, something rather mundane ie. heist, adultery, robberies, breaking out of prison. Gilda has some sort of international intrgue involving aluminum? Shady characters, along with a strong case of parochialism..see Criss Cross and its Bunker Hill, Cry of The City with the Italian-American community, They Live By Night with rural S.West. America. In a little bit off topic…think of your favorite neo-noirs..mine are Chinatown, Red Rock West, The Final Seduction, Malice, To Live And Die in L.A. at first look they seem to encompass the points in my post.
I've raised the point on many many posts that a thematic indicator for me to "Pure Noir" is always the element of irony meted out by Fate to any plans by persons who try and beat the rigged house of The Cosmos
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