Noir.....

[perezoso]

Most humans are at least vaguely aware of "noir", having watched The Maltese Falcon, or parts of it, during late night brew or chronic sessions. And Bogie as Sam Spade is classic noir; as are Peter Lorre and Sidney Greenstreet as the villains. Dashiell Hammett, the author of The Maltese Falcon, was perhaps the American master of noir fiction, and his own life was quite dark--he was imprisoned for some time after refusing to rat out associates of his suspected of being communists in the early 50's. Hammett's noir is as to the point as a Dempsey jab, with no frills, though with touches of irony and absurd comedy ( Lorre does the comic villain well); lit. types might classify it as "urban realism," but there is much more to it than mere realism.

Noir is a 20th century phenomena, really, perhaps foreshadowed by Poe in his non-supernatural tales such as the Purloined Letter and Murders of the Rue Morgue or Conan-Doyle's stories of Holmesian deduction; it's not about spooks, it's dark but not ghoulish. The noir of Hammett or Raymond Chandler is, however, much more gritty and "hardboiled" than Conan-Doyle's somewhat sentimental Edwardian tales. The language of Hammett or Chandler is pared down from Poe or Conan Doyle's more literary and elegant style; it's sexier and with less gloss. Sam Spade is no effete British gentleman as was Holmes, and he's able to handle himself in a street fight. Whereas Holmes is the confirmed bachelor and Dr. Watson the complacent family man, Spade--like Hammett--is not afraid of crossing the tracks for some R 'n R at a big city brothel.
(Remember to never mistake noir for dull, pissy English murder mysteries set in manors or european railroad stations).

Hemingway also wrote some noirish stories ( the Killers, the Battler) and Chandler shows some Papa-like influence, though I suspect that Hem. was also influenced by the noir writers. As in Hemingway's spare syntax, the diction of noir is simplified, often macho--the speech of cops, lawyers, detectives, criminals, floozies, waitresses, losers. Jim Thompson is another classic noir writer though a bit more primitive than say Chandler. His book The Grifter's is a great story of losers and racetrack creeps, and a decent movie; After Dark My Sweet is another Thompson fave, and the movie, with Jason Patric, is really superior to the book. In bad noir hacks such as Spillane the cliches can, however, become ridiculous, and obviously Ho--wood churns out bad noir year after year.

The cinematic productions of noir fiction have not been so faithful to the text. Chandler's books--say The Big Sleep--were distorted and if you read the book with any understanding you might find Bogart (in Hawks' production) as Phillip Marlow a bit miscast. Bacall seems to do the heiress well, but Marlow is a big guy--200 lbs, 6 ft. or so. Bogie is a great Sam Spade, but as Marlow he seems ineffectual. Mitchum does Marlow very effectively in Farewell, My Lovely.


Though noir might be thought of as macho , it's also romantic; Chandler's stories usually feature some hot if conniving starlets or washed-up, uh, courtesans. The traditional heros and villains of literature are absent in noir; there are antiheroes, women are not always angels or whores; there's a note of modern ambiguity. The white hats and black hats of westerns are gone as are the saloon gals with the hearts of gold; or perhaps as in some of Chandler's more bitter visions such as Red Wind, everyone seems to be a black hat.

Though noir is often categorized in the "pulp" file, many scholars are coming to realize that Chandler and Hammett's visions are as worthy to be called "literature" as well, say Fitzgerald or Hemingway's writings. Noir presents the urban spectacle unsentimentally, and at its best without some obvious moral--and in Chandler, corruption, amorality and nihilism are the central motifs. Yet there is more than a hint of a leftist vision to Hammet and even to some of Chandler's writing. In the world of Noir--say in Farewell, My Lovely--corruption extends from the dives and shacks of Burbank to the mansions of Bel Air, and it seems about everyone is on the ol' payola.

James Ellroy is a modern noir master, though his writing is far more graphic, violent, and yes obscene than Chandler or Hammett's; the movie LA Confidential was made from one of his novels. Nonetheless Ellroy's wildly discordant visions of LA-- sort of Ornette Coleman with say Stan Kenton--have a flavor of authenticity to them, and a note of real tragedy....

Noir influenced the Beats, as any discerning reader of say Kerouac's "The Subterraneans" realizes; Burroughs also acknowledged his debt to Hammett, though I do not think Hammett would have exactly approved of say Clem Snide. Cyberpunk writers such as PK Dick and William Gibson also owe much to Chandler's keen style--and reading say Gibson's crisp noir prose in Count Zero or Virtual Light is a refreshing change from the dull wooden language of earlier sci-fi such as Heinlein and Asimov.

Noir : c'est la vie

[mtmynd]

Nice write, 'Zoso. I have not read any of the authors you speak of but have indeed enjoyed the various films that you have mentioned.

I recently was fortunate to see a fantastic noir film with Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas, "Out of the Past" (1947), written by Daniel Mainwaring (altho I am unsure whether he wrote the book before the script, if at all). It stirred up some old memories of those great old black and white noir films. (Would you believe that you, of all people, popped into my head while watching this movie!!)

It was interesting to me that Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas were around 30 years old when they did that movie, and the female actreses, Jane Greer and Rhonda Fleming, were in their mid-20's, but came across as much more, can I say "mature" than the current crop of young cuties that grace our screens today.

[perezoso]

Thanks. I did correct one error--Hammett went to prison in the early 50's for refusing to testify against suspected "reds", during the witchhunts staged by McCarthy, J. Edgar, and pals.

I will check out the flick if possible. Another early Kirk Douglas film I enjoy is "Across the Great Divide."

There are many other noir flicks; some well-known ones are Double Indemnity ( with the guy who later does My Three Sons, a rather sickening show), The Postman Always Rings Twice with John Garfield ( a strange dude and boxer who may have been murdered), and a Touch of Evil, with Orson Welles, Marlene Dietriech as a hispanic puta, --and young Charleton Heston as a mexican detective. Whacked. THE ASPHALT JUNGLE is another Huston noir flick that I need to re-rent. Cape Fear. Hitchcock I guess too is noirish.

Nearly all of Bogart's movies are sort of noir really. Key Largo with EG Robinson as Johnny Rocko has got to be rated as a film noir classic as well.

Cheers,

PZ

[Zlatko Waterman]

Perezoso did a very able job of analyzing and defining the "Noir" genre.

Here's another medium which tries out "noir" ideas and improvises with the genre:

(COMICS!) or "comix", as I prefer to spell it . . .


"Femme Noir", drawn by veteran comix draftsman, Joe Staton--

(link)

http://www.supernaturalcrime.com/comics.html


These are fun and graphically interesting, if a little heavy on the voice-over.

Try, "The Dingus", one of Raymond Chandler's favorite words.


Cheers, and hello Perezoso-- good stuff you wrote above . . .


Zlatko

[e_dog]

as is always true, the French assimilated and hyper(iron)(real)ized American culture with film noir and novel noir too.
some of the early new wave cinema etc. i believe is a throw abck to film noir and there is a great article by philosopher Deleuze called "The Philosophy of Crime Novels" discussing the detective-crime novels in French from around the fifties. for that review, which throws some light on the political significance of such a genre, see the aforementioned essay in Deleuze's Desert Islands a posthumous collection.