Film Noir: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)

Director:

Tay Garnett

Starring

Hume Cronyn

John Garfield

Cecil Kellaway

Lana Turner

The Postman Always Rings Twice is a classic film noir tale. It is based on a novel by James M. Cain bearing the same name. The film was remade in the 1980s and remains one of the most well regarded and beloved offerings from the classic era of film noir.

The Plot

Cora has a problem. She’s married to an older man but she’s not in love anymore. Of course, this means getting a divorce. At least, that’s what it would mean to most people in the real world. In film noir, of course, it means she needs murder.

She starts up an affair with Frank Chambers. Chambers is a drifter who ends up working at the same diner that Cora owns. She makes one of the best entrances ever in a film noir, and Frank is as good as hers once he takes a look at her.

Cora depends on the diner to make a living and doesn’t want to lose it, so she schemes with Frank to figure out a way that they can off her husband and make sure that she keeps her business.

Unlike most film noir offerings, the murderer in this film gets pegged right away. She manages to get probation on a manslaughter charge rather than going to prison for murder, setting her free. She foils the prosecutor when his plan—to get Frank and Cora to testify against each other—fails. Both of the lawyers are magnificent in this film and the way that they get obsessed with winning more than they are with justice is gripping to watch.

The two seem set to ride off into the sunset together, but that’s exactly how things turn out wrong. Cora ends up getting killed in a car crash. Frank is accused of murdering her on purpose, which he most certainly did not do. Ironically enough, he’s now facing execution for that murder.

Part of film noir always involves the characters getting what’s coming to them. In the end, facing recently discovered evidence that pins him to the murder of Cora’s husband, Frank resigns himself to his fate. The title of the film comes from an analogy he uses, saying that people know that, if they miss a letter the first time the postman rings, he’ll always ring twice. In this case, justice is the postman and, even though it missed its delivery the first time, it made sure Frank got the message coming to him.

The plot of this film is not complex, particularly compared to the average film noir plot. There’s no real mystery as to who’s who, what they’re doing or why they’re doing it. There are no sudden introductions of characters that throw the audience off and there’s a distinct lack of the multilayered plots that characterize many film noir offerings. There is, however, a lot to love about this film and it has endured for decades as a great one to watch.

What Makes This Film Work

This film doesn’t revolve around cynical private investigators or scheming mobsters; it doesn’t have tons of gunplay, corrupt cops or many of the hallmarks that define film noir. What does it have? Plenty.

First, it has a memorable femme fatale in Cora. She’s seductive, beautiful and gives the impression of a woman who just needs to be rescued from her current situation. She’s not in love, but she’s stuck in a marriage. She’s not happy with her life, but she seems like she could be happy with Frank. She has just the right kind of diminished morality to make it all happen, and that makes her a great femme fatale.

Notably, Cora eschews the dark color schemes that you’ll see on femme fatales in many film noirs. While Kitty Collins could wear a black dress like nobody’s business, Cora appears mostly in white during this film. Whether it’s symbolic or not is arguable, but it does set up the character well. She appears to be essentially good from the outside, but her heart is as black as they come.

Frank is a classic character who’s in over his head and doesn’t know it. He’s not a weak character, by any measure. He has a cruel heart, he’s menacing in scenes, and he’s not someone to be trifled with. He’s not a professional hit man, but he’s definitely a dangerous thug. Cora plays him like a violin, as the saying goes, acting vulnerable around him to entice him and make him feel powerful and then always giving him that one request, because they could be so happy if they were only free of Nick.

Nick is a likeable guy. He’s one of those characters that gets killed in films that just don’t have it coming. His wife wants to be someone important, however, and she briefly does, when the murder becomes a sensation and attracts more people to the town.

The tension in the film from outside the couple and the plot comes chiefly from the lawyers. The district attorney is sharp, fast and determined that there was a plot and that the couple is responsible for the murder. The defense attorney is sharp, as well, and the battle between the two makes this film very enjoyable at times, to say the least.

This film features the theme of comeuppance, which is what makes it work for many viewers. Frank, even though he may have fell victim to a femme fatale, deserved what he got and he knew it. He was suckered in, to be sure, and like all victims of a femme fatale, he’s wondering if Cora really loved him at the end of it all.

Appreciating This Film Noir

This film isn’t graphic where violence is concerned. The censors never would have allowed it at the time it was made. It’s also not graphic where sex is concerned, for the same reason. Everything in this film is suggested more than shown, but what they managed to convey without showing it really stands out.

Cora is very well conceived as a character as you wouldn’t suspect of being so vicious. She’s not the bad girl with black hair, lots of red lipstick, and a sneer on her mouth when she’s not puffing on a cigarette. She comes across as rather helpless—by design—when she’s around Frank, making it apparent how she manages to manipulate him so very well.

This film makes great use of chiaroscuro, sound, and off-screen action to tell the story. It’s worth seeing for that alone, given that these are the types of things that define a lot of film noir of the classic era.

The Postman Always Rings Twice has been made into a film many times. This film does reflect the weaknesses that some of the other versions, and the novel, all share. For example, once poor Nick meets his fate, it’s less apparent what the characters are supposed to be doing or why they care.

To appreciate the film, it’s helpful to think of it as a classic murder tale, but one structured slightly differently than most would be. Rather than climactic murder coming near the end of the film, leaving the audience breathless, this film climaxes fast and the unfolding of events following the murder have to do with consequences rather than the actual act of murder, the dread of which infuses much of the fear that drives the majority of film noir pieces.

This film is also much more moralistic in its undertones than many film noirs. While film noir—particularly of this era—usually shows everyone paying their debts in one way or another, the films also manage a lot of ambiguity, particularly where the protagonists are concerned. This film doesn’t leave much doubt about the protagonists. The main characters are really horrible people when it comes down to it, and they get their own. It’s hard to think they didn’t deserve it in every way. This isn’t a Hitchcock film, where someone did nothing wrong and gets punished for it. It’s not a Welles film where the person who gets their own has it coming, but is also a human being that the audience can understand in some regards.

This film is about people who end up paying the price they deserve. Cora’s death may be about as random as they come, and one of the shortfalls in the plot is how they’d actually be able to convict someone of murder when the death occured in a car accident where the accused was just as likely to die as the victim. It’s also something of a shortfall that Cora pleads down to manslaughter and just gets probation instead of serving time.

Nonetheless, this is a good example of film noir. It has the right look, the right characters and the right plot. Fans are likely to be pleased.

Note: The 1981 version of this film is not so highly regarded. It might be worth watching after watching the original, however, to compare the two.

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Film Noir: The Killers (1946)

The Killers

AKA Earnest Hemingway’s The Killers (1946): The Contained Noir

Director:

Robert Siodmak

Starring

Ava Gardner

Burt Lancaster

This is a noir good enough to make it into the National Library of Congress. Burt Lancaster has his debut in this film and Ava Gardner provides plenty of sizzle as Kitty Collins, a shady character in her own right and one for which the actress is very much remembered. There was a remake of this film made in 1964 that is not held in such high regard as is the original. If you watch the 1960’s version, however, you get to see a young President Reagan slap Angie Dickinson.

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The Plot

This film is told in flashback and follows an insurance investigation spurred by the death of an ex-boxer. The action opens up in a New Jersey town where a man has been hiding out from his past for years, but where it’s finally going to catch up to him.

Imagine you’re a hit man. You go to take out your latest contract and, much to your surprise, he doesn’t resist or try to get away. He accepts his own death and, even though he is someone capable of defending himself, he does not. Whether he believes that the mob that are after him are so inescapable that trying to resist his fate is futile or he is so filled with regret that he thinks that he deserves it isn’t clear at first, but he obviously doesn’t care. Warned that people are out to kill him, he remains flat, uninterested and wholly accepting of what’s coming.

The man marked for death is the Swede—Ole Anderson—and he’s an ex-boxer. He had a promising career at one time but he damaged his hand and that took him out of the world of professional sports. Of course, criminals are always in the market for a good heavy and it’s hard to do better than a boxer in that regard, so he got himself involved in the underworld.

This is where the femme fatale comes into play and Ava Gardner tears it up in this role. She plays Kitty Collins and, if there are people out there who just can’t figure out how men fall for a femme fatale, Kitty clears it up nicely. She literally has a siren song and is about as seductive as any femme fatale could ever be. Threaten her, however, and she’ll make it clear that you won’t live long after, and it’s likely not an idle threat.

Collins is quite brilliant at manipulating men and she could practically get most of the men around her to thrown themselves on a grenade for her. She gets away from a charge of possessing stolen property by having the Swede take the fall, simply because he’s so drawn to her.

Kitty isn’t done with the Swede yet though. When he gets out of jail, she’s hooked up with a mob boss, but she lets the Swede know that he’s being set up to take a fall. The two of them take all the loot from a heist that the Swede was involved in and, not too surprisingly, Kitty takes it and runs off by herself.

Kitty eventually brings everyone to ruin. The criminals are, of course, ruthless in their own right, and they’re portrayed as very thuggish, but they’re also all very innocent in a way. They think they’re in charge of what’s going on. Whenever Kitty Collins is nearby, however, there’s only one person pulling the strings, and it’s always her.

Appreciating Kitty

Ava Gardner doesn’t have to turn up the sex appeal to campy levels to be convincing in this role. She’s drop-dead gorgeous and equally—or even more—vicious. For this criminal, her looks and her ability to seduce serve the same function as the long trench coats under which hit men hide their revolvers. Make no mistake about it, this woman will betray you at the drop of a hat and, before she does, she’ll make sure you were set up for a mighty fall. When you find out, you’ll still want to believe that she really loves you.

Kitty’s scheming is remarkable. She’s not a double-crosser, she’s a double-double-crosser and beyond. Her plans are laid within other plans, and she knows how to get everyone around her to fall for her traps. Even so, the men never have any clue that they were her stooges to begin with.

Kitty gets the Swede not only to spend three years in prison, but to pine for her the entire time. She gets him to believe that she’s the only ally he’s got among the gang he is involved with. However, she’s really setting him up in the cruelest possible way. She’ll run away with you and all the money you stole, but take your eyes off of her for a second and she’ll grab that cash and leave.

In the end, it turns out that she is loyal to at least one of the criminals in the gang: their leader. In true film noir fashion, however, she does get what she’s got coming to her, though it’s hard to believe that she has any regret or remorse for what’s she’s done to the people around her. Sure, they were criminals, too, and there really is no honor among thieves, but Kitty takes dishonor to an entirely new level. She’s an artist, really, and she uses human emotions and weaknesses as her palette and fills her canvases with blood and regret.

There have been some commentaries that Kitty Collins is a character that has no small amount of misogyny poured into her. She does, of course, bring all the men around her down. There is another element to this character, however. She’s a smooth criminal; the only one really qualified to work at the level of Big Jim, the leader of the gang and the mastermind behind it all. She may be a femme fatale, but she’s also more than the equal of any of the men around her and twice as deadly. This gives her something of a tough-girl edge. It’s not her wickedness that allows her to so easily destroy the men around her, when she’s viewed this way. What leads them to their ruin is that their own misogyny makes them blind to the fact that it’s entirely possible to be a both a beautiful, seductive woman and a ruthless, capable killer.

Appreciating This Film Noir

This film departs substantially from the Hemingway story on which it is based, but Hemingway was more than happy with the finished product. This is rare enough on its own; to have a book’s author truly enjoy an adaptation that takes liberties with their original. Still, there is more to this film that makes it a joy to watch, if it is a dark one.

Lancaster was not yet a leading man when this film was made. There was a real risk casting him in the lead role, but he makes it work. There are plenty of character actors surrounding him in the film and the actors that portray them play their roles very well. The detective is efficient and determined, just as a film noir detective should be, but he’s not a cardboard cutout in a trench coat. The hit men are genuinely menacing, and there are some great moments when they’re stalking and threatening people that allow Max and Al to be intimidating, to say the least. Big Jim does not come across as someone to tangle with and that’s borne out in the plot.

Rather than the traditional police officer procedural narrative providing the unraveling of the crime for the audience, we get an insurance investigator. He’s more of an everyman—after all, a cop has a gun to defend themselves with and the authority to use it—and it allows the plot to keep moving forward. Reardon unravels the crime and the conspiracies surrounding them, but he’s not in a position to arrest anyone and, therefore, it’s not a story where the police are going through and just arresting criminal after criminal. He does have a police lieutenant, Lubinsky, to help him out, but Reardon is in real danger.

There is plenty of betrayal, sleaziness and despair in this story. It’s really about a good person who just gets mixed up with the wrong people and who pays a horrible price for it.

If there’s one single reason to watch this film that stands out above the others, however, it’s Kitty Collins. The woman is about as dangerous as anyone could ever be and Gardner is perfect in the role.

This film will make you feel for the protagonist without feeling like he’s a sap. He’s not. He is a good man involved with a bad crowd and the fact that he could, at some level, believe that a woman like Kitty Collins could fall in love with him is what brings him to his ruin. This film doesn’t have to be seen as anything misogynistic because of Collins. In fact, it’s just a film about the same types of betrayal, poor judgment, that have ruined relationships forever.

This film may depart from the source material significantly, but it does it to great effect, and not a moment of the screen time is wasted.

Film Noir: The Big Sleep (1946)

The Big Sleep (1946)

Director:

Howard Hawks

Starring:

Humphrey Bogart

Lauren Bacall

The Big Sleep is not an easy film to follow. The plot has plenty of twists and turns, and there is quite a large cast of characters involved. This film was criticized for being confusing and difficult for the audience to follow but, over the years, it has become regarded as one of the best film noirs out there. It has Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, so it’s hard to beat the film in terms of sheer film noir credibility based on the casting alone.

This film is based on a book of the same name by Raymond Chandler. It is listed in the National Film Registry of the US Library of Congress.

The Plot

Where the plot of The Big Sleep is concerned, prepare yourself for a bit of confusion. The film is really better appreciated for its cast, the acting and the overall style of the film than it is for its story, which is confusing, to say the least.

The premise of the plot centers on Philip Marlowe, Bogart’s tough detective character. He’s been hired by a wealthy, retired man, General Sternwood, who wants to get his daughter, Carmen, out of trouble. She has a thing for gambling and is in debt with some bookies. The first twist in the plot comes when Bacall’s character, Vivian Rutledge, is introduced.

Vivian, the general’s older daughter, thinks that there’s something more to the reason that her father hired Marlowe. She believed that the General wants to find a friend of his who disappeared.

After going to a bookstore that’s actually being used as a front for crime, blackmail is added to the list of problems that Marlowe has to deal with. He ends up tailing the bookseller, Geiger, to his house. He barges into Geiger’s home after he hears a shot and scream, and then finds a drugged Carmen on the floor and Geiger dead from a gunshot wound.

Marlowe also finds a camera hidden in the room. The film is gone, but it’s apparent that there is more to this case than meets the eye. Marlowe takes Carmen home and returns to the scene of the crime, but Geiger’s body has been removed.

Another murder is added to the mix; the driver for the Sternwood family is dead after his car ended up going off the end of a pier.

The missing film from the hidden camera has pictures that can be used for blackmail. Vivian tells Marlowe about the plot and there’s now a demand for money in exchange for the negatives.

Marlowe soon enough finds himself tailing Brody, a man who had previously blackmailed Sternwood. Carmen claims that Brody killed Geiger.

It turns out that Brody is blackmailing both Vivian and the General. As he’s giving up the information, he ends up getting killed by Geiger’s driver.

The investigation reveals that Vivian has a bit of a gambling problem herself. She stonewalls when Marlowe confronts her about it.

Later, Carmen ends up trying to get into bed with Marlowe, who declines. He tells Carmen that Vivian gets a lot of calls from a gangster named Mars, who told him about Vivian’s gambling problem.

Mars has also lost his wife to a man named Regan, who turns out to have taken off to Mexico. Vivian wants to go see Regan.

The plot turns to focus on Mars’ wife. A man who claims to have information on her and who is willing to give it up for a price ends up getting killed, but not before giving up her location.

As is the case with a lot of this film, the location that Jones, the man who knew where Mars’ wife was, gave is a ruse. Marlowe ends up having it out with the killer who took out Jones, but gets overwhelmed in the process. Vivian ends up saving Marlowe. Marlowe gets free and kills the hit man.

There’s one more unexpected twist. Marlowe figures out the entire plot and sets up a meeting with Mars. Mars shows up, but he sets up some of his heavies outside the house, planning on killing Marlowe. Marlowe confronts Mars and reveals that he knows all about Mars’s plot. Marlowe fires a few shots at Mars, and Mars flees the house and gets shot by his own heavies.

Marlowe manages to get Vivian out of harm’s way by telling the police that she helped in the investigation.

Why People Love This Film

For all its shortcomings in terms of plot, this film really is a classic of the film noir genre. It has a tough detective, gorgeous women with mysterious and dangerous motives, as well as plenty of organized crime and murder.

This film, however, is not a good film in the sense that its plot is clear, easy to follow, and involving enough to keep the audience surprised. The surprises are generated from audience confusion. There are so many characters it is difficult to keep track. There isn’t a clear explanation of the sequence of events. By the time Marlowe busts Mars, the exposition that’s supposed to make everything clear feels even more confusing.

Paradoxically, this is part of what makes this film so interesting.

This film is about unraveling a mystery. In many films of this sort, the action takes place in way that is very well summed up by the term “procedural.” It’s as if someone scattered all of the pieces of a puzzle on the floor. The detective merely comes along and puts them together and the audience is rewarded with the completed picture. This rather reduces the detective character, however, to the level of a babysitter for the audience. Everything turns out nice in the end, just let the detective show you how the pieces fit.

In The Big Sleep, nothing works out that neatly. There is plenty of dark machinery operating behind the scenes, but when Marlowe starts to uncover it, none of the gears really line up and what it’s all supposed to accomplish isn’t really apparent. This is frustrating for some viewers but, of course, it’s lot more like how things work in real life. In The Big Sleep, it’s not always apparent what any of the characters are up to or why they are behaving the way they are. The character relationships, alliances, set-ups and betrayals, are often muddy. Of course, that’s the way deceitful people work in real life. There’s no knowing whether you’re being played or not and, because of that, one always has to keep up their guard.

Some of the innuendo in this film is priceless, as well. When Marlowe wants to get more information out of the sales girl at the bookstore, Marlowe turns up the game. He looks out at the rain and mentions that he just happens to have a pretty good bottle of rye in his pocket. He pats it and says, “I’d not rather get wet in here.” Of course, she goes for it, and not too subtly, with both of them, in the most suggestive way possible, saying everything except what they’re actually thinking.

Bogart and Bacall as Marlowe and Vivian, of course, crank this up a notch. The scene where they’re in the restaurant and start discussing horse racing as a metaphor for sex, is priceless.

Marlowe: You’ve got a touch of class, but I don’t know how far you can go.

Vivian: A lot depends upon who’s in the saddle.

This is film noir at its best. Film noir is always a bit sleazy, but the films of the classic era were very restricted in how they could portray that element of the story. The result is some of the best dialogue anywhere.

The delivery is also remarkable. One of the things that set Vivian and Marlowe apart, and that makes them so good together, is that their characters do seem like the two coolest people in the room. They both do everything right, from the clothes that they choose to the way that they smoke their cigarettes. These folks, no matter what they’re involved in at the moment, are the people that most others would want to sit with at a bar or restaurant. They’re sharp, funny, a bit sarcastic, and magnetic.

If one were to list the most stereotypical elements of film noir, The Big Sleep would be a good film to use as a reference. The film isn’t an imitator, however, it is a genre definer.

Appreciating This Film Noir

The Big Sleep is a staple of serious film fans and college film classes, and has been the subject of debate for decades now. The film maddens some audiences with its twists and turns and unresolved plot points but, for others, this is just part of what makes it so good.

This film contains just about every film noir cliché not because it was a part of a trend, but because many of the films that come after imitate The Big Sleep. As for hard-boiled detective types, you can’t really beat Bogart. He’s the guy that most of the others are imitating. Bacall is one of the best leading women of this era and she and Bogart had chemistry on-screen that was an extension of their chemistry in real life. That plays a lot into making this film a great one.

Everyone can appreciate this film on the level of how it looks, how it’s shot and the dialogue, even if the plot is perplexing, but there’s a lot more going on here that’s worth paying attention to.

This was not a good time for Humphrey Bogart. He drinks hard on the screen, and off-screen. He sometimes didn’t show up for scheduled shoots, he was so far into the bottle. He was going through a divorce, but watching Bogart and Bacall together, it’s obvious that there is a real chemistry there that isn’t acted at all.

On an entirely other level, Bacall is something marvelous in this film, as well. Only twenty years old at the time of the shoot, Bacall’s maturity in the role, her fast wit, and her obvious intelligence are impressive. Her voice, of course, is rather famous. The confident, snarky, and oftentimes dry way that she delivers lines is something more than memorable.

This is a film for serious film noir buffs, to be certain, but even people with a passing interest should be able to appreciate it. It has the gloom and menace that any film noir should have and the fact that the plot is so convoluted doesn’t really take away from the experience.

About the Experience

There are two versions of The Big Sleep available. The 1946 version, detailed here, is the better known of the two. The other version was completed in 1945 but was released in 1997. It is also referred to as the original version of the film and is the one that director Hawks cut himself.

Not all critics felt that the original version was better. In fact, Roger Ebert preferred the 1946 movie, saying that there was really no reason to watch the original cut unless you wanted more information about how the film was altered. While studio interference in a director’s cut is usually derided, Ebert actually felt that it was a good thing in the case of The Big Sleep.

The Big Sleep isn’t easy, but neither is life and that’s really what most film noir pieces are about. Between the rich double-entendre, great style, and the very seedy story, The Big Sleep is worth watching more than once. The film is dark, cynical and, while it manages to stay within the bounds of the production code of the time, it’s certainly not innocent or naïve.

Film Noir: The Lady from Shanghai

The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

Director:

Orson Welles

Starring:

Rita Hayworth

Orson Welles

The Lady from Shanghai has the type of very complex plot that film noir fans live for, particularly those who love the classic era of the form. The film stars Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth, who were actually going through the breakup of their marriage at the time this film was made.

The confusing nature of this film is, in part, due to the fact that a lot of the original film was cut. According to some sources, as much as 1 hour of footage was removed from the film during editing.

The Plot

Welles plays Michael O’Hara, a sailor who falls for Elsa (Hayworth) in one of her most memorable roles as a femme fatale. Michael gets a chance to play the hero and rescue Elsa from muggers. He deftly beats up several men and gives Elsa a ride home, engaging in some sweet talk along the way.

O’Hara happens to have a skill that Elsa and her husband, Arthur Bannister, need. They’re heading to San Francisco, but they’re taking their private yacht and making the trip by way of the Panama Canal. They need O’Hara for the crew and he accepts.

Along the way, however, he finds out that there is more to what’s going on here than meets the eye. He’s been infatuated with Elsa and, because of that, he’s gotten himself into a very bad situation. Arthur has a partner named Grisby who wants Michael to take part in a fake murder. He assures Michael that he cannot be convicted for murder—he is a defense attorney—and, thus, there’s only money in it for him.

This is where things might get a big confusing for the viewer. There’s a rather complicated double cross involved in all of this. In reality, Grisby wants to murder Bannister and he wants to frame O’Hara for the crime. A detective named Broome catches up to the plot. Grisby tries to kill him, O’Hara ends up looking like he killed Grisby and, because O’Hara had already signed a confession as part of the fake murder plot, he’s very much looking like the murderer at this point, at least as far as the police are concerned.

A courtroom drama follows, where it is revealed that O’Hara and Elsa have been carrying on together—they were seen kissing at an aquarium—and that only makes things worse. O’Hara is obviously headed for prison, so, he escapes.

The final sequence in this film is the most famous. It starts with O’Hara catching onto the fact that it wasn’t just Grisby involved in the plot. Elsa was behind it all along, and she meant to murder Bannister along with Grisby and to have O’Hara take the fall.

In the end, everyone gets what they deserve, more or less. The final sequence in this film is the most famous. It’s set in a hall of mirrors with some gunplay. Welles manages to create one of the most memorable climaxes in film.

Classic-Era Trademarks

The Lady from Shanghai has many of the elements that make classic noir films members of a distinctive genre. The film has plenty of switchbacks and twists in its plot, and that keeps it from being simple in any regard. This film is actually quite hard to follow at times, but that’s what film noir is supposed to be, in many ways. If it were an easy genre, it would lose all its flavor.

The film also has plenty of moments where the protagonist should have known better. He didn’t want to get involved with the murder scheme but, in the 1940s, five-thousand-dollars was a whole lot of money to pass up on. O’Hara had also been in jail all over the world, so it’s not like he was making a big life change by being in opposition to the law.

Elsa is a great femme fatale and the story gives her a chance to use what we know about her to great effect. For example, as the name of the movie itself implies, Elsa is from Shanghai. She’s actually Russian, but her family fled to Shanghai. When she needs to call on friends, lo and behold, she’s on the phone talking in Chinese to some associates who come to her aid. Like any good femme fatale, she plays her cards close to the vest—or dress—and, at times, the audience realizes how dangerous she actually can be, even if it slipped them before. Of course, that’s usually what a femme fatale is trying to do, appear less dangerous; so it only speaks to Elsa’s abilities in this regard.

There are some weaknesses in this film, however. There are plenty of unnecessary close-ups of Hayworth. She’s certainly a beautiful woman, but they feel somewhat gratuitous. Orson Welles does not do an Irish accent well at all and, at times, it is rather distracting.

Being so chopped up, the film is also very hard to follow at points. It may take a couple of viewings to really understand the plot.

There is, however, a lot to appreciate here.

Appreciating This Film Noir

The Lady from Shanghai is classic noir. It isn’t the film that Welles likely wanted, but it’s still good. The look is right, the femme fatale is fatal indeed and it’s easy to see how O’Hara could have fallen for her.

The iconic hall of mirrors sequence still works. It’s no less powerful for its age and, for some viewers who haven’t seen this film, there’s a good chance that they’ll already be familiar with the hall of mirrors sequence, given it’s so well known.

This is a must-see for any fan of the classic noir films. Don’t worry about the complexity of the plot when you’re watching it. Some of the best scenes in this film take place during the courtroom sequences, as well, and the intensity is quite believable.

This film also does a good job of staying cynical, even though everyone bad gets what they deserve at the end. It’s not an easy film but, then again, many good films aren’t particularly easy.

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Black and White Noir: The Classic Era and Beyond

Black and White Noir: The Classic Era and Beyond

The films in this section are black-and-white. They span from the classic era of film noir to modern times.

Black-and-white filmmaking is such a staple of film noir style that many modern films have opted to use it to invoke the classic feel. The Man Who Wasn’t There is a great example. Other modern films, such as L.A. Confidential, use muted colors in some scenes, such as in the hotel shootout near the end of the film, which hearkens the black-and-white style.

In these black-and-white films, look for creative use of shadow, particularly across the character’s faces. More often than not, when a character needs to be identified as being touched with a particular darkness, a film noir director will go ahead and touch their face with a bit of shadow to emphasize it.

As prior chapters point out, keep an eye out for great chiaroscuro as well. Stark contrasts are common themes in film noir, both visually and in the plots.

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Film Noir: The Music

Film Noir: The Music

If there’s one genre of music that’s most associated with film noir, it’s jazz. The relationship between the two is oftentimes exaggerated. As All About Jazz points out, most of the jazz in these films is actually music that is being played within the film itself. It might be the music someone is playing on a piano in a dark bar, it might be a song coming off the radio, but most of the classic-era noir films feature jazz as part of the scenery. The soundtracks are usually dark orchestral pieces. In modern film noir, the music is often equally diverse.

Noir films may also take things in entirely the other direction. In Tarantino’s noir offerings, for instance, the soundtrack oftentimes consists of ‘70s pop songs, part of Tarantino’s overarching theme of ‘70s nostalgia. In films like Bad Lieutenant and The Usual Suspects, the music is more modern, whether it is driving club music or a subtle but eerie orchestral piece that backs the action.

In The Crow, the music is moody and dark, and blended together with Gothic, industrial, and metal music popular during the era when it was made. The music in film noir can reach out to a certain subculture. Noir has such a wide appeal that it only makes sense for a filmmaker to use music to those ends, both for the sake of the film’s atmosphere and its commercial prospects.

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