Favorite 1940s Filmes Noires
The 1940s was a spectacular time for film. So many of our silver-screen bombshells and dashing movie heros emerged during this period, and so many classic movies were made! On one hand, you had light-hearted films designed to lift the spirits and boost the morale of people who were struggling to stay afloat during wartime, and on the other hand emerged a genre of film meant to explore the anxiety and disillusionment present in the mood of the day. The noir often features a male lead who was down on his luck, or at least down at the heels: a gumshoe, a drifter, or a sea-dog for instance. The stories are ripe with suspicion, double-crossing, hidden motives, and intricate and convoluted plots. They also almost all feature a leading lady, the femme fatale. From the beginning, you know that being with her is bad news, and yet you simply can’t seem to stay away, even if it spells death.
It seems like many feminists reject the idea of the femme fatale. After all, she is the living projection of men’s fears about women’s sexuality and autonomy. At a time when many men were off fighting the war abroad, women took up jobs that men would do, and began to experience a broadening of the scope of their place in society. This created a low-level anxiety in patriarchal society: If women can hold a job, take care of their own households, and light their own cigarettes, what if they don’t need us after all? This led to horror stories about women marrying and or killing their husbands for fortune, sleeping around behind their husbands’ backs, manipulating, deceiving, double-crossing, and generally playing them the fool. She is both a sex object and a loathsome monster in one, the ultimate male conception of a woman.
On the other hand, I happen to love the 1940′s femme fatale, and while I understand this point of view, I don’t think of her in this light at all. In many movies from the 50′s and 60′s (Rear Window, any James Bond film…) the female character has been relegated to a supporting role, and she is spoken to abhorrently by the male lead, her mental capacity is demeaned (I think bitterly of Grace Kelly pretending to read Bazaar while secretly perusing a book about daring travel), treated as a pretty object to use and put aside. However, the 40′s femme fatale tends to be quick, witty, capable, on the ball, and even able to defend herself. I love that so many of these leading ladies come across as verbal sparring partners for the male lead, their intellectual equal. They constantly subvert the idea of a woman as a homemaker, baby-raiser, and virginal daughter. Maybe these movies are favorites of men who want to see a film about a gritty hero they can project themselves onto and the sexy women who cannot resist them, but when I watch them, I see a lineup of movies about women. Women I want to be, movie-screen crushes with brains and autonomy, women I’m rooting for to step all over these men who endlessly wrong and disappoint them, and to emerge on top.
As an avid listener of true-crime podcasts, I must say that I grow weary of hundreds of real-life stories of husbands murdering their wives and families for money and freedom. It has been refreshing, in a twisted way, to watch media about women getting the upper hand of rich husbands. If society won’t allow her to beat men at their game by playing the man’s role, she is going to play the woman’s role so deftly you won’t even realize she’s beaten you until it’s too late.
Anyway, with that rant behind us, here I present to you (in order this time, from most to least favorite) my favorite 1940s film noirs.
The Big Sleep
Famous for its labyrinthine plot, whip-smart dialogue, and it’s code-dodging sexual innuendo (”She tried to sit on my lap while I was standing up”), this movie is a favorite because I still think about scenes from it regularly. This was my first Bogie-and-Bacall and though I didn’t really like her character at first, by the end I was so relieved to find out the two had been married in real life. Bogart plays himself, of course, the way we always hope he will, and Bacall plays Vivian, a young woman who plots and schemes as a way to save her own sister from humiliation and blackmail. In a delightful turn of events, her motivations are not man-hating (not that I’d mind a wink if they were). This movie is my top favorite because of the sisterly love, Bogie and Bacall’s sharp repartee, and Bacall’s houndstooth suit and beret as pictured in the attached gif, a fashion moment for the history books.
Speaking of history books, short aside and shout-out to “Bookstore Clerk,” the real bombshell of this film and my personal on-screen crush. I was so sure Bogie would end up with her in the end! With killer pince-nez, an adorable pussy-bow, an angel’s face, and an encyclopedic knowledge of books, she is the real heroine of this film.
Double Indemnity
This is the first film noir I checked out, and I’m so glad it was. The dialogue in this one is just killer! Fred MacMurray plays Walter Neff, an insurance salesman with a real way with words (”How could I have known that murder can sometimes smell like honeysuckle?”) that makes the movie a joy to watch. We get to watch two main characters plan how to carry out, cover up, and profit off of a murder, and although Barbara Stanwyck’s character is really a pretty purely despicable sociopath and manipulatrix, the subversion in this film comes from the fact that that neither character could have carried out the plan alone, and they eventually lead to one another’s destruction.
Gilda
Oh Gilda “I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way” Mundson. Ironically because of some stunning costuming and song-and-dance numbers, this movie is an absolute icon of the genre. Rita Hayworth cemented her position as a bombshell babe (literally, a photo of her as Gilda was taped to the A-bomb dropped on Japan…) in this film, and became an archetype of the femme fatale; married for money, playing her rich husband for a fool, a bad idea waiting to happen. Despite all of this, we can’t help but like her and sympathize with her (or at least I couldn’t). This movie doesn’t really have as much brooding mystery as others on this list, but it satisfies as a story nonetheless, letting us feel the main character’s love-hate tug with Gilda; is she the victim or the perpetrator in the mess of her life?
To Have And To Have Not
The second of three Bogie-and-Bacall flicks on this list, To Have and To Have Not is actually an Ernest Hemingway story, and although I’m not a Hemingway fan, this movie is actually really entertaining. Lauren Bacall plays Slim, a gorgeous and deadpan American rambler and pickpocket, traveling her way around the globe by conning men out of their money with her looks and charm, and singing cabaret in slinky gowns. Humphrey Bogart is Harry Morgan, a lower-class fisherman who ends up roped into a plot to transport French rebels in order to pay back a debt owed to him for lost and broken fishing gear. The two meet at a hotel in Martinique when Slim incidentally pickpockets the man who owes Harry money. I loved this movie because Slim is a delightfully capable and quick character who we never really doubt could get herself out of a pickle without Harry’s help, but they fall in love because they really seem to be a matched set, equal in wit and mettle, and thirst for adventure.
Notorious
I just love Ingrid Bergman. Of all the silver-screen actresses, I think she has the most real-world beauty. Unfortunately, as fun as this film is, it isn’t very fair to her character Alicia Huberman, who is forced by a government agent to turn spy on some Nazis by seducing a high-profile member, due to her late father’s connections and her promiscuous history. Despite being in love with her, Cary Grant’s character, agent T.R. Devlin, doesn’t really treat her very well. Even so, this movie manages to be wholly entertaining anyway, due to some great tension and mounting suspicion on the part of Alicia’s new Nazi husband that he just might have married an American agent…
Key Largo
The last of the Bogie-and-Bacall’s on this list, Key Largo is a particularly interesting story because it primarily takes place inside of a hotel closed down for summer and on lockdown because of an impending hurricane. Humphrey Bogart plays Frank McCloud, ex-Major, visiting the father and widow of an Army friend who was killed in battle. He finds the hotel owned by the family to be occupied by mobsters, just in time to be shut in with them to wait out the hurricane. The tension is high in this one, as danger prowls both inside the hotel and out, and no one can leave. The fascinating thing about this part-noir-part-mob-movie is that technically speaking, Frank McCloud and widow Nora Temple never explicitly express affection for one another, or kiss, or fall in love. It’s sort of implied, I suppose, but I did really like that romance or feminine duplicity didn’t so much factor into this one.
The Maltese Falcon
Last but not least, the iconic Maltese Falcon. Unfortunately this isn’t my favorite of 40′s film noir because the femme fatale Brigid O’Shaughnessy is a pretty crummy character. She spends the whole movie pretending to be a big crybaby worrywort, while unendingly lying through her teeth to Bogart’s character, gumshoe Sam Spade. In reality, she’s just a duplicitous sociopath, not the most satisfying reveal of all time. She does wear some killer hats and fur stoles though! The pacing of this film is also kind of loopy, with everyone talking at absolutely top-speed, kind of summed up visually in this GIF I found:
Anyway, it had to make it on the list because of its icon status in the genre, setting the mold for how many film noir movies would be laid out after it.
Thanks for sticking through to the end, I know this was a super long one. Hopefully it can help give someone else a good intro to the genre, and get you watching some spectacular old films!
