Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

Kiss Me Deadly is a film noir. After having taking the film noir class, it was fun to casually see a noir on the beach. It is a mystery that keeps you guessing. It is the original asker of the classic question: what's in the box? I don't know if we get a proper answer, but we get most of an answer so that you can fill in the gaps yourself. We saw the original American ending, but there was an alternative ending that leaves out the final minute or so. It is a much more pessimistic ending, apocalyptic if you will. It is a movie that is reflective of the time in which it was made. In that sense, you can read it as a primary source on Cold War paranoia. I loved the 1950s answering machine. It is enormous! And also he has this oddly close relationship with his mechanic.

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

There's no denying that this is a strange movie. It is part horror, part drama, with a tinge of comedy. I mean, there's nothing funny about a serial killer pursuing helpless little orphans but it has its awkwardly funny moments. These kids are kind of creepy, not as creepy as the preacher (Robert Mitchum looks really sinister), but almost to the level of little not-very-kid-like Pearl from The Scarlet Letter. The spookiest thing about this movie is the song that the preacher sings. It is an omen of sorts. He leaves "Jesus" out of his lyrics the same way his life (as a preacher) is devoid of God. And playing up the weird factor, the opening sequence uses floating heads in outer space which then cuts to a shaky helicopter shot.

The movie is full of symbolism, both religious and secular. The message about religion is kind of interesting. There are two ways to see it. Though these people in the countryside find solace in The Bible, it does a lot of harm. It has a blinding effect on the mother and on the Spoons, who should've minded their own business and then these poor kids wouldn't be in this living nightmare.

There are some really great shots. It is shot in the style of German Expressionism with diagonal angles and lots of shadow work. My favorite shot is of the kids in the canoe floating down the river. We see the quiet natural surroundings. And then there is an aerial shot of the kids sleeping in the boat that reminded me of Life of Pi when they were all alone finally able to stop and breathe. I wonder if Ang Lee had that in mind...

Out of the Past (1947)

This is a very confusing movie and I had a hard time following. There was a flashback that lasted so long I forgot that it was a flashback. But I was at least able to follow the first flashback, what happened in the present though...I'm simply not sure. After reading the Wikipedia synopsis, they definitely left out a bunch of parts from the movie. I was unsure about Jeff's motivations in the movie. He obviously fell for Kathie the first time in Mexico, but once it is revealed how dangerous she is, does he fall for it the second time? And when he knows that he is being set up, why does he just let himself be set up? He literally just goes with it and verbalizes that he knows he is being set up, but he does exactly what they want him to do. Is this the fatalism that has resigned him to his destiny?

Despite the convoluted story, the cinematography is quite something. They play a lot with shadows and spotlights. The movie has a bit of a horror feel because it is so dark. We watch carefully constructed silhouettes for much of the movie, though unlike the other noir films we watched, the film opens on day out in nature without rain. When do things start to take a turn for the dark? When he goes back to her cabin in the jungle at night in the rain. It is not the concrete jungle, but an actual wild, uncouth jungle in Mexico. There's not turning back now because she has him.

And then I definitely missed something at the end. The Wikipedia synopsis is pretty clear about the ending. And maybe I was just being oblivious, but I think the cues were too subtle for me to able to read all of that from the movie.

The Killers (1946)

The seductive Ava Gardner plays the very dangerous femme fatale, Kitty Collins (her name might be a reference to Kitty March in Scarlet Street?). Though she plays such a large part in the film, she is not even introduced until well into the movie. The first female character that we are introduced to is Lily, whom I mistook for the femme fatale at first since she was the original love interest of the Swede, a macho Burt Lancaster. But the boxing scene in which she is introduced as the Swede's girlfriend is told in a flashback. Having seen the present, we know that she ends up with Sam Lubinsky. I immediately assumed that something happened between Sam and the Swede over Lily--but I was wrong. In retrospect, Lily is portrayed as an obedient housewife in her scene with Reardon and Sam. In this submissive position, she would not have had enough power, agency or influence to be the femme fatale.

Then we are introduced to Kitty at a party. She is shrouded in mystery seated at the piano turned away from the camera. She briefly turns to the viewer (and the Swede) and smiles. From behind, we see just her suggestive shoulders coming out of her single-strap gown. Immediately, the Swede and the viewer is stricken. When he approaches, she remains seated in a position of vulnerability while he stands leaning on the piano, and yet she controls the conversation. She subliminally informs him that she is out of reach. She is above his class and looks down on boxing, feigning an aversion to violence as a cover up for her condescension. But she leads him on, and holds his gaze without acknowledging him. That is the extent of her grip on him that she can look away and sing and pretend not to notice the man who can't take his eyes off of her.

Kitty has a couple of other major scenes, but her screen time is actually quite limited. But she does not even have to appear on screen to influence the events occurring in the movie. She looms over every scene. And in the final sequence in the Green Cat, the reflection of the cat statue, surely a symbol of Kitty, looms over Reardon in the mirror. She is in control of the action, or so she believes. And only after she has gotten everybody killed does she helplessly cry, displaying a sign of weakness. For the first time, she does not hold the power and the femme fatale is transformed into a damsel in distress. Except now that we know all of the background, we are not seduced.

Gun Crazy (1950)

This is a uniquely American film with its gun-obsessed protagonists and wild cowboy-outfit wearing female lead. But the setting is the dead giveaway. Gun Crazy differs from the other noir films we've seen because the setting is not in the city. The genre typically favors urban settings for the grittiness of the streets. In contrast, Gun Crazy takes place on the road between small towns between the Great Plains and the west coast. The one similarity in the setting is the climactic scene at the meat processing plant, which represents industry more associated with the city. The neat rows of endless carcasses represents the order that they seek to disrupt. But the unclean carcasses are symbolic of the untame nature of the west.

There is a significant scene at the carnival where Laurie and Bart (the original Bonnie and Clyde!) meet.  The carnival is the most exciting thing that happens to a small town in America. And carnivals are stereotypically seedy, which is sort of a noir-ish quality. Notably only the opening scene has the giveaway night and rain combo. But the closing scene attempts to replicate that atmosphere. In the California wilderness, Laurie and Bart stumble through a swamp. They get soaked, recreating the wet and dark feeling. And the fog is very doom-and-gloom.

The road represents a journey and the car takes the protagonists to the end of the proverbial road. Once Laurie and Bart meet, Bart is doomed to a certain fate. Laurie lacks the conscience that it was made clear that Bart possessed. But she slowly chips away at his conscience until he finally ultimately shoots to kill for the first time. And though they meet a tragic end, I think it is actually an ironically triumphant ending for Bart. His single kill allows him to reclaim his masculinity by overpowering the dangerous woman that made him change. He gains a handle on his own fate. There was no chance they would escape alive, and I think they both knew that, but he at least went out on his own terms.  

Scarlet Street (1945)

What makes a woman a femme fatale--or more specifically what makes Kitty March a femme fatale? The word fatal implies that death is involved. But the evil female does not directly kill the man. Her evil is more sinister than that. She leaves Chris Cross tormented and haunted by the climactic murder. Why is he so tortured by this event? Because it is so out of the ordinary for his character.  Femme fatales are so dangerous because they drive you to do things you otherwise would not do. It is not simply a matter of seducing you to get what they want but about fundamentally changing the man. I think this is what makes Kitty a crueler femme fatale than Phyllis Dietrichson from Double Indemnity and it is what makes the ending all the more devastating. Chris is the loyal, simple and rather plain company man. He is vulnerable, in a loveless marriage and has lost his youth (and perhaps missed out on his youth). He is perfectly ordinary with a safe and respectable job and a normal hobby. But Kitty takes this man and changes him. You get the sense that it is not all her doing at first, because Johnny really pushes her to go through with the plan. After all, the plot is set off by a meeting in a bar in which both sides wildly (and almost implausibly) misunderstand each other. But in the murder scene in which she maniacally laughs, you see her true colors.

Compare to Neff in Double Indemnity. He is reluctant to take part in murder at first, but he soon devises his own intricate plan and he gets really into it early on in the movie. It does not seem like Phyllis created evil in him, rather she awakened a dormant evil. But good old reliable Chris would never kill--moreover, he would never steal from his employer who has trusted him for decades.  And I think this is reinforced when he almost takes money from the safe the first time, but then he decides against it. At this point, he still had a grasp on his true self.

The Johnny-Kitty dynamic is interesting too. Dan Duryea plans a devilis bad guy. And Kitty acts more naturally when she is with Johnny. But when she is with Chris, she is acting. She over exaggerates her speech and her motions. Joan Bennett is acting as a woman who is acting. And though that is obvious to the viewer, Chris is blinded by her appeal. And though Johnny is the source of the evil, Kitty is the face of the evil and she is the most sinister because it is she who manipulates Chris into losing his former good-natured self.

Double Indemnity (1944)

A prime example of film noir, Double Indemnity does a lot of interesting things with light. Film noir is often characterized by a dimly lit visual style. This fosters a claustrophobic atmosphere. And this claustrophobia is represented by Phyllis Dietrichson, who talks about being trapped in her marriage by her husband. She is visually trapped by the shadows cast by the venetian blinds. The shadows are reminiscent of prison bars, appropriate for a pair of criminals like Phyllis and Neff. The venetian blind shadows cleverly allow the viewer to see half of the frame in light, while mysteriously obscuring the other half.

The scenes are sometimes so dark that it is sometimes hard to make out the figures. At the same time, it is so dark that when there is a small ray of light, the contrast is highly accentuated. When Neff enters Phyllis’s dark house (she just turned off all the lamps), you see his shadow come through the door before you see him. You see an ominous cutout of a man in a hat. It is a classic conservative look for a respectable company man. Compare Neff to the femme fatale. In Phyllis’s first scene, there is a bright aura about her—from her platinum blonde hair to her white towel and her fair skin, she glows beneath the dark archway. Perhaps the lighting is deceptive. Neff is struck by her beauty and her light, permitting her to seduce Neff into a compromising situation.

            

The film has a feel of doom-and-gloom, thanks to the dark lighting and the unbalanced composition. This tone of the film contributes to the fatalistic attitude of the characters, whose fates are predetermined. The metaphorical trolley is headed towards the cemetery and Phyllis and Neff cannot escape this fate. In a brilliant directorial decision, Neff narrates the story in a series of confessional flashbacks. These events already happened and there is no changing the past. The story begins at the edge of the cemetery and it is already too late to turn back because the damage is done.