On Noir of the Week last week: Stranger on the Third Floor from 1940. They’re calling it “The Film That Gave ‘Birth’ to the Style Called Film Noir.”So, that’s arguable, right? I’ve heard arguments for Double Indemnity (1944) and, of course, The Maltese Falcon (1941). Still, it looks like a wonderful film: Peter Lorre, John McGuire, Margaret Tallichet, and Charles Waldron. From Noir of the Week:
These are some of the questions that were waiting to be answered when the film that is considered the “first” film noir Stranger on the Third Floor was released in theatre(s) on August 16, 1940. Even though at the time of release this little “sleeper” wasn't considered the “first” film noir but just a “minor” low-budget “B” feature(s) film. Today it is often credited by most film critics, film historians, and film “buffs” as being the “first” film noir.(The overzealous quotes are not mine.)
So that’s a conversation that needs to be had. What makes this the first film noir? And, if not this, then what? The term was coined by French film critics “who noticed the trend of how ‘dark,’ downbeat, and black the looks and themes were of many American crime and detective films released in France following the war, such as The Maltese Falcon (1941), Murder, My Sweet (1944), Double Indemnity (1944), and Laura (1944).”
This according to FilmSite.org. However, the explanation is marred by the fact that, if their reasoning is right, then their timeline is wrong: World War II didn’t end until 1945. And if it’s not the conclusion of the war that altered the spirit, what was it? Arguably (Again! Because all of this is arguable. That’s what makes it fun.) the intense oppression the American film industry was under at that point forced filmmakers with something to say to take their message underground, to use metaphor and innuendo to tell the real stories, because anything approaching real human emotion and sexuality would be censored out.
In any case, Stranger on the Third Floor. Another film to look for. But if you’ve had reason to give any of this thought, let us hear from you: what would you say was the first film noir?
3 comments:
I've got two Early/Near Noir films. ANGELS OVER BROADWAY (1940)Written by the great Ben Hecht and staring Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Rita Hayworth, and Thomas Mitchell. The other is CITIZEN KANE. It may seem out of place but all Noir touches are there. The doomed anti-hero, the woman from the wrong side of the tracks, the chiaroscuro photography.
I think the more precise question is: which Hollywood screenwriter first read the work of Cornell Woolrich and decided "I can REALLY rip this guy off!" Doesn't SOTFF sound like an uncredited Woolrich story: the reporter, the boarding house, the electric chair, the innocent man convicted, the maniac with a showy fashion sense?
Mike Nevins, in the latest installment of his regular column on my blog, http://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=421, makes a strong case for LET US LIVE (Columbia, 1939). I've not seen it myself, but I will soon. And if the world's greatest expert on Cornell Woolrich thinks that it's a noir film, I'll wager half a paycheck that it is.
Of course, I'm retired now, so you know what that's worth.
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