Women in Noir

            Okay, really, this is the end (for now) I have been giving a lot of thought to women within noir stories, and there are two major camps. The one side claims that women are further objectified, relegated to sex objects when not pursuing criminal activities.

            The other camp is firmly entrenched in the camp that says women are empowered by allowing them to have power over men and act as agents for themselves. A woman as a criminal has agency and pursues her own goals.

Noir Thoughts: Conclusion (I think)

            I was right. Harry was the last piece. But I needed to examine The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep in detail to cement my thoughts. They all work in, along with a fair bit of Chandler’s essay “The Simple Art of Murder.”

Noir Thoughts: Other Big Sleep Characters

            I won’t rehash the last four characters with their destructive chain of events. But the other major (and one minor) character deserve the same treatment, and they are every bit (if not more) the noir characters as those of Sam Spade’s supporting cast.

Noir Thoughts: Destructive Chain

            Like The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep is replete with unsavory characters. I think these characters are even more depraved in Chandler’s book than in Hammett’s. I’ll get into the rest of the characters in another post, but I wanted to highlight four characters that Chandler gives. They chain together, responsible for the destruction of the next character, and themselves. This is only tangentially related to the central premise of the book. Their plots and lives simply intersect with what is ultimately the mystery of who killed Rusty Regan.

Noir Thoughts Part V: Philip Marlowe

            Like Sam Spade, Marlowe is a great hard-boiled detective, but I think the main difference is that he has a deep humanity that Sam has lost. He feels. Sometimes he’s afraid, such as when facing off against Eddie Mars, and sometimes he’s lusty, such as with Vivian Regan. The most Sam managed to convey in terms of feeling was his annoyance at characters like Cairo and Wilmer.

Noir Thoughts Part IV: Sam's Supporting Cast

            I looked at Sam Spade last time, but now it’s time to turn to the characters he deals with.

Miles Archer

            Miles, though only seen briefly, seems to fulfill Otto Penzler’s definition of a noir protagonist. Immediately he flirts with Brigid O’Shaughnessy (still going by Miss Wonderly at this point), and it is only after his death that readers and audience learn that he was married.

Noir Thoughts Part III: Sam Spade

            I’m going to look at the guy who got me into PI/Noir in the first place: Sam Spade. I have always loved this character. The tough-talking, no nonsense, epitome of hard-boiled PI set the bar for detective fiction. For me. I never was able to identify as well with Nick Charles or the Continental Op. For me it’s always been Sam Spade.

Noir Thoughts Part II

            According to Otto Penzler, noir stories focus on losers, on the people that will ultimately doom themselves by their own immoral choices. He cites Nef as a perfect example from Double Indemnity. I’m on board with Nef’s story as one of noir, but, conversely, Otto declares the PI story is not noir as it is one filled with hope, focused on a moral character standing up and doing what is right in an immoral world. Even the premise itself is hopeful as other characters seek out the PI to solve their problems.

Noir Thoughts Part I

            I’ve always been fascinated by the Noir genre. The film genre speaks to me with its stark black and whites and use of shadows and light. The world, especially, is fascinating. I love watching a good noir gangster movie or Walter Neff get played by Phyllis Deitrichson. And boy do I love me some Sam Spade. That movie put noir on the map for me. Bogey, Greenstreet, and Lorre together conspire over a bird that turns out to be lead. Can it get more noir than that?