Film noir--Stylish crime dramas that stand the test of time

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Although film noirs are still being made, their heyday was roughly between the early 1940’s and the late 1950’s. The films were heavily influenced by the hard boiled school of crime fiction written by James Cain and Raymond Chandler. Experts also say that the moody black and white visual style of film noir evolved from the cinematography seen in German Expressionist films. Many German directors emigrated to the U.S. and were behind the camera to direct some of the great American film noirs.

Rode (pronounced Roe-Dee), who is the author of the excellent biography of one of film noir's most popular actors, Charles McGraw: Biography of a Film Noir Tough Guy, also explores the back story of the film noir industry in his book. He describes the small budgets, short shooting schedules and the challenges artists faced to turn out memorable work under the most challenging of conditions. It is a must read to for any film fan.

Recently, the Los Angeles-based Rode offered the @ your library web site his thoughts about film noir. He also recommends top film noir picks, books, and more, many of which may be found at your local library.

Why did you choose Charles McGraw as the subject of a biography?

I'd always admired McGraw’s work and thought his screen persona was totally unique. When I discovered that he died in a tragic accident, I began researching him in earnest. The watershed occurred after I serendipitously met McGraw’s last significant other; a wonderful lady who had been around Hollywood since 1940. We became close friends and she made available a treasure trove of McGraw anecdotes and personal effects. At a certain point, I knew that I simply had to tell the story of Charles McGraw in Hollywood.

Why and when did today’s audiences begin to rediscover film noirs of the 40’s and 50’s?

I think the film noir renaissance began to germinate during the late 1960’s-early 70’s when college students discovered that actors like Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum epitomized cool during what was conventionally believed to be an uptight post-war period. The advent of VHS made a huge amount of vintage films immediately accessible to those saner people who couldn't stay up till 2:00 am to watch films like D.O.A. (1950) on local television. VHS dovetailed neatly with the birth of cable television movie stations that made even more film noirs available for taping. When film noir revival festivals sprung up in places like Seattle, Los Angeles and Palm Springs during the late 1990’s, the movie studio home entertainment entities deduced that there was black gold in their archival vaults so out came the film noir DVDs.

Film noir strikes a resonant vibe in different generations of audiences for a variety of reasons. For older folks, there is nostalgia. For more contemporary audiences, there is delight in the discovery of a well-crafted story. Film noir is about adults in some sort of extremis situation, usually of their own fatalistic creation. Few modern movies capture life and death as vintage noir did because there are no longer limits or any type of check on anything. There is also a visual component. Many film noir movies have a definitive and pleasing visual style; black & white, low key lighting, supple camera movement, deep focus photography. Most movies nowadays are shot like television shows or have huge close-ups with whirling, hand-held cameras that make me want to reach for the Dramamine vial. I hate to sound like an old grump, but there are too few adults in contemporary films. Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas were barely 30 years old when they made Out of the Past. Is there anyone in the movies nowadays that look and act like those two did? Personally, there is something much more appealing about silk stockings and fedoras instead of blue jeans with designer holes and baseball caps worn backwards.

When did you discover this underappreciated genre and how did you explore it in depth?

My mother was born and bred in Hollywood during the so-called Golden Age of the studio system. Her parents and stepfather worked in and around the margins of the movie business; my grandfather was a bit actor and music composer. So I grew up around movie talk and became immersed at a young age, voraciously watching vintage films on television. I gravitated towards specific types of films that were variously tabbed as "crime dramas" "melodramas" or "suspense" in TV Guide. I began reading and studying more about the movies I liked. I read everything I could get my hands on for years and tried to see every film noir movie I possibly could. Much later on, I began writing about movies and attending repertory cinema and film festivals. I ended up forming rewarding relationships with liked minded friends and colleagues. Now I have finished one book, getting ready to start on another and am deeply involved in programming and hosting film noir festivals. It's been a beautiful thing!

What are the five or six things in a movie that defines it as film noir?

I personally believe that film noir is a style or a movement, not a genre defined by its content such as westerns and musicals. I am sure there are countless adherents to the genre theory out there and they are just as correct as I am! Any definition of noir possesses more intrinsic elasticity than any of the known elements and the ongoing discussion serves to keep matters lively. Generally speaking, any film noir involves a story about some sort of crime that is portrayed from the perspective of the criminals. Noir typically encompasses a variety of thematic attributes such as an urban environment, the femme fatale and a protagonist influenced or propelled by fatalism, nihilism, transgression and doomed romanticism. The influences of German Expressionism- realized by émigré directors such as Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger, Robert Siodmak and others, and the hard boiled crime genre (Cain, Chandler, McCoy, Goodis, Burnett, etc.) cannot be overstated. Remember, it took the French to identify noir to us starting in 1946. We still haven't figured it out!

Would idiosyncratic talents such as directors Joseph H. Lewis and Edgar Ulmer thrive with bigger budgets or did the limited budgets inspire them?

Both of these estimable directors, like so many of their peers, did the best they could with the resources that were available to them. In the case of Edgar Ulmer, he was initially forced into Poverty Row productions at PRC because, while at Universal in the 1930’s, he romanced and married the wife of Carl Laemmle’s nephew and ended up being blackballed by the major studios for a time. Ulmer came to revel in his independence. He wasn't a biddable man and after getting a budget and a schedule to shoot a picture was usually left alone to bring it in. (As an aside, the well-circulated story about Edgar Ulmer shooting Detour (1945) in three days to a week for $15,000 is a myth. Detour’s schedule was over a month long and had a six figure budget.).

Joe Lewis was a different situation. He was one of a number of extremely talented B film directors that started in the late 1930’s and 40’s and tried to make a name for themselves to move up to A productions. Several of these directors, including Eddie Dmytryk, Robert Wise, and Mark Robson, made it to the top tier. Lewis, despite his obvious talent (My Name is Julia Ross, Gun Crazy, The Big Combo) didn't get there. After the wheels started coming off the old studio system in the late 1950’s, he went into television, made a pile of money and retired to his boat in Newport Beach.

I think Lewis and Ulmer would have done well with higher budget projects although I don't think Edgar would have done much with any high octane project by the mid 1950's. Joe Lewis was actually in line to helm The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1956), but got bumped by Robson.

Any good film noirs from the past twenty years?

Yes. Off the top of my head: L.A. Confidential (1997), City of Industry (1997), Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), The Grifters (1990), and Internal Affairs (1990).

If you are new film noir fan, what film festivals would you recommend? What five books to read?

Anyone who loves film noir has to go to the Noir City Festival  at the Castro Theatre every January and the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival in Palm Springs on the last weekend in May. I host and program the Lyons fest. Check out my website for updates on this year's schedule.

Five books:

Dark City by Eddie Muller,
The Dark Side of the Screen by Foster Hirsch,
Dark City: The Film Noir by Spencer Selby,
Death on the Cheap by Arthur Lyons.

And well, Charles McGraw, Biography of a Film Noir Tough Guy

Do you have any appearances scheduled in the near future?

After programming and/or participating in four festivals this year, I am working on closing on another book project that will occupy my spare time for the next couple of years. I will be at Noir City in San Francisco at the end of January 2010 with Arthur Lyons coming up in May 2010.

Top picks

Rode’s top ten film noir list (in order):

• D.O.A., Edmund O'Brien, 1950
• The Narrow Margin, Charles McGraw and Marie Windsor, 1952
• Caged, Eleanor Parker, 1950
• The Big Combo, Richard Conte, Jean Wallace, 1955
• Criss Cross, Burt Lancaster, 1949
• The Asphalt Jungle, Sterling Hayden, Marilyn Monroe, 1950
• In a Lonely Place, Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, 1950
• Raw Deal, Claire Trevor, 1948
• The Killers, Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, 1946
• Ace in the Hole, Kirk Douglas, 1951

Recently, the IMDB web site posted a list of film noir favorites. Some of the top pics include:

• White Heat, James Cagney, 1950
• Pickup On South Street, Richard Widmark, 1953
• The Set-up, the estimable Robert Ryan, 1949
• Sweet Smell of Success, Tony Curtis, Burt Lancaster, 1957
• Detour, Ann Savage, Tom Tully, 1945
• Born to Kill, Lawrence Tierney, 1947
• Touch of Evil, Orson Welles, 1958
• Gun Crazy, John Dall, Peggy Cummins, 1950

I also would recommend two French noirs: Rififi, 1955, and Bob the Gambler, 1959. 

And, see a YouTube film noir tribute.

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