Noir Fans: Overlooked Noirs

[jake_fink]

Here's an article by the very good film critic Jonathon Rosenbaum. It's another list, this time of overlooked film noir.

I've never seen The Argyle Secrets or The Sound of Fury. [huh]

Sorry, Brad... Here's the link:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/articles/noir.htm

 

[Brad Bowers]

Link?

Brad

 

[jake_fink]

Link?

Oops.


Fixed.

 

[Jack Scorpion]

I've been up to my neck in articles on Film Noir these past months, graduating thesis and all. That's the problem with Articles on this subject. No one knows what to say so all these articles turn into a list of recommendations. I can't keep up with the amount of good noirs there are.

P.S. I never looked at Gilda as a closet gay noir. All films noir are quote on quote closet gay a little bit. Gilda's getting picked on.

 

[herringbonekid]

All films noir are quote on quote closet gay a little bit. Gilda's getting picked on.

ALL film noirs ?
can you elaborate ? i've never heard this theory before.

 

[maintcoder]

ALL film noirs ?
can you elaborate ? i've never heard this theory before.

I have never heard of this theory either. It is definitely something I would like to hear more about too!

As a matter of fact, I watched Somehwere in the Night (1946) with John Hodiak, Lloyd Nolan, Richard Conte, and Nancy Guild. Pretty decent movie with a few 'jumps' that weren't explained in the narrative and I didn't see what could be construed as 'closet gay' in this movie.

 

[Jack Scorpion]

Probably because the theory is pretty sketchy, at least in my eyes.

Films noir often have an exaggerated masculine figure, and even more often have figures that lose their masculinity due to a dominating female figure, the femme fatale. Because in films noir the masculine figure is often in a continuous distrust of the always beautiful female (or is in such a disempowered state), the relationships between males characters (even between archenemies) get pretty buddy buddy. Prison cellmates, heist pals, father-son bonds all have powerful homosocial connections. The girls are usually killed before male-male friendships are broken up.

Plus, a good deal of the directors and producers were gay.

In In a Lonely Place, even Bogart gets pretty touchy-feely with his agent at the end and calls Gloria Graham, "A good guy." Similar in Dead Reckoning.

Ed G Robinson and MacMurray in Double Indemnity. Ballon/janitor and Johnny in Gilda. Mitchum and the deafmute in Out of the Past. The Swede and his cellmate in The Killers. "Rich playboys" in any Marlowe.

At the time in America, homosexuality was considered a homeland security issue. And since all homeland security issues found a place in films noir, so did this.

However, I wouldn't classify a movie like Gilda under such a superficial category, "the closet gay noir."