elab49
Posts: 51600
Joined: 1/10/2005
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One of the advantages of going from a top 25 to a top 40 is I can play around with the boundaries of the definition of Film Noir in my list. While I've already referenced the impact of German Expressionism and popularity of pulp fiction, other factors did come into play. Cost was certainly an issue – restrictions in the war years took advantage of movies that could be made cheaper, as could the breaking down of the monopoly of the main studios running from the making to the showing of films. And films run in cycles – we regularly see lots of imitators after a box-office hit, and the box office success of films like Double Indemnity, Laura and Murder My Sweet in the mid-40s inevitably pump-primed the main cycle of classic noir into the early 50s.
But the first cycle ran from about 1940-1944 and as well as the full on 'clichéd' film noir, we also had works that were tangential but incorporated some of the other influences that would come to bear when the cycle hit full flow.
Another element that fed into classic noir, then, was poetic realism, a pre-war film movement in France that gave us key proto-noirs by Jean Renoir, Marcel Carné and Julién Duvivier. The focus was on marginalised characters – the disaffected and often the destitute. This chimed perfectly with the noir character aesthetic (the returning GI, the poor schlubs who turned to crime) although it did also come into conflict with the Hollywood code of happy endings (as all noir did) – in France the protagonist normally ended up dead. But many of these films were also remade as noirs – La Bete Humaine became Fritz Lang's Human Desire, Le Jour se Leve as Litvak's The Long Night.
The greatest star of this movement was Jean Gabin. He made only 2 films in English when he left France for Hollywood as the Germans invaded. And this was the first.
No. 39
Moontide (1942)
d. Archie Mayo (with uncredited work from Fritz Lang).
w. John O'Hara from a novel by Willard Robertson. (uncredited contributions from Nunnally Johnson).
Spoiler-free synopsis : 2 of life's losers find love but a possible murder and a disturbed acquaintance threaten to ruin things for them.
To an extent this is another case of what might have been and I hope there will be an element of latitude so low down on the list. That said there are noir elements in the film (even as eventually realised) and it is now generally included in lists of film noirs from the classic period and is finally about to get a DVD release with Fox's Film Noir imprint.
It does make clear the link between poetic realism and the classic noir films with the character and setting occasionally showing some resemblance to one of Gabin's previous films, Quai des Brumes (a film we will undoubtedly return to on other lists). The storyline itself is not unique and I have mentioned elsewhere the similarities to von Sternberg's Docks of New York – but remakes were common in the noir cycles
I love this film because of the performances. Gabin's work – one of my favourite actors and possessor of a perfect French shrug – appears in the first of his 2 English roles, having left France during the war (the second was with his Pepe le Moko director Duvivier and was basically a propaganda film) is superb. A very physical actor he bears some similarities to Mifune in his screen presence and to Spencer Tracy in appearance. Providing excellent support are key noir actress Ida Lupino (soon to become one of the period's few female directors with entries of her own in the noir cannon) and the much-loved Thomas Mitchell (in an unusual role – although there were limits to what could be done explicitly on screen it is clear that Tiny is stalker-level obsessed with Bobo which leads to run ins with the woman in his life and figures in his attempt to kill her. He also – just to make clear what the subtext is here – clearly enjoys towel-whipping a naked Claude Rains!). Rains plays a rather odd role as an intellectual nightwatchman who becomes caught up with the main characters and has a remarkably interesting hat. He becomes complicit when he, believing Bobo has done something terrible while drunk, takes steps to protect him.
 The Hat!
Admittedly the final creative team doesn't have much of a noir footprint. The screenplay by John O'Hara of Butterfield 8 and Pal Joey fame, shows the weight of multiple writers. The original source has a more fatalistic ending that would be even better suited to a noir tale but the studios wouldn't go for it. Fritz Lang did some initial work on the film including having discussions with Dali about the dream sequences indicating his take would be more in keeping with the original work and consider the impact of guilt on Bobo's character both in terms of where he came from (a criminal father – in keeping with the rising interest in psychology, etc, a common theme in noir is the impact of criminal parentage – at least 2 more in my list have characters whose actions are heavily influenced by trying to escape their father's crimes – is someone fated to follow in his footsteps?) and what he might have done (finding out a local character has been strangled, Tiny uses this to strengthen his hold on Bobo – he has been using a previous incident to live off him for years). While it is almost impossible to say what is left from Lang, chunks of the dream sequence seem a fair bet. As Jasiri mentions on the 81 (or 82 or however high is has gotten!) thread, clocks were Lang's thing and this one has some familiarity.
  
Early invisible Quiz The clock (bottles as hands)
The painting's title is Persistence of Memory – very apt for the film. James Basevi – art director and one time head of special effects at MGM - presumably also met Dali on this and it seems reasonable to wonder if this was one of the roots of the work done on Spellbound where the 2 worked together again and Dali's work finally made it onto the screen.
The beautifully shot chase sequence at the end and the wonderful creation of the nighttime port got Charles G Clarke an Oscar nomination for his work. Again, there is uncredited support, this time from Lucien Ballard who later gave time to Laura and The Killing, learning his trade on set with von Sternberg. But the nomination was well deserved whoever was responsible. Scenes like this one on the beach highlight the characters using every possible light source from the reflections on the edge of the sand and the fire lit by holidaymakers. Less chiaroscuro lighting and more on character focus, particularly the lighting on Gabin's face as the moods of his character change, especially noticeable as he hunts down Tiny at the end, brings it into acceptable noir territory.
 
But, as I said – here it is the acting I enjoy and just can't resist having Gabin in my classic noir list. His co-stars will all turn up again later.
Trivia: Gabin apparently, like Depardieu, was an autodidact making his performance in English all the more remarkable
< Message edited by elab49 -- 30/7/2008 4:07:49 PM >
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RE: My Top Film Noir - 
time for review 
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