2. Film Noir and Hard-Boiled Crime Stories

4. Film Noir and Hard-Boiled Crime Stories
Hard-boiled fiction introduced the tough and savvy private detective, the duplicitous femme-fatale, the innocent victim of circumstance, and the confessing but remorseless murderer.

5. Film Noir and Hard-Boiled Crime Stories
Creators of this uniquely American crime genre engaged existential themes of isolation, anxiety, futility, and death in the thrilling context of the urban crime thriller.

6. Film Noir and Hard-Boiled Crime Stories
The film noir brought these features to the screen, and offered a distinctively dark visual style compatible with the unorthodox narrative techniques of hard-boiled fiction writers.

7. Hardboiled Fiction Associated with detective stories
Unsentimental portrayal of crime, violence, and sex
Depiction is brutal and direct, with no reservations
Portrays harsh realities of life
Life is morally chaotic
Often includes a murder mystery

8. Edgar Allen Poe defined the detective story in the 1840’s, the basics of which undermine much hardboiled fiction
Hardboiled fiction was developed in the early 1920’s by Carroll John Daly

9. Popularized throughout 1920’s by Dashiell Hammett
Refined in late 1930’s by Raymond Chandler
Although still popular today, hardboiled fiction saw its height from

10. The economic boom following the First World War plus the introduction of Prohibition in 1920 encouraged the rise of the gangster and organized crime.
This was the upbringing of the hardboiled detective

11. City streets were ridden with crime, violence, poverty, drinking, and death.
Out of these streets, the hardboiled detective was born

12. Common Themes Hardboiled stories are of a gritty nature
Typically a thug protagonist and antagonist
Dialogue usually lower class; less sophisticated
Main character is a vagabond, dedicated to his work and justice
Troubled, but strong (and lovely) heroine
Antagonist motivated by personal gain and disruption of social order

13. Typical Hardboiled Detective
Tough personality and attitude
Independent of others, often no family and few friends
Cynical city-dwellers
Willing to break the law to ensure justice

14. Typical Hardboiled Detective
Basic characteristics of the hard-boiled detective:
Male
White
Heterosexual
Loner
drinker

15. Typical Hardboiled Detective
P.I. (Private Investigator)
Works & Lives in an urban center
Tough and unsentimental
Willing to break the law or resist authorities
Beset by attractive, but morally compromised women
Typically the narrator

16. Typical Hardboiled Detective
Not afraid to shoot when necessary
Don’t live by strict ethical codes
Sometimes WWI veterans.
Exposure to death and hardship makes them tough, pessimistic
Ambivalent attitude towards police: want to rid America of crime
Stereotypical diet of black coffee, fried eggs, and cigarettes

17. Typical Hardboiled Detective
Often have beautiful women as their clients

18. Hardboiled vs. Mystery/Detective
Hardboiled fiction changed the face of mystery and detective writing
Protagonists with the tough attitude are unique to hardboiled
Hardboiled detectives confront danger and partake in violence
Depicts real situations on the streets

19. Why “hardboiled”?
The term hardboiled was derived as a comparison between a hardboiled egg and the detectives of the fiction.
Both are relatively tough!

20. Publication
Originally published in pulp magazines, most famously Black Mask
Late 1920’s, Hollywood began hiring writers in the genre to write movie scripts
1930, detective radio shows went on air

21. Publication detective comic strips, followed by comic books
1931, Newspapers began printing
detective comic strips, followed
by comic books

22. Noir Fiction 1930s victim, suspect, criminal sexual tension
self-destructive
direct, gritty realism
more variety in plots

23. Film Noir 40s/50s low lighting black and white German expressionism
hardboiled/noir

24. Film Noir
Film Noir is a STYLE of filmmaking commonly found in crime, mystery, or thriller genres Rather than PLOT being supreme, it is TONE and MOOD

25. Cynicism
pessimism
darkness
corrupt characters; crooked cops, double- crossers
fatalistic themes
Hopelessness
harsh view of American life

26. Femme Fatale Femme fatale is French for deadly woman
An incredibly attractive woman who leads men into danger

27. Femme Fatale
Also called “vamps” because they are associated with vampires.
The logic is that they leave their lovers mere shells of their former selves.

28. Femme Fatale
In hard-boiled fiction the protagonist is usually romantically interested/obsessed in the femme fatale
She typically scorns marriage and familial relationships because they are too restraining.

29. Femme Fatale
In the event that the femme fatale is married, the relationship is associated with boredom, unhappiness, and a sense of being caged by their husbands.
"He keeps me on a leash so tight I can't breathe." Double Indemnity (1944)

30. The Role of the Femme Fatale
The femme fatale is incredibly strong willed and endlessly pursues her own means.
Provides a stark contrast to the misogynistic attitudes of the other characters.

31. The Role of the Femme Fatale
The femme fatale usually dies at the end of the story.
However she still exudes some control over men from her grave.
The men are unable to forget her and in film noir the audience can’t forget her either.

42. Film Noir and Hard-Boiled Crime Stories

44. A Beg, Borrow, and Steal, Non-Profit Production - 2017