2.3 Noir Elements & the Rare "A" Noir

2.3 Noir Elements & the Rare "A" Noir

STAPLE NOIR ELEMENTS

 In this week's film, be sure to pay attention to the explicit and implicit meaning and use of the following: 

  • Corruption
  • Innuendo
  • Expressionistic camera work (suggestive shadows, extreme angles)
  • Fatalism – a belief that you are unable to change your destiny
  • A failure of crime to pay (Hays Code)
  • Femme Fatale – wicked spider woman
  • Flawed Male – ready to be led astray by the aforementioned wicked women

THE RARE "A" NOIR

Later in the semester we will learn about the proliferation through the 1940s of the "Poverty Row" studios that excelled at noir production. Double Indemnity is an interesting case as an early, "A" noir the stakes were higher to return it's nearly $1 million budget AND make a profit. The average movie ticket in 1944 was $0.32 ($4.57 inflation adjusted price)

TOTAL STUDIO BUDGET FOR DOUBLE INDEMNITY: $927,262 ($13,635,545.77 in 2020). It made $5 million at the box office.

Shadow of a Doubt (1943) directed by Alfred Hitchcock starring Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten adapted from Gordan McDonald's original story by Alma Reville, Sally Benson & Thornton Wilder. Budget - 60,000?  The film made $1.2 million box office.

Laura (1944) directed by Otto Preminger starring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews was adapted from the novel by Vera Caspary had a slightly higher budget at $1.02 million. It made $2 million at the box office.

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) directed by Tay Garner starring Lana Turner and John Garfield from a James M. Cain novel had an estimated budget of $1,683,000 and box office over $5 million.

This small handful of films goes to show that A-list/budget noirs were not a large priority for the major studios. But when they shelled out the bucks it certainly came back to them in the form of wild profits!

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