Mike Frank wonders: > a single guy, perhaps wearing a trenchcoat, in a > crummy hotel room alone at night; the hotel's neon > sign is just outside his window blinking on and off, the > light shining on him through the venetian blinds in the > window; outside it is of course raining; on the > soundtrack either a wailing saxophone and/or a voice > over narration talking, saying something bitter and > cynical on the order of "everything seemed to be > swell, until . . ." > > > is it possible that there are no such moments? . . . that in > fact this is just a parodic pastiche of elements that never > in the original films came together in quite this way? . . . i really > hope not . . . . . . so i'm asking for references to sequences > in films, preferably [but not necessarily] films of the forties > and fifties, that embody all [or at least most] of these elements . . . No saxophones, as I recall, but the opening of the extended flashback in MURDER MY SWEET is very close. The flashing light reflecting in the window of Marlowe's darkened office reveals Mike Masurki standing eerily behind the detective. Powell's hardboiled narration is also prototypical (of the stereotype, anyway) throughout the film. Not as dark, but the scene in Laura when Dana Andrews dozes off just before the supposedly dead title character reappears also plays off these themes. The opening scene of DOUBLE INDEMNITY--Fred MacMurray crashing his car on a rainy street and then, bleeding, confessing into Edward G. Robinson's tape recorder also comes close in mood, if not details. Later films, like TAXI DRIVER, freely appropriate such tropes. A number of critics have cited scenes that have many (if not all, again) of these elements: James Greenberg, article, New York Times, Feb. 6, 1994, H9+ (This one has a handy sidebar of noir cliches.) J.A. Place and L.S. Peterson, "Some Visual Motifs of Film Noir," FILM COMMENT, Jan. 1974. Finally, for an audio (!) parody of all this, find The Fireside Theater's album HOW CAN YOU BE IN TWO PLACES AT ONCE WHEN YOU'RE NOT ANYWHERE AT ALL? (aka ALL HAIL MARX AND LENNON), with the side the includes "The Further Adventures of Nick Danger, Third Eye." ("I was staring at my name on the window: 'Regnad Kcin'" u.s.w.) Don Larsson ---------------------- Donald Larsson Minnesota State U, Mankato [log in to unmask] ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu