While this is coming from a different direction than the initial
two commentaries on film noir, I would strongly suggest that in
addition to foreign influences, the American tradition of noir be
acknolwedged, developing as a result of the industry structure as
it developed in the decades before the 1940s. William Everson has
been working on a book called Pre-noir Noir for some time, which
will doubtless phrase such an argument far more fully. If you
look beyond the canon, especially in the 1930s, not only the
style but the narrative patterns of noir are becoming clear. Not
to toot my favorites, but one of the strongest examples is THE
FLORENTINE DAGGER (WB, 1935) by Robert Florey; although he is
later involved in noir in the 1940s (VERDOUX, CROOKED WAY, JOHNNY
ONE-EYE, VICIOUS YEARS), like many directors had then already
moved largely beyond noir. The pattern is evident in many other B
careers of the 1930s that went on to other type of work in the
1940s, of which noir was only one facet. The domain of the B film
at the majors (I'm not including poverty row at the moment) in
the 1930s provided an avenue where a certain degree of
experimentation was tolerated, at times even encouraged in
pursuit of novelty, and crime was one of the primary formulas.
From my own interviews, filmmakers were aware of European styles,
and the avant-garde, particularly from the 1920s, but were
primarily concerned with adapting them to their own work, and
well on their way in this direction before 1930s France and 1940s
Italy would have been seen. Indeed, the 1940s saw the time when
the merging of the B as a mainstream form facilitated noir's
flowering as a principal type, no longer relegated to the margins
of lower budgets. Hence this is more a matter of the industry's
evolution, and the movement of various artists and styles into
secure positions, together with an infusion of new
immigrants--along with changing society, WWII influence, and so
forth. I hope you will see this as a variation on the argument
you cite as typical, not merely a rephrasing, but my own viewing
and research on the 1940s and earlier decades indicates that to
understand noir's origins requires going back to previous
American eras, not simply simultaneous or 1930s overseas
production.
Brian Taves
Motion Picture Division, Library of Congress
Tavesmail.loc.gov
Disclaimer: The views expressed are entirely my own.
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