Why Poets Love Noir #2 [by David Lehman and Suzanne Lummis]

Name your favorite underrated noir movie?

Suzanne Lummis:

 Night and the City (1950) is only a bit underrated by film noir enthusiasts, who grudgingly say it's Good; but I think it’s better than Good. It was shot in London because director Jules Dassin was blacklisted, so the whole production got kicked out of town. (Studio head Darryl Zanuck continued to support Dassin and the production.) Richard Widmark, probably my favorite noir actor, plays a grifter always looking for a new angle, and now he’s aspiring to take over London’s underground wrestling world. The movie features so many delights, including some fine performances and, at the end, a stunningly shot footrace through the outskirts of the city. 

David Lehman:

While my hat’s off to Jules Dassin (Naked City is my own favorite of his films) and Richard Widmark (Pickup on South Street) -- and while I’m sorely tempted by D.O.A. in which Edmund O’Brien is in the perfect noir predicament of having to solve his own murder (“why me?”), not to mention Jacques Tourneur's Out of the Past -- I vote for John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle. It’s not exactly underrated, but I’ve interpreted the question as an opportunity to talk about a second favorite. The cast is fantastic, up and down, with special kudos to

-- Sterling Hayden as Dix, the “hooligan” and “big hick,” brawny, trustworthy, an honest crook, no genius, but his instincts serve him well;

-- Sam Jaffe as the brains of the operation, Doc Riedenschneider, about whom Dix says “that squarehead . . . has plenty of guts”;

-- the suave Louis Calhern as Emmerich, who, says Dix, “even double-crossed himself”;

-- Jean Hagen as Doll, sweet, sincere, and smitten with as Dix – she’s even more underrated than Fred MacMurray, and as versatile: compare her work here to that in Singin’ in the Rain),

-- scene-stealing Marilyn Monroe as Angela, Emmerich’s backstreet girl; she calls him Uncle Lon (and tells off a cop, “Haven’t you bothered me enough, you big banana-head?”)

On a recent TCM viewing, I noted that “Soup” is slang for explosive; that, as in so many great noir movies, even the crooks wear jacket and tie, and the getaway car is beautiful; and that the plot – the caper and its deadly aftermath illustrate two essential noir precepts. Emmerich: “Crime is only a left-handed form of human endeavor.” Doc: “What can you do against blind accident?”

See the first in our series -- about Double Indemnity -- by clicking here.

Comments

[Jeffrey Bryant]

Agree with you both. Speaking of Dassin, just re-watched Rififi, the French film about a jewel heist that's a terrific thriller with some very noir elements in tone and attitude. Not noir per se, but maybe noiresque? In any event, one of Dassin's best.

A favorite underrated noir of mine (at least I think of it as half-noir) is No Way Out, Joseph Mankiewicz's 1950 film and the debut of Sidney Poitier. Apropos Widmark, he plays a despicable petty criminal with whom Poitier's doctor character must contend. I think its a great effort at weaving classic noir elements (Widmark and his relationship with Linda Darnell's character) with some serious social drama about Poitier's experience as a young MD in a major public hospital prison ward. Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee also both make debuts here. The African American characters' lives are played out in this film with humanity and realism, not the kind of stereotypical caricatures common to the period.

Thanks again for some fun insights into two great movies.

[The Best American Poetry]

Thanks for this thoughtful comment -- and for recommending the 1950 "No Way Out," which is superior to the movie of the same title starring the redoubtable Gene Hackman along with Kevin Costner and Sean Young. (That's a remake pf "The Big Clock" with Charles Laughton and Ray Milland, a much better film -- not noir but with similarities.) -- DL

[Suzanne Lummis]

Jeffrey, I tend to be a bit finicky about what is and isn't Noir, but I'm fine with calling Rififi Noir. Absolutely. It's French Noir, and those French have their own style. Good that you mention No Way Out, because I'll be mentioning it too in one of my forthcoming comments, an anecdote re. Richard Widmark during the filming. I sure do like Richard Widmark.

[Valerie Brooks]

Thanks for giving noir its due in "Why Poets Love Noir." Poets see the "poetry" in the form. I'm a noir author and noir has expanded in its definition, no longer just defined by style and atmosphere, but more recently defined by content. Style is still important, cynicism critical, but in neo-noir and femmes-noir, the story can be about a strong woman in an icy, rural setting up against the world with justice not served. I'm reading an anthology of women writing noir right (CUTTING EDGE from Akashic Press) and Joyce Carol Oates has this to say: “In noir, women’s place until fairly recently has been limited to two: muse, sexual object. The particular strength of the female noir vision isn’t a recognizable style but rather a defiantly female, indeed feminist, perspective.”
Don't get me wrong--I love classic noir and studied it in college. But everything evolves (or devolves) and in this case noir has expanded to include domestic noir, cyber-noir, supernatural noir, etc. in the movies.
My vote for classic noir goes to THE ASPHALT JUNGLE for all the reasons stated. My neo-noir goes to MULHOLLAND DRIVE.

[The Best American Poetry]

Dear Valerie, Thank you for this valuable comment. Joyce makes a a very good point, which we can excpand a loittle: "muse, sexual object, scorned woman, Ma Barker ['White Heart']." I do think of a few noir movies in which the woman has a real profession. Joan Crawford owns and operates a restaurant in Mildred Pierce, and if Hitchcock is eligible, Ingrid Bergman is a psychoanalyst in "Spellbound."
I agree about THE ASPHALT JUNGLE. My favorite neo-noir: "The Getaweay" (sam Peckinpah). Do Frankenheimer's "The Manchurian Candiate" and "Seconds" count as noirs? -- DL