Geek Syndicate
was amongst the first to take
crime fiction away from cheap
detective-based fiction. He
was particularly known for his
realistic dialogue and tough
characters. The flims were also
in the first person, narrated by
the main character, who was
usually the one in trouble. This
meant that the reader could
really feel the danger, passion
or other emotion directly.
Meanwhile, Chandler was all
about character and mood.
Steamy Los Angeles and the
misogynistic, wise-cracking,
almost emotionless private
investigator could be said to
be his inventions. Cain, on the
other hand, put the criminals
at the forefront, rather than
the good guys, while still almost always being the victims
themselves. Not victims of
crime but victims of circumstance.
The first film that could be
called film noir will always
be questioned. Is it the first
version of The Maltese Falcon
(1931, Dir: Roy Del Ruth) or
the aforementioned M? These
films do have some of the elements of noir, but they don’t
really bind the whole. Some
say it is not until 1940’s Stranger on the Third Floor (Dir: Boris
Ingster) that noir was recognised. In this film (which this
correspondent has not seen)
a journalist is haunted by uncertainty following a murder
trial and his world spirals out
of control. It features a surreal
dream sequence, murder and
a style similar to German expressionism. What-ever came
first; the next few decades became littered with cinematic
classics under the banner of
noir. There are dozens of great
films that have sprung from
these inauspicious loins.
The Archetype
• Detour, 1945 Starring: Tom
Neal and Ann Savage, Dir:
Edgar G. Ulmer 67 mins.
The movie starts off with an
unshaven man in a crumple ??????????????????)??????!???????????)????????????????????????????????????????)?????????????????????)?????????????????????)???????????Q???????)????????????M????)??????????????????)??????????????????)??????????????????????e?)????????????????????????)??????????????????????)]??e?????????????????)????????????????????????)????q$?????????????)????????????????)?????????????????)?????????????????)???????????????????????????????????t?(??((