Born to be bad

Born to be bad

Although it inherits its name from the French, film noir has
become a quintessentially American genre. From Wilder to Tarantino,
the Nuart ‘Pulp Noir’ series delves into the world of murder,
mayhem and moral myopia …

By Bernie Cook

and Lael Loewenstein

Special to The Bruin

"Born to Kill! Born to Steal! Born to Avoid the Consequences!"
trumpets the title sequence of Robert Wise’s Born to Kill (1947),
one of the offerings in the Nuart theater’s "Pulp Noir" series,
beginning tonight and running through Feb. 9.

This is film noir in a nutshell: murder, mayhem and moral
myopia.

The series follows on the heels of Quentin Tarantino’s bullet-to
the-heart-of-the-crime film, Pulp Fiction. The titles’ similarity
is no accident, as the series could be viewed as a compilation of
Tarantino’s influences. It features one of his favorite films,
Brian DePalma’s Blow Out (1981, screening Feb. 7), and the film
after which he named his production company, Jean-Luc Godard’s
Bande A Part (1964, screening Feb. 6).

Rather than merely capitalizing on the notoriety of Pulp
Fiction, the Nuart series attempts to demonstrate links between the
early expressions of the genre, inspired by the "hardboiled"
fiction of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and James Cain, and
recent, "neo-noir" incarnations.

Because Tarantino’s influences stray beyond noir to include
Sinatra/Martin "rat pack" comedies and ’70s "blaxploitation," the
mantle of "neo-noir" is better worn by John Dahl, director of the
recent The Last Seduction (1994) and Red Rock West (1994, screening
Feb. 9).

Working within film noir’s conventions, Dahl produces ’90s
stories whose murders, betrayals and corruption echo classic noirs
of the ’40s. Recalling Joe Lewis’ Gun Crazy (1949, screening Jan.
28) and Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity (1944, screening Feb. 9),
Dahl’s films focus on lonely, principled men destroyed by ruthless,
brilliant women.

Dahl and Tarantino both share an approach to violence
characteristic of film noir. Partially because of the Production
Code which restricted violent film content in the past, the
violence in film noir is more often suggested than depicted. Not
explicitly graphic, classical noir instead projects a climate of
menace.

Although Dahl’s and Tarantino’s films are too often mistakenly
lumped with Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers (1994) as examples
of "hyper-violent" filmmaking, in the noir tradition they tend to
suggest more than they show.

Their films create an atmospheric tension, where violence is
always imminent. This atmosphere of potential violence is a key to
noir’s continued appeal.

The pervasive threat of violence is enhanced by film noir’s
style. High contrast black-and-white cinematography, with low-key
lighting, create a prevailing sense of doom in a world jolted off
balance by bizarre camera angles and wide-angle lenses. The typical
noir landscape, the city, is often represented by rain-slicked
streets crisscrossed with ominous shadows. The diner, the race
track, the detective’s office and the bar are staples of the genre,
but no space in film noir is safe.

Thematically, film noir is a virtual swamp of amoral behavior.
Motivated by lust, greed, hatred and revenge, characters are driven
to double-cross, steal and murder.

The films’ titles aptly reflect their content: Born to Be Bad,
Fear in the Night (1947, screening Jan. 29) and The Killing (1956,
screening Jan. 30). The typical noir protagonist is a man doomed to
accept his violent fate by a past he cannot change, returning to
haunt him in vivid flashbacks.

The film noir atmosphere is charged not only with violence but
with dangerous embodiments of sexuality as well.

Nothing personifies this better than the femme fatale, the
deadly female. Selfish, cold and utterly manipulative, the femme
fatale typically uses her wiles to seduce a man in order to
persuade him to commit a crime for her, only to dispose of him
later. Unknowable, elusive and devastatingly attractive, the femme
fatale is a walking time bomb masquerading as a bombshell.

In the Chandler-inspired Murder My Sweet (1944, screening Jan.
27), a film the New York Times called "a sure cure for low blood
pressure," Claire Trevor is a standout as the predatory vixen
tracked by Detective Philip Marlowe (Dick Powell).

Trevor has a rival in Barbara Stanwyck, who makes an indelible
impression as the scheming temptress in Double Indemnity (1944,
screening Feb. 9), adapted from the Cain novel. After she persuades
an insurance salesman (Fred MacMurray) to sell a policy on her
husband’s life, she sweet-talks him into helping her kill her
husband. When a claims investigator (a superb Edward Robinson)
begins to unravel the crime, Stanwyck reveals the full extent of
her malice. A classic film noir, Double Indemnity was a benchmark
in the genre’s cycle. Its box office success prompted other studios
to release similar productions.

Memorable, too, is Peggy Cummins’ carnival seductress role in
Gun Crazy. Released as low budget B-movie, Gun Crazy has come to
acquire a cult status in the noir pantheon. John Dall and Cummins
are the doomed lovers on the run with a predilection for gunplay
and robbery. This film foreshadowed Arthur Penn’s bloodier Bonnie
and Clyde (1967).

Robert Aldrich’s adaptation of Mickey Spillane’s Kiss Me Deadly
(1955, screening Jan. 31) marries noir’s sexual conflict to cold
war tensions. Dark and brutal, the film highlights the sadistic
side of the hardboiled hero. Little distinguishes Mike Hammer
(Ralph Meeker) from his quarry. His only forms of expression are
sullen silence or a clenched fist. Emotionally barren, Hammer
cannot enforce his will on seductive and hollow Los Angeles. The
film ends with a bang.

Also notable is Don Siegel’s version of The Killers (1964,
screening Feb. 5). Originally intended for television, it proved
too violent for the small screen. In the 1960s the Production Code
went through a period of revision before being replaced by the
current rating system in 1968. As standards loosened, more explicit
violence could be depicted.

The Killers exemplifies this trend. A reworking of both the
short story and noir antecedents, Siegel’s version can be
considered the first "neo-noir." Look for Ronald Reagan in his last
film role, playing a vicious killer.

Although film noir inherited its French name and its dark look
from French poetic realist films of the 1930s and German
Expressionist Cinema of the 1920s, it has become a quintessentially
American genre. The earlier black-and-white films may have given
way to the color pictures of Tarantino and Dahl, but the genre is
very much alive and well.

As one of the characters muses in His Kind of Woman (1951), in a
line which could as well be describing the violent world of Pulp
Fiction, "Everybody’s in trouble."

FILM SERIES: "Pulp Noir: Two Weeks of Murder, Mystery and
Mayhem," Jan. 27-Feb. 9 at the Nuart Theater, 11272 Santa Monica
Blvd., West L.A. For more info call (310) 478-6379.