For the most part, the characters in pulp stories and noir films are all very similar. Each film or story has a detective who is stoic and clever, and one of two types of female characters- the first of which is the “damsel in distress” who needs to be rescued, and the second is the “femme fatale” who uses her good looks to fool men and further some sort of criminal scheme. I found the characters in “The Girl with the Silver Eyes” to be typical of pulp fiction, although this story did differ from other pulp stories in the interactions of the detective and the femme fatale.
It seems as though in most pulp stories or noir films involving a femme fatale, this seductive female character manages to deceive (even if only very briefly) the detective or protagonist of the story. We have not read many pulp stories with a femme fatale, but in almost all of the noir films we have watched, this has been the case. However, in “The Girl with the Silver Eyes,” Jeanne Delano, the heartless femme fatale, does not manage to fool the unnamed detective. After attempting to convince him of her motives and intentions in the murder of Burke and the other men, she attempts to fool the detective by admitting that she has “played with” men in the past, but is now intrigued and attracted to the detectives seeming disinterest in her. As the reader, it would be easy to believe Jeanne’s story at first. Personally, I was not fooled by her excuses, as I expected her to be the same as every other femme fatale we have come across- lying and deceiving until the very end. However, I also expected the detective to believe her for a moment, and give in to her seduction. As I mentioned previously, all the detectives we have come across have fallen into this trap, and I expected this one to do the same. I found it surprising, but definitely satisfying, when the detective called her a liar and resisted her temptation.
After reading this story, I continue to notice a distinct difference between film noir and pulp stories, even though the characters seem to be very similar. It seems as though had “The Girl with the Silver Eyes” been a noir film originally, rather than a pulp story, the detective probably would have been deceived by the femme fatale’s lies, and probably destroyed in some way in the end (I realize that this is a somewhat broad generalization, but it just seems like the protagonists in film noir commonly manage to die in the end). However, because the story is a pulp story rather than a noir film, good prevails over evil and the detective is able to punish the femme fatale rather than be destroyed by her.
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