Notes on B Film Noir

Paul Kerr made many interesting points on the origins of many qualities of film noir. Prior to reading this essay, I, like many critics that Kerr writes about, thought that film noir was mostly a result of the movie industry’s “unmediated reflection of an all-pervading postwar gloom” (p. 108) and of “an audience that no longer needed cheering up” (p. 108). Kerr goes on to attribute film noir qualities not to public attitude and ideology, but rather, to the current economics of the industry. This idea makes sense, as it is obvious that most noir films were low-budget. The darkness and scenery of these movies, along with the montages that commonly appear in them can all be attributed to the fact that the directors and producers did not have much money to work with.

Kerr also goes on to say that film noir is not characterized by content, character, setting and plot, but by style (p. 110). To be completely honest, I do not agree with that observation. Yes, noir films are characterized by contrast lighting and sharp camera angles, and certain qualities that make them obviously low-budget films. However, unlike Kerr, I would definitely characterize them not only by style, but also by the characters, content, setting and plot. In almost every film noir movie that I have analyzed, including Out of the Past, and Double Indemnity, I have mentioned how the characters and certain recurring themes in these movies are characteristic of noir films. The femme fatale appears in almost every noir film, and, as far as I know, these were the first films that such a character appeared in (although I could be wrong, I’m no film expert). Aside from other common character types, the idea that ‘one cannot escape his or her past’ also seems to come up over and over again in film noir. Therefore, I do not possible see how to characterize film noir only in terms of style. I realize that this was only a very small portion of the essay, but it was just something that stuck out to me.

Detour is obviously a B film noir. Kerr mentioned that due to money shortages, filming was often rushed and an entire movie was shot over the course of a week. Perhaps this was one of the issues that the director of Detour had to face, as I felt that the acting was often not believable in some of the scenes. For example, in the beginning of the movie, Al is describing his new romance with Sue as “the most beautiful thing,” yet as he does so, he still seems depressed. Then, when he speaks to Sue on the phone after receiving the ten dollars in the club, he seems overly-ecstatic (which I thought was fake and cheesy). Maybe if the actors had more time to film the movie, these scenes could have been performed better.

Detour definitely displayed one of the recurring themes of film noir. Although I have yet to see the end of the movie, I am almost certain that Al will never be able to escape his situation with Mr. Hasco. Al will never escape his past, and no matter where he goes, “fate will stick out a foot to trip him.”