Double Indemnity, Strangers on a Train & Changes in Film Noir
When one looks back upon the history of film during the 20th century, few things are as iconic and memorable as film noir. In brief summation, film noir was a popular genre of film during the 1940s and 1950s which was, in general, crime thrillers. Discussion and analyzation of this genre is important because not only has it been a significant influence on films after its popularity, but also, it is arguably the most memorable film genre from the 20th century to general audiences.
This being said, film noir was by no means the same throughout its reign of popularity. Conversely, over time, many changes happened within the genre. Before illustrating this change, there are a few steps that need to be taken. First, film noir must be established as a genre, rather than simply a film style or trend. By doing this, the genre conventions will be established. After, one can look at the changes that happened over time. To do this, two noir films, Double Indemnity (1944) and Strangers on a Train (1951), will be compared and contrasted. Ultimately, this will serve to show the evolution of the genre and its historical importance .
To begin, one first has to look at film noir as a genre and understand its origins. After WWII, there was an increasing tendency of crime thrillers that focused on psychological disturbance.[1] However, the term “film noir” was not coined until French critics noticed the new dark tendency in Hollywood films.[2] In his book, Film Genre: Hollywood and Beyond, film theorist Barry Langford lays out what French critics noted that separated noir from traditional Hollywood cinema.
“The nocturnal settings, Expressionistic lighting schemes and staging, complex, sometimes cynical and anti-heroic characters, and torturous, often downbeat narratives of criminal intrigue, deception and violence featured – though by no means consistently or uniformly – in these films starkly differentiated them from the standard Hollywood register of high-key optimism.”[3]
Here, Langford offers a few key conventions that separated noir from previous Hollywood films. Due to the amount of similarities between the films themselves, and the great degree of separation from optimistic Hollywood films, they are able to be categorized into their own genre. Even with all these characteristics listed, it is by no means an exhaustive list. Langford goes on to mention more narrative and stylistic choices that further separate noir and other genres while noting its important influences. Due to the criminal and psychological nature of the genre, many noir films were based on popular crime or mystery novels.[4] Further, he goes on to note film noir’s surrealist and existentialist, and Poetic Realist roots. First, he states that the transgressive power of sexual desire in noir comes from surrealism, along with “dream-like labyrinthine narratives”.[5] From existentialism comes the noir protagonists’ “lonely quest for self-realization in a…meaningless universe.”[6] Lastly, Langford states that many French critics recognized some of noir’s character types, such as “the vulnerable male” and “the morally ambiguous city woman” from 1930s French Poetic Realist films.[7]
With this ‘city woman’ character type comes most recognizable aspect of film noir: the femme fatale. In Deborah Walker-Morrison’s journal article “Sex Ratio, Socio-Sexuality, and the Emergence of the Femme Fatale in Classic French and American Film Noir,” she analyzes the femme fatales characteristics and its relations to the state of post-war society. Walker-Morrison describes how the femme fatale is commonly understood as “the ruthless siren who commits criminal acts and/or lures her male victim into committing them on her behalf before seeking to eliminate him.”[8] Along with this, the femme fatale has “ruthless agency and narrative power” which is often shown by visual domination of the frame.[9] This is dissimilar from how the vast majority of women in were portrayed in Hollywood prior to the emergence of film noir. Walker-Morrison goes on to explain this new female agency in film as coinciding with the increased agency of women during and after WWII. Typically, women were portrayed as innocent victims, elegant beauties, or at the very least, they did not have agency and were not primary, manipulative antagonists. Due to the femme fatales distinctive characteristics, it became a key marker of film noir.
At this point, the major aspects of film noir have been established, and one can see that it was a separate genre with its own distinctive conventions. However, as any genre, film noir went through many changes over time. To be clear, this argument will focus on the changes which occurred in the genre in the 1940s and 1950s and will not pose film noir against the neo-noir genre that developed in the later decades of the 20th century. Within this time frame, the two most distinctive changes that will be discussed here are the reduction of transgressive sexuality and the decline of the femme fatale, which are ultimately interconnected.
To clearly illustrate these changes, one can compare Double Indemnity (1944), directed by Billy Wilder and Strangers on a Train (1951), directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Other than the amount of years between them, there is good reason behind selecting these two films. Because the films come from different directors and production studios, it further solidifies film noir as a genre as opposed to a certain directorial or studio style. If one selected two films from the same director or studio, the consistencies and changes might be misunderstood as the development of a particular style.
Before comparing these films, it is necessary to provide some basic context for each. Billy Wilder’s film, Double Indemnity, follows insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) who gets tied into a murder plot when he falls for Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck), an unhappy wife set on killing her husband for money.[10] The film was based on the novel of the same name by James M. Cain.[11] Double Indemnity meets the vast majority of criteria of the noir genre. There are, of course, the character types of the vulnerable male and city woman that Langford mentions. In this film, Barbara Stanwyck’s character serves as a near perfect model of a femme fatale, a seductress who has a Svengali-like effect on others. Apart from characters, the film falls under the unique stylistic look of moody, Expressionist lighting and complex mise-en-scène. Overall, the film has been popularly used as a perfect demonstration of what film noir was.
Strangers on a Train (1951), directed by Alfred Hitchcock has quite a different plot. Amateur tennis player Guy Haines (Farley Granger) meets a strange man, Bruno Antony (Robert Walker), on a train and they dine together. After having a conversation about wishing people in their lives were gone, Bruno suggests that they “crisscross” and commit murders for each other. Unknown to Guy, Bruno is psychotic and takes this seriously. After Bruno commits murder for Guy, he tries to force Guy into returning the favor.[12] The film was adapted by Hitchcock from the novel Strangers on a Train (1950) by Patricia Highsmith.[13] This plot follows the model of previous film noir, as its focus is about suddenly getting wrapped up in a crime, with lots of deception and violence involved. This film also meets the stylistic criteria of a noir. Much of it occurs in a nocturnal setting, leading to lots of use of chiaroscuro and distinct shots. Due to all this, Strangers undoubtably falls into the noir genre.
Now that the films themselves have been described, it is possible to move on to comparing and displaying how these films in particular help show the changes that occurred in film noir. Before highlighting their differences, however, it is necessary to explore the similarities between them so that there is a clear basis for contrasting them, and to show that noir did not change completely. Prior to comparing the plots, one can already find similarities within the styles. For example, both films have intricately designed sets and shots. They also both utilize the contrast between darkness and light to create eerie and ominous mood. Now, concerning the plots, both films are based on a novel. Both directors, Wilder and Hitchcock, attempted to work with the same screenwriter, Raymond Chandler, in order to adapt the novels.[14] In addition, both films rely on an event occurring at random which fully alters the protagonist’s worlds for the worst. Both protagonists, Walter Neff and Guy Haines, are men who were on the fast track to success in their respective careers but had something standing in the way of their happiness. The antagonists provide a way out of these problems, but the solution is immoral or doomed from the beginning.
Further, one can look at the critical reviews of the films from the times they were released because these reviews provide an insight into how they were initially interpreted. Bosley Crowther, the New York Times film critic from 1940 to 1967, had similar reviews for these films. Both the reviews for Double Indemnity and Strangers assert that although the films might attract audiences looking for these murder stories, the antagonists and their schemes are questionable or improbable.[15] However, one might argue that this very improbability and randomness is part of film noir and why both these films sit well within it. As mentioned above, the element of random chance leading to the protagonist’s downfall is at the center of these films, but it also stretches across the genre as a whole and is an element that did not change over time. Films such as Detour (1945), Out of the Past (1947), and Sunset Boulevard (1950) also include a chance meeting which changes the plot.[16] In short, it is quite evident that despite the years separating Double Indemnity and Strangers, they share numerous features of film noir and are easily comparable.
Despite the similarities, these films help to illustrate how film noir changed over time. The first notable change one can look at is the reduction of transgressive sexuality. In Double Indemnity, Walter partners up with Phyllis and commits murder because of his immense sexual attraction to her. This attraction is apparent from when he meets Phyllis and looks her body up and down.[17] The sexually transgressive component comes into play because of this. First, there is simply a great deal of sexual tension on screen due to both the looks they give one another and the amount of physical affection. In addition to this, Phyllis is married, making their relationship far more unacceptable or taboo. Sufficient to say, the film is widely known for Walter’s perverseness and fetishism for Phyllis.[18] Conversely, Strangers on a Traindoes not have this element at all. In the film, Guy Haines has a romantic interest, but she is an innocent side character and is not the antagonist. Instead, the antagonist is another man, Bruno. Even so, neither’s goals come from a place of sexual desire. For a Hitchcock film, Strangers has a shockingly low amount of transgressive sexuality or sexual tensions. This film is just one of many later noir films that did not revolve around sexual attraction. For example, The Third Man (1949), directed by Carol Reed, is much like Strangers, as its narrative centers on two men, one innocent and one a criminal.[19]This goes to show how in film noir, sex and sexuality, specifically in regard to the femme fatale, as motivation were cast aside, and the focus turned to criminal psychology and thrill. This change in the genre is arguably indicative of many things, but what stands out most is the decrease in the criminalization and demonization of woman and their sexuality, which leads into the other significant change that took place: the fall of the femme fatale.
A large amount of films in this genre had the femme fatale archetype that was elaborated on above. However, over time, these films increasingly shifted towards psychological thrillers. In Double Indemnity, Phyllis is a femme fatale in the fullest sense. She utilizes her attractiveness to manipulate men, specifically Walter, in order to realize her own goals. As Walker-Morrison stated, the femme fatale was indictive of how women gained power in society during and after WWII. This new modern woman was portrayed as evil, money-hungry, and overtly sexual.[20] In Strangers, the original femme fatale is nonexistent. The main conflict lies between Guy and Bruno. However, one can see the remnants of the femme fatale in Guy’s first wife, Miriam. After cheating on Guy and getting pregnant, Miriam refuses a divorce from him in order to keep getting money from him. Although this sounds like a femme fatale characteristic, Miriam was not one, as she served only a small role in the narrative and was killed by Bruno early on. Also, she was not the primary antagonist to Guy. Because the femme fatale was essentially the root of transgressive sexuality in these films, the decline of each occurred almost simultaneously.
Now the question remains of why this was the case. A simple explanation may be that the role of the femme fatale was fully played out by the 1950s. At this point, audiences need something fresh. However, this explanation is fairly surface level. Rather, one should place these genre changes into the broader sociohistorical context. If the femme fatale was representative of the newfound status of women in society, then their decline might be attributed to this status becoming mainstream or less threatening. Another possibility is that because of the generally pessimistic philosophies after WWII, peoples focus turned to character psychologies and motivations as opposed to a simpler ‘good versus evil’ story.
This argument presented here is nowhere near completion as there are an innumerable amount of films which fall into the film noir genre which may provide additional insight into why the changes that are apparent between Double Indemnity and Strangers on a Train took place. Should one have the opportunity to conduct further research, it might be quite fascinating to study these films and changes under the lens of feminist film theory because of the heavy weight that women, sex, and sexuality carried in this genre and its development.
[1] Langford, Barry. "Film Noir." In Film Genre: Hollywood and Beyond, 210-32. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Walker-Morrison, Deborah. “Sex Ratio, Socio-Sexuality, and the Emergence of the Femme Fatale in Classic French and American Film Noir.” Film & History (03603695) 45, no. 1 (Summer 2015): 25–37.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Double Indemnity. Paramount Pictures, 1944.
[11] BOSLEY CROWTHER. "THE SCREEN: 'DOUBLE INDEMNITY,' A TOUGH MELODRAMA, WITH STANWYCK AND MACMURRAY AS KILLERS, OPENS AT THE PARAMOUNT." New York Times (1923-Current File), Sep 07, 1944.
[12] Strangers on a Train. Warner Bros., 1951.
[13] Gaunson, Stephen. “Queer Strangers: Alfred Hitchcock’s Fidelity to Patricia Highsmith.” Journal of Adaptation in Film & Performance11, no. 1 (May 2018): 5–16. doi:10.1386/jafp.11.1.5_1.
[14] Ibid.
[15] BOSLEY CROWTHER. "THE SCREEN: 'DOUBLE INDEMNITY,' A TOUGH MELODRAMA, WITH STANWYCK AND MACMURRAY AS KILLERS, OPENS AT THE PARAMOUNT." New York Times (1923-Current File), Sep 07, 1944.,
BOSLEY CROWTHER. "THE SCREEN IN REVIEW: 'STRANGERS ON A TRAIN,' ANOTHER HITCHCOCK VENTURE, ARRIVES AT THE WARNER THEATRE." New York Times (1923-Current File), Jul 04, 1951.
[16] Detour. PRC Pictures, 1946.
Out of the Past. RKO Pictures, Inc., 1947.
Sunset Boulevard. A Paramount release, 1950.
[17] Double Indemnity. Paramount Pictures, 1944.
[18] Manon, Hugh S. "Some like It Cold: Fetishism in Billy Wilder's "Double Indemnity"." Cinema Journal 44, no. 4 (2005): 18-43.
[19] The Third Man. British Lion, 1949.
[20] Walker-Morrison, Deborah. “Sex Ratio, Socio-Sexuality, and the Emergence of the Femme Fatale in Classic French and American Film Noir.” Film & History (03603695) 45, no. 1 (Summer 2015): 25–37.
Bibliography
BOSLEY CROWTHER. "THE SCREEN IN REVIEW: 'STRANGERS ON A TRAIN,' ANOTHER HITCHCOCK VENTURE, ARRIVES AT THE WARNER THEATRE." New York Times (1923-Current File), Jul 04, 1951. https://search-proquest-com.huaryu.kl.oakland.edu/docview/112158328?accountid=12924.
BOSLEY CROWTHER. "THE SCREEN: 'DOUBLE INDEMNITY,' A TOUGH MELODRAMA, WITH STANWYCK AND MACMURRAY AS KILLERS, OPENS AT THE PARAMOUNT." New York Times (1923-Current File), Sep 07, 1944 https://search-proquest-com.huaryu.kl.oakland.edu/docview /106786670?accountid=12924.
Detour. PRC Pictures, 1946.
Double Indemnity. Paramount Pictures, 1944.
Gaunson, Stephen. “Queer Strangers: Alfred Hitchcock’s Fidelity to Patricia Highsmith.” Journal of Adaptation in Film & Performance 11, no. 1 (May 2018): 5–16. doi:10.1386/jafp.11.1.5_1.
Langford, Barry. "Film Noir." In Film Genre: Hollywood and Beyond, 210-32. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005. Accessed April 12, 2020. doi:10.3366/j.ctvxcrbd3.13.
Manon, Hugh S. "Some like It Cold: Fetishism in Billy Wilder's "Double Indemnity"." Cinema Journal 44, no. 4 (2005): 18-43. Accessed April 12, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/3661123.
Out of the Past. RKO Pictures, Inc., 1947.
Strangers on a Train. Warner Bros., 1951.
Sunset Boulevard. A Paramount release, 1950.
The Third Man. British Lion, 1949.
Walker-Morrison, Deborah. “Sex Ratio, Socio-Sexuality, and the Emergence of the Femme Fatale in Classic French and American Film Noir.” Film & History (03603695) 45, no. 1 (Summer 2015): 25–37. http://search.ebscohost.com.huaryu.kl.oakland.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f3h&AN=108523854&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
