Popular discussion of this sub-genre of movies tends to focus on the femme fatale role and the iconography that has developed from it, thereby placing emphasis on an objectification of women. Or, as Jermyn points out in her 'Rachel Papers' essay, gaining the woman a character and substance reduced to a cipher, significant only in invoking the man's morally questionable actions.
Early feminist analysis of this character type, Esther Sonnet suggests, in her Adaptations article, focused on this misogynistic representation of women, "defined by notions of sexual betrayal, duplicity, violence, and punishment.” "It may be that this is a necessary condition of film noir’s continued critical valence for masculinist film studies," Sonnet says, yet women played significant creative and management roles in the cultural production of canonical noirs and may be recognised as subverting the misogynistic plot.
Women Creators of Film Noir
Sonnet's research revealed that a considerable number of commercial novels that became significant films noir were written by women, notably:
- Vera Caspary, Laura (20th Century Fox 1944),
- Dorothy B. Hughes, Ride A Pink Horse (Universal 1947) and In a Lonely Place (Columbia 1950)
- Hannah Lee's novel, Murder in the Doll’s House (1943), was filmed as Shadow on the Wall (MGM 1950)
- Elizabeth Sanxay Holding’s novel, The Blank Wall, (1947) was filmed as The Reckless Moment (Columbia 1949).
A major force behind crime film and (later television) was Oxford educated English woman screenwriter and producer, Joan Harrison. As a Hitchcock protegé and writer on noir-tinged films like Rebecca (1940), Suspicion (1941) and Saboteur (1942), Harrison knew and worked with writer, assistant director, and editor, Alma Reville, who worked on those films and was Hitchcock's wife. Hitchcock's interest in expressionist technique, and his expertise with the play between dark and light in creating atmosphere and suspense, may have influenced Hollywood directors developing the noir style at the time.
Female Producers of Hollywood Crime Films
Harrison is credited with writing Dark Waters (1944) for noir-style director, André De Toth, but she really flourished as a producer. Five noir films produced by Harrison were:
- Phantom Lady (1944)
- The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945)
- Nocturne (1946)
- Ride the Pink Horse (co-written with Dorothy B. Hughes) (1947)
- They Won't Believe Me (1947)
Possibly the most significant female producer of the noir crime film era was Virginia van Upp. Harry Cohn appointed van Upp Vice President of Columbia Pictures in 1945, firing several male staff members who opposed her. Van Upp wrote Gilda (1946), recognised as following the subversive noir trait of featuring dysfunctional male sexuality, while her other memorable contribution to the noir canon was as producer and co-writer of Lady from Shanghai in 1946.
Sonnet argues that these are narratives that initiate crimes in order to estrange the normality of the heterosexual world, putting domestic life on trial, in which case the femme fatale is cast in a different, and less limited, light than earlier analyses allowed. Actors such as Rita Hayworth, Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck, Gloria Graham, and Ida Lupino exploited this opportunity to develop powerful women characters who have, and make, choices. As a director, screenwriter, and actor in the noir sub-genre, Ida Lupino's contribution gains further recognition in this context.
Sources
Ally Acker (1993) Reel Women: Pioneers of Cinema, 1896 to the Present Continuum
Deborah Jermyn (2005) ‘The Rachel Papers: In search of Blade Runner’s Femme Fatale’ in Will Brooker The Blade Runner Experience: the legacy of a science fiction classic Wallflower Press
E. Ann Kaplan (1978 rev. 1998) Women in Film Noir BFI
Esther Sonnet (2011) 'Why Film Noir? Hollywood, Adaptation, and Women’s Writing in the 1940s and 1950s' in Adaptation 4 (1): 1-13. Oxford Journals, February
James Naremore (1998 rev. 2008) ‘The Other Side of the Street’ in More Than Night: Film Noir in its Contexts University of California Press
Valerie Williamson - Dr. Val Williamson is a freelance journalist and academic specialising in historical and popular culture topics.
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