Philip Marlowe is temporarily blind, which can signify his moral flaws. He is unable to realize that Velma Valento has turned herself into the wealthy Helen Grayle. A common noir
narrative for detectives is that of a quest for truth and identity. Marlow pursues Velma which symbolizes his own search to discover himself by encountering alter egos like Moose Mallow
and Lindsay Marriott. This is similar with American veterans who are emotionally or physically scarred trying to find themselves and reestablish their masculinity after the war
and reestablish their places in society. Another aspect of noir that is occasionally present is that of a drifter. These films were
made mostly around the end of World War II and generally involve gambling. In The Postman Always Rings Twice, the protagonist character is a drifter who comes into town and
gets involved with the power structure there. Related with the societal situation at the time, this film depicts class conflicts as the protagonist represents the working class, and the power
structure represents the upper class. “With their protagonist on the outside looking in, these films present highly charged class conflict, since the disparity between the protagonist and his
or her wealthy patron or opponent or patron revealed to be an opponent, whose riches have often been acquired illegally, forms the central and very explicit tension of the film.”
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Usually the protagonist commits a crime because of desperation, while the upper class foe of the protagonist engages in criminal actions to make a profit.
2.8 Noir Detective Stories
The detective genre is one kind of theme that is commonly used in noir literature and films. Raymond Chandler is one such detective writer that wrote from the perspective of
Detective Philip Marlowe. Usually the storylines deal with a criminal underworld, crimes related to passion and greed, and characters that are outside mainstream society. The
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Broe, Dennis. Film Noir, American Workers, and Postwar Hollywood. Florida: University Press of Florida, 2010, p.63.
characters are commonly portrayed as being tortured, paranoid, harsh, and doomed. The femme fetale best lives in this kind of an environment. The good, nurturing, and traditional
woman sometimes is sacrificed for the protagonist. For classic noir detective stories, the most popular private dicks are Sam Spade,
Phillip Marlowe, and Mike Hammer. Some of the primary characteristics of them are as being cold, expressionless, detached, and not really caring about their environment since they
cannot find any redeeming purpose. They usually meet criminals who are self-absorbed and overcome by their own worries. These detectives find the culprits in the end, as they are
undone by their own criminal actions. The criminals are unable to escape from the mazes in which they live as they are ultimately caught. This concept of being in a maze and the
detective having to traverse the noir world going down different paths is a common theme. The maze can be literally going through the city landscape but also related to the human
condition or a self-discovery as characters try to find themselves on a quest. In comparing Sherlock Holmes with the classic detectives, Porfirio gives a unique
perspective. The pre-existential world of the classical detective was ordered and meaningful;
social aberrations were temporary and quickly righted through the detective’s superior powers of deductive reasoning. A product of a rather smug Western society, such a
world reflected a Victorian sense of order and a belief in the supremacy of science. The hard-boiled writers replaced this with a corrupt, chaotic world where the
detective’s greatest asset was the sheer ability to survive with a shred of dignity.
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This essentially means that there is a way out in Sherlock Holmes’ stories but not in classic noir detective stories.
For all detective characters, starting from Edgar Allen Poe’s Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin to Sherlock Holmes to Sam Spade to Phillip Marlowe to Mike Hammer, etc., they deal
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Porfirio, “No Way Out”, from Abrams, Jerold J., from “Sherlock Holmes to the Hard-Boiled Detective in Film Noir”, from Conard, Mark. The Philosophy of Film Noir. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2006,
p.75.
with detectives that are between the world of the police and the world of criminals. Usually detectives can think more like criminals; this makes them smarter than the police in solving
crimes. They use non-standard methods to solve cases which put them at odds with the police. Usually detectives are isolated from their surroundings and enjoy living like that.
However, when examining noir detectives more closely, they are even more alone than their predecessors. This makes them even more anti-social. They are generally angrier,
feel hopeless, and amoral. They do not necessarily care if other characters like them or not. This is evident in the film The Big Sleep when Phillip Marlowe says, “I don’t mind if you
don’t like my manners. I don’t like them myself. They’re pretty bad. I grieve over them long winter evenings.” Usually classic noir detectives wear trench coats, work at nights, are not
very conversational but clever in using words, have deadpan expressions, are strong, but are not very big or tall. Even Phillip Marlowe in The Big Sleep remarks about not being too tall,
“Well, I try to be.” Philip Marlowe as a detective is smart, independent, and heroic with his own way outside of the law.
These characteristics are different from Sherlock Holmes, who is tall and lanky. Usually Sherlock Holmes has time to rest and enjoy himself, but classic noir detectives
always seem to be stressed and in a hurry. Classic noir detectives do not like to make small talk or beat around the bush as it wastes their time. Sherlock Holmes has Watson as his
trusted companion, but classic noir detectives do not trust anyone and are always very suspicious of others.
The classic noir detectives are considered as being more familiar with common people as they have more traits that ordinary people can relate to. It is different with Sherlock
Holmes who is smarter and more gifted than anyone he encounters, as he can solve crimes
with much less effort than classic noir detectives. For classic noir detective films, common people can better imagine themselves doing some of the same actions.
Another difference is seen in what motivates classic noir detectives and their predecessors. For classic noir detectives, they are motivated by money. As they are common
working-class people, they need money for their livelihoods. Therefore, Phillip Marlowe will only take a case if there is a financial incentive for him to do so. In contrast, Dupin and
Holmes are higher class individuals who take cases because they are intellectually challenging and stimulating. They consider solving crimes as more of a game.
The primary differences between noir detectives and their predecessors are depicted
in Table 3 pg.177. The change in detective stories from Sherlock Holmes to become more
noir-like is seen in the American working-class pulp fiction stories that became quite popular in the early 20
th
century. These stories were interesting for the middle and lower classes, so the detectives had to be molded to fit the preferred trend in the literary style of the period.
In examining the role of private detectives in film noir, Deborah Knight elaborates. Private detectives have a privileged place in the world of film noir, a genre itself
identified with stories that take place down dark streets, skirt the edges of the law, and involve deception and double-crossing. Film noir private detectives typically operate
among a host of morally dubious characters pursuing their own gain at whatever cost. They are hard-boiled – that is, they are tough, cynical individualists who have a
history of ill-will toward more obviously legitimate, although invariable plodding, representations of the law, such as police detectives and district attorneys. They must
inevitably – considering the petty criminals and other lowlifes with whom they associate – look out for themselves.
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Film noir detectives are different from classic detectives, in that noir detectives enter a situation in media res, which means in the middle of an ongoing problems or action. In
contrast, classic detectives are hired to solve a case where the crime has already been committed, and they just need to retrace the events leading up to the crime. Noir detectives
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Knight, Deborah, “On Reason and Passion in the Maltese Falcon”, from Conard, Mark. The Philosophy of Film Noir. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2006, p.208.
are in a more chaotic or unstable situation, since the story can proceed in a number of ways based on their direct involvement in it. Noir detectives have to be suspicious of their clients,
so they do not get tricked by them. However, General Sternwood played by Charles Waldron in The Big Sleep is not a deceitful client. He is an elderly and sick man confined to
a wheelchair that does not have any bad intentions toward Phillip Marlowe. But Sternwood is not completely sure of what he wants Marlowe to discover, which puts Marlowe in a
precarious position as he does not know what possible dangers or obstacles that he may face. Since film noir detectives have to face uncertain circumstances, they have to possess a certain
tough guy image and be cynical of those people they encounter to avoid being tricked. Another difference between film noir detectives and classic ones is that noir detectives are
more involved emotionally and morally in their cases, whereas classic detectives just consider the facts of the crimes that have already been committed.
Related with detective stories in novels by classic writers like Hammet and Chandler, the detectives changed from being upper class characters like Sherlock Holmes to more
working class detectives like Philip Marlow in Chandler’s novels that demand getting paid for cases, use direct and harsh language, and are contrary to the law. This characterization is
also reflective of detective characters in Chandler’s film adaptations as a result of societal constraints during the war.
The Philip Marlowe character created by Chandler has some of his same social views. Philip Marlowe is also cynical of the law and big businesspeople and thinks they are mostly
corrupt. Many of the movies with Philip Marlowe deal with the themes of corruption, the law, decency, and chaos with the tarnished persona of Marlowe having to live in this kind of a
world.
In considering the typical characteristics of the male hero in this kind of film, he was usually a tough character that had equally tough dialog, as portrayed in Humphrey Bogart in
many of his movies during the 1940s. As biographer Stefen Kanfer wrote, “His characters usually showed a combination of bitterness and amusement at a world of duplicity; they were
men whose great expectations had been defeated by events. Bogart’s face was a mask, a carapace meant to cover the psychic injuries of a decent man trying to forget the past.”
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Humphrey Bogart became a popular actor for the noir type of film because he had a tough, introspective, and emotionally repressed persona who enjoyed drinking alcohol and smoking
cigarettes. These are common traits of noir male protagonists during the 1940s. Therefore, Humphrey Bogart can be considered the iconic figure in film noir. His characterization also
reflects the many concerns and doubts about the people living in that period and uncertainties about the future. Many of these characters have flatness in their voices and cynicism in their
outlooks. In Chandler’s The Big Sleep, Philip Marlowe works alone. He has his own personal
code of honor and justice system. In this kind of a detective story, there is a usually a lot of corruption and the upholders of the law are incompetent. The private eye has to use violence
and his street smarts to be able to solve a case. He will fail to change the world around him because of his idealism, and will eventually just solve the case he is working on and then wait
for the next case without making a real difference in the world he lives. Raymond Chandler’s Murder, My Sweet also deals with the theme of a hard-boiled
detective who works alone and goes up against the law. This trend for detectives was common during World War II, as a reflection of societal conditions at the time. In Murder,
My Sweet, Philip Marlowe aligns himself with the working class society and is always
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Kanfer, Stefen, qtd in Lingeman, Richard. The Noir Forties: The American People from Victory to Cold War. New York: Nation Books, 2012, p.200.
concerned about making sure he gets paid for the cases he takes. It is different with Sherlock Holmes or other wealthy detectives of upper class society who have a romanticized notion of
solving crimes just for the betterment of society and not necessarily due to some kind of financial motivation.
Marlowe shows his concern for economic matters in Murder, My Sweet by saying, “I’m just a small businessman in a very messy business, but I’d like to follow through on the
sale.” He also only works because he has to, not because of some higher calling or societal concern. He relays this viewpoint when the film begins. He does not want to take a divorce
case but is forced to do it because he is low on money. He supports this by saying, “The only reason why I took the case was that my bank account was trying to crawl under a duck.”
Later on, he depicts his fixation with money by canceling a date because someone gives him 20 to go find a person at a bar. There, a police officer comments to Marlow, “You’re not a
detective, you’re a slot machine.” “One of the most pronounced characteristics of the World War II and immediate
postwar crime film was that the criminal is frequently a person of considerable political and social influence.”
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This refers to the fact that in certain crime or detective stories and their film adaptations, organized crime, business, and politics are intermingled. Murder, My Sweet
has a similar theme but it deals more with police inaction, Marlow’s corrupt higher status boss, and how the upper class take control of their surroundings. This relates with the
situation felt by workers at the home front during WWII being in a disadvantageous position due to government and business control. In Chandler’s other novels, there is a general
criticism of the rich. In The Big Sleep this position is conveyed through General Sternwood and his daughters. Marlowe is distrustful of the wealthy and the way they live their lives.
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Broe, Dennis. Film Noir, American Workers, and Postwar Hollywood. Florida: University Press of Florida, 2010, p.22.
Marlow shows his strong dislike for the wealthy in Murder, My Sweet by looking at the Grayle mansion and remarking, “The house itself was not so much. It was smaller than
Buckingham Palace, rather gray for California and probably had fewer windows than the Chrysler building.”
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This is from the book version Farewell, My Lovely. In the film, the same sentiment is conveyed but in a slightly different manner. Referring to the house in the
same scene, Marlow says, “It was a nice little front yard, cozy, only you’d need a compass to go to the mailbox.” Inside the house Marlowe further shows his dislike for the wealthy by
stating, “It’s like waiting on a crypt in a museum” and asking the servant, “How do you get out of this box?”
Marlow’s dislike of the upper class is also apparent in Murder, My Sweet in how he views the psychiatrists and doctors. He finds them to be corrupt and fascist similar to the
condition of WWII with the government overseeing the actions of the working class. Marlowe accuses Dr. Amthor, a psychiatrist, of blackmailing. He also has a thick German
accent, which is characteristic of the time for bad people, as Germany was the enemy of America. The other primary doctor is named Sonderberg, which is German-sounding, to
suggest he also has bad traits. Usually these kinds of detectives try to make sense of the world they live in, similar to
what American citizens experienced during the war. Another parallel of the early 1940s detective character in novels and films with real people of the period was that they generally
felt targeted by the law. In Chandler’s novels, Marlowe develops his own sense of moral code because he does not have any faith in that of the society he lives. Real people of the war era
felt targeted because the government limited them and threatened them as being un-American if they made any waves in the workplace. In Murder, My Sweet Marlowe gains the sympathy
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Chandler, Raymond. The Big Sleep and Other Novels. USA: Penguin Classics, 2000, p.122.
of viewers from the beginning as he tells his story while being interrogated by the police as a sort of wronged man. The viewers can associate with Marlowe’s predicament better than that
of the police. Marlowe is considered as a good guy in a tough predicament fighting against the government apparatus, being law enforcement here, just as common people of the early
1940s could relate to. Another characteristic of film noir is the voiceover narration. In this film, viewers will be more supportive of Marlowe as they can feel actively involved in the
story as he is telling it firsthand. Therefore, in looking at the correlations between noir films of the early and mid
1940s, in the early years the detectives are more representative of law enforcement. Likewise, common people were more apt to follow government and company regulations. However, as
the war dragged on, the detective was made to be more of a disillusioned character who struggles against the system. This was also the case for regular Americans after years of
hardships, rising prices, fixed wages, and unsafe working conditions, they started to become restless and eager for changes that matched their hopes for the future.
In summary, the World War II era had a great effect on the film industry and how hardboiled crime and detective literary works were converted to film adaptations. The social,
cultural, and political factors of the time affected the individuals, materials, storylines, and censorship of noir films.
2.9 Theoretical Framework 2.9.1 Existentialism at a Glance
