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Exit Scary Season, hello Noirvember and back to film noir in earnest! We’re leaving behind the subgenre of crazy kids on the run and into more established noir territory --- the private detective story. And do we have a great one for our entrance! Among the first pre-wave of classic film noir released in the US after WWII, it’s 1946’s The Big Sleep. Packed with talent in front of and behind the camera, packed with confusion by one of the hallmark authors of the hard – boiled writing style, packed with intrigue beyond the simple telling of a story --- it’s a signal event of the genre. It’s packed.

It started, as do many of the early noir films, with a master of the pulp magazine story, the estimable Raymond Chandler. Chandler had an extremely round-about path to artistic success. He was a son of the Midwest, born in Chicago and raised in Nebraska, but due to family connections, well educated at Dulwich College in London. He became a British citizen and entered the civil service, which he found stifling. He moved on to newspaper work, had a stop in Canadian military service during WWI, then returned to the US, beginning an executive career in the Southern California oil industry. The Depression put paid to his work there, as well as contributed to his growing alcoholism. Short on funds, Chandler took a flyer and picked up on the paid – by – the – word pulp fiction magazines of the day, his first story in 1933 winning him instant success. He never looked back. He became more ambitious, his slow writing more fitted to novels than paid – by – the – word, publishing his first, The Big Sleep, in 1939.

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We’re plowing ahead five years from last month’s pod subject but staying in the low – rent, “B” picture roots of film noir, with just a bit more polish, a little more class (because of a slightly larger budget). While last month’s Detour sticks with you, it’s because of its rough edges and the kick-in-the-gut noirness of the fated fall of the protagonist (as well as the hyper – meanness of the femme fatale --- Ann Savage indeed!). This month, we look at a film that has an incredible behind-the-camera crew, a great cast with many nice surprises, but also some tendrils that tie it to Detour --- it’s 1950’s Gun Crazy. The film also ushers in (or joins, depending on your view) the sub – genre of “youngstas on the run” noir, as also exemplified by Nicholas Ray’s 1948 work They Live By Night, 1949’s Knock On Any Door, Tomorrow Is Another Day in 1951, and continuing the sub-genre into neonoir with Badlands and the remake of They Live By Night, Robert Altman’s Thieves Like Us. We’re privileged to see sharp writing, wonderful direction, a fabulous ten – minute bit of direct cinema, fine acting, but an inevitable, aching drive down the tracks to a waiting and remorseless fate.

Detour came out of Poverty Row Hollywood --- Gun Crazy was hard on its run – down heels. PRC barely fronted the money for Detour, and the King Brothers, Frank and Maurice, were only slightly more generous in working up Gun Crazy’s budget (courtesy of the aptly named King Brothers Productions --- which we’ll shorten to KBP). This was another Hollywood “B” picture with no delusions of grandeur --- it was going to play on the bottom of the bill or in the sticks. But for the money, KBP floated a film that was packed with talent --- talent admittedly somewhat over a monetary barrel, but talent, nonetheless. What did KBP get for their $400K and thirty days of shooting?

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No producer or director of the 40s and 50s set out to make a film noir. They were simply trying to put together a film that would entertain and turn a profit, dammit! During the 40s and early 50s, TV was a non-entity or a new, expensive element in entertainment --- there was no competition for the 25 cents someone spent every week going to the movies. Consequently, the output of Hollywood was prodigious and many films noir, if not viewed through a modern lens, were simply “B” pictures, inexpensive work that was part of a double bill. The genre film noir encompasses many forms of 40s and 50s stories on its shadowed and fatalistic way… Melodramas. Crimers. Caper films. Heist movies. Police procedurals. Bad girl stories. Gangster films. Detective tales. Many of these films were inexpensive and thus, not worthy of notice or subtle categorization. They were “B”s. But some of the original and most impactful of the film noir genre were low-cost films imbued with the imagination, technical aptitude, and drive of their creators to transcend the double bill. They’re a credit to the people who worked to put forward the best story possible, regardless of the constraints of budget. Unsung heroes.

So, we’re going to warm up the new season with a few of the under-funded “B” pictures that stood noir up on its legs and paved the way for more sumptuous, but no more impactful productions. We’re going to start with an orphan of Poverty Row filmmaking, from the fabulous Producers Releasing Corporation, fresh from the war, 1945’s Detour, directed by Edgar Ulmer and with a twosome at the top of the cast who made your hair curl with fatalism and dread. Noir enough for you? The tale begins in 1939 during the heyday of pulp magazines and their oeuvre, with a novel by Martin Goldsmith, titled Detour: An Extraordinary Tale. Indeed…

Website and blog: www.thosewonderfulpeople.com
IG: @thosewonderfulpeople
Twitter: @FilmsInTheDark