Film Noir
This course offers a detailed study of film noir. It examines the components of noir: its
thematic preoccupations, its narrative paradigms, and its visual stylistics. It looks at film noir’s
roots in German Expressionism, Depression-Era gangster movies, and hard-boiled detective
fiction. And it considers the particular amalgam of cultural factors in post-World War II America
that gave rise to the noir cycle.
This course addresses learning goals established by the English Department, as follows.
Students who major in English will demonstrate:
1. knowledge of literatures in English, their historical, cultural, and formal dimensions and
diversity
2. strategies of interpretation, including an ability to use critical and theoretical terms, concepts,
and methods in relation to a variety
of textual forms and other media
3. the ability to engage with the work of other critics and writers, using and citing such sources
effectively
4. the ability to write persuasively and precisely, in scholarly and, optionally, creative forms.
Requirements:
The course will meet during two 80-minutres class periods each week and will have one evening
screening (outside of class) from 6:10 to 9:00 once each week. Given the lab-like nature of the
extra two periods of class time, the course should be valued at four credits. Attendance at both
lectures and screenings is mandatory. Students may have no more than five unexcused
absences. If you expect to miss one or two classes, please use the University absence reporting
website https://sims.rutgers.edu/ssra/ to indicate the date and reason for your absence. An email
is automatically sent to the instructor.
Required reading:
Readings on Sakai [Reader]
Film Noir Reader, edited by Alain Silver and James Ursini [FNR]
The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir by Foster Hirsch [Hirsch]
Women in Film Noir (Rev. ed.), edited by E. Ann Kaplan [WFN]
Readings:
Readings must be completed prior to the date they appear on the syllabus. Lectures and
discussions will assume familiarity with concepts presented in the articles.
Written requirements:
Scene Analysis Paper (20%): The first paper will be an 7-8 page (2,000 word) analysis of a
selected scene from a film noir. Research Paper (40%): The second paper will be a 10 page
(3,000 word) research paper on a selected aspect of film noir. Suggested topics will be circulated
in class.
Exams and other requirements:
Final Exam (30%): The exam will cover all readings, screenings, lectures and discussions
presented in the course. It will be a short-answer/essay exam.
Participation and Attendance (10%): Attendance at all classes and screenings is required.
Active participation in class discussions will count favorably in your final evaluation; repeated
absences will substantially lower your grade.
SYLLABUS
(1)FILM NOIR'SCOMPONENTS
Week One: Film Noir: Themes and Problems
The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946) 114 mins
Read: Schrader, “Notes on Film Noir” [FNR, p. 53]
Borde and Chaumeton, “Towards a Definition of Film Noir” [FNR, p. 17]
Week Two: Narratives of Detection: Flashbacks and Voice -Over Narration
The Killers (Robert Siodmak, 1946) 105 mins
Read: Telotte, “Noir Narration” [Reader]
Porfirio, “No Way Out: Existential Motifs in the Film Noir” [FNR, p. 77]
Week Three: Sex, Death and Other Pleasures: The Femme Fatale
Dead Reckoning (John Cromwell, 1946) 100 mins
Read: Place, “Women in Film Noir” [WFN, p. 47]
Harvey, “Woman’s Place: The Absent Family of Film Noir” [WFN, p. 35]
Duvillars, “She Kisses Him So He’ll Kill” [Reader]
Week Four: Dark Passages: Film Noir’s Visual Lexicon
The Big Combo (Joseph Lewis, 1955) 89 mins
Read: Place and Peterson, “Some Visual Motifs of Film Noir” [FNR, p. 65]
Hirsch, “The Crazy Mirror: Noir Stylistics” [Chp. 4]
Week Five: Hollywood’s B Films and Noir Production Values
Detour (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1946) 69 mins
Read: Kerr, “Out of What Past?: Notes on the B Film Noir” [FNR, p. 107]
Britton, “Detour” [Reader]
( 2 ) F I L M N O I R ' ROOTS
Week Six: Expressionism
M (Fritz Lang, Germany, 1931) 110 mins
Read: Hirsch, “The Cinematic Background: From Expressionism to Neo-Realism” [Chp. 3]
Elsaesser, “Caligari’s Legacy: Film Noir as Film History’s German Imaginary [Reader]
Week Seven: Gangster Films
Scarface (Howard Hawks, 1932) 93 mins
Read: Durgnat, “Paint It Black: The Family Tree of Film Noir” [FNR, p. 37]
Shadoian, Introduction to Dreams and Dead Ends [Reader]
Week Eight: Hard-Boiled Detective Fiction
Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944) 107 mins
Read: Krutnik, “Desire, Transgression and James M. Cain” [Reader]
Johnston, “Double Indemnity” [WFN, p. 89]
The Censorship Papers: Double Indemnity [Reader]
( 3 ) F I L M N O I R A N D P O S T- W A R C U L T U R E
Week Nine: Returning Veterans and Post-War Idealism
The Blue Dahlia (George Marshall, 1946) 100 mins
Read: Thomas, “How Hollywood Deals with the Deviant Male” [Reader]
Maltby, “Film Noir: The Politics of the Maladjusted Text” [Reader]
Week Ten: Politics and Paranoia 1: HUAC and the Communist WitchHunt
Force of Evil (Abraham Polonsky, 1948) 80 mins
Read: Kemp, “From the Nightmare Factory: HUAC and the Politics of Noir” [Reader]
Jensen, “The Return of Dr. Caligari: Paranoia in Hollywood” [Reader]
Week Eleven: Politics and Paranoia 2: The Bomb
Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1955) 106 mins
Read: Osteen, “The Big Secret: Film Noir and Nuclear Fear” [Reader]
Buchsbaum, “Tame Wolves and Phony Claims: Paranoia and Film Noir” [Reader]
Week Twelve: Noir on the Border: Race and Ethnicity in the Post-War Landscape
Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958) 108 mins
Read: Lott, “The Whiteness of Film Noir” [Reader]
Kaplan, “Dark Continent of Film Noir: Race, Displacement & Metaphor” [WFN, p. 183]