You can watch a trailer for Raw Deal here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bphmrlpvJJo

Claire Trevor (as Pat Regan) and Marsha Hunt (as Ann Martin) are the real stars in Raw Deal while Dennis O’Keefe (as Joe Sullivan) is overshadowed by the two more dynamic characters. In addition, John Alton’s cinematography is very effective as well.

In my first paper, I lamented the fact that film noir tends to have a very misogynistic attitude towards female characters, and I was delighted to watch a film from the perspective of Pat (who provides the voice-over narration). Furthermore, both Claire Trevor and Marsha Hunt create much deeper characters than Dennis O’Keefe, who is relegated to the typical film noir tough guy role. On the surface, the plot is about Joe’s attempt to escape from prison, kill his betrayer, and flee to South America. However, the real tension is the love triangle between Joe and his two female accomplices/companions. The tension between the women is apparent even before the plot structure is clearly established. Pat throws an icy glare at Anne as she leaves the visiting room at the state prison where Joe is incarcerated, indicating her jealousy of the other woman who dared to visit her man.

After Anne is unwillingly drawn into the escape plan, the trio hit the road in her car. All three of them sit in a row in the front seats; however, the shot helps establish the nature of the relationship. Joe sits behind the steering wheel and is the closest to the camera. Anne sits next to him in the middle seat while Pat is furthest away. This reinforces Pat’s emotional and physical separation from Joe who has never professed his love to Pat (as we discover later). It also places Anne closer to Joe (physically and emotionally) and situates her as an obstacle in between the supposed couple. In addition, the characters are portrayed in descending order, with Joe appearing to be taller and more important than the women with Pat seeming to be the smallest and least powerful.

Anne is the most dynamic and intriguing character because she experiences the most development. Initially acting as Joe’s good conscious, Anne urges him to turn himself in soon after escaping. Later, Anne, also urges Joe to let the other fugitive hide in the tavern with them and warns Joe that he could share the killer’s same bloody fate (effective foreshadowing). However, her love for Joe gradually corrupts her and she begins to break the law on his behalf. Anne lies to the park ranger who intrudes on their campsite, and Anne even picks up a gun to shoot the hoodlum Fantail (played by John Ireland) during his fistfight with Joe at Grimshaw’s. Shocked by her own capacity for violence, Anne drops the gun and runs distraughtly down the beach.

Pat initially performs an opposing role as Joe’s “devilish” conscious in contrast to Anne’s “angelic” conscious. Pat unsuccessfully encourages Joe to leave the fugitive killer outside the tavern to save himself. While Anne is corrupted during the movie, Pat is partially reformed on the other hand. Pat is tempted to call the police in order to save Joe from being killed in his confrontation with Rick. In the end, she gives in to her own conscious and tells Joe that Rick has captured Anne.

The cinematography of the sequence while Pat wrestles with her own guilty conscious aboard the ship is also quite effective. Shown in profile in a dark cabin, Pat appears to be staring at the clock on the wall even though it’s off to the left side and probably at the edge of her peripheral vision. The light is placed so that the edges of the light shaft line up with the top of her forehead and the bottom of her chin so that it appears the light is shooting straight from her face on to the clock. The light appears to connect her mind to the clock. But the shadow cast by the clock also creates a black shaft (similar to the barrel of a gun) that looms menacingly at her face. Lost in contemplation, the dialogue mostly consists of Joe speaking while some eerie music wafts through the background. A subsequent shot shows Pat’s face reflected in the glass cover of the clock, as time grinds on inevitably. Each second seems like torture, which forces Pat to admit to herself that she would never be happy if she lives in a sham marriage with Joe while he still really loves Anne. She reveals that Rick has captured Anne, and Joe rushes off to his fatal confrontation with Rick.

However, the final scene felt a little forced as Pat miraculously appears at the doorstep of Rick’s liar just as Joe dies in Anne’s embrace. It’s unclear how the police arrested her or why they brought her to Rick’s hideout. It feels like an artificial excuse to reunite the trio for the tragic conclusion.

On the other hand, Joe has very little character growth. In a few disparate pieces of dialogue, Joe and Anne reveal that, as a child, he had once heroically rescued people from a fire. Later he sold the medal he received to buy food which helps explain how he became a hardened criminal. Otherwise, Joe is so stoic to the point that he’s never told Pat he loves her (if indeed he did). For example, he tells Pat she wouldn’t understand why he must mete out revenge on Rick.

Overall, it was very rewarding to see a film noir from a female perspective. It provides a fresh point of view that is a relief from the incessant misogyny of most other examples of film noir. The cinematography helped convey the power dynamics of the love triangle and highlighted various elements of character development.

References

Raw Deal. Directed by Anthony Mann. Performances by Dennis O’Keefe, Claire Trevor, and Marsha Hunt. Eagle Lion Films, 1948.

I am taking another film class this semester about American film noir. I wrote essays about two of the films we watched. The first is Scarlet Street (1945) which is based on the 1930 French novel La Chienne (the bitch). A 1931 French film preceded the American adaptation which was directed by Fritz Lang, one of my favorite directors! You can watch Scarlet Street free on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNRSxu22NxU

Essay:

As discussed in the first chapter of Foster Hirsch’s The Dark Side of the Screen, film noir conveys a generally misogynistic attitude towards women who are portrayed as duplicitous and seductive. Fritz Lang’s Scarlet Street (1945) is certainly no exception.

Kitty (Joan Bennett) is a typical femme fatale in Scarlet Street. She manipulates a gullible cashier, Chris Cross (Edward G. Robinson), into stealing from his wife and his employer under false pretense of love. In addition, Kitty acts in a generally low-class and vulgar manner. For example, she reveals her ignorance of art by mispronouncing Cezanne’s name when discussing art with Chris. Furthermore, she is drunken and uncouth. Kitty stays out late drinking with lover Johnny Prince (Dan Duryea) and sleeps in until her friend Milly arrives the next morning to make amends. In the scene when Johnny convinces Kitty to extort Chris, Kitty also rudely spits out a piece of food. This vulgarity is followed by a telling closeup of a sink full of dirty dishes reveals that she is also a poor housekeeper (which would be seen a major failing for a woman in 1945). Kitty was unable or unwilling to maintain regular employment as a model (thus earning the nickname “Lazy Legs”). All of these elements would have persuaded viewers at the time that Kitty was a “failure” as a woman on several fronts.

Kitty also degrades herself by staying with Johnny who slaps Kitty on several occasions and takes money from her. He also insults Kitty, and her friend Milly (Margaret Lindsay) points out that Johnny has made Kitty into “a tramp.” Yet, despite these insults, Kitty clings to Johnny and doesn’t reject him in favor of Chris once Homer Higgins returns. The viewer would understand that Kitty is beyond redemption and refuses to even save herself. Kitty uses her sexuality to corrupt Chris. Even Johnny suggests that she is too sexual when he complained that she thought about nothing else. He told her to call a janitor if she needed more “heat” in the apartment since he could not accommodate Kitty’s lust!

Hirsch attributes the misogyny of noir films to several factors, including anxiety about the social change and upheaval resulting from World War II. During the war, 6 million American women entered the workforce to replace men who had gone over seas to fight the Axis powers (“Watch Terrified Men”). Women became more independent which threatened the traditional patriarchal social structure. Released just after World War II had ended in 1945, Scarlet Street vividly captures the contemporary male anxiety. Although most female employees were fired so that returning veterans could reclaim their jobs, many men were clearly concerned that they had already let the cat out of the bag. Kitty, a modern/liberated woman, was the perfect scapegoat.

The other main female character, Adele Cross (Rosalind Ivan), is shown in a very negative light as well. Adele is an overbearing woman who dominates Chris to such a degree that their domestic rolls are “crisscrossed.” Adele berates Chris to do the dishes (which would typically be the wife’s job in 1945) until he meekly complies. Chris also wears a frilly feminine apron while preparing dinner. Ironically, Adele’s favorite radio program is called the “Happy Household Hour,” while the Cross’ domestic relationship is clearly upside down. Adele also belittles Chris’ art and forces him to take his canvases out of the apartment (and inadvertently pushes him into Kitty’s seductive embrace). Adele reveals that Chris was only able to propose marriage to her because she “put the words” in his mouth. Thus, even in the domestic sphere Chris allows himself to be dominated and bullied. Hapless Chris can’t even find refuge in the supposedly safe realm of his own household, where the man was supposed to rule as patriarch. The domineering Adele has usurped his role, thus reflecting the contemporary anxiety that men felt like they were under assault on all fronts.

Kitty’s friend, Milly (Margaret Lindsay), was the only positive or neutral female character in Scarlet Street. Milly acts as the voice of reason by trying to explain to Kitty how Johnny has mistreated her. When the two women argue, she is the first to make amends by offering a bottle of Scotch. Milly also warns Kitty that Johnny has made threats and is on his way back to her apartment to hurt her at the end of the film. Milly acts as a token example that not all women are bullies or seducers. Milly is also gainfully employed in contrast to Kitty. However, her role is very minimal, and she only offers a baseline for acceptable behavior. Milly’s modest behavior contrasts with Adele and Kitty only serves to make them more monstrous. Scarlet Street tells female viewers that they should toe the line and challenge men no further than Milly’s verbal sparring with Johnny.

Scarlet Street thus offers fertile ground for exploring the film noir trend towards misogyny. Shot during the later stages of World War II and released shortly after the fighting stopped, Scarlet Street affirms Hirsch’s thesis that film noir reflected male anxiety about potential gender roles becoming permanently “crisscrossed” as a result of the wartime labor crisis. Kitty was presented as a seductive woman who failed to uphold traditional gender expectations. Adele emasculated her husband and usurped the traditional patriarchal role as head of the household. Similar trends are evident in other films we’ve viewed so far, such as the predatory femme fatale Phyllis (Barbara Stanwyck) in Double Indemnity (1944) and the duplicitous Helen/Velma (Claire Trevor) in Murder, My Sweet (1944).

References

Hirsch, Foster. The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir. Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 1981.

McNeary, Allison. “Watch Terrified Men Learn to Deal With Women in the Workforce in WWII.” History.com, March 2, 2018. https://www.history.com/news/women-workforce-wwii-training-video-1940s. Accessed Feb. 3, 2002.

Scarlet Street. Directed by Fritz Lang. Performances by Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennet and Dan Duryea. Fritz Lang Productions, 1945.