As we continue our travels with author Eddie Mueller through Dark City, it’s time to make our way over to “Shamus Flats” – abode of the perpetually cranky, disillusioned private detectives. They knew their urban landscapes from top to bottom – and especially the slimy bottom. The classic detective fiction of the 1920s which provided the source material for such acclaimed noir films as The Maltese Falcon and Murder My Sweet was written in a sharp, no nonsense, gritty manner that appealed to urban readers who eagerly gobbled up the salacious accounts of life on the edge in Dark City.
Eddie Mueller describes this fiction as “terse tales for laborers with little leisure time.” Dashiell Hammett was the leading author of this type of prose which was not geared towards upper-class readership with their preference for sophisticated plots and clever reasoning implemented to catch the murderer or resolve some other crime. For writers like Hammett and Raymond Chandler getting to the truth of the matter was like going to war, straining to bring down the scum of an urban cesspit. In this volatile realm it was imperative for the detective to be an all-around tough guy.
In the big screen version of Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon Humphrey Bogart became the prototype of the cynical, hard-boiled, tough-guy detective. It was this ultimate role as Sam Spade, busting a criminal ring in San Francisco that finally made him a major movie star and cemented his rough and tough image. Falcon also has a great supporting cast of villains that make noir detective stories so much fun to watch. In fact, Warner Brothers was the Golden Age Hollywood studio which excelled at creating gangsters and other villains during its 1930s and 40s heyday along with the heroes like Bogart. Warners also created a repertory company of sorts as the great stars on its roster such as Humphrey Bogart was often cast opposite the renowned character actor/villains such as Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet and Elisha Cooke Jr.
The superb cast of disreputable characters all clamoring to possess the fabled falcon statuette, the absorbing, fast paced storyline, and snappy dialogue has made The Maltese Falcon the most venerated of the detective noirs and is considered to be one of the greatest films ever made. The lore surrounding the lost treasure, the 400-year-old bejeweled falcon of the title has spawned numerous film imitations in the following decades – but none have ever topped The Maltese Falcon. However, before departing “Shamus Flats” we’ll drop in on Philip Marlowe, another hard-boiled detective in the iconic film noir mold.
Like Humphrey Bogart, Dick Powell got a significant career boost as tough guy detective Philip Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet (1944) – another highly celebrated noir entry based on the Raymond Chandler novel of the same name. Much like The Maltese Falcon before it, Raymond Chandler’s novel is populated with desperate, unsavory characters who translated well to the screen in another bristling tale of devious schemers, murderers, quacks, and blackmailers. Marlowe has his hands full battling these assorted criminals attempting to solve a mystery of stolen jade jewelry in L.A. It should be noted that Chandler (more than any other detective fiction writer) also had a knack for portraying Los Angeles as a fascinating, sinister character in and of itself, contributing to the dark, dangerous noir atmosphere which is clearly apparent onscreen.
Mueller’s account stresses the importance of director Edward Dmytryk and cameraman Harry Wild for making Murder, My Sweet a milestone of noir productions with deep shadows in conjunction with key lighting, odd and disturbing angles along with nightmarish dream sequences where Marlowe seems bound for oblivion. Mueller also points out that the noir sleuths are fundamentally different from other fictional sleuths. In Dark City they are far more world-weary, always searching for something that’s nagging at them – something deeper, but still vague that needs to solved. Somehow, this “certain something” is just frustratingly out of their grasp.
Another exceptional noir entry is Out Of The Past (1947). In this fatalistic, tangled tale star Robert Mitchum has emerged as a cult figure more appreciated now than during the film’s initial release. With Out Of The Past the private detective plunges further into dangerous territory as Jeff Markham (played by Robert Mitchum) who’s supposed to be tracking down the thieving girlfriend of a “Sinister Heights” client, but gets personally involved with her instead. As if the life of a P.I. did not have enough occupational hazards, Out Of The Past illustrates the self-destructive tendencies of detectives to succumb to the allure of a femme fatale – that can only lead to his demise in one sense or another. One of the sexiest – and most treacherous of the Dark City fatales is Kathie Moffett (Jane Greer) who Markham/Mitchum finds irresistible. However, Out Of The Past is comprised of one double cross after another, with Markham pursuing her across far-flung locales, but ends up completely engulfed, in over his head with the evil Kathie and pays the ultimate price for it, losing his integrity all along the way.
We leave “Shamus Flats” behind and strut over to “Vixenville” to cavort with the wicked women of the screen, to see what they’ve been up to. While “Shamus Flats” was often typified by its depressing streets cheap boarding houses, grubby tenements, dank warehouses, and austere police stations, “Vixenville” is often the realm of the glitzy nightclubs, and expensive penthouses where wealthy sugar daddies from “Sinister Heights” worshipped these radiant sex goddesses by showering them breath-taking baubles of diamonds, pearls emeralds…sexy silk gowns, mink coats, champagne and anything else their hardened, scheming little hearts desired.
Scarlet Street (1945) is an electrifying example of a heartless harlot named Kitty March (Joan Bennett) and her sleaze ball boyfriend (Dan Duryea) who in a cold, calculated manner takes advantage of a kindly middle-aged man (Edward G. Robinson). She leads him into an extramarital affair and starts bleeding him dry financially, persuading him to steal for her, eventually selling off his paintings that become valuable when praised by a New York art critic. Scarlet Street may be the most tragic example of a naive man dragged down to the depths of despair and desolation by a heartless hussy.
Ava Gardner (yet another unsavory character named Kitty!) proves to be another destructive temptress sending handsome ex-boxer Burt Lancaster to hell in a handcart. Pete Lund (Lancaster) is no longer able to box because of a hand injury and gets mixed-up with a crime boss and takes part in a heist which ends up badly. The results are especially bad for Lund as he is double-crossed by Kitty and ends up getting snuffed out by hired killers. Moving through “Vixenville” we have Stolen Face a real humdinger starring Lizabeth Scott who was a major presence in Dark City during the 1940s and 50s. In this treacherous noir entry Alice Brent (Scott) plays a dual role that Eddie Mueller bluntly describes as: “…angelic concert pianist and hardened street tramp.” (Pg. 96) Stolen Face was just one of at least eight noirs where Scott had male admirers wrapped around her little finger – and trapped in her schemes with no way out!
Of all the noir goddesses who have ever graced the silver screen, Rita Hayworth would be at the top of the pyramid with her signature role as Gilda (1946). Her portrayal of the ultimate femme fatale became one of the most sexually charged films for that era, and one of the box office smashes of the decade. Gilda like many noirs has a complex plot but is basically a slick nightclub melodrama and torrid love triangle.
As expected, Gilda is torn between two men: an older crime boss (also mixed up with German mobsters) who owns the Buenos Aires, Argentina nightclub and a handsome young American gambler she had known before named Johnny Farrell (Glenn Ford). The film became iconic for her erotic black glove striptease in her “Put The Blame On Mame” number, one of the most bewitching scenes (of many!) in the story. In any event, Rita Hayworth as Gilda is the high note where we leave “Vixenville” and take our next forbidding trip down “Blind Alley” in part three of Eddie Mueller’s Dark City.
