“I want to report a murder”
“Who was murdered?”
…
“I was”
[D.O.A (1950)]
As a point of interest - what does a woman’s appeal mean to you? Is it the promise of adventure, mystery and painful desire. Or is it the promise of mutual commitment, beyond a quick thrill?
The soft smell of infatuating perfume, blond tresses contrasted with unlit bars, and faint traces of liquor and tobacco; or fresh perms and the smell of a home cooked meal?
Without a doubt, the women in film noir play a central and recurring theme in the genre. Perhaps as a statement of the obsessions that move a man: money, liquor and women. The femme fatale (“ or the deadly woman”) is an ancient and popular character in western (and indeed world) texts. Generally, the femme fatale is shown to be a woman who exploits the weaknesses of men to her own advantage. Perhaps the interpretation that the construction of the femme fatale is ultimately a product of a patriarchal and largely inequitable society is itself an outdated interpretation. The femme fatale has become a movement of fashion and interest in modern society, and is a symbol of class.
Film noir gives a very hypothetical finger to the belief that “a way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”. The attractions you can find in the cast of women are predictable, but their use varied. I described a very typical split of woman: the femme fatal and, you know, the exact opposite of a femme fatale. You can recognize the ‘femme fatale’ because they are usually characterized as mysterious, duplicitous, double-crossing, gorgeous, unloving, predatory, tough-sweet, unreliable, irresponsible, manipulative and desperate women. And on the other hand, you have the type you’d take home to your mother. I don’t think this dichotomy is lost in modern entertainment either.
What is the appeal? As Frank Bigelow’s experience shows – it’s the possibility for quick, dangerous and self-destructive fun with no consequences of commitment. A woman who is equally motivated by desire as a man. The prospect of being “trapped” or “caged in” is something that men run from all the time. Face it – commitment phobia is for most men a reality. Frank Bigelow shows this – and he spends a lot of time running from it. While wanting the company and closeness of a woman, he doesn’t really want the burdens of commitment. Thus, the femme fatale becomes the obvious choice. He is drawn to mysteriously beautiful women at bars, who are in themselves powerful characters. Always in control but swayed by the moment.
In Film Noir Crime, the role of the femme fatale is often wrapped up in a web of complex deceit. They play key positions that transcend the common understanding of a woman – she has power, and is controlling of those around her. There is something really attractive about a powerful woman in film noir , and their ability to craft murder or disguise it is unbelievable. No doubt, the genre gives you a reason not to trust certain dames. But there’s still something more in crime noir – it’s really the disarming aspect of beauty in a dark city. That though everything is shouting in your bones to stay away, you keep wandering deeper and deeper into the allure of a femme.
There is something to be said about destructive desire – and in many parts, it characterized the society of the 1940s and 1950s. Disenchantment and materiality raised consumerism in a post war society torn by war and looking to find meaning in death. Only that there is no meaning, and the mundane lifestyle of, for example, an accountant like Frank, may change and be drastically transformed, but in the end he finds only death. Soldiers, accountants and murderers are not different in this respect.
So the mark of a man is how he lived. And in facing death, there is insight into our lives.
Ironically, Frank’s desire was the very cause of the death of him. He went to San Francisco to get away from a girl he loved but felt trapped by, following his desire he ends up drinking poison. Market week in San Fran had the city full of lovely dames, and beneath the surface, the deadly femme fatale. And while hunting down his murderer he realizes that the thing he was running away from was the very thing he was looking for all this time. That is, his true love who was always by his side.
