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Nightmare Alley - Film Noir And The American Dream

Page 45

by Mark Osteen

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 2–3

  émigrés. See immigrants

  Endfield, Cyril, 17, 220, 250

  and witch hunt, 224, 245, 250, 255, 290–91n1

  End of the Road, 281n18

  Engels, Frederick, 230, 235, 237

  Englund, Steven, 222, 224, 271n17

  Enterprise Studios, 14, 284n43

  and Body and Soul, 231, 234, 288n26

  and Caught, 211, 214, 285n47

  expressionism, 82, 129

  Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), 238, 289n35, 290n47

  feminism, 185, 210, 215

  femme fatales, 17, 185, 193, 196, 282n25

  femme noir, 187, 188–91, 218, 219

  The Accused, 199, 201–3, 282–83nn23–34

  The Bigamist, 147, 215, 216–18, 285nn51–55

  Caged, 207–10, 284nn40–41

  Caught, 5, 211–14, 284–85nn44–47

  The Damned Don’t Cry, 197–99, 281–82nn19–20

  Dark Waters, 192

  Gilda, 192–97, 281nn14–17

  Mildred Pierce, 188–91, 216, 280nn7–10

  Not Wanted, 214

  Outrage, 203–4, 283nn35–36

  Phantom Lady, 159, 171, 192, 271n20, 272–73n1, 277nn9–12, 281n12

  Possessed, 205–7, 283–84nn37–39

  File on Thelma Jordon, The, 199–201

  Filmakers, Inc., 211, 215–16, 218

  film gris, 225, 286n13, 288n25

  film industry, 2, 13, 21, 23, 223

  émigré directors in, 11, 20, 264n7, 266–67n1

  female filmmakers and, 17, 58, 180, 185, 187–88, 191–92, 214, 218–19, 261

  film noir and, 13–14

  gender views of, 112, 185, 193

  HUAC and, 86, 101, 221, 222–23, 224, 240, 283n38

  independent production companies in, 14, 211, 250, 284n43, 286n13

  and melodrama, 14, 23, 187, 189, 216

  screenwriters and, 188, 215, 224, 286n6

  view of jazz by, 17, 155. See also blacklist; censors

  film noir origins and definition, 11–12, 14, 132, 264n9, 275n1

  Fisher, Doris, 281n16

  Fisher, Steve, 15

  fishing, 55, 56, 267n5

  flashbacks, 270n4

  in dream films, 39, 265n14

  in femme noir films, 201, 205–7, 216, 282n26

  in identity films, 51, 61

  in jazz films, 162, 166

  musical themes associated with, 161–62

  in portraiture films, 106, 107, 109, 127

  as prototypical noir device, 51, 79–80, 106

  in vet noir films, 80, 82, 83

  Fleischer, Richard, 289n38

  Fletcher, Lucille, 188

  Flinn, Caryl, 161, 162

  Foch, Nina, 19, 58, 267n6

  Fontaine, Joan, 216, 218

  Force of Evil, 234–39, 288–89nn32–36

  on capitalism and crime, 220, 234–37, 249

  Ford, Glenn, 193, 281n14

  Forrest, Sally, 170, 214, 277–78n15

  Fotsch, Paul, 132, 275n2

  Fouchardière, Georges de la, 116

  fracturing, 6, 53–54, 129, 131

  frame narratives, 106, 109, 112, 127

  framing, 106, 107, 118, 125

  in La chienne, 120, 274n17

  in The Dark Corner, 113, 114

  in I Wake Up Screaming, 108, 109

  in Laura, 110, 112

  Francke, Lizzie, 187

  Frank, Arthur, 80

  Frank, Nino, 275n1

  Franklin, Benjamin, 2

  Freedman, Jonathan, 37, 266nn21–22

  freedom and liberty, 4, 5, 10, 21, 75

  American Dream and, 12, 100

  automobiles and, 16, 132, 135, 136, 148

  as ideal, 2, 249

  Freudianism, 278n19

  on dreams, 20, 22–23, 24, 265n8

  Frings, Ketti, 188, 199, 203, 282nn21–24

  From Here to Eternity, 272n30

  Fuchs, Daniel, 70, 71, 75, 76, 269n26, 269nn28–29

  Fuller, Samuel, 137

  Fury, 254

  Gabbard, Glen O., 263–64n6, 266n23

  Gabbard, Krin, 263–64n6, 266n23

  on jazz films, 170, 171, 277n5, 279n33

  Galatea/Pygmalion myth, 106, 110

  gangster films, 4, 17, 25, 225, 287n14

  Gardner, Ava, 51, 52

  Garfield, John, 133, 220, 231, 234, 285–86n3

  biographical information on, 231, 288n25

  and witch hunt, 224, 288n29

  Garmes, Lee, 211

  Garnett, Tay, 133

  Gay, Peter, 23

  geek, 163, 253, 263n1

  in Nightmare Alley, 1, 6, 9, 10

  gender roles, 54, 125, 170, 270n10

  female filmmakers on, 191–92, 214, 217, 261

  femme noir films on, 199, 208, 214, 217

  jazz and, 154, 163

  postwar anxieties about, 17, 115, 185. See also women

  Gershwin, George and Ira, 156

  Giddens, Anthony, 150

  Gilda, 192–97, 281nn14–17

  Gioia, Ted, 163

  Goetz, William, 274

  Gomez, Thomas, 91, 235

  Goodman, Benny, 156

  Gorbman, Claudia, 154, 161

  Gothic, 187, 192, 280n4

  Gough, Lloyd, 231, 288n24

  Goulding, Edmund, 1

  Grable, Betty, 108, 109

  Graebner, William, 13

  Granger, Farley, 137, 138

  Gray, J. Glenn, 101–2

  Green, Johnny, 233

  Greene, Eve, 188

  Greene, Mort, 163

  Greer, Jane, 54, 57

  Gresham, William Lindsay, 8, 263n2

  Griffith, E. H., 192

  Grossman, Julie, 185, 192

  guilt, 24, 25, 26, 168, 260

  America and, 76, 105

  dreams and, 19, 26, 33, 36, 44–45

  Spellbound depiction of, 38, 39, 43

  Gun Crazy, 5, 136, 140–42, 187, 276nn9–10

  Gunning, Tom, 125, 136

  Hall, George, 275n4

  Hamlet, 25, 26, 28, 265n13

  Hammett, Dashiell, 11, 46, 47

  Hampton, Lionel, 156

  Hannah, Dorothy, 188

  Hanson, Helen, 280n4, 281n12

  hard-boiled fiction, 11, 15, 115, 192, 264n8

  Harline, Leigh, 163

  Harris, Oliver, 116, 119

  Harrison, Joan, 34, 36, 37, 159, 163, 271n19

  as producer, 191–92, 280n11

  Hartmann, Ernest, 44, 265n7

  Haskell, Molly, 280n3

  Hastie, Amelie, 215, 217

  Hathaway, Henry, 113

  Hayden, Sterling, 220, 223, 290n43

  Hays Office, 36

  Hayward, Lillie, 188

  Hayworth, Rita, 112, 185, 192–93, 196

  Hecht, Ben, 271n19

  Heflin, Van, 100, 102, 205, 228, 255, 257

  heist films, 239, 240, 243, 289nn37–39

  Hellinger, Mark, 287n16

  Henreid, Paul, 69, 70, 71, 72, 75, 76, 269n24

  biographical information on, 269n25

  Higgins, John C., 281n18

  High Wall, 78, 97–100, 272nn24–30

  Hillis, Ken, 3, 134

  Hirsch, Foster, 19, 46–47

  Hirsch, Joshua, 225, 287n14, 289–90n42

  Hitchcock, Alfred, 42, 191, 266nn26–27

  and film noir, 266n20

  and Spellbound, 37, 38, 40, 42, 266n21

  The Hitch-Hiker, 145–47

  hitchhikers, 133, 144, 148, 150

  challenge to ownership by, 134–35

  and lawlessness, 147

  hitchhiking films: Detour, 142–44, 161, 162, 276nn12–14

  The Devil Thumbs a Ride, 144

  The Hitch-Hiker, 145–47

  The Night Holds Terror, 147–48

  Hively, Jack, 49

  Holiday, Billie, 156

  Hollow Triumph, 48, 69–76, 120, 249, 269nn25–29

  Hollywood Left, 12–
13, 17–18, 100, 220–48, 261, 286n12

  and communism, 221, 290–91n1

  and film noir, 224–25, 286n12. See also blacklist

  Hollywood Quarterly, 221–22, 286n4

  Hollywood Ten, 222–23, 285–86n3, 286n7

  Holmes, Taylor, 103, 208

  homosexuality, 33, 83, 165, 284n44

  in Gilda, 193, 281n14

  in Laura, 109, 273n3

  homosociality, 33, 88, 89, 279n28

  Hopper, Edward, 234

  Horizon Pictures, 14

  House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), 97, 104, 247

  and Hollywood, 86, 101, 221, 222–23, 224, 240, 283n38

  naming names for, 223, 290n43

  Howe, James Wong, 231

  Hughes, C. J. Pennethorne, 21

  Hughes, Dorothy B., 271n19

  Hughes, Howard, 284n44, 286n12

  Hughes, Langston, 173–74

  Humphries, Reynold, 241, 255

  Huston, John, 46

  and The Asphalt Jungle, 220, 241–42, 244

  and Committee for the First Amendment, 222–23, 244

  Huston, Virginia, 55, 164

  Hyde, Thomas, 43

  “I Can’t Believe That You’re in Love with Me,” 162–63

  identity, 4, 16, 30

  American, 15, 79, 184

  authorship and, 120, 124

  automobiles and, 133, 134, 135, 137

  consumer goods and, 5, 10

  dreams and, 20, 21

  as fluid and malleable, 47, 92, 107, 115, 261

  forged, 115, 125

  Franklin and Emerson on, 2, 3

  Nightmare Alley on, 10, 15

  in portraiture films, 106, 107, 115, 120, 122, 127, 131, 261, 280n9

  in postwar period, 4, 5, 97

  in switched-identity films, 39, 42, 48, 50

  in vet noir films, 77, 78, 82, 89, 96, 97

  women and, 58–59, 60, 198, 210

  writing as certification of, 39, 63

  I Married a Dead Man (Woolrich), 61, 62, 64, 268n13, 268n17

  immigrants, 4, 37, 76, 93

  returning vets feeling like, 81, 82, 93

  and switched-identity films, 48, 266–67n1

  individualism, 76

  and alienation, 69, 249

  and American Dream, 4, 135

  and community, 3

  Dark Passage on, 69, 261

  Hollow Triumph on, 249, 261

  ideology of, 2, 48

  noir critique of, 4, 15, 107, 221, 260, 261

  informers, 149, 226

  in Act of Violence, 100, 101, 104

  during blacklist era, 223, 290nn43–44

  in Force of Evil, 237, 239

  Ingster, Boris, 21

  innocence: and evil, 140

  lost, 92, 97, 170, 243

  International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), 222

  isolation, 48, 77–78, 92

  automobiles and, 133, 134

  I Wake Up Screaming, 106, 107–9, 115

  I Want to Live, 174, 278–79nn26–27

  Jaffe, Sam, 202, 240

  Jameson, Fredric, 5–6

  Jarrico, Paul, 285n48

  jazz, 154–84

  and American Dream, 170, 174

  big-band, 175

  and blackness, 16, 154, 155, 160, 161, 166, 178, 180

  crime jazz, 174, 279n29

  and cultural anxieties, 154, 161, 176

  in Detour, 161, 162

  and disability, 154, 168

  improvisation in, 155, 162, 173, 180, 182

  New Orleans–style, 158–59, 167

  noir association with, 16, 154

  and postwar world, 12, 154, 155, 158, 163

  as quintessentially American, 155, 184

  as rebellion, 161

  respectability and legitimacy of, 172, 179

  and sexuality, 16, 154–55, 159, 160–61, 165, 175, 176, 277n9, 277n11

  as symbol of otherness, 154–55

  tolerance and idealism in, 16–17, 170, 279n33

  unsavory connotations of, 17, 155, 159, 171, 174, 175, 176, 178

  and violence, 154, 155, 161, 168

  jazz films, 162, 168, 249

  The Big Combo, 77, 174–76

  Black Angel, 165–67, 278n17

  The Blue Gardenia, 168–70

  Blues in the Night, 156–58, 277nn5–6

  Criss Cross, 160, 277nn11–12

  Dead on Arrival, 160–61, 171

  The Man I Love, 179–81, 188, 279–80nn34–39

  Nightmare, 167–68, 278n19

  Nocturne, 163–65, 191, 278n16

  Odds against Tomorrow, 172–74, 278–79nn24–28, 289n39

  Phantom Lady, 159, 171, 192, 271n20, 272–73n1, 277nn9–12, 281n12

  Road House, 181–84

  The Strip, 170–72, 178, 278nn20–23

  Sweet Smell of Success, 176–78, 279nn31–33

  jazz musicians, 163, 168, 178, 179

  as childlike and weak, 157, 170, 183

  as effeminate, 155, 163, 277–78n15

  female singers, 16–17, 179–80, 183–84

  as idealistic, 179, 279n33

  and interracialism, 16, 177, 278n20, 279n33

  and mental disturbance, 16, 155, 163, 277–78n15

  whites as, 16, 155

  Jews, 155, 277n5

  Johnson, Nunnally, 274n16

  Johnston, Eric, 222

  Jolson, Al, 156

  justice, 29, 30, 254

  Kahn, Gordon, 286n7

  Kalinak, Kathryn, 154, 155, 273n4, 273n8

  Kaminsky, Stuart, 289nn37–38

  Kaplan, E. Ann, 274n17

  Karlson, Phil, 289n39

  Kazan, Elia, 223, 277n5

  Kellogg, Virginia, 188, 207, 210, 284n41

  Kemp, Philip, 11, 224–25, 286n12

  Kenton, Stan, 279n29

  Killens, John O., 278n24

  Killers, The, 48, 50–54, 266n26

  Kiss Me Deadly, 5, 150–52, 158

  Kitses, Jim, 141, 276n10

  Koch, Howard, 286n7

  Kracauer, Siegfried, 264n3

  Krutnik, Frank, 11, 24, 78, 271n16, 285–86n3

  Kubrick, Stanley, 289n39

  Kuhn, Annette, 215

  Lackey, Kris, 134, 276n11

  Laderman, David, 276n12, 276n14

  lam films, 135–42, 275n6

  Gun Crazy, 5, 136, 140–42, 187, 276nn9–10

  Shockproof, 137

  They Live by Night, 136–39, 158

  Lancaster, Burt, 50, 52, 160, 177, 225

  Lang, Fritz, 123, 136, 168, 254

  and La chienne, 121–22, 123, 125

  and Scarlet Street, 106, 116

  and Women in the Window, 36, 106, 116, 119, 274n16

  Lardner, Ring, Jr., 265n13, 286n7

  Latimer, Jonathan, 278n16, 283n34

  Laura, 106, 109–12, 273nn3–8

  musical theme play in, 110, 273n5

  Laurents, Arthur, 211, 284n42

  Lawrence, Marc, 240, 290n44

  Lawson, John Howard, 224, 285–86nn3–4, 286n7

  Lears, Jackson, 4–5

  Lebeau, Vicky, 21

  Lederer, Charles, 271n19

  Lee, Canada, 224, 232, 288n29

  Leff, Leonard, 273n3

  leftist filmmakers. See Hollywood Left

  Leigh, Janet, 100, 102

  Leisen, Mitchell, 61

  Levine, Lawrence, 156

  Lewis, John, 172

  Lewis, Joseph H., 140, 174

  Little Caesar, 4

  Look Homeward, Angel, 282n21

  Loos, Anita, 281n13

  Lorre, Peter, 31, 34, 166

  Los Angeles, 71, 132–33, 150, 171

  Losey, Joseph, 17, 28, 220, 249–50

  and blacklist, 224, 256, 265n15

  and The Prowler, 255, 256, 260, 291n5

  Lott, Eric, 155

  Lovejoy, Frank, 146, 250

  loyalty oaths, 223, 286n10

  Luckhurst, Roger, 79, 270n4


  Lupino, Ida, 17, 214–15, 218, 280n40

  as actress, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 214, 279n34

  and The Bigamist, 211, 215, 218, 285n53

  and The Hitch-Hiker, 145

  and Not Wanted, 214, 215, 277–78n15, 285nn48–49

  and Outrage, 203, 204, 215

  lynching, 254

  MacDougall, Ranald, 189

  machines, 150, 153, 243

  Macready, George, 58, 193

  Maltby, Richard, 12, 14

  Maltese Falcon, The, 46–47, 54, 90, 275n1

  Maltese Falcon, The (Hammett), 46, 47

  Maltz, Albert, 188, 285–86n3, 286n7, 287n16

  Mancini, Henry, 174, 279n29

  Man I Love, The, 179–81, 188, 279–80nn34–39

  Mankiewicz, Joseph L., 92

  Mann, Anthony, 139, 281n18

  Man with the Golden Arm, The, 174

  Marin, Edwin L., 163

  marriage, 17, 86, 197, 203, 205, 211

  The Bigamist on, 211, 216–18, 285n55

  career women and, 196

  Caught on, 211–14, 284n46

  changing ideas of, 186–87, 217–18

  as economic arrangement, 211

  female filmmakers on, 191, 214, 261

  and female sexuality, 193, 195, 203, 217

  as form of abduction, 59, 60

  Gilda on, 193, 195

  My Name Is Julia Ross on, 58, 59, 60

  No Man of Her Own on, 63, 64–65

  as proper women’s role, 186, 191

  Marshall, Herbert, 99, 130, 245, 272n27

  Martin, Angela, 280n5

  Marx, Karl, 227, 230, 233, 235, 237, 283n34

  masculinity, 15, 88–89, 197, 214, 255

  automobiles and, 147

  in The Bigamist, 216, 217

  in The Big Night, 28, 29, 30, 45

  and disability, 78, 83

  hitchhiking and, 145

  veterans’ redefining of, 78, 79

  Mason, Fran, 289n40

  Mason, James, 212, 213

  masquerade, 54, 62, 73–74, 194, 195

  Massey, Raymond, 118, 205

  Maté, Rudolph, 19, 160

  Maxfield, James, 58

  May, Lary, 220, 225, 289n41

  Mayo, Virginia, 82, 149

  McCann, Sean, 277n11, 279n33

  McClary, Susan, 163

  McGilligan, Patrick, 122, 220

  McGivern, William, 278n24, 279n28

  McLean, Adrienne, 180, 279n35

  Medford, Harold, 197

  media, 221, 248

  The Asphalt Jungle on, 243–44

  and red scare, 224, 245, 290n48

  Try and Get Me! on, 250, 254

  The Underworld Story on, 221, 245–46, 249

  Meegeren, Han van, 274n21

  melodrama, 14, 23, 187, 189, 216

  memory, 39, 80, 87, 162, 260

  and dreams, 25, 41–42

  and forgetting, 79

  loss of, 49–50, 93, 96, 98, 104

  and music, 163, 169

  postwar America’s crisis of, 104, 105

  reliability of, 106–7

  and trauma, 22, 23, 104. See also amnesia

  Men, The, 272n30

  Mercer, Johnny, 156, 273n6

  Meredyth, Bess, 188

  metonymy, 22, 24–25, 41, 43, 265n9

 

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