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FILM NOIR

Film noir, literally, "black film" was a term for crime melodramas, usually low to medium budget, and usually begun in the black-and-white eras before fancy color and special effects happened. Most of the subjects dealt with either crime- both punishment and retribution. In a sense, one could say that this film genre became popular at the end of World War II when universal disillusionment set in, and when the idea often was for someone to "get away with it"- as long as it wasn't a monstrous crime. "Film noir concentrates upon crime but the question of punishment is not so neatly solved despite the Hollywood tendency to knit up all the loose ends is discussed" (Scruggs 675).

"Femme fatales. Wise-cracking detectives who were as tough as the criminals they fought. Shocking violence and twisted storylines. All key ingredients to the film noir. The world was a dangerous place in these stylized films of the late 1040s and '50s, a darker and more violent version of the 1930s detective story" (Netherby SS20).

Given the overall description of film noir, Possessed was not truly an epitome of the genre. Still, there was a combination of hardboiled, even psychotic behavior overlaid with a certain veneer that made this a rather typical film of its time, as produced by Warner Brothers.

Warner Brothers, in the 1940s, had a major film star- Joan Crawford- who specialized in portraying two types of women- those victimized by poor choices in lovers and/or husbands, and in manipulative strong women who beat down the men and women in her life to achieve her own sense of respectability and fame and fortune. One very popular film, starring Crawford and John Garfield was Humoresque, which "was followed in 1947 by Possessed, an overwrought but fascinating melodrama directed by Curtis Bernhardt" (Sennett 144). It is far more a melodrama, ending with the Crawford character, Louise, totally gone mad. "In this film Cr

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FILM NOIR. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 08:17, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1688469.html