Foreword i The Philosophy of Film Noir This page intentionally left blank Foreword iii The Philosophy of Film Noir edited by Mark T. Conard Foreword by Robert Porfirio The University Press of Kentucky iv Robert Porfirio Publication of this volume was made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Copyright © 2006 by The University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved. Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008 www.kentuckypress.com 10 09 08 07 06 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The philosophy of film noir / edited by Mark T. Conard with a foreword by Robert Porfirio. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-8131-2377-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-8131-2377-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Film noir—History and criticism. I. Conard, Mark T., 1965- PN1995.9.F54P55 2005 791.43’6552—dc22 2005030639 This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials. Manufactured in the United States of America. Member of the Association of American University Presses Foreword v To Bill Irwin, Pepper Landis, John and Linda Pappas, Read Schuchardt, and Aeon Skoble—movie lovers all, and the best friends a guy could have This page intentionally left blank Foreword vii Contents Foreword ix Acknowledgments xv Introduction 1 Part 1: The Essence and Elements of Noir Nietzsche and the Meaning and Definition of Noir 7 Mark T. Conard A Darker Shade: Realism in Neo-Noir 23 Jason Holt Moral Clarity and Practical Reason in Film Noir 41 Aeon J. Skoble Cherchez la Femme Fatale: The Mother of Film Noir 49 Read Mercer Schuchardt From Sherlock Holmes to the Hard-Boiled Detective in Film Noir 69 Jerold J. Abrams Part 2: Existentialism and Nihilism in Film Noir Film Noir and the Meaning of Life 91 Steven M. Sanders The Horizon of Disenchantment: Film Noir, Camus, and the Vicissitudes of Descent 107 Alan Woolfolk Symbolism, Meaning, and Nihilism in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction 125 Mark T. Conard vviiiiii RCoobnetertn Ptsorfirio Part 3: Six Classic Films Noirs Film Noir and the Frankfurt School: America as Wasteland in Edgar Ulmer’s Detour 139 Paul A. Cantor Knowledge, Morality, and Tragedy in The Killers and Out of the Past 163 Ian Jarvie Moral Man in the Dark City: Film Noir, the Postwar Religious Revival, and The Accused 187 R. Barton Palmer On Reason and Passion in The Maltese Falcon 207 Deborah Knight Ride the Pink Horse: Money, Mischance, Murder, and the Monads of Film Noir 223 Alain Silver Contributors 239 Index 243 Foreword ix Foreword In the fall of 1976, when I wrote the article “No Way Out: Existential Mo- tifs in the Film Noir” for Sight and Sound (vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 212–17), little would I have expected that some twenty-five years later a collection of es- says under the title The Philosophy of Film Noir would be published. Yet here it is, a welcome indication of how far we have traveled in terms of public awareness and scholarly respectability. Indeed, in 1976, the term film noir was little known beyond a coterie of French and American cineasts and derided by some as a specious classification created in a post hoc man- ner and not worthy of serious critical attention. By now, the ontology of film noir seems to be settled in its favor, although epistemological argu- mentation rages on. Anyone interested in tracing the course of this argu- mentation over the past quarter century would be well advised to consult the appendices in Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style (ed. Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward, with Carl Macek and Robert Porfirio, 3rd ed., rev. and expanded [Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook, 1992]) as well as the Film Noir Readers (Alain Silver and James Ursini, eds., Film Noir Reader [1996; New York: Limelight, 2001], Film Noir Reader 2 [New York: Lime- light, 1999], and Film Noir Reader 4 [New York: Limelight, 2004]; and Rob- ert Porfirio, Alain Silver, and James Ursini, eds., Film Noir Reader 3 [New York: Limelight, 2001]), which, taken together, cover virtually all the con- troversies surrounding the field of film noir scholarship and evidence the debt that such scholarship owes to Alain Silver. That the essence of film noir is yet to be distilled is implicit in the excellent essays contained in this volume, each of which sees film noir through a slightly different lens. The essays here go well beyond my earlier, somewhat simplistic effort to extract a “philosophy” of film noir in terms of an outlook on life that these diverse films seemed to share—an attitude toward existence that was akin to modern existentialism, particularly as it evolved in postwar France. Perhaps that is why it was the French cineasts who were the first to identify the cycle. But, if I may be allowed to indulge myself a bit here, I would like to take issue with their assertion (and that of other critics following in their wake, myself included) that what was sur- ix