The Smiths? Rendezvous in Black?

Woolrich's book continually makes me listen to The Smiths. I couldn't help but notice weird details relating the band to Rendezvous in Black.

The first being the main character is named Johnny Marr, as is the famous guitarist from the band.. besides that there is the character of Bill Morrissey, and the lead singer of the band is named Morrissey.. I found that to be a huge coincidence and wondered if a band such as The Smiths would have read the book and been influenced by its dark atmosphere. After all, most Smiths songs are dark, depressing, and concern the loss of love in brutal or morose ways. I'm pretty sure Morrissey was a failed writer before hooking up with Marr and forming the band, so it would be conceivable that he would read such a novel, however I have found no proof that the band read or was influenced by the novel at all. If that supposition is true, its hilarious to me that this coincidence exists, as the atmosphere emitted by both the band and the book are certainly kindred spirits. And now, music.

Ending in Rendezvous in Black / Martine's Character

I found the ending of Rendezvous in Black to be extremely dark and noir-ish. The author put so much time into talking about Martine and Allen that I really thought there would be a somewhat happy ending with Martine escaping death. I forgot for a little bit that it was a noir novel- so an unhappy ending should have been expected. I loved Martine's character, and found her to be the complete opposite of Johnny Marr. Johnny was revengeful, whereas Martine had "never been inclined to feel sorry for herself. No matter what they took away, you still had so much left" (174). This was a deep contrast with his character who couldn't face reality and recognize that there was more to life. (I have a different book so the page number might be a little off). I found it hard to finish the book because it was just so suspenseful that I didn't think I could handle reading any more! What did everyone else think of the ending/ the character of Martine?

Freud and Psychoanalytic Things

A bunch of you indicated in the first meeting of the class that you'd read some Freud before. What have you read? And is there anything that you found interesting or useful in psychoanalytic thought? Here's an idea of mine: that scene where I thought, "Hey, Fred MacMurray can act" — where Walter's expression goes through contortions as he listens to Keyes's recorded memo expressing faith in him — could, perhaps benefit from psychoanalytic vocabulary. It would say something about how Walter must have viewed Keyes in order to experience him as a powerful thing to "get over," to rebel against, or what-have-you, using terms like "phantasm" or "imago" to refer to the Keyes in Walter's head. And that moment when he learns that Keyes has warm feelings toward him and is something other than an obstacle would be, like, one of those moments of phantasmatic working-through, when you see your parent not as the super-egoic fantasy figure, but as another frail, fallible human being.

I'm not asking you here to apply psychoanalytic thought to course material, necessarily, though: just to say something about your experience with and interest in it, if any.

Rendezvous in Black-Sympathizing with Johnny

I must say that Woolrich's Rendezvous in Black has been my favorite novel so far.  I really felt for Johnny Marr and I must say, he had a right to want  revenge.  If I had been in his place, I would have wanted to avenge the love of my life's death as well.  However, his actions had a sadistic edge to them, since for his later kills, Sharon Paige and Madeline Drew, he gets close to them and makes them fall in love with him, before he goes on to kill them.  Woolrich did a great job getting the reader to sympathize with all of his characters, I felt bad for the women getting killed and I felt bad for Johnny.  I liked the fact that whatever alias Johnny assumed, he always used his same initials 'JM'.  The ending was heartbreaking for me to read, it showed just how deep Johnny's devotion to Dorothy ran, since he died calling out her name.  It was also a pretty brutal way for Cameron to catch Johnny, by having a police woman dress up as an identical replica to Dorothy.  It was harsh since it hurt Johnny both emotionally as well as psychologically in addition to his demise.  I understand that Johnny did some horrible things, but he was so scarred by Dorothy's death and his loss of love.  People do crazy things for love.  Should the guy really blamed for all his actions?

Other Thoughts on "Postman"

I just had a few more thoughts on The Postman Always Rings Twice that I wanted to touch upon.

First off, what struck me as interesting is how the Postman rather denies the popular structure of novels. More specifically, I'm talking the common story-telling rule of three. Goldilocks had her three bears. The wolf chased after the three pigs. The three blind mice, and so on. This is a common narrative technique that could be found all over the place in creative writing. Cain, on the other hand, stuck with two; two attempts to murder the Greek, two trials, two car accidents, etc. Whether or not Cain had the intention of breaking that rule of three and shifting things to two is unclear, however he did it. Also, this rule breaking could contribute to the theory behind the title of the novel. The Postman doesn't ring three times, he rings twice. Granted, this is a stretch, but it was just another thought that I had while discussing this novel.

Another point I wanted to bring up is the subtle religious aspect to The Postman Always Rings Twice. The story has small religious instances all throughout it.  For example, at certain points in the novel, the characters state that they had the Devil in them. When Cora and Frank are making amends, Cora says, "Well, I'm rid of the devil Frank. I know I'll never call up Sackett, because I had my chance, and I had my reason, and I didn't do it. So the devil has left me. But has he left you?" In addition, there is a scene in the ocean, which I wrote about on another comment, in which Frank sort of goes through at baptism. He dives down into the water and comes up a new man, purged of all his sins. Now, again, whether or not these religious segments are intentional is unknown, but they are still interesting. Part of me believes Cain is using these religious comparisons and metaphors strictly for aesthetics. Meaning, the fact that the cat was "deader than hell" was most likely used because it sounded cool, not because Cain wanted a religious theme.

Language in James M. Cain

I mentioned in a facebook status that I'd been teaching The Postman Always Rings Twice, and a scholar in Taiwan surprised me by saying, "There are some extraordinary sentences in that novel." 'Cause the style doesn't call attention to itself like Woolrich or even like earlier tough-guy writers such as Hammett and Hemingway. And what had made the biggest impression on me in the novel was not Frank's narrative voice but the characterization through dialogue. "Killed it deader'n hell." "He suspicions me, Frank." "Was a all go dark." Even "She picked it up and tucked it around me, then turned away quick" is more notable for what it describes than how it's written, I thought.

So what do you think? Any "extraordinary sentences," either for the imagery or for the punch they pack or for the dialogue they convey? This could be useful to think about for the paper-in-progress.

Open Open Thread

This thread is primarily for those students who have tried unsuccessfully to put up blog posts: if the blog is not allowing you to post a thing, try writing it as, or linking it in, a comment below.

Rendezvous in Black prose and language

Within pages of reading Rendezvous in Black, I was hooked by the prose and metaphors. It is so detailed and descriptive, and I can picture everything so perfectly. The book is suspenseful and definitely keeps me on my feet, so I'm interesting in seeing how it ends. A few of my favorite passages:

"The blinds were down over all the windows. There was a wreath on the door. It was raining softly, and the red-black, white-trimmed Georgian house looked cold and lonely. The drops falling from the trees that stood around it, more clearly and visible than in the open for they were held back and thickened by the screen of leaves that had no filter through, made the trees all seem to be weeping in unison."

"Several times he was on the point of succumbing, and his hypertensile nerves, like springs, would ricochet him back again through the surface of consciousness. Then at last he sank down into the murky waters of oblivion and didn't come up any more."

These passages contain very many noir images: rain, closed blinds, along with a lonely and alienated protagonist. This book seems a little off of the noir. The narrative is very surreal, and this book seems a little different than stereotypical noirs.

As for the plot of Rendezvous in Black, the protagonist is seeking revenge on the murderer of his fiance, which is a different concept than what we read/saw in Postman and Double Indemnity. This doesn't seem like the stereotypical noir, but more of a crime, revenge and suspense story.

If this is not yet a movie, it definitely should be!

Listen Baby, Let's Talk About The Dialogue, Baby

In class we discussed how the dialogue employed in Double Indemnity might be viewed as “over the top.” I think the reason for this is, aside from the fact that the movie is very much dated, is that in recent years we have seen many movies who try to mock imitate this style of dialogue. Fred MacMurry’s character in Double Indemnity had a very idenfiable swagger, even in his dying breaths, and this kind of attitude has been a model for directors like Frank Miller (Sin City) and Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill, Grindhouse). Both directors are apt to use this kind of iconic and sometimes misogynistic language, and are likely to do so in an omniscient voice over; the point is that it is always purposefully over the top. Most kids our age haven't seen many movies from this era, but they have seen the imitation of this era, and its always presented semi-comedic manner. From there we now have countless student films that now try to mirror this kind of throw-back style of speaking (as seen in newer movies), and many times it comes across as forced. I think all of this explains why the dialogue in Double Indemnity may come across as artificial to a 20-something liberal arts student. 

The Postman Always Rings Twice ending

Hello, everyone!

So, I know The Postman Always Rings Twice has is its own thread, but I'll be honest - I still need to take a peak at all the other posts that have been made. I did, however, wanted to share my thoughts on the ending of the story.

First and foremost: did anyone else feel like the narrative wrapped up incredibly quickly? I mean, I felt like there was a great deal of time spent on how Frank and Cora felt toward the murder and one another after the crime, but everything after Kennedy comes to the restaurant seemed very rushed, like Cain was trying to just get to the ending. I mean, Frank's reformation, in my opinion, did not see much in the way of detail (at least not until the very end), nor did his subsequent trial after Cora's death. I supposed that, in terms of what is essential to the plot, these things aren't that substantial, but I finished the book wanting to know more about Frank's change. Don't get me wrong - I feel like there was enough to make me upset over Frank's death, I didn't really feel anything for him until those last few paragraphs. Perhaps it was the way the dialogue was written in the book, but when Frank and Cora are discussing "the devil leaving" Frank, I wasn't really sure if he was actually telling the truth or not. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Wilder on "Double Indemnity"

Thumbing through Cameron Crowe's book length interview with Billy Wilder, and I thought I'd share some choice cuts:

BW: Double Indemnity was so grim, by the way, that Brackett [Wilder's writing partner] kind of ducked out. He says, "No, it's too grim for me." So that's how I got Chandler. Mr. Raymond Chandler, from whom I learned in the very beginning, you know, what real dialogue is. Because that's all he could write. That, and descriptions. "Out of his ears grew hair long enough to catch a moth" ... or the other one I loved: "Nothing is as empty as an empty swimming pool. But he could not construct.

He was about sixty when we worked together. He was a dilettante. He did not like the structure of a screenplay, wasn't used to it. He was a mess, but he could write a beautiful sentence. "There is nothing as empty as an empty swimming pool." That is a great line, a great one. After a while I was able to write like Chandler... I would take down what he wrote, and structure it, and we would work on it. He hated James Cain. I loved the story, but he did not care for Cain. I tried to get Cain, but he was busy making a movie. Chandler also did not care for Agatha Christie. But each had what the other lacked. Christie, she knew structure. Sometimes the plot was very high-schoolish. She had structure, but she lacked poetry....

CC: Over the years, it appears you've upgraded your estimations of Leisen and Chandler.

BW: Sure, the anger gets washed, gets watery. You know, you forget about it. That's a very good thing. That's the only thing. Sure. I cannot forgive Mr. Hitler, but I certainly can forgive Mr. Leisen or Mr. Chandler. That's a different story. [Pause.] But then... there was a lot of Hitler in Chandler.

CC: [laughs] In what way?

BW: In the way he talked behind my back. And the way he quit writing with me and then came back the same day. Because I had told him to close that window, a Venetian blind in the office, and I didn't say, "please."

CC: You had the stick too, right? The riding crop. And you said, "Shut the window."

BW: Yeah, I had the stick. I had the stick, and I had three martinis before lunch, and I called girls -- six girls. One of them took fifteen minutes for me to get off the phone... and he was just outraged. He just could not take it, because he was impotent, I guess. And he had a wife who was much older than he was, and he was in AA, Alcoholics Anonymous -- an unnecessary thing, because he got to be a drunkard again when we finished.

********
CC: Let's talk about a couple of your famous "lost sequences." In Double Indemnity, why didn't you use the gas-chamber ending you'd scripted and shot with Fred MacMurray and Edward G. Robinson?

BW: I did not need it. I knew it as I was filming the next-to-the-last scene. The story was between the two guys. I knew it, even though I had already filmed the gas-chamber scene. Here was the scene I didn't use. It was a close-up of Robinson and a close-up of MacMurray. The looks. There was a connection with his heart. The doctor was standing there listening to the heartbeat when the heartbeat stopped. I had it all, a wonderful look between the two, and then MacMurray was filled with gas. Robinson comes out, and the other witnesses are there. And he took a cigar, opened the cigar case, and struck the match. It was moving -- but the other scene, the previous scene, was moving in itself. You didn't know if it was the police siren in the background or the hospital sending the doctor. What the hell do we need to see him die for? Right? So we took out that scene in the gas chamber -- cost us about five thousand dollars, because we had to build that thing. It was an exact duplicate, and there are always two chairs there -- two chairs, in case of a double murder and they executed them together. So one chair was empty. It was a very good scene...

******
CC: How did you arrive at the visual style of the movie?

BW: We had to be realistic. You had to believe the situation and the characters, or all was lost. I insisted on black-and-white, of course, and in making operettas I'd learned that sometimes one technical shot destroyed a picture. You could say that Double Indemnity was based on the principal of M, the very good picture starring Peter Lorre. I had a feeling, something in my head, M was on my mind. I tried for a very realistic picture -- a few little tricks, but not very tricky. M  was the look of the picture. It was a picture that looked like a newsreel. You never realized it was staged. But like a newsreel, you look to grab a moment of truth, and exploit it.

CC: But the lighting was sometimes very dramatic. Were you influenced by the German expressionist films?

BW: No. There was some dramatic lighting, yes, but it was newsreel lighting. That was the ideal. I'm not saying that every shot was a masterpiece, but sometimes even in a newsreel you get a masterpiece shot. That was the approach. No phony setups. I had a few shots in mind between MacMurray and Edward G. Robinson, and they happened at the beginning and the end, when the two were together in that room. That was it. Everything was meant to support the realism of the story. I had worked with cameraman before and I trusted him. We used a little mezzo light in the apartment when Stanwyck comes to see MacMurray in the apartment -- this is when he makes up his mind to commit murder. That's it. ...

*******

The book is called "Conversations with Wilder." I would imagine it's available at the library, but if it's not and you'd like a closer look, just let me know.

The Postman's Irony and Differences from Double Indemnity

I really enjoyed reading The Postman Always Rings Twice, it was a really quick read and I liked that the female character wasn't malevolent.  I appreciated Caine's use of language to show that Cora and Frank were of the lower class.  It really made it apparent while reading their dialect that they hadn't been educated well, if at all.  I really enjoyed the fact that Caine really contrasted his female characters from his two different novels.  It was nice to see the miserable Cora who had no hidden motive for the murder of her husband, versus Phyllis, who was just after the money.

I thought that the ending was a perfect use of irony, since Frank was rushing to get Cora to the hospital to save her life, but instead, in an ironic twist, killed her in a car accident.  I thought that Caine ended his novel perfectly and I wouldn't have changed a thing.

Brick

I know someone mentioned this film in one of the first classes, however the film, Brick, is the epitome of noir. I actually went back, re-watched it, and was rather floored at how the writer/director Rian Johnson was able able to capture the essence of the noir of the 30s, 40s, and 50s; yet throw it into a high-school environment.  It had all the classic elements: the hard-boiled protagonist, snappy dialogue, stylized and suspense-filled situations, the manipulative female, dark themes, and so on. Then I couldn't help but compare the context in which this film was created to those that influenced it. As we spoke before, the noir style came from an audience's desire to not be babied in their entertainment. The majority of studio films, before noir, were light-hearted, simple tales, that spoon-fed you morality.  Then noir came along and challenged the viewer, giving them more ominous ideas. Now, there have certainly been dark films that weren't noir in the time before Brick was created; however, you can lower the scale and just look at this film through the frame of a high-school film, not just a studio film. Nowadays, the high-school film sub-genre, for the most part, are fun stories about kids getting drunk and laid or stories about an under-dog sports team managing to win the state championship. Rarely, if ever (I personally can't think of any, but I'm sure there are some), has there been a film liked Brick that darkens the high-school environment and interlaces controversial and traumatic themes. So what the noir genre did to the film industry has a whole back in the day, Brick sort of does the the high-school film genre of today. It is definitely a great film, and any fan of noir should be a fan of Brick.

The Postman Always Rings Twice Open Thread

Questions or observations about the novel that don't fit into the topics of previous posts.

Trust as a fatal flaw in Double Indemnity

I find it interesting that in Double Indemnity, Walter Neff is a middle class, decently well-off character who falls in love within an instance and is willing to commit the "perfect crime" to be with Phyllis, his "soul mate." Neff definitely has an issue with trust because he falls victim to Phyllis's manipulative and deadly ways. Women aren't really damsels in distress after all because they have a lot of power in these films, even if it seems to be just an act of luring men in with their seductiveness. Men in noirs fall into a trance within minutes of meeting a woman, even when things seem a little sketchy. (Did Neff never question why Phyllis didn't like Lola?) It seems kind of hard to jump conclusions and murder a man when only being in lust for several days. Phyllis says she is on a lease with her husband, but in the end, Walter is on Phyllis's lease. They both end up losing and for fortunately, nothing.

See any Ressentiment characters yet?

Since we've spent a couple days during the first week of the course talking about ressentiment, there should be some connection with that and the films/books we read for the course. While reading and watching the films, I've been noticing some things that can relate with Scheler's take on the ressentiment character. I'll mention a few things that I think could show some type of these characteristics in the characters we've come across so far, although they don't necessarily have to possess all of the qualities that Scheler lists.

I'll start off with Double Indemnity-

Some points that Scheler makes about ressentiment are:

• "Ressentiment can only arise if thhese emotions are particularly powerful and yet must be suppressed because they are coupled with the feeling that one is unable to act them out - either because of weakness, physical or mental, or because of fear" (26-7). 
•  Ressentiment is caused by "systematic repression of certain human emotions" (25).
• Revenge is "preceded by an attack or an injury" (25).

This aspect about being stifled, or repressed some way sticks out the most to me that I could see in some characters.
Early in the film, Phyllis said that her husband keeps her on a leash. That feeling of being under the control of someone else, and lacking your own control, is a repression of personal freedom. This injures her sense of self. So, she seeks revenge on her husband for keeping her on a leash. She has to stay in the house, and has noone to express herself to. Her revenge is expressed through killing him.

• Scheler also makes the point of saying that desire and unfulfillment lead to envy, and existential envy which is directed against the persons nature is the strongest form of ressentiment (29-30)

I'm sure Phyllis envied her husband's greater sense of freedom than her, and that he was the one in control.
This also reminds me of Phyllis (as a nurse) killing the first wife of her husband. She probably envied her just because she wanted to be with him.

This is only one character that I've looked into so far, but I will share some more thoughts. (Running out of time now)

Does anyone else see connections with ressentiment and any of the characters we've come across so far?

Personally, I find the link between films such as the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (bottom photo) and established Film Noir such as Scarlet Street (top photo) to be very interesting. The fact that German expressionism as an artistic movement translated thoroughly from canvas into a film study is fascinating, given the time. Film and photography were very much burgeoning art forms at the turn of the century, with some photographers desperate to prove that their trade could be considered a 'fine art'. The fact that expressionism translated so well into film is amazing. 

Oblique angles and strange geometry often play a huge part in expressionist art, and later this translated to noir. Within the bottom photo, the projection of the window upon the wall is ample evidence of this 'strange' geometry. What is also interesting is that in the above photo, the actual angles containing the lamp are similar to the ones projected on the wall in the lower photo, albeit a little twisted and vertical in orientation. The point being that the aesthetics of angles within both genres of art are important to their respective genres. 

LOLphenomenologist

I bet I could put this on coffee mugs and it'd be a big hit at faculty meetings.

Women in Noir

From what we've seen in Double Indemnity so far, I'd like to make a generalization about women in noir.  It seems that women are portrayed as femme fatales who lead the protagonist man astray.  Such as, Phyllis has lead Walter astray because she wishes to kill her husband and collect life insurance money from his death.  Walter wouldn't have planned to kill Phyllis' husband on his own without Phyllis' hints that she'd like her husband dead, in addition to Walter's own obvious attraction to Phyllis.  It seems that in this genre, the women lead the men astray with their flirtatiousness along with their ill-intentions.  In the film genre course I'm taking, one of our readings stated that the main female character is generally dangerous and has some sort of interaction along the same lines as Phyllis and Walter's interaction.  Any other observations about female portrayal?

"Look here, junior, don't you be so happy..."

So Tom Verlaine's lyrics tend to be on the impressionistic side, and I think one would be hard-pressed to parse some kind of literal meaning out of this one, but I do humbly submit this, the greatest song of all-time, as an example of a noir song.
There's a first-person perspective. There's rain. Darkness. A graveyard. A car -- not just a car, a Cadillac! There are not only tracks but a man down at them, who says stuff, great stuff, the kind of stuff you hope to hear from a man who says stuff down at the tracks.
The getting in and then out of the Cadillac suggests something untoward. Call it off-screen action. Verlaine also happens to be a great chronicler of the dark side of city life. As far as I can tell, one of the lines seems to be "Life in the hive puckered up my night," which I take to be the speaker expressing his powerlessness in a big, crowded city. Maybe?

I have another song for you here. This is by another 70s NYC band, Suicide. "Frankie Teardrop" is about a poverty-stricken factory worker who loses his job and kills his family and goes to hell. Some noir tropes: powerlessness, fate, money, luridness. This one, much easier to figure out. Much harder to listen to. I mean, just be advised.

If you kill him I won't tell....

I've been thinking about what particular song I should post here to illustrate the noir/vigilante theme we've been exploring in class. As somewhat of an audiophile, there are probably others I could dig up in my collection they would be more fitting, and I'll continue to look, but the hook of this song - "If you kill him I won't tell" - and its premise seem to fit in rather well with the work of James M. Cain (specifically Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice). The narrator is being interrogated by the police, but refuses to be their "perfect witness" and in fact seems to know quite a lot about the crime that was committed. Of course the lyrics are up for interpretation, but it seems that the neighbor who was killed was guilty of consistently abusing the suspected murderer in some form (whether it was physically or verbally is not clear).

Anyway, some of the lyrics reminded me of the content we saw in Double Indemnity on Friday, especially the grocery store scene, in which Phyllis and Walter are surreptitiously discussing their plans to "off" someone they feel deserves it - "Don't talk to anyone, look forward, mind yourself, continue to walk." Also, the following lines reminded me of something Walter might have said to Barton Keyes: "...if I had to guess I'd say whatever happened probably had to happen anyway / If crime's a definition do your job and write it up." It may be worth noting that the alternate title/subtitle of the song is "Mum's the word."

But hey, I'll leave the validity of these comparisons up to you.

Here is a link to the lyrics.

Double Indemnity Open Thread

Questions or observations about Double Indemnity?

. . . AND THE PARTY NEVER ENDS!

This is a song I like to sing along to while driving down I-476 from out-of-town trips in a ravaged old Toyota at sunset. I found an old old acoustic version so that the words'd be easy to make out, but there's some harderboiled electric performances available on the youtube as well. I think it fits the criteria of noir fiction that I suggested on the syllabus and hey, has a misogynist trope too.

Here's a transcription of the words.