The Big Sleep

The Big Sleep is a detective story starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Bogart is the American detective who outwits the gangsters and sets straight the events (classic noir storyline).

The following are shots of Bogart. The low key-lighting produces the shadow.

The Killers

The Killers is an adpatation of Hemingway's novel. The cinematography is classic noir, as is the storyline. Two contract killers are hired to kill a man.

The following shot is the opening of the film. The only light is coming from the street lamps, casting large, ominous shadows.

The following is another shot of the shadows produced stylistically in film noir.

The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon is considered to be one of the first film noirs. It is an adaptation fo a Dashiell Hammet novel, an author whose work translated well into film noir (Two other adaptations of this novel were made previously, but none were filmed stylistically as film noir, and neither are regarded as decent films). Bogart is the witty, American detective who must discover his partner's murderer.

Many film noir consist of shots with the main character being followed by the gangster. The following is an example of this.

This film also has the typical femme fatale. She and Bogart fall in love, and it turns out she killed his partner. He admits that he loves her, turns her in just the same, and then walks off as if nothing happened. Notice that she is being filmed behind bars. This is also a characteristic of film noir.

The Narrow Margin

The Narrow Margin is considered to be one of if not the best "B" films ever made. Two police officers must protect the wife of a gangster wanted dead by the mob becuase she is going to testify against them.

The film is brilliant in its play on the femme fatale convention. The police officer (one is killed immediately) are protecting an undercover agent who is pretending to be the gangster's wife. The audience and the officer discover this later when she is killed. She acts as the typical femme fatale, the kind of woman that would marry a gangster (below left). However, the real wife, who is also on the train is accidentally brought into danger (the gangster's don't know what she looks like either, so they are constantly trying to find the other woman). The real wife has a son and looks nothing is very much not a femme fatale. She looks like a regular, caring woman (below right).

Again notice the gangster following the detective.