Blog Post 8

Assignment 1

Question 2

 Both writers in these stories use the landscape of Los Angeles very well. They honestly make you imagine the landscape and everything that you are reading you can see it in your own mind. In both stories when they were on the freeway they placed everything out so well that I myself felt bad that they had to drive on the freeway just because of the experiences I have had on the freeway and how the described it made it worse. I thought the way they both used the freeways and the traffic that you always experience and how they both explained everything out to you made you have a great idea of what you would be seeing if it was in front of you. They both definitely do distinguish an environment that is different from other places, they definitely give you great examples to help distinguish what someone would experience in these spots, from the 405 to the 5 freeway and even the LA river. The way they use the landscapes of LA makes both stories so interesting because they give you a sense of where and what to experience.

Assignment 2

Kinship

I definitely think that the story Kinship has to be the story that is the least noirish. I thought that there definitely were not enough elements in this story to make it noir. I felt like this was more a short story about a disabled kid who struggled with bullies than really a noir type story. Although the story was good it just wasn't noir in my opinion. There were just not enough elements of noir for this to be considered a noir and that's why I say this is the harder story to classify as noir.

The Girl Who Kissed Barnaby Jones

I definitely think that this story is the best one that fits into noir. I thought this was a very good story about a washed up actress working at a run down restaurant. Cherie is a good looking woman in her later years but still gets men who want her so badly, Tate even says that " We get guys all the time with crushes on her, some of them very young; they come in on a daily basis for months sometimes before they accept the fact that she's never going to respond to their devotion." This definitely explains the Cherie still has it so she definitely fits into the character of a femme fatale. Also you have Tate who you can tell definitely wants Cherie and he is willing to go all the way to Pacific Palisades just to see what she wants. This story definitely fits into noir with the elements of the femme fatale and it makes for a great story because you definitely get the feel of LA with men falling in love with an outdated actress as you might say and are willing to do anything for this washed up actress. It definitely is a great story that fits very well into noir.

Blog Entry #7: Option #3

The Method

If I were to recommend one of these stories to anybody it would definitely have to be The Method. The Method to me was definitely was way more exciting and interesting to read than Morocco Junction 90210. The reasons why I recommend The Method more than Morocco is because I really thought that The Method's plot was definitely more noir than the other. The Method's story was very interesting and I definitely think that it fits in the book Los Angeles Noir very well, I love how it shows the possessive side of men with woman. In Hollywood you definitely see a lot of men that are stalkers with obsessions over the celebrity crushes that they have, and you definitely get to see that in The Method. The Method in my opinion definitely is an exciting story, you really get a good feeling of how obsessive people are over someone else to the point that they will do anything to get they want. I really did like having a female narrative in this story, in a way it made it more exciting to see it from a woman's perspective instead of a mans. Even though you also have a woman's narrative in Morocco Junction 90210, but I personally thought the story was not as exciting as The Method. The Method definitely classifies as a noir in many ways making it a very good short story that is exciting to read. I would recommend The Method over Morocco because it has a very interesting plot with a very good perspective on the city of angels and you definitely get a different style of noir with this story and it makes for a very good read that I enjoyed very much.

Double Indemnity Film Critic

Double Indemnity Film Review

In the review by moviezeal.com on Double Indemnity they give you a very good perspective on the femme fatale, they make sure to go into great detail on how Phyllis is basically what is to come for the femme fatale in future movies of film noir. They said "Barbara Stanwyck’s role in Double Indemnity defines what would be the future of the femme fatale. She’s the ultimate schemer, the tried and true conniving hellcat who all kinds of men fall for against their better judgment." They very much understand the role of the femme fatale and how she plays into the film noir category of femme fatale. They also give a very good detailed description on Neff and how he begins to crumble under his own guilt throughout the film, "all through the narration and as the film progresses, his matter-of-fact way of speaking gives way to the tremulous anxiety boiling beneath the surface." They really give you a good understanding of what the two main characters go through during the film and give detailed descriptions behind each point.

What I gained from this reading was that I definitely didn't notice alot of points they had brought up about Neff, and Phyllis. They really opened my mind into many more definitions behind the femme fatale, they said things that I definitily would not have seen without watching the movie more closely or even focusing on one character more. It was definitiely an insigtful article and I definitely am going to watch the movie again and take notes on the characters and try and realize the little things that they do throughout the movie to better my essay. There are so many characteristics behind film noir and there is alot of things that you can find by just observing the little things because that is what definitly makes film noir what it is.


Review by Phillip Johnson
Website: http://www.moviezeal.com/double-indemnity/

Zero Draft Questions Double Indemnity

Double Indemnity

Question 1:

In Double Indemnity the movie you see a completely different ending then you get in the novel. Now the question is whether which ending is more appropriate for film noir, and the differences between them. The ending in the book is more of a boring ending in my opinion and not appropriate for film noir, Walter and Phyllis are both let go by Keyes. Walter confesses to Keyes about killing Mr. Nitlinger and him and Phyllis end up on a ship where they both do not know where they are going. Although they both know that they are eventually going to get caught by somebody and that they both have nothing in their lives, so what they do is give up there own lifes and plan to drop off the ship when the moon comes up. While in the movie you see a very different ending, instead of Mr. Keyes letting Phyllis and Walter go they both serve up there own justice. Near the end of the film you see Phyllis and Walter in the Nitlinger home and little does Walter know but she has a gun under the chair she is sitting and is planning to kill him. In this scene you definitely see a lot of film noir effects, when Walter enters the scene through the door he has a very dark big shadow behind him showing his dark side. Another thing you can notice is the venetian blinds, they really nail film noir. In the scene you see Walter talking to Phyllis about whats going on, then when Walter closes the window that's when Phyllis shoots him once. He is still alive after being shot, he think walks over to Phyllis and then grabs the gun from her and shoots her twice. Although Huff was shot also, I definitely think that Phyllis got what she deserves in the movie. When she got shot she got what she deserved because of all the things she did to the other people.  The ending in the film definitely fit in more with film noir than the novel. The ending in the film fits into the dark, shadowy, weird, and cruel aspects of the noir genre, definitely more than the novel does.

Question 5:

In the first scene with the opening credits you see a man walking towards the screen hobbling on crutches, I think that the character represented is definitely Walter Huff impersonating Mr. Nitlinger. The significance of the image is to show what or who it might be later on. It makes you think of what character that person is going to be, and that's definitely what makes it appropriate for the beginning of the film, it's very different and weird and definitely makes you think of what is going to happen during the movie. It makes you think of why that character is on crutches and walking in the dark, and its very shadowy so you can not see who's face it is. Later on in the film you begin to hear what makes you know who the person hobbling on crutches is going to be. When Walter Huff kills Mr. Nitlinger he then has to impersonate him because he had broken his leg working and it would play well with the witness statements if anybody had saw him. It ends up working for the impersonation and the whole beginning scene begins to make you realize what character it was in the beginning. The character definitely is Walter Huff and it makes a very good beginning to a very good film noir movie.

Blog Post 3: Horrible Ending?

Double Indemnity: Part Two

Double Indemnity throughout the whole book/movie was very interesting, the book had you wanting to read more and pulled you into it. While the movie is very fast paced, they are still very interesting. In my personal opinion the ending in the novel was not very appropriate for this kind of story, throughout both the movie and book it was a very nail biting story in my opinion and to end it to that just did not do justice for me. Neither Huff, or Mrs. Nitlinger were served real justice for what they did. I thought that it was very weird that after all they did, cold blooded murder, and even Mrs. Nitlinger killed more than one person and Mr. Keyes just gave them a chance to be free and to never get caught. I thought that with them committing suicide was a very boring ending, I felt there should have been more that happened to them, more Mrs. Nitlinger than anyone who was a huge psychopath who should have not been let free.

 I think that a more appropriate ending would have been Mrs. Nitlinger ending up getting shot instead of Mr. Huff. I think that if Mrs. Nitlinger would have been shot by her step daughter Lola, it would have made for a more appropriate ending because not only was Lola suspicious of Phyllis from the beginning because she had thought that it was Phyllis who had killed her mother in the first place. Although I do not agree with what Huff did I think that he should receive less punishment than Mrs. Nitlinger because she was a psychopathic woman that knew she had the power to convince a man to do anything she wanted him to do. I mean don't get me wrong Huff does fall very easily for the first woman to give him attention but he was manipulated by Phyllis to help kill her own husband and he didn't even get what he wanted in the beginning, her and the money.  Like he said "I killed him for money, and a woman, and I didn't get the money and I didn't get the woman." I almost feel a little sympathetic for Huff because he really would do anything for a woman he cared for. But I definitely think Cain should have definitely made a more exciting ending to such a thrilling and nail biting story, instead he left you kind of puzzled in the end like what kind of ending was that? In my opinion the ending could have been a lot better but it is what it is.

 I think that Chandler and Wilder changed the book's ending because it was very boring and not very exciting. If people would to have saw that ending that occurs in the book they probably would be as disappointed as I was to see an ending like that after such a great story. The directors were smart to change the ending because it makes for a better ending. I think that they saw an opportunity to sort of fix the boring ending to something more exciting.

Blog Entry 2. Double Indemnity

Paul Shrader said that the qualities of film noir are nightmarish, weird, erotic, ambivalent, and cruel (Notes on Film Noir). Double Indemnity can definitely be categorized for many of the elements that are defined as film noir. Many things can be described as elements of film noir for double indemnity but the main ones that fit for double indemnity are weird, erotic, and cruel. One thing I noticed with double indemnity and the femme fatale which is Phyllis Nirdlinger is that the main character Walter Huff is very aware of the erotic effect she has on him from the beginning.  Huff said, "but she was walking around the room, and I saw something I didn't notice before. Under those blue pajamas was a shape to set a man nuts." (Page 6) He was very aware of her sexiness and he definitely liked it and at the same time it scared him. He again said on page 6 that "all of the sudden she looked at me, and I felt a chill creep straight up my back and into the roots of my hair." Huff  is very aware that Mrs. Nirdlinger seems like trouble but he can not stay away.

Double Indemnity is cruel in many ways in the fact that Mrs. Nirdlinger buys life insurance for her husband shortly before he is "killed" and even uses her way with Mr. Huff by getting him to fall for her. Mrs. Nirdlinger is very cruel and definitely fits into the category of a femme fatale. According to Huff, Mrs. Nirdlinger is "maybe thirty-one or -two, with a sweet face, light blue eyes, and dusty blonde hair". He portrays Mrs. Nirdlinger as the type of woman that would fit the character description of a femme fatale. Although that Huff is very aware of how cruel it is to kill somebody's husband for money and because he is as he puts it as loving her "like rabbit loves a rattlesnake" (Page 70).

Double Indemnity definitely has a very "weird" plot that can very much fit into the category of film noir. Walter Huff is a insurance salesman that randomly checks up on one of his customers and ends up falling for his wife, and ends up plotting and arranging the murder of the husband with the wife that he had never met until he checked up on the customers policy. It definitely in my opinion is not something that happens very often, but they both come off as very desperate and needy which also fits in the film noir category. Double Indemnity very much fits into the category of film noir. From the femme fatale, to the cruel and erotic ways of the book, it has a very weird plot and it makes you think twice of a lot of things. It can definitely be classified as a film noir.

What Defines Film Noir?

What Defines Film Noir? 

Film noir is in many ways a dark, gloomy, crime filled, good old fashioned black and white movie, but in my point of view film noir is more than just that. Film noir, in my opinion is a way of expressing the dark side in life. In most movies you see the happy side of life, everyone's always nice to each other and cares for each other, and in all reality that's not how life is. No matter what, there is evil people anywhere and everywhere you go, and that brings me to the point of what I think defines film noir. Film noir shows the dark side of life, it shows murder, corruption, crime, or anything that may show the dark side of people. Film noir shows a great deal of the other side of life, the one that most people do not want to involve themselves with, it shows that not everything is as happy and as perfect as it seems. That there is corruption and murder anywhere you can go, and that it can happen to you if you're not careful. Film noir is dark and cruel but it shows reality in my opinion, there have been dark and cruel people since the beginning of time and I believe that film noir has shown the realism in life, it shows the dark, gloomy, corrupted crime filled aspect of life. It has a great way of showing people how cruel life can be sometimes, and that everything is not as it seems.