The Red and the Black : American Film Noir in the 1950s

Critical wisdom has it that we said a long goodbye to film noir in the 1950s. Robert Miklitsch begs to differ. Pursuing leads down the back streets and alleyways of cultural history, The Red and the Black proposes that the received rise-and-fall narrative about the genre radically undervalues the formal and thematic complexity of '50s noir and the dynamic segue it effected between the spectacular expressionism of '40s noir and early, modernist neo-noir. Mixing scholarship with a fan's devotion to the crooked roads of critique, Miklitsch autopsies marquee films like D.O.A., Niagara , and Kiss Me Deadly plus a number of lesser-known classics. Throughout, he addresses the social and technological factors that dealt deuce after deuce to the genre—its celebrated style threatened by new media and technologies such as TV and 3-D, color and widescreen, its born losers replaced like zombies by All-American heroes, the nation rocked by the red menace and nightmares of nuclear annihilation. But against all odds, the author argues, inventive filmmakers continued to make formally daring and socially compelling pictures that remain surprisingly, startlingly alive. Cutting-edge and entertaining, The Red and the Black reconsiders a lost period in the history of American movies. | Cover Title Contents Acknowledgments Prise de Position: For '50s Noir, or Confessions of a Film Noir Addict Preface: Generalities, or The Rise and Fall of Classic American Film Noir Introduction: Coming Attractions, or The Particulars Part One: '50s Noir and Anticommunism 1. The Woman on Pier 13: I Married a Communist! 2. The Red and the Black: "Black Film" and the Red Menace 3. Pickup on South Street: Out of the Red and Into the Black Part Two: '50s Noir in the Atomic Age 4. D.O.A.: Fatality, Sexuality, Radioactivity 5. "Black Film" and the Bomb: Spies and "Cowboys," "Indians," Red Professors and Thieves 6. Kiss Me Deadly: The X Factor, or The "Great Whatsit" Part Three: New Media and Technologies 7. Noir en couleur: Color and Widescreen 8. Niagara: Colored Marilyns 9. The Glass Web: 3-D, TV, and the Beginning of the End of Classic Noir Conclusion: The Crimson Kimono, or Odds for Tomorrow Notes Index | "Possesses the potential to alter the entire field. An unimpeachable reference book to be dipped into at need and taken in toto as a substantial, sustained, and original interpretation of its subject. Miklitsch is profoundly (and charmingly) collegial, but his scrupulous tone should not obscure the challenge to received wisdom his book poses."—Ann Douglas, author of Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s "Miklitsch's extended mediation on 1950s noir will entertain and intrigue both film scholars and movie fans." — Journal of American Culture "An interesting piece of work that highlights a commonly neglected period of American film noir."— Pop Culture Shelf | Robert Miklitsch is a professor in the department of English language and literature at Ohio University. He is the editor of Kiss the Blood Off My Hands: On Classic Film Noir . Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Prise de Position: For '50s Noir, or Confessions of a Film Noir Addict -- Preface: Generalities, or The Rise and Fall of Classic American Film Noir -- Introduction: Coming Attractions, or The Particulars -- Part One: '50s Noir and Anticommunism -- 1 The Woman on Pier 13: I Married a Communist! -- 2 The Red and the Black: "Black Film" and the Red Menace -- The Whip Hand: The Red Plague -- I Was a Communist for the F.B.I.: Fear of a Red Planet -- Walk East on Beacon! "A Red behind Every Tree"--Big Jim McLain: Red Hawaii -- 3 Pickup on South Street: Out of the Red and Into the Black -- Part Two: '50s Noir in the Atomic Age -- 4 D.O.A.: Fatality, Sexuality, Radioactivity -- 5 "Black Film" and the Bomb: Spies and "Cowboys," Red Professors and Thieves -- The Thief: Alien Nation -- The Atomic City: Atomic Cowboys and Un-American Indians -- Shack Out on 101: Bikinis, Bombshells, and the (Red) Planet of the Apes -- City of Fear: Cobalt-60 -- 6 Kiss Me Deadly: The X Factor, or The "Great Whatsit"--Part Three: New Media and Technologies -- 7 Noir en couleur: Color and Widescreen -- Black Widow: Red Herring -- House of Bamboo: "Kimono Girl" (Red), Gaijin Gangster-Detective (Black) -- Slightly Scarlet: Color Me Bad -- A Kiss before Dying: Pink Is the New Black -- 8 Niagara: Colored Marilyns -- 9 The Glass Web: 3-D, TV, and the Beginning of the End of Classic Noir -- Conclusion: The Crimson Kimono: Odds for Tomorrow -- Notes -- Index The working premise of this chapter is that, in the 1950s, film noir and anticommunism form a double helix and that even the most notorious of these “red menace” films—__The Whip Hand__ (1951), __I Was a Communist for the FBI__ (1951), __Walk East on Beacon!__ (1952), and __Big Jim McLain__ (1952)__--__is central to our appreciation of classic noir. A close reading of these films’ generic elements, whether “thriller,” melodrama, or semi-documentary, suggests that the Cold War noir represents a critical moment in the genre’s transition from the 1940s to the 1950s and from expressionism to neo-realism. Although the ideological motifs of these ‘50s “red scare” noirs range from communism and germ warfare (__The Whip Hand__), union subversion and African Americans (__I Was a Communist for the FBI__), espionage and the space race (__Walk East on Beacon!__) to HUAC and All-American masculinity (__Big Jim McLain__), the ‘50s anticommunist noir, despite its manifest glorification of the nuclear family, law enforcement (FBI), and audiovisual surveillance (television), is frequently troubled by the implications of these selfsame institutions and technologies.